Islam
It is the country's majority religion, although Kazakhstan, like the rest of Central Asia, was not Islamized until late in its history. Moreover, the country's position at the very edge of the Muslim world at the time of the Umayyad conquests gave the local tribes a certain degree of autonomy in managing their rites and beliefs, which for a long time were influenced by rituals derived from pagan religions (Zoroastrianism, Manichaeism, shamanism...). The khans' conversion to Islam was often relatively formal, and was mainly a response to the need to assert their power in the eyes of the central authority, but did not necessarily entail any major change in the population's practice of their rites. It was the self-sacrificing proselytism of the Sufis who, over the centuries, gradually established Islam in the customs and habits of the nomadic tribes. First and foremost was the Sufi master Ahmed Yasavi (c. 1105-1166), considered to be Tamerlane's spiritual father. He was the author of mystical poems, the hikmet, which he wrote in Turkish, making it easier for them to spread among the working classes. Widespread among nomadic tribes, this Islam was imbued with shamanic traditions, some of which have survived to the present day. His mausoleum in Turkestan, in the south of the country, is still the object of intense pilgrimage.
The Orthodox
When the capital moved north to Astana, it was essentially to bring it closer geographically to a large Russian population that might, at the time of independence, secede and seek to rejoin Russia. Things have changed since then, and over the decades Kazakhstan has become largely "derussified", with Russians now accounting for less than 20% of the population, compared with a majority of almost 55% in the mid-twentieth century. Nevertheless, Christianity is still the second religion in Kazakhstan, with an estimated 25% of the population attending church, the majority Orthodox (and less than 3% Catholic).
Orthodoxy arrived late in Central Asia, in the 19th century, with the Russian conquest. Persecuted under the Soviets, Orthodoxy is once again practiced by the Russians and Ukrainians who remained in Central Asia. While the proportion of Orthodox continues to shrink, the number of new churches is strangely on the rise. It has to be said that few new churches were built during the Soviet era, and that the oldest ones, such as Zenkov Cathedral in Almaty, were made of wood, and most of them have not stood the test of time. Moreover, with the resurgence of Islam and the plethora of mosques being built across the country, the Orthodox need to assert their faith in the religious landscape.
What about shamanism?
Nomadic populations have long preserved their shamanistic rites (burial, healing...). Islam and then the central power of Moscow successively fought against these practices, which gradually withered away over time, particularly with the forced sedentarization of the Kazakhs. Nevertheless, many shamanistic practices permeate religions that emerged later in the region, notably Islam (fear of the evil eye, belief in spirits, etc.). Similarly, the celebration of the Oriental New Year, navruz, echoes rites dating back to Zoroastrianism and the cult of fire: all testimony to the religious melting pot that makes up Central Asia.
