The Embodiment of Orthodox Christianity in Central Asia: Sacred Objects and Orthodox Nationalism in Revolutionary Turkestan

This article discusses the creation of Orthodox sacred sites and objects in Central Asia during Russia's colonization of the region over the late 19th century. The hierarchy of the Orthodox Church promoted the creation of sacred objects as a means of sacralizing, and thereby assimilating, the spaces around them into the Russian Empire. Yet, ecclesiastical leaders relied upon popular initiative in this creative process. The Orthodox settler population venerated objects that they recognized as sacred, with or without official sanction. The native population of Central Asia also contributed to the creation and maintenance of Orthodox sacred objects through trade, labor, and hospitality, even as they resisted colonial rule. The region’s Muslim and pre-Muslim sacred landscape defined the context and parameters of Orthodox sacred objects. Orthodox objects and spaces emerged in Central Asia through the interaction and conflict of these social, political, and geographical factors.