Nazira Juman Chaa

Writer-playwright, ethnographer-researcher, decoder of the epic Manas.

I was born in Bishkek in 1969 into a family of intellectuals. After finishing secondary school, I entered the Polytechnic Institute to study engineering. But after the collapse of the USSR, I found myself working mainly in creative fields. Most likely, this is because since childhood I loved studying and exploring. Perhaps it also has to do with my zodiac sign, which doesn’t let me sit still. My Aquarian nature is always in motion, striving to embrace the unbounded. That is why my interests span across both the natural and human sciences.

In the early 1990s, I got married and later gave birth to four wonderful children: three sons and a daughter. Despite frequent relocations, I was always searching for myself and eventually found my true self in my roots—in the origins of history, culture, and in the metaphysical knowledge of my ancestors.

Today I have a small bibliography and filmography behind me: nine books of different genres and the same number of films. My latest book is an encyclopedic textbook Metaphysics of Ornament. In 2018, I released another short arthouse film. For now, I have decided to focus on writing. This choice was deliberate: after making films, I realized that the screen image is limiting, while words develop ideas and images, revealing a vast world of sacred knowledge.

I hope that what I write will resonate with readers.

I have only just begun to get acquainted with the Embroydica project, and I believe this connection will grow into something greater.

My embroidery experience is modest. I know how to do several types but mainly focus on studying the ornaments themselves.

My interest in embroidery began by chance. Once, in a local store, I saw youth bombers decorated with prints of embroidery designs. These embroideries had been created for another purpose, and I realized that wearing such clothing without understanding how sacred geometry works could launch the wrong vibrational wave that each ornament carries. I told the shop owner that what she was using as prints could harm the endocrine system, and that in the pursuit of profit one must not forget the harm that can be done to people.

I worked on my book for two years. It includes the history of ornamentation from the Stone Age to today. Ornaments interest me not only as an ethnographer and researcher but also as someone passionate about history, culture, ethnology, anthropology, and the ethnogenesis of my people.

Perhaps readers will want to know more about ornaments than is publicly available. As a representative of one of the most ancient peoples and as a bearer of sacred knowledge, I can share this knowledge with others and make the world more beautiful, harmonious, and happy.

My social media pages have an ethnographic focus and reflect the culture and traditions of our people. I run them in Kyrgyz and partly in Russian. I write posts but more often record videos on spirituality. My followers especially enjoy when I voice them myself.

My main message is: “You are the creator of a new reality.”