The Kazakh Nomads’ Forgotten 5,000-Kilometre Exodus to Kashmir

In 1954, National Geographic published a detailed account by Milton J. Clark, who spent a year living among Kazakh refugees in Kashmir. His article documents the long and dangerous journey of Kazakh nomads who fled Xinjiang after it came under Chinese Communist control in 1949. This is a summary I have written of his much longer article…

Xinjiang, a vast desert region in western China, had long been home to Kazakh pastoralists. When the Communists took power in 1949, Kazakh leaders, including Janymkhan and Ospan Batyr, entered talks with the new authorities. They demanded freedom of religion, cultural rights, and freedom of movement. These requests were denied. The new Chinese Communist government feared a unified Kazakh population and resisted their demands.

The loss of livestock during the brutal winter of 1949–1950 led a thousand tribal elders to make a final decision on March 28, 1950: they would go south, to India. A short-lived autonomous Kazakh republic was declared, with Janymkhan as head and Ospan Batyr as commander.

The exodus from Xinjiang was immediately met with violence. In April 1950, Chinese soldiers launched a surprise assault on Kazakh settlements in Barkol. Women and children were ordered to dismantle their homes and drive cattle into the mountains. The Kazakhs fought back, but the Chinese military had superior arms.

Of 15,000 people in Barkol, 12,600 died, were captured, or went missing. Janymkhan, leader of the autonomous Kazakh republic, was captured by Chinese Communists in Peishan during a conflict. He was taken to Urumqi and executed in February 1951. Commander Ospan Batyr was tortured to death two months later.

What followed was a 5,000-kilometer journey from Xinjiang to Kashmir. Roughly 4,000 families set out. Only 350 reached Kashmir. The slow pace of their livestock made it difficult to outrun their Communist pursuers, who launched small attacks along the way.

In summer, they endured extreme heat, sandstorms, and water scarcity. During winter, they faced blizzards and melted ice for water. They avoided natural water sources, fearing traps or poisoning. Mountain sickness was another major cause of death.

During the journey, they fed their horses and camels meat, due to the extreme hunger and lack of traditional forage their animals faced. They also hunted wild animals like deer, antelope, and ibex, smoking or drying any leftover meat.

Despite overwhelming adversity, Kazakh culture and traditions showed remarkable resilience and adaptation. Their nomadic lifestyle is centered around horses and yurts. They are described as warm and welcoming, always embracing visitors.

Family and marriage customs persisted, though often shortened due to the migration. The practice of "besik kuda" continued, with children betrothed in the cradle, often based on social status, and the groom’s family paying a "kalyngmal" (bride price), typically in horses as a sign of wealth. Infants were wrapped in blankets with Quranic amulets, and by age six or seven, boys were already learning to ride and hunt.

Despite being Muslim, Kazakhs also held onto superstitious beliefs and ancestral divination practices, such as predicting the future by burning a sheep’s shoulder blade or reading frozen droppings. Shamans (bakhsy) were respected figures who performed rituals and sometimes invoked spirits.

Upon arrival, the Kazakhs were initially housed by the Kashmir authorities in a fortress along the Jhelam River. However, adapting to a large city like Srinagar proved difficult for these nomads. Many migrated to mountain pastures (jailau) outside Srinagar during summer, as they resembled their ancestral grazing lands in the Tian Shan mountains, even though this was initially forbidden.

Eventually, Turkey offered to resettle the Kazakhs on the Anatolian plateau. The landscape resembled the Xinjiang steppes, and the Turkic and Kazakh peoples share language, ancestry, and cultural history. In November and December 1952, about 200 Kazakhs traveled to Turkey, followed by another 85 soon after. Kalibek and sixty others remained in Kashmir for another eighteen months before also relocating to Turkey in June 1954.