A 94-year-old man in Xinjiang is called a "living Homer" because he's the only singer who can chant from memory the Kirgiz "Epic of Manas," 18 times as long as the "Odyssey." Few people want to carry on the tradition.

In March 1983 Yusup Mamai sang day and night for 21 consecutive days to perform the Kirgiz "Epic of Manas" from beginning to end - from memory.

Today, 94-year-old Mamai is the only living Manaschi, a singer of the Kirgiz epic that is 18 times longer than Homer's "Odyssey."

The Kirgiz "living Homer," who lives in Aheqi County in China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, worries that after his death no one will be able to sing the entire epic, as he has done for the past half a century. It has been passed down orally from father to son and teacher to student through generations, though today various versions have been recorded and translated.

Still, singing the epic, as it was originally conveyed, is considered the only way to preserve the precious tradition. It involves considerable acting and body language, imitating the shouts of soldiers and the neighs of horses.

Even Mamai's best students can only recite several sections - not even one-eighth of the saga. And very few have the time or interest to learn.

Epic danger

With more than 230,000 lines, the "Epic of Manas" tells in eight episodes the story of eight generations of the family of the hero Manas, totaling 20 million words in the Kirgiz language.

The plot revolves around a series of events that coincide with the history of the region in the 17th century, primarily the interaction and clashes between Turkic-speaking people and Mongols in Central Asia.

"People grow old in five decades and landscapes change in a hundred years, but the story of the hero will be remembered forever" - that's the prologue and it speaks directly to Mamai's concerns. He worries that the younger generation is not interested in keeping the oral tradition alive.

There are approximately 168,000 people of the Kirgiz ethnic group in China, fewer than 1,000 of whom are Manaschi, and even fewer can sing the first episode. Aheqi County, where Mamai lives, is in southwestern Xinjiang. China and Kyrgyzstan share an 860-kilomater-long border.

Preservation work started two decades ago, but little progress has been made due to insufficient funds and poor planning.

Mamai says he was miraculously able to sing the epic from beginning to end after a dream. The Manaschi says that when he was age 13, he dreamed of five people riding horses in front of him one morning and one of the riders told him the lead rider was Manas, hero of the epic. Mamai suddenly woke up and could fluently chant the epic, he says.

"My parents slaughtered a sheep and warned me not to tell anyone about the dream until I was 40 years old, as was the tradition for all Manaschi," he says.

In March 1983, he sang day and night for 21 days to finish the whole epic. He drank only buttered tea to keep up his strength. Staff of the Xinjiang Autonomous Regional Federation of Literary and Art Circles worked in shifts to take down what he sang.

At 11am on March 20, Mamai sang the final line. Wild with joy, he lifted his youngest granddaughter above his year.

To date, he has recited the entire epic three times. When he sang it once during the "cultural revolution" (1966-1976), it was recorded on 17 cassette tapes. It wasn't until 1995 that the edited text totalling eight episodes in 18 volumes was published in the Kirgiz language. A new edition was published in 2007 in both Kirgiz and Mandarin.

The tapes and texts are now in the hands of Mamai's great-grandson Turuganal. He has been studying the epic for 11 years and carries the weight of expectation.

Every day he spends four and a half hours reading the Manas text aloud to his great-grandfather, who corrects his mistakes, deletes the wrong words and adds missing sentences. Mamai hopes that after his death, Turuganal can work out a revised version of his own.

Turuganal is also writing his great-grandfather's biography, describing childhood, marriage, suffering during the "cultural revolution," as well as his achievements in the 1990s.

About 500 people celebrate Mamai's birthday every year. His children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, friends and neighbors all go to his house to wish him good health, a long life and happiness.

"It's a grand ceremony for all Kirgiz people. We celebrate his birthday as well as the birth and inheritance of our culture," says Turuganal.

Urgent need

The central and regional governments have allocated 10 million yuan (US$1.6 million) in special funds to preserve the epic and its oral tradition.

Since May 2007, 10 Manaschi trainees and 10 players of kumuzi, a stringed instrument played to accompany the epic, have received annual training with more advanced Manaschi. They receive 500 yuan a month and a 600-yuan year-end bonus.

Skilled performers receive monthly subsidies ranging from 240 yuan to 1,000 yuan, according to the regional culture department.

In the 1990s, the regional federation of literary and art circles set up a research center to collect and edit related material.

The Mandarin edition of the first episode, containing 53,000 lines, came out in 2007. The second book will be published soon.

Ma Xiongfu, vice president of Xinjiang Federation of Literary and Art Circles, says the Mandarin version will allow more Chinese to learn about Kirgiz history and aid research into the history and culture of ethnic minorities in Xinjiang.

Ma, one of the translators, says the original charm of the "Epic of Manas" has not yet been conveyed in the Mandarin version.

Meanwhile, difficulties persist despite protection efforts.

Ma says many different and uncoordinated efforts at protection are simultaneously underway by governments at the regional, prefectural and county levels, as well as universities and non-governmental organizations such as the art and literature federation.

"Resources are not efficiently utilized. Departments with funds don't know how to use them effectively, while non-governmental organizations and talented people don't have money to help," Ma adds.

Mametjuma Mametakun, a Manaschi with the song and dance ensemble of the Kirgiz Autonomous Prefecture of Kizilsu, says younger generations are unwilling to learn the epic poem.

"Children love the story of heroic Manas when I tell them, but they only want to listen," he says.

"Manas is unique because we express emotions with exaggerated body movements. When we sing about battles, we imitate the horses' neighs, the soldiers' shouts and Manas's heroic posture," Mametakun adds.

Adel Jumaturdu, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, says learning both the song and the movements requires a long-term commitment, and suggests higher subsidies and job opportunities in song and dance ensembles.

"Singing the epic is the only way to keep it alive. Printing the text can only serve academic research purposes," says Jumaturdu, who suggests public spaces where professional singers, musicians and Manas lovers can regularly perform and learn from each other.

To cultivate an audience, Tolanhan, a political adviser to the Aheqi County government, suggests opening a museum about the epic, its history and performance.