Dungan Community invited the Jewish Center Rimon to visit them. Sartobe village is a capital of Dungans living in Almaty Oblast. 95% of its population are Dungans speaking Dungan, Russian, and Kazakh languages. An International Festival in Honor of Kazakhstan’s Dungans Unity was opened here. The event’s motto was the following "The Unity of Kazakhstan’s Peoples". The hosts invited Jewish, Korean, Uygur communities, Dungans from Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan. The Center Rimon delegated a dancing group and a sports team to participate in the event.

Khusey Daurov, the President of Dungans Association welcomed the guests. We were given a diploma of festival participants and were presented with a tea set. Innesa Chugaynova, the Director of Hesed Polina, also addressed the audience. She thanked for the invitation and passed good wishes of Alexander Baron, the President of Mitsva Association, and presented the museum of local history with a book "Jews in the 20th Century".

We discovered a lot of things in common. We saw how leaders of Dungan youth movement are selected. Who is the Jewish Community does not know about the program "Youth Leadership". Then a concert started, musicians played the violin. Violin is loved by Jewish people so much that it is considered our national music instrument. But how skillfully Dugans played the violin! How about dancing pas? Our dancing group Yonaty noticed similarities right away.

The local sports team and guests from the Jewish community decided to test each other at the football field. It was touching to see how Dungans were supporting the playing Jews, and when they knew that there are three Romans in our team they cried: "Roma, Come on! Do it!"

We were accommodated in Dungan families for the night. Several generations live together. There is a lot of respect from younger generations and understanding from older generations. Dinner in an orthodox Dungan family - a lot of food, nicely served, very tasty! We learned to make a bed on the floor with long blankets. We were surprised that it was very warm and comfortable to sleep this way.

On the second day we were supposed to go to the mountings and visit a local museum but it was raining and our hosts got upset. We decided to cheer them up and told them that in Almaty we also have mountings. Dungans said that those were different mountings. "We love and take care of our mountings" they said. We should note that these people take very good care of the place where they live. Everything in the Dungan village is perfectly in order, well-groomed. These people are incredibly industrious.

Sartobe is a very beautiful and neat village. The largest school in Almaty oblast is located here. By the way its first director was a Jew. They say that Dungan alphabet was created with the help of a Jew. So, this is how our cultures and peoples are located! Next to the four story school building there is a small park and a sports ground. In our time of urbanization there is a working museum of local history - household objects, embroidered national cloths and shoes, decorations, documents, photographs, paintings. Dungans came to Southern Kazakhstan in the 19th century. Here in the museum personal belongings of Byi Yan-hu, who led Dungans out of China, are stored such as his sward, books, dishes, and chop sticks with silver ends - there is a legend that poison becomes immediately visible on silver. Dungans honor their traditions. Wedding ceremonies are held in the same way as 130 years ago - bride wears a dress of a mythical Phoenix bird, while the groom’s cloths remind of a dragon.

I would like to note a lot of understanding, attention, care and rare friendliness of this people. Here in the Dungan community we found real tolerance. Dungans as their ancestors profess Islam. Their respect to Jewish people and our traditions was genuine.

Lyudmila Starodubova