The Turkmen people have traditionally been horse-breeding nomads, and even today after the fall of the USSR attempts to urbanize the Turkmens have not been very successful. They never really formed a coherent nation or ethnic group until they were forged into one by Josef Stalin in the 1930's. Rather they are divided into clans, and each clan has its own dialect and style of dress. Turkmens are famous for making 'gillams', mistakenly called 'Bukhara rugs' in the West. These are elaborate and colorful rugs, and these too help indicate the distinction between the various Turkmen clans.
The Turkmens are Sunni Muslims but they, like most of the region's nomads, adhere to Islam rather loosely and combine Islam with pre-Islamic animist spirituality. The Turkmens do indeed tend to be spiritual but are by no means militantly religious.
A Turkmen can be identified anywhere by the traditional 'telpek' hats, which are large black sheepskin hats that resemble afros. Traditional clothing include baggy pants, knee-length books and a cotton overcoat.
In language, Turkmens speak Turkmen, related most closely to Turkish and Azerbaijani. Virtually everyone, however, even in the remote desert regions, speaks Russian, and Russian is a mandatory foreign language in schools, along with English. Turkmen, Russian and English are considered the primary, secondary and tertiary state languages respectively.
See also: Music of Turkmenistan
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