Research Interest
Dávid Somfai Kara is a Turkologist and Mongolist. Between 1994 and 2022 he did fieldwork in western and northeast China (Xinjiang, Qinghai, Gansu, Inner Mongolia), Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Mongolia, and Russia (Siberia, Ural, Caucasus). He has collected oral literature (folksongs and epics) and data on Inner Asian folk beliefs among Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Uyghur, Bashkir, Nogay, Kumuk, Tuva, Tofa, Altai Turks, Abakan Tatars (Khakas), Sakha (Yakut), Buryat, Daur, Khoton (Sart-Kalmak) and Yugur. He wrote his PhD thesis on the vocabulary of folk beliefs among Turkic and Mongolic peoples of Inner Asia (2006). He worked as researcher at the Hungarian Institute of Ethnology (Budapest), a visiting scholar at Indiana University (Bloomington) and a visiting researcher at Minpaku (National Museum of Ethnology, Japan, Osaka).
Monographs
2003 Kyrgyz Grammar (65 p.), Lincom Europa, München/Newcastle
2002 Kazak Grammar (59 p.), Lincom Europa, München/Newcastle
Articles
2019 Shamanic Artifacts in the Collection of the National Museum of Ethnology,
10-1 Senribanpakukoen, Suita, Osaka 565-8511. Japan. Shaman vol. 26. 161-176.
2018 The Formation of Modern Turkic ‘Ethnic’ Groups in Central and Inner Asia. The Hungarian Historical Review vol. 7/1. 98-110.
2018 Rediscovered Kumandy Shamanic Texts in Vilmos Diószegi’s Manuscript Legacy. Shaman vol. 26. 107-133.
2017 In the Wake of Vilmos Dioszegi (Porblems of Shamanism in Mongolia in the 1960s and Nowdays). Ningen Bunka (Human Cultures) 43. (Bulletin of School of Human Cultures, the University of Shiga Prefecture). 19-25.
2017 The Swan Dance: a Kazakh Healing Ritual from the Syr-Darya Region (Field Report). Shaman. Volume 25. 197-206.
2016 Conflict between Traditional and Modern Muslim Practices. Acta Ethnographica Hungarica. Volume 61. Number 2. 469-481.
2016 The Last Yugur Shaman from Sunan (China). Shaman. Volume 24. 113-132.
2015 Encounter with a Kyrgyz Dervish in the Talas Valley (Field Report). Shaman Volume 23. 211-224.
2014 Black Shamans of the Turkic-speaking Telengit in Southern Siberia (Field Report) (photo László Kunkovács). Shaman 22. 151-162.
2013 Legitimization of the Shamanic Calling among the Sibe (with Ildikó Sárközi Gyöngyvér). Shaman 21. 67-78.
2013 Visiting a Sakha (Yakut) Folk Healer. (Field Report) (photo: László Kunkovács, musical analysis: János Sipos). Shaman 21. pp. 185-200.
2012 Rediscovered Tuva Shamanic Songs in Vilmos Diószegi’s Manuscript Legacy. Shaman 20. 109-138.
2011 A Tuva Burial Feast in the Taiga (Field Report) (photo László Kunkovács). Shaman. 19. 211-216. and plates 12-15.
2010 Some Fieldwork Notes on Bashkir Folk Medicine (Field Report, photo: László Kunkovács). Shaman 18. 187-196.
2010 Kalmak: The Enemy in the Kazak and Kirghiz Epic Song. Acta Orientalia ASH 63. 167-178.
2010 Baba Tükli and the Swan Girl. Legitimizing Elements in the Turkic Epic Edige. Acta Orientalia ASH 63. 117-132.
2009 Ominān, a Revitalized Daur Shamanic Ritual from Hailar (contributor Mihály Hoppál, musical analysis by János Sipos). Shaman 17. 141-169.
2008 Rediscovered Buriat Shamanic Texts in Vilmos Diószegi’s Manuscript Legacy. Shaman 16. 89-106.
2008 An Uighur Baxši from the Ile Valley, Kazakhstan (Field Report) (photo: László Kunkovács). Shaman 16. 143-154.
2007 The Sacred Valley of Jay Ata and a Kirghiz Shaman from Xinjiang, China (Contributor Mihály Hoppál, musical analysis by János Sipos). Shaman 15. 47-68.
2006 Batïrkan, a Kazakh Shaman from the Altay Mountains (Mongolia) (Field Report, photo László Kunkovács, musical analysis János Sipos). Shaman 14. 117-138.
2005 The Last Kazakh Baksï to Play the Kobïz (Field Report, photo József Torma). Shaman, 13. 181-187.
2004 On a Rare Kyrgyz Ritual (Field Report, photo László Kunkovács). Shaman 12.161-166.
Articles in books
2017 The Tree of Life according to an Altay-kizhi (Telengit) Epic Song. In: Shamanhood and Mythology. (ed. Attila Mátéffy and György Szabados). Hungarian Association for the Academic Study of Religion. Budapest. 405-412.
2016 Nogays of Turkey: Their Ethnic Identity and Acculturation. In: Mihály Hoppál – M. Öcal Oguz, Evrim Ölçer Özünel: World of Similar Tastes: Comparison of the Turkish and Hungarian Culinary Culture. Turkish National Commission for UNESCO, Ankara. pp. 147-154.
2013 Religious Traditions among the Kazak and Kirghiz. In: Thierry Zarcone – Angela Hobart (eds.): Shamanism and Islam: Sufism, Healing Rituals and Spirits. London: Tauris. pp. 47-58.
2012 Sart-Kalmyk – Kalmyks of Ysyk-köl (Karakol, Kirghizstan). In: Ágnes Birtalan (ed.): Oirad and Kalmyk Linguistic Essays. Budapest: ELTE Eötvös Kiadó. pp. 197-210.
2011 Spirit Invocation and Altered State of Consciousness. In: Science of Religion in Hungary. 3 (eds. Mihály Hoppál – Péter S. Szabó). pp. ???
2008 Mazars and Shamans: an Animist Concept of Worshipping Nature in Popular Islam among the Kyrgyz. In: Shamans Unbound (ed. Mihály Hoppál and Zs. Simonkay). Akadémiai Kiadó: Budapest, 185-192.
2005 Auxiliary Verb Formations in Kazak and Kyrgyz In: Annales ELTE, Sectio Linguistica XXVL (ed. Szathmári István), Budapest, 237-254.
2004 Kirghiz Shamanism. In: Shamanism, an Encyclopedia of World Beliefs, Practices and Culture. (ed. Mariko Namba Walter, Eva Jane Neumann Fridman), ABC Clio, Santa Barbara, Denver, 579-582.
2003 Living Epic Traditions among Inner Asian Nomads, In: Rediscovery of Shamanic Heritage, (ed. Mihály Hoppál – Gábor Kósa), Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest 179-194.
2001 Collecting among the Kazaks of Bayan-Ölgii in Mongolia, About the Kazak text, Kazak song-texts In: Kazak Folk Songs from two Ends of the Steppe (ed. János Sipos), Akadémia Kiadó, Budapest, 23-28, 215-220, 221-282.
Articles in conference books
2017 The Concept of ‘Happiness’ and the Ancient Turkic Notion of ‘Soul’. In: Csáki, É. – Ivanics, M. – Olach, Zs. (eds): Role of Religion in the Turkic Culture (Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on the topic, 2015).
2003 Vilmos Diószegi’s Collection of Kumandy Shamanism from 1964 In: Altaica Budapestinensia MMII (Proceedings of the 45th PIAC, 2002) ed. Sárközi Alice, Rákos Attila, Budapest, 297-304.
