The BBC Musical Nomad

Sunni Muslims are in the majority in all the republics. In the excitement of independence, there was a flurry of Korans and mosque-building, but the level of religious knowledge in most areas is still low and no definite religious identity has appeared, except perhaps in the poor and heavily populated Fergana Valley, where there’s a growing interest in Islam.

Traces of Zoroastrianism can be found in Tajikistan and Shamanism in remote regions of Kazakstan. The people of the Pamir Mountains in eastern Tajikistan are Ismaeli, followers of the Agha Khan. The strain of Islam called Sufism is prevalent in all areas of Central Asia and most people are devotees to a greater or lesser degree.