Before the Socialist Revolution, the Kyrgyz people, who did not have written language, had a very rich oral folklore. Such epics as "Manas" were extremely popular among the people. It was in 1923 that Tynystanov first went on an expedition to the eastern shore of Issyk Kul Lake to collect folklore. Later, when he became the Head of the Academic Center and the Chair of the People's Commissariat of Education, he continued to work on "Manas". In 1926 he supported the publishing of a part of Semetei epic story (a part of a greater "Manas" epos), Tynybek's version, which Tynystanov personally valued very much. Since then his work concentrated on analyzing, preservation and publishing of Sayakbai Karalaev's and Sagynbai Orozbakov's versions of the "Manas" epic.