Kyrgyzstan - The World Nomad Games

It was during my planning for our trip in this part of the world that I first learned about the World Nomad Games. These games are like a mini-Olympics for nomadic people. Many nomads largely live in this part of the world, but anyone can enter. Horse sports feature a lot as nomads are typically very dependent on horses but there are other traditional sports like wrestling as well as cultural events like singing and board games. We thought it would be hard to get accommodation, but we got in early and found something that worked. 

The opening ceremony would be held in Bishkek, the capital, but the games would be held in and around Cholpon-Ata, on Lake Issyk-Kul. Issyk-Kul is the second-largest alpine lake in the world. As we drove in to the town we were amazed at the huge resorts being built. The lake is a major summer attraction in a region that is a long way from the sea, and is popular with Russians and people from the nearby 'stans in particular. There was even a modern airport.

We loved the workers' camp. This beats the dongers we have at home!

It seemed that every cop car in Kyrgyzstan was in Cholpon-Ata. All day and night, they would race up and down the main drag, sounding their sirens and trying to look important. The funny thing was that the sirens were all different. Some sounded like were being played on the wrong speed. They usually drove in groups of five or six, and each one would have a different siren. It was very Keystone Cops-ish.

The amazing thing about the games is that most of the events were free! I wish I'd known this earlier. Tickets were supposed to go on sale in April and they didn't end up going on sale until 2 weeks before the games started. I had been watching and worrying for months that we wouldn't get seats, all unnecessarily. Information in general was very hard to get.

We did end up buying tickets for the opening ceremony of the Hippodrome though. All seats cost all of $8! I jumped online and bought great seats in the second row. The programme said the opening ceremony would go from 6pm til 10.20pm, so we headed off early.

It was a 40 minute walk to the Hippodrome. The Hippodrome was very impressive.

We got there at 5.15, allowing enough time to find our seats. The gates weren't open though so I went to a side area and asked one of the volunteers when they would open. She told me that the gates opened at 6pm. Ughh! I thanked her and stepped back - and went straight down a gutter whose protective grate had been moved. I was unhurt, however the screen on my camera got incredibly scratched. This was the third time I had scratched it since arriving in the 'stans and it's barely possible to see the photos I'm taking now!

Finally we were let in. We loved this first aid yurt!

We were directed to our seats, only to realise that row two meant two rows from the back, not the front! I was so cheesed off. We got a lovely view towards the mountains from the back of the stadium though.

It turned out to be a blessing in disguise though - we got chatting to a guy nearby. He was from Romania and was competing in the horseback wrestling the next day! We ended up getting on really well with him. His stories about competing here were amazing.

International competitors get lent horses for their events as it's too hard to bring horses all that way. Our friend, Attila, had arrived four days early to ride his horse but still hadn't even seen it even though the event was the next day. He found out he would get to ride it for the first time an hour before the competition started.

His own story was quite amazing. His family had lived in a certain area of Hungary for generations. After WW1, parts of Hungary were given to Romania, including his family farm. His ancestors are Hungarian and he feels Hungarian. He can't move to Hungary though because he doesn't want to leave his family's land. He wanted to ride in the games for Hungary (he has a Hungarian passport) but, for some reason, that didn't work out. Other Romanian athletes got their trips paid for by the Romanian government, but he had to pay for his own! Clearly, the Hungarian descendants are persecuted there.

Attila and one of his teammates.

Finally, at 8pm, two hours after the advertised starting time, the ceremony began. It started with the usual speeches but then teams of horses galloped past with their riders doing all sorts of tricks on them. They were pretty hard to photograph though, especially from the second back row, haha.

The ceremony was fun to be a part of, but the performers were all a long way from the spectators ,so we didn't really get a good look at the costumes or anything.

They had commentators in four languages and the English speaker sounded a like the magic mirror in Shrek doing his "Iiiiit's Princess Fiona!" routine in a Borat accent. It was very funny!

Despite us returning to our very large guest house quite late, people came and went at all hours as they attended events. It was noisy and we didn't have a great sleep but got up early the next morning to be at the famous horse events at 9am. Back we walked along the same main road that we walked along every day. On the way, we passed the wrestling arena which also started at 9am. We thought we'd take a look. We got seats and waited. And waited. It started at 10.10! By now we had realised that the horse events also probably didn't start until 10 so we watched a bit of wrestling. 

Some matches were quite entertaining! 

We got talking to a Bolivian entrant. He was lovely and we were barracking for him but he didn't win his round. I think once you lose one, you're out. That was along way to come with his wife and baby for a match that took maybe two minutes!

We found our way to the horse arena (again it was hard to get information). There would be three events on that day:

First up was Kokpar - a traditional game where two teams fight over a dead goat carcass. The aim is to pick up the carcass from the centre of the field and deposit it into circles drawn in the sandy arena. We got to watch a couple of matches. It was pretty rough. Horses got whacked with whips then yanked on the reins, sometimes for no obvious reason at all. They were treated with no respect at all. It was equally rough on the riders though. They clearly got battered and bruised. The skill of being able to bend to the ground while on a horse and pick up a 30-35 kilo dead goat was pretty impressive.

The guy on the left is picking up the dead goat.

There was no fancy equipment. The bridles were usually very simple. The saddles had high pommels and cantles. They rode with short stirrups as I think this helped them to bend down low. The rider's boots in this photo are typical of the boots they wear to ride.

Riders fell off sometimes and one even lost his entire saddle.

There were security guys everywhere, but anybody could have done anything because the security guys were all watching the games!

Second was the horseback wrestling, called er enishu. Generally, this wasn't as hard on the horses but it was still rough and there was one blatant act of cruelty that was apparently accepted by all involved. 

In this game, two men on horses face each other and have to try to wrestle the other guy to the ground. From what I understand, there aren't many things you're not allowed to do to the other guy.

Each wrestler competed bare-chested. As each rider was announced, he rode out onto the arena wearing a cape and carrying his country's flag and was escorted by two traditional armour-clad riders. Yes, that's a USA flag in this pic.

After a few rounds it was our friend Attila's turn. Attila was the only rider who rode out without carrying his country's flag. He refused to! Finally, it was time to start. The two guys wrestled for a bit then the umpire stopped the game and awarded the win to the other guy We were all so confused. How could anyone win if nobody had been unmounted? Attila later told us that he didn't know what happened either. They told him he hadn't let go of the other guy when he was told to, but apparently the other guy wasn't letting go of him either. And that was it for Attila. Again, a couple of minutes and you're out. 

Attila in action. The guy in green is the umpire.

The same horses seemed to get used multiple times.

As the knockout rounds continued, we came down to gold medal rounds. There were three categories and neighbouring Kazakhstan beat the home team Kyrgyzstan in the first two.

The same two teams faced off in the last level. It was a good struggle between the two but finally the Kazakh guy pulled the Krygyz guy off his horse. Then was a lot of discussion then the gold medal was awarded to the Kyrgyz guy! It smacked of being rigged but who are we to know the exact rules?

The third event was the big drawcard - kok-boru. Kok-Boru is quite famous. Like kokpar, you have to get the dead goat, however this time you have to throw the goat into a big bin-like structure. The bin was built of hard plastic, I think, and was round. It sat about a metre off the ground.

The teams playing this were much more professional than the kokpar teams. It was incredibly entertaining. There was a big crowd watching and people got right into it. A commentator would occasionally speak in English and I suspect he was the same overdramatic guy from the previous night, however this time some of the comments were genuinely funny.

There was enormous strength required to pick that goat up.

The bin-type 'goal' targets created their own entertainment. The easiest way to get a 30kg+ goat carcass over the lip of the bin was to charge at it then, when the horse stops suddenly so it doesn't crash into it, you let yourself and the goat fly through the air and land inside the big tub. 

But it was a really rough game. It bordered on cruelty at times as horse were whipped to make them force their way into a group gathered around the goat.

Outside the arena, they had a model horse and a mock goat set up so people could have a try at picking the goat up. It was quite funny! It think a lot of people were surprised at how heavy the 'goat' was.

Day 2 was another incredible day! One of the games locations is at Kyrchyn Gorge, about an hour's drive from Cholpon-Ata. Private cars were banned - everyone had to take free shuttle busses. We had heard that there weren't enough busses though and there were fights over people getting on the few available busses. There was only one stop in Cholpon-Ata and the queues were so long that they got in the way of the traffic going into the Hippodrome. 

One thing we've learned is that most people tend to get up late, so we got up early and walked the 30 or 40 minutes to the Hippodrome. As we walked up to the bus area, there were lots of people, but there were also lot of busses. We literally walked up to a bus and got on it. We couldn't believe our luck! It was a brand new bus too - it still had plastic on the seats!

We turned off the main road after a while and drove up the gorge. It was beautiful! Then, as we approached the games area, hundreds of yurts came into view. There were hundreds of rough and ready ones where I assume the games participants were staying, and hundreds more beautiful ones that were set up for the games.

The events at Kyrchyn Gorge were largely about culture, but there was also one large sports arena.

It's hard to describe how stunning it all was. A (fake) caravanserai had been built and around it were beautiful yurts, tents and people in traditional costumes. Inside the caravanserai was the food section. Men in the strange hats they wear here sat around drinking tea.

Despite the fact that tea is the big drink in central Asia, John bought a cappuccino from this lovely young woman.

Baking bread in tandyr ovens made from mud.

I think we finally worked out how they bake the bread. The dough was pre-stamped with the pattern, then placed on a soft pad then put inside the oven where it stuck to the side and baked.

Smoke from scores of fires added a great atmosphere to the place.

The weather kept changing but the misty mountains looked awesome as a backdrop to the caravanserai.

We later ate some lunch here. We shared a long, very low table with a local family. Two of the boys spoke English and it was great to be able to talk to them. They were all lovely.

We came across these men leading their hunting dogs. There would be dog races later.

Just behind them was a guy with his hunting eagle. Ironically, the only events that we didn't get to see were the eagle hunting and dog races. We just never found where they were!

There were plenty of other opportunities to get photos of eagles and hawks but the owners were taking money to let tourists pose with the birds and the owners would often push the birds off balance so they had to spread their wings which made for better photo opportunities. I wasn't going to support that.

Of course, there had to be camels, although they didn't seem to feature in the games at all.

I don't think I've seen a dromedary camel before. It clearly didn't need to store water in its humps. They were floppy and falling over.

The site was so large that it took a while to find the sports area. It was tucked away in its own little valley. It was all so beautiful!

We watched some archery. Many people wore traditional costumes. They had to shoot kneeling down as well as standing with their backs to the targets then they turn to shoot without moving their feet.

It was great to see so any Muslim women competing in events. This one was very serious about it all.

There were all sorts of entertaining competitions. In this one, a heavy weight had to be held at arm's length and the winner was the one who could hold it the longest.

This guy really looked the part.

One of the most popular events was the women's arm-wrestling competitions! Again, the Muslim women were out there. This one did all the pump-yourself-up screams and all!

There was another game which was a lot like volleyball but you could only use your feet and the players kicked something like a hacky sack. I can really see how these games evolved in nomadic cultures. The playing field here was rugs from a yurt. The 'net' was a string of tassels, also from a yurt. It could probably be played almost anywhere. 

The players were incredibly athletic.

Surprisingly, one of the most entertaining sports was the tug of war. Not only was the game interesting and fun, but these boys gave us heaps of laughs. Great Britain had entered a team. The four team members looked like uni students and none of them were solidly built, which isn't ideal in this sport I would have thought! They came up against India in their first round and lost, although they weren't useless at all and put up a good fight.

On the opposite end of the size scale were the Georgians. The were all large but the back guy was massive! The poor Poms then had to compete against the Georgians. They certainly didn't last as long in this one.

Afterwards, the British boys jumped around, waved their flag and celebrated anyway. They were clearly there for a good time and they were having a blast! The crowd picked up on their enthusiasm. It was so much fun!

Another entertaining sport was called "Breaking of the Spine"! A specific joint from a cow is used and the aim is to break the bone with one strike with your bare hands. It requires strength, precision and concentration apparently.

Back up in the main area, there was traditional music playing in many areas. I loved these giant horns!

This video got accidentally photo-bombed but I love her costume so here it is!

John went to the loo and I waited near a horse cart. A man came up and leant on the horse cart while his family got ready to take photos. I went to move out of the way and I got a chorus of people saying no! It was me they were sneakily trying to photograph! So the guy moved a bit closer and they all photographed me. It was so weird. This happened a couple of times. There was also a striking looking African American woman with long braided hair that people were trying to photograph. She wasn't so open to the idea though.

One of the best events was the fastest team to assemble a yurt! We got there early and found a space on the bench seats of the grandstand. It was a great spot to observe people coming in.

It started to rain and some ladies protected their headgear with plastic bags.

Many men wore their tall felt hats. Older men still wear these daily.

I wonder how heavy that headgear is?

This lady filmed the crowd around her, including us, so I photographed her!

When the rain stopped, the competition began. It was very entertaining and enlightening. We had wondered how yurts are erected. 

The yurts were brought in on horse carts.

Part-way through the race.

Putting up the yurts. We didn't time it, but we think the fastest team put theirs up in 10 to 15 minutes.

Different regions of Kyrgyzstan each had their own area which they decorated beautifully. People in traditional costumes wandered about, perfectly happy to be photographed. 

The 'traditional' electric bass guitar was a surprise, haha.

The variety of costumes was incredible.

No matter how traditional the costume though, a phone isn't far away.

At first I thought the hats were a bit silly but after a while they seemed to work well when a man gets dressed up.

The skies started to clear behind the caravanserai and snow-capped mountains appeared.

Our food stall. Huge pots of food were constantly being cooked.

We watched as fresh noodles were added to the laghman, a delicious stir-fry noodle dish. We then ate it, lol.

Huge tents were available for people to eat in. In the background, the skies cleared even more.

There were so many yurts on display! We were a bit confused about what was inside them though. There seemed to be lots of people eating food. Were they locals? Tourists? We don't know. There were thousands of local tourists there, and many from the neighbouring 'stans, so it was hard for us to judge.

Yurts and mountains.

We wondered how busy it might be getting a bus back, but we got onto one fairly quickly. We were the only tourists on it. We checked with a couple of people that it was ging to Cholpon-Ata because some of the busses go to other locations. We hit the main road, and the bus driver turned the wrong way! People started yelling out "Cholpon-Ata!" to the driver, but it turned out that we had to get off the bus here and catch a marshrutka, one of the local mini-busses, to Cholpon-Ata. There were busses going to different locations, so a local guy took us under his wing and got us on the right bus. I got chatting to a guy near me who spoke English. He was a farmer but spoke five languages. He last came to the nomad games as an interpreter for the Turkish team. He then moved to the UAE and worked as a makeup consultant for one of the big-name companies there! He has now moved back to get married, return to his farm and breed racehorses. Talk about changes of career! He also told the whole bus that we were from Australia and they all looked suitably impressed, lol.

Getting off the bus, we met some of the Hungarian kok-boru team. One was on crutches from an accident during the game. These guys looked pretty rough and ready.

Day 3 - There was no need to get up early, so we had a huge sleep and felt so much better! We walked to the horse events area and got there just in time to see them setting up for Tyin Enmei, the game where riders gallop in a straight line and traditionally pick up coins off the ground. These days, the coins have been replaced with small red bags. The riders have to pick them up and flick them to the side. There are five in a row then they turn around a flag at the end then there are five more coming back. We happened to bump into Attila again so he was able to fill us in on the details.

As the 10 or so riders warmed up, we could see there was an Aussie there. He didn't ride like an Aussie though so he was possibly from Central Asia and migrated to Australia. There was also a guy from Bangladesh who clearly couldn't ride! He hung onto the pommel and bounced along when the horse trotted. What was he doing there? Clearly, you don't have to qualify in any way to enter.

The locals that were on their own horses did well. The horse has to be trained to keep going in a straight line when the rider bends down to the ground. Most horses didn't do that. When it was the Bangladesh guy's turn, he didn't even really try to bend down. He just trotted and cantered up and back!

Then the Aussie had a go. He clearly wasn't much good either. There were three riders that scored a zero. Two of them got another go on different horses (I think the Bangladeshi refused the offer.) The Aussie tried a bit harder and fell off! The crowd all cheered and he pranced around like a champion. It was all such good fun.

Some however, were very good. The winner showed everyone how it was done.

This was by far the best event from the horses' point of view. They just had to gallop up and down. Attila's teammate was in the race, and he stirred his horse up a bit at the start which I don't understand cos you want the horse to be steady. He didn't do very well.

When the event finished, we wandered back to the Hippodrome where there were special horse races happening. The one we timed it perfectly for was called kunan chabysh. This is a special race for two-year-old horses. Due to their young age, they try to keep the weight light so, wait for it, most riders are around 10 to12 years old! Also to keep the weight down, they ride bareback! But wait, there's more! There were 28 kids in the race. Even if you're not into horses, you've all seen what racing is like. 28 kids, racing bareback on young horses. What could go wrong?

As it turned out, it all went surprisingly smoothly. They didn't really attempt to line them up. They just said go and off they went. The passed the finish post and kept going. We realised they must have to do a full lap of the racecourse. Then they went again, and again, and again. We lost count but they did something like 10 laps. I researched it later and the race was 11 to 12 kms long! Strangely, I think this made the race safer as the kids basically just hung on for all those laps and there wasn't a lot of jostling or positioning. Some kids pulled their horses out part way if they got too tired.

Walking out to the start.

We also saw more wrestling. There were three different types going at once, which made it more interesting.

For the last time, we walked back along the busy main road to our guest house. We saw some funny sights along the way. 

A cow and its owner waited at a pedestrian crossing to cross the road.

How else do you take home your new fridge than on the roof of a taxi?

Just near our guest house was one of the music venues. We went to have a look but we needed tickets and we were too tired to do a whole session. We had heard it every night from our bedroom anyway.

They had cutouts of yurts nearby showing their construction.

On our last morning, I wandered down to have a look at Lake Issyk-Kul. We had been living within a few hundred metres of it for days and hadn't seen it! Black clouds loomed in the sky and a few brave souls were swimming.

The nomad games have got to be one of the most easily accessible cultural experiences we've ever had. We were truly privileged to have experienced all this.

'Til next time.

Heather and John