Kyrgyzstan is another one of those countries that I know the name of but couldn’t spell. I took interest in the place today and found some impressive and intriguing pictures of the place.
Kyrgyzstan is bordered by Kazakhstan to the north, Uzbekistan to the west, Tajikistan to the southwest and China to the east. Its capital, and largest city, is Bishkek.
Kyrgyzstan is about the same size as Great Britain, nearly 200,000 square kilometers in total. It is landlocked and predominantly mountainous. It’s had its fair share of ups and downs; ups and downs which are by no means over. There are various inter-ethnic beefs, revolts, economic troubles (they’re one of the poorest Central Asian countries) and political infighting.
Kyrgyzstan were under Soviet rule from the early 1920’s to the 1990’s. Literacy and general quality of life was improved greatly when the Soviets initially took over; and, despite Stalin’s stranglehold on the culture of his homeland, he allowed the Kyrgyz to maintain much of their heritage and practices. The population is around 5.6 million with only a third living in urban areas. To put that into perspective that’s like a little over half the population of London living in an area almost as big as Great Britain. So they’ve got some leg room, which is nice.
I’ve split these photos into four sections: people, landscapes, buildings and animals. Have a gander…
Landscapes on the next page…
The capital Bishkek was called Frunze under Soviet rule but has since changed back to its original name.
The mountainous region of Tian Shan covers 80% of the country. Issyk-kul Lake is the second largest mountain lake in the world after Lake Titicaca.
Pictures of the good people of Kyrgyzstan on the next page…
Hunting with golden eagles is a tricky business but it’s the sport of all real men out on the steppes.
Animals on the next page…
Falconry is a big part of Central Asian life. The birds are pets, family, friends and hunting companions.
If you like goats have a go on these:
GOATS PLAYING WITH SHEET METAL
This is the only picture of a Kyrgyz ibex I could find that didn’t have a grinning hunter stood over its bloodied corpse.
The Taigan is a dog species that has historically been favoured in Kyrgyzstan. Numbers are thought to be as low as 300 individuals now that hunting is less of a necessity. Taigans are praised for their single minded determination and their ability to scale steep slopes like a mountain goat.
Taigan don’t need much attention and they can do without water and food for long periods of time. Once they’ve killed the prey they don’t slash into it like more highly strung dogs, they simply protect it and wait for their master to come along.
I’ll finish off with a dark spot: every year in Kyrgyzstan there’s a hunting festival. Everyone gets their dogs and eagles out and shows off how good they are at killing things. One of the main events is wolf baiting. They tie up a wolf and set either an eagle or a dog on it until one of them is dead, normally the wolf of course, because he’s tied up. So that’s fairly barbaric. But it wasn’t long ago that Elizabeth I blocked Whitehall’s attempt to ban bear baiting from London, so it’s a bit rich of us to turn our noses up I guess.
