Silk Road Tours
Nomads
Kyrgyzstan is a very beautiful country with an overwhelming history!
For more than 2000 years the Kyrgyz people lived like nomads and have managed to keep all their traditions to this day! Mountains played a very important role for nomads. They had to roam around in order to find better pastures in order to let them graze. Only in the 20th century they got to settle down. Some of them live in the mountains; keeping the traditions of their ancestors ...
The nomadic dwellings are called yurts. For more than 2000 years since Kyrgyz people had been living in yurts. It has a very unique structure of wooden skeleton covered with felt and can be built without using a single nail. The best artist can construct a yurt within 20 - 25 days. But it can be used for 40 years. It takes people to build a yurt about one hour. Nomads could carry it from one place to another loaded by only 3 horses.
The yurt has two main parts the right side that belongs to men and the left side belonging to women. They usually keep weapons, horse trappings, whips. The women keep different home accessories, kitchen pottery, tableware, as well as their jewels and ornaments on the right side. Here you can see a straw mat, which serves as a partition between the kitchen part and the main part of the yurt. There is a special place inside of the yurt which is located opposite the door and called as tor. This is the most honorable part of the yurt précised for the most respected people (elderly people or guests). Women keep here blankets and rugs, made by them. All of them are stacked on each other in a neat order. Nobody is allowed to use them, because it is a sign of wealth.
The nomadic villages are called as ails. And each of them would have 80 and 100 families. Stories known from some Chinese sources on the wars tell the Chinese came to the land of nomads decided to attack them early in the morning. But it didn't work. Within one night the whole village just disappeared! The whole village moved that fast without leaving any tracks that the Chinese could only guess which direction they had moved.
Kyrgyz shepherds most of the times chose uplands that helped keep track of livestock, as well as to have a beautiful landscape around.
With our tours you can experience a real nomadic life meeting locals and learning culture and traditions from them.
Find some useful information for trip to Kyrgyzstan here: