Central Asia III: Eagle Hunting in the Chon Kemin Valley

October 10, 2021 reminded me of why I adore traveling.  After a drive along the ancient Silk Road, we spent the afternoon and evening at Kemin Guest House in the Chon Kemin Valley near the Tien Shan mountains.  The owners were friendly and charming, and they entertained us with a cooking lesson, demonstrations of Kyrgi felt-making and embroidery, and an eagle-hunt.  They constructed a yurt on their front lawn, and then disassembled it, purely for our benefit.  And then, for one last treat, a prize-winner from the national Manas recitation contest provided a dramatic presentation of a portion of that epic.
 

We stopped at Burana, which used to be a major stop on the Silk Road.  It was the place where the camel trains from the west shifted their goods to trains of donkeys to ascend the steep and rocky mountain pass through the Tien Shan Mountains into China.  Fahrod explained that the camels’ leathery feet would be torn up by the rocks on the trail through the mountains.  Donkeys with hoofs were needed.  A tall brick tower was the only building left from those Silk Road years.  It seemed huge, but it was only half as tall as it had been in Silk Road times.

We also wandered through the small Burana museum, with its antique Chinese coins with holes in the middle and bits of pottery, and we took pictures of the “bals”, or stone tombstones with carved faces, in the nearby field.  Those predated the Arab invasion of the 670s, during which statues and paintings depicting human beings were destroyed.

We paused, during our ride, next to a Russian jet, turned into a monument.  Apparently, a military base  was nearby.  During Soviet Union times, the wide open Central Asia spaces were used for nuclear tests, space exploration, and other military and scientific ventures.  Russian lift-offs for the International Space Station still occur in nearby Kazakistan.

As we finished lunch, workers assembled by Aziz, the guest house owner, began putting up a yurt in the front yard of the guest house. They first laid the bright red stakes around the sides, in a circle about 20 feet in diameter.  They then wrapped matting of reeds around the sides of the yurt, followed by felt, as insulation.  And then they constructed the top of the yurt, with stakes that bent towards the center hole in the top, which was left open to the sky. We gathered inside, when the yurt was done, to admire its artistry.  “Now we’ll take it down,” Aziz said.

Felt rugs and scarves are a fine art in Kyrgyzstan.  An elderly relative of Aziz demonstrated her skill in inserting rolls of felt into silk scarves, and in creating felt rugs with intricate patterns.

She also showed us how she made intricate appliqued fabrics, traditionally used to cover the front doors of yurts.

Friends and relatives of Aziz gathered at the guest house on this Sunday afternoon.  One of the guests wore her elechek headdress.

Several young girls were dressed in Kyrgi finery.  When we asked what the special event was, Aziz told us, "They just like dressing up."

We drove to a field where eagle hunters and archers were gathered to show us their skills.  We were introduced to the two eagles, who had been removed from their nests as chicks and trained by their trainer.  “It’s like a father and daughter relationship,” the young male trainer said of his nine-year-old female eagle.  The eagles were huge and hooded, to keep them calm and focused.  Young men took the two eagles to the top of a hill and then set them loose to soar back to a rodent skin being waved by the trainer.  The eagles were returned to the top of the hill and were then sent soaring again towards us.  This time, the trainer set loose a furry rabbit.  “Sometimes the rabbit gets away,”  Fahrod told us, but this time it did not.  Just as the rabbit realized its danger and leapt into the air, the eagle sliced it with its talons in mid-jump, and the rabbit was dead and bloody within seconds.  The trainer let his eagle eat some of the rabbit, but kept the rest to serve to it later.  The trainer explained that he kept the eagle a little bit hungry so it would always be a good hunter.

We watched, in the kitchen, as the cooks made small, square scones that are cut from dough and then fried.  They are served at nearly every Kyrgis meal.  We noticed a pile of homemade noodles and a pot of simmering meat and vegetable soup which were mixed together and served to us for dinner as “Lachman.”  As we eat each meal, I am planning, in my own mind, the menu for my Kyrgis meal.

Dinner began with salad and fruit, and then continued on to the scones and "langman" (noodle soup).

After dinner, we watched as a “Manas-chi” did a recitation from the Kyrgis national epic.  He was a young fellow and spoke with enormous passion and many hand movements. Reciting the Manas epic is an art form in Kyrgystan, and the young reciter had just won a prize at the national festival for his recitations.

Central Asia II: Bishkek--Monuments and Markets

“Today we’ll walk 10,000 to 12,000 steps,” Farhod told us, on October 9, 2021, and we did.  It felt wonderful, after our many sedentary hours on airplanes in the last few days.   We treated ourselves to ice cream cones to provide fuel for the trek.

Soviet culture embraces heroic monuments.  Kyrgygstan and Uzbekistan cities are full of large, stone monuments, and even small towns have heroic monuments to the fighters of the Great War (WWII).  As I listen to Russia's President Putin roil his citizens to fight for the "deNatzification" of Ukraine, I know exactly the dog whistle he is employing.  There is deep, lingering hatred in Russia and its satellites of the Nazis who invaded Russia in WWII, and great pride in the Soviet Union warriors (including warriors from Central Asia) who vanquished the Nazis.  Post-Soviet Central Asia states have retained their taste for heroic monuments.  The monument above commemorates one of the many uprisings of Kyrgyzstan citizens against their rulers.  There have been 30 prime ministers of Kyrgyzstan since its independence in 1991.  Our guide in Kyrgygstan saw that as a sign of democracy and patriotism.  Our guide from Uzbekistan questioned whether having so many prime ministers was really a sign of instability!

We passed by the former presidential palace, which had been stormed by protesters several years ago, who were appalled at the regime’s corruption.  The president fled.

We walked through Bishkek's imposing war memorial.  As with so many ceremonial Kyrgygstan objects, the memorial is built in the shape of a yurt.  The top of the yurt has a round opening with a criss-cross hatching.  That symbol represents the human view of the infinite and reappears on the Kyrgyzstan flag and other items.

We were not alone in visiting the perpetually burning torch inside the war memorial.  These people may have been tourists, but brides and their grooms often visit city monuments, in marriage dress, on their wedding days.

Soviet monuments often feature heroic women.  Kyrgyzstan is a Muslim country, but after many years of Soviet rule, it has a very secular version of Islam.  This lady is dressed modestly, but in many Muslim countries, there would not be a statue of a modern woman in a public place.

 

This post-Soviet monument includes a statue of a female general from  Kyrgystan in the 1700s.  There was contradictory information between our guide and museum written material as to whether she opposed the Russian tsar or caved in to him!  “Kyrgis women are very strong,” our guide said.  

The female general is wearing an elecheck, or white headdress rolled from between 15 and 20 yards of material.

This Kyrgi bill includes a drawing of a woman wearing an elechek.

We walked through Oak Park, filled with stone statues portraying the Kyrgis epic poem,  Manas.  I was surprised that the gardens were filled with the same flowers as in SLC—marigolds, roses, lamb’s ear.  I realized that Bishkek and SLC have a similar climate.  Bishkek is also a high altitude city ringed by mountains, which reminds us of SLC.

We passed statues of Lenin and of Marx and Engels, moved away from the center of the city.   Kyrgis prize their independence, but they also accept Big Brother Russia.  When we asked Farhod what foreign languages are taught in the schools, Farhod said, “Chinese and English.  We don’t count Russian as a foreign language, because we all know it.”  Kyrgyzstan still uses the Russian, Cyrillic alphabet, although Uzbekistan now uses the Western alphabet.

Kyrgystan has 6 million people, and 1 million of them are working in Russia, sending back remittances.  The value of the remittances equals the value of the entire government budget.  “When Russia gets upset at something we do, such as allow the Americans to have a base to supply Afghanistan,” Farhod said, “Russia just has to suggest that it will make it more difficult for Kurgis citizens to work in Russia, and we have to back down.” 

When we finally saw the huge statue of Manas himself, in front of government buildings, Farhod pointed out that Manas had slayed the dragon, “which represents China.”  China now provides the cheap consumer products the country needs, as well as loans and grants to build roads and bridges, but the Kyrgis are very wary of their hereditary enemy, China.  

This is a post-Soviet building on Bishkek's main square.  It combines Soviet massiveness with the dome and arches of traditional Central Asian architecture.

These soldiers, with the gold-embroidered scarlet carpet leading to their guardhouse, look very Soviet.

Over and over, we saw the symbol of the cross-hatched open hole on top of the yurt.  Here it is on Kyrgyzstan's flag.  Our guide told us that the rays represent the forty tribes that joined together into one small country of 6 million people.  The circle of the sun represents peace.  The three lines across the sun represent the poles unifying a round yurt, which is the traditional dwelling place of the Kyrgis people, who descended from the Mongols. 

Here it is on a roadside poster.

And here it is on a stone monument.

After lunch, we visited the sprawling bazaar.  The old Silk Road, followed for centuries by traders between China and Europe, runs through Bishkek.  China has constructed modern highways along that old Silk Road, and trucks carry full loads of cheap clothes and household goods from China for Kyrgyzstan's bazaars.  Middlemen buy the goods from the Chinese container trucks and sell them at the bazaar.

There are lots of small businesspeople at the bazaar, including this entrepreneur, who sold melons out of the trunk of his car.

I am my father's daughter.  Dad loved to take photographs, and particularly of people at foreign bazaars.  These four photos are my homage to Grant Calder.

We searched through the bazaar for a hat shop, so Mike could buy one of these traditional Kyrgi hats.

There was an infinite assortment of beans, lentils, and nuts.

I tried most Kyrgi delicacies, but I couldn't bring myself to taste these yogurt balls, which are a portable treat.

Surprisingly, Central Asia has many Korean residents, who were brought here after the Russian war of 1905.  They are a prominent fixture of the bazaars, selling kim chee (above) and carrot salad.

“Do you mind the smell of raw meat?” Fahrod asked.  Since we said “no,” he led us through the huge meat section of the bazaar, with a sheep’s head and all sorts of entrails for sale, as well as a special section for horse meat.  Some horses are raised for riding in Kyrgystan, and other, fat ones are raised for meat.