Archive: July, 2010
Doughs occupy an important place in Kyrgyz cuisine. The popular, ancient, ritual dish of boorsok is cut pieces of rolled dough deep fried in oil. They form a traditional table “decoration” and are produced in large quantities to be spread over the dastorkon (tablecloth) at every major celebration.
There is an English saying that “Rules are made to be broken, but traditions are to be kept”. This could easily be a Kyrgyz motto – especially when it comes to traditions associated with age. Toi : There are several occasions when it is traditional to hold a party to mark some milestone in the [...]
On Saturday, I was invited to a birthday party … not just any old birthday party, a Tushoo Kyrgkuu, a party to celebrate a child’s first birthday. Amongst the Kyrgyz this is a an important rite of passage for a child growing up, and I felt very honoured and privileged to have been invited to [...]
The unusual combination of letters in “Kyrgyzstan” often draws jokes and remarks featuring “Alphabet Soup” and a potential high score in Scrabble, (a basic 30 without any bonus for using a double or triple letter, or word, squares - needing a well placed opening, the only K, the Z and both the Y tiles – not to mention the additional bonus [...]
In Soviet times the shores of Lake Issyk Kul were home to over a hundred Sanatoria, most of them clustered around Cholpon Ata on the Northern Shore – although some returning Cosmonauts were brought to a sanatoria at Tamga on the Southern shore. Many were established by trade unions or some other organization, (for example the [...]
The name Djety Oguz means “Seven Bulls” in Kyrgyz. About 25 km South West of Karakol is a lush valley with some striking red sandstone rock formations (the “seven Bulls” from which the valley takes its name)
Barskoon and Tamga are twin Kyrgyz and Russian villages at the mouth of the Barskoon valley – which has an impressive waterfall and is a good centre for trekking and horse riding. The 11th century scholar Mahumud al-Kashgari (also known as Barskhani) was a native of this area. He is best known as the author [...]
If you travel along the road from Bishkek to Issyk Kul, as you leave behind the roadside yurt encampment of Holodniya Voda (Cold Water) and enter Boom Gorge there is a monument on the right hand side of the road – where a series of whitewashed stones display the date 1916, which commemorates Urkun – an important event in [...]
Today, I learned something new. That’s not unusual, as Tom Jones used to sing … In fact, a piece of “homespun advice” that one of my schoolteachers gave us when I was young, was that we shouldn’t think of education as a process that finished the day we left school. It is a lifelong, on-going [...]
Cholpon Ata is the largest town (village) on the Northern shore of the lake, about half way along, some 250 kilometres from Bishkek. Summer always saw large numbers of tourists descend with their vouchers for a stay in one of the nearby sanatoria or tour resorts (Cholpon Ata boasts one of the two Presidential residences [...]
