Crossroads Asia | Diplomacy | Central Asia

‘Small-Yurt Diplomacy’ Prevails at Kyrgyzstan’s World Nomad Games

This year, as Kyrgyzstan was busy showcasing its culture to the world, foreign countries were competing for the attention of locals.

Local and international tourists alike stream into Kyrchyn Ethno-village in eastern Kyrgyzstan at the World Nomad Games.

You are walking through an ethno-village in rural Kyrgyzstan. On the right is a string of cultural zones organized by each of the country’s seven regions and two major cities, Bishkek and Osh. In each, traditional music is played, food is cooked, and dances are performed. 

You keep walking, beyond a mound where spectators are watching age-old martial arts, past a bazaar where local wares are being bought and sold, before you finally reach the end of the road. You see another cluster of yurts.

As you approach, you get the feeling that you’re truly in a place where custom and culture still reign supreme. And then you almost get hit in the head with a lacrosse ball, flung in your direction from a tent conspicuously featuring an American flag.

Such was the setting in eastern Kyrgyzstan’s Kyrchyn Gorge at the start of September, as the country again hosted the World Nomad Games. The alpine valley was one of seven major locations during the games, featuring an extensive cultural program that included traditional games, music and dance, and sports such as eagle hunting, horseback archery, and tug-of-war. 

For foreign governments and international organizations — including the United States, Qatar, South Korea, Turkiye, the European Union, and UNICEF — the occasion offered an enormous opportunity to engage with Kyrgyz visitors and practice a little cultural diplomacy of their own.

A Kyrgyz family poses for a photo at a yurt being operated by Qatar’s Al Gannas falconry society. Photo by Oliver Fisk.

At some level, the strategy of directly appealing to people from across Kyrgyzstan made perfect sense. 

Kyrchyn drew more than 150,000 people a day during the weeklong festivities, organizers say, more than four times the average attendance at previous editions of the games. The ethno-village offered foreign governments and organizations something formal diplomacy in Kyrgyzstan rarely provides: thousands of casual, face-to-face interactions with ordinary people.

The U.S. yurt, for example, let visitors try a number of American sports, like lacrosse, corn hole, and American football. It also featured a cardboard version of George Washington, mini tutorials on U.S. history, and a cutout of an American prairie wagon.

The European Union, meanwhile, brought eight European countries together under one canopied roof, allowing visitors to sample German pastries, Norwegian brown goat cheese, Swiss fondue, and Spanish olives while learning about the countries behind them. 

The goal, according to yurt organizer Zarina Toichubekova, who works for a Kyrgyz-German organization aimed at helping the needs of the Kyrgyz diaspora in Europe, was to “demonstrate the friendship and cultural connections between Europe and Kyrgyzstan” while building new “people-to-people connections.”

“Many........

© The Diplomat