Kyrgyzstan info

For the traveler, Kyrgyzstan is the final frontier. While developing countries all over the world were opening themselves to outsiders, the Soviet Union kept Central Asia under wraps, and Kyrgyzstan, as the site of much of the Soviet Union’s weapons research and development, was particularly hard to get to. It’s little over a decade since independence, and this young country is coming on strong. The five Central Asian nations have undergone the sometimes-painful transition to nationhood together, but it is tiny Kyrgyzstan that has done the most to welcome visitors. It is here that the outsider, while exploring some of the most remote regions on earth, is most likely to feel at home. For thousands of years, Kyrgyzstan has been a crossroads.
The Great Silk Road was a network of trade routes that stretched from China to the Middle East; caravans of camels and horses carried silk, porcelain, tea, and rhubarb west, and gold, ivory, jade, and ostriches east. Kyrgyzstan was a prime conduit for these goods for almost 2000 years. Now, after a 70-year hiatus, travelers from all over the world are returning. Everywhere in Kyrgyzstan, from the huge mountain lake Issyk Kul to 3000-year-old Osh, from yurts on the jailoos (summer pastures) of Naryn oblast to Bishkek’s wide tree-lined avenues, nomadic traditions, beautiful alpine nature, legendary hospitality, and a rich cultural heritage come together to offer the visitor a tantalizing and memorable experience.

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Kyrgyz Culture

Suppressed and often outlawed through 70 years of Soviet occupation, Kyrgyz culture remains very much alive. As middlemen on the Great Silk Road, the Kyrgyz have been influenced by groups from all over Asia while remaining distinct. For example, the Kyrgyz language, though Turkic in origin, includes numerous words from Mongolian, Persian, and Russian. Since independence, Kyrgyz culture has flourished. It’s not at all unusual to see a child walking to music lessons, komuz in hand, and the tois (feasts) listed below and other ritual feasts punctuate the lives of most Kyrgyz with sometimes alarming regularity. Though Soviet campaigns of the 1930s thoroughly de-nomadized the populace and nearly everybody has a house for the winter, many are the Kyrgyz who spend the summers on the jailoos herding and living in yurts. That traditional nomadic dwelling (yurta in Russian, boz ui in Kyrgyz) is even becoming an object of nostalgia among Bishkek’s rich.

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Geography and Natural Resources.

Kyrgyzstan is situated in eastern Central Asia, bordered by Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, and the Xinjiang province of China. It has a total area of 198,500 square kilometers, about the size of Great Britain. The population is just under 5 million. The vast majority of Kyrgyzstan is occupied by the Tien Shan and Pamir-Alay ranges, which contain some of the highest and most beautiful peaks in the world. These top out at Pobedy (‘Victory’), 7439 m, on the Chinese border; Lenina, 7134 m, on the Tajik border and one of the most accessible 7000-m peaks in the world; and Khan-Tengri, (‘Emperor of the skies’), 6995 m. Over 90% of the country is above 1000 m, and 40% tops 3000 m. Some of the world’s finest trekking can be found here, as well as enough hiking and climbing to last many lifetimes indeed. Most of Kyrgyzstan’s inhabitants live in the valleys. The Chui Valley in the north holds Bishkek, the capital city, with 800,000 people.

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