Food & Culture

Kuda tushuu to the toi: the full sequence of a Kyrgyz wedding, what kalym actually costs by region, and what to do…

Uulu, kyzy, -ova, tegin: Kyrgyz naming has been through three systems in a century and all are still in use. How to…

Dried salted yoghurt, 10-20 som a ball, that keeps for years without refrigeration. What kurut is, how to actually eat it, and…

The pattern pressed into Kyrgyz bread is doing three jobs. What a chekich is, why the bread is torn rather than cut,…

A Chuy valley village where 120 German Mennonites remain of a community that once filled it. Who they were, why they came,…

Every Kyrgyz bazaar sells Korean carrot salad. It's there because 172,000 Koreans were deported to Central Asia in 1937, and the dish…

The native Kyrgyz horse was bred out by a Soviet improvement programme. What the Novokirghiz gained in speed and milk, and lost…

Silk Road cities, nomad centuries, Russian conquest, the Soviet rebuild and two revolutions — the history behind what you’ll see in Kyrgyzstan.

Kyrgyzstan’s festivals month by month: Nooruz, kok-boru, horse games, autumn eagle festivals — plus how to confirm dates nothing online gets right.

April brought down a president. June brought violence in the south that killed hundreds. What happened in 2010, and how to handle…

One to two thousand Kyrgyz herders live at 4,000m in Afghanistan's Wakhan Corridor, cut off by a border drawn in the 1890s.…

Er enish, kyz kuumai, at chabysh, ordo, tyin enmei: the horseback and ground games that fill Kyrgyzstan’s nomad sporting calendar beyond kok-boru.