Horse Races – At Chabish

Well, we are on yet another school holiday here, but this one has been particularly exciting because of the horse races held in my village! A few years ago, a French woman organized this international event which now attracts tourists annually. My family was kind enough to host volunteers from around the lake who were interested in checking out the events.

The day began with a long distance horseback race into the mountains. While we waited for the riders to come back across the finish line, we watched other traditional horseback events, browsed among the handicrafts for sale, and ate ashlanfu (a spicy Dungan noodle dish popular in Issyk Kul) inside a yurt. Some of the events included tiyin enmei, where riders compete to see who can pick up the most markers off the ground while galloping past; udarysh, wrestling on horseback; and kis kumai, where a man chases a woman on horseback trying to kiss her—afterward the tables are turned, she chases him and then pummels him with her riding crop.

There was also a game like ulak-tartysh, which is similar to polo, but without mallets and with hoops on either end of the field. Unfortunately, the game we saw was played using a ball with handles on it instead of the traditional headless goat corpse. The French team, dressed in pink and wearing riding helmets, played against the Kyrgyz cowboys.

After I saw my friends onto the marshrutka (minibus) to get back to their respective villages, I came home to find my host family making felt mats. They had some female relatives and neighbors over to help with the elaborate process. First, the wool, sheered from their own sheep, was laid out on a reed mat. Next, it was covered with thin fabric and soapy hot water was poured over it while the mat was rolled up. Then the heavy wet bundle was wrapped in canvas and rope so it could be pressed. This was the fun part: one person rolled the bundle along while four or five others walked behind it stamping it with their feet. This went on for about a half hour and was actually very tiring!

Then the whole thing was unwrapped, revealing that the wool had magically transformed into a huge felt mat. The fabric was then re-rolled and squeezed out a few times by hand, and finally washed and hung up to dry. I had previously taken these felt mats for granted, but after seeing the amount of effort involved, I was very impressed by the seven brown mats we had made entirely by hand (and foot!) drying around the yard at the end of the day.