There is a book by Mark Twain, “What is a man.” Also the book,” It is hard to find the man,” by some other author, but I haven’t yet encountered a book saying, ‘what is a woman’ or something with similar idea. But I would like to make […]

Director of TENGRI, the first French feature film made in Kyrgyzstan, talks about Tengirism, complex gender relationships, and the Mongolian coat of arm of her grandfather.
Q: Why TENGRI?
A: TENGRI, because this is the divinity of the nomads and close to what I feel concerning the religions in general. I’m not a religious person […]

Like all other Central Asian cultures, Kyrgyz culture is also known for such holiday like Nooruz. It means new year and it is one of the most spitired and important Kyrgyz holiday. It unites people at the central Square of capital Bishkek where people walk, eat, play, talk and enjoy their time. They can also […]

Kyrgyz people are known for their strong cultural attachment for holding feasts, celebrations, weddings, anniversaries and so on. Usually hundreds of people are invited to this kind of celebrations and these massive gatherings have become a part of cultural tradition of Kyrgyz people.
An interesting study called “Cost of Traditions” has been conducted by the Institute […]

Though Christmas celebrations ended more than a month ago worldwide, and Christmas themes are off the season, in Osh oblast of Kyrgyz Republic recently there was an event “Santa-Klaus in Aravan”, informs Ferghana.Akipress.KG. This event was organized by municipal authorities and one of local NGOs with entertainment shows and prize competitions.
It seems that Santa-Klaus […]

The Kyrgyz Ministry of Interior has decided to ban holding festive namaz during Muslim holidays of Orozo Ayt and Kurman Ayt on Alatoo  square in Bishkek, reports AKIpress. Kanatbek Murzahalilov, Vice Chair of the Agency for Religion Affairs explained that this initiative was necessary due to security considerations. He also said that in all […]

Worshipping at sacred sites is a well-known cultural behavior all over the world and in Kyrgyzstan, worshipping at sacred sites is a wide spread phenomenon as well. In the Kyrgyz language sacred sites are called ‘mazars.’ ‘Mazar’ is a word from the Arabic language it means “a place which is visited.” It […]

This is a translated excerpt of Amantur’s post from the Kyrgyz-language NewEurasia
Kyrgyz people have lots of traditions and each of them reflects somehow the life of every citizen. For instance, in childhood everyone celebrates ”beshik-toi” (upon birth), “sunnot-toi”, and then there are so many other occasions and parties to attend. Among these there is […]

This is a translated excerpt of Nurbek’s post from the Kyrgyz-language NewEurasia.
It is true that bride kidnapping is a very problematic issue nowadays. I believe that bride kidnapping is the worst and unfair tradition of all that we have.
In most cases I heard of bride kidnapping from my friends. Sometimes it happens so that […]