Astana, Kazakhstan — Clouds of dust increase from the sandy ground of a playing field as a lots horses assemble, their riders standing in their stirrups as they direct their installs towards an odd target: the headless and disembowelled carcass of a goat laying in the dust.
From what looks like a multi-legged, turning animal of hooves, tails, heads and human fists, one rider handles to raise and raise the carcass underneath his leg, rushing towards the objective with 2 groups of 7 horsemen chasing him from all sides– some to safeguard him, others to prevent him, whatever the expense. The threat of damaged fingers and jaws is all too genuine.
This is not a motion picture however a video game of kokpar, a horseback sport understood and played throughout Central Asia, and a thrilling climax to this year’s edition of the Fifth World Nomad Games that concluded on September 13.
Kept in the futuristic Kazakh capital of Astana, the 5th edition of the World Nomad Games is an event of the sport, culture and unity of the nomadic individuals of Asia’s Turkic countries.
The bi-annual occasion began 10 years earlier in Cholpon Ata in Kyrgyzstan, with 30 nations getting involved, after previous Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev recommended the video games would be a great way to display the area’s culture in an age of hectic globalisation.
“We are the descendants of sensible and brave wanderers who had the ability to maintain their special identity and provided us the civilisation of the Great Steppe,” Kazakhstan President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev stated at the grand opening of the video games on September 8. “Our typical responsibility is to value this spiritual heritage and to pass it on to future generations.”
Tokayev likewise resolved the suffering in other parts of the world, specifically in Gaza, while stressing the video games’ function in reinforcing relationships amongst countries, much in the very same method as the just recently concluded Olympics.
In the exact same method that France utilized the Olympics to display Paris and French culture to the world, so Kazakhstan utilized its very first time hosting the World Nomad Games to display the origins of the Kazakh steppes, symbolising the tranquil affiliations of previous nomadic empires below a conventional nomadic yurt.
‘Three video games of males’
This year’s occasion, the very first kept in Kazakhstan, was perhaps the biggest to date, including more than 2,000 professional athletes from 89 nations varying from Angola to Argentina, Hungary to Sweden, and Turkmenistan to Zimbabwe.
They all came together to take part in 21 conventional video games that have their roots in the “3 video games of guys” (archery, battling and horse racing), which affirm to the abilities of individuals who ruled the steppes of inner Asia for countless years, from Silk Road traders to the Golden Horde that preceded the 15th century Kazakh Khanate.
Kokpar, some of the most intriguing video games were audaryspak, a horseback fumbling competitors where a sportsperson should battle his challenger from his horse, and kusbegilik, a searching video game with birds of victim (magnificent golden eagles, falcons and hawks) whose flight speed is examined by releasing them on a lure or counting how long it takes the bird to reach a bait in its owner’s hand.
There were likewise a number of various designs of fumbling, such as the regional Qazak Quresi and Kurash, completely carried out in standing position, in addition to the Powerful Nomad Strongman Competition, that included weight lifting, javelin tossing difficulties and pulling a 200kg (440-pound) bullock cart by naked hand and muscle.
The video games likewise exceeded sport to consist of method such as Togyzkumalak, a parlor game in which a gamer wins by gathering the greatest variety of stones, and live efficiencies of aitys, Kazakh and Kyrgyz folk-orientated improvised music and poetry battles which entered into UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2015.
Kazakhstan won the video games with an overall of 112 medals, consisting of 43 golds, followed by Kyrgyzstan with 65 medals and Russia with 49, however there were lots of surprises.
Betty Vuk, an Italian female judo fighter and member of Italy’s Qazak Quresi Foundation, protected Italy’s only gold medal, and initially in the Nomad Games, in standard Kazakh fumbling.
Other winning countries consisted of Hungary– which won 8 medals, consisting of one gold, exceeding Turkey, India, China and Turkmenistan– and Romania, Poland, Moldova, France and Australia, highlighting the growing appeal of standard Central Asian video games and martial arts all over the world.
While the 2026 edition will go back to Kyrgyzstan, future video games might happen far beyond the steppe.
“Maybe in 2030 or 2032, it’ll be possible to host the World Nomad Games in North America due to the fact that we have commonalities there. […] Our location needs to broaden and end up being a world task with larger attention,” Kazakhstan’s vice-minister of Tourism and Sports, Zharasbayev Serik Maratovich informed the media. “We wish to popularise our video games and ask anybody to assist get the word out.”
Back on the kokpar field, the goat was made from rubber, however a dead animal is the standard in a sport that has a little various guidelines and names depending upon where it is played.
It was Kazakhstan that became the ultimate winners of the kokpar competition, taking home the gold ahead of Kyrgyzstan.