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(foreign music)
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As a reporter,
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I've traveled the Middle East for many years.
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It's an area that has always fascinated me
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but in my work, I've mainly covered its war zones,
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its crises, and its tragedies.
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This journey, which takes me down the Silk Road
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in the footsteps of Marco Polo,
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gives me the opportunity of exploring
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the great historical and cultural significance
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of this part of the world.
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Its ancient melting pots of peoples and civilizations
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that have contributed so much to our own.
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(foreign music)
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Majestic Kyrgyzstan a world of steppes and mountains.
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A land of nomads.
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A Turkic ethnic group
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whose name means Those Who Roam the Steppe.
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The Kyrgyz warrior and pastoral tribes
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arrived here in the late Middle Ages.
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They harnessed this bleak yet magnificent region.
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(gentle music)
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The sprawling city of Osh lies in the Fergana Valley,
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close to the border with Uzbekistan.
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It was a major stop for Silk Road caravans,
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and its bazaar still places a vital role.
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(foreign music)
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We've just crossed the Uzbek-Kyrgyz border,
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and on this side of the border,
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you really do feel as if you're on the edge of the world.
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Crossing the border was extremely complicated,
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with all sorts of formalities.
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We had to walk across with our bags.
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Everything was scrutinized and thoroughly searched.
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We weren't allowed to film anything, obviously.
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On this side, it's more anarchic.
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It doesn't seem so centralized.
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It's very appealing too,
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and has a bit of a wild west feel to it.
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(foreign music)
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(crowd speaking in foreign language)
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Here's proof that the Kyrgyz remain basically nomadic.
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These are their cradles.
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The special thing about them
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is that they can be taken apart,
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because the nomads are often on the move.
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And they have another distinctive feature, these cradles.
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They can be colored in velvet, like this.
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This is because the nomads are often outdoors,
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and their babies need to be protected
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from the sun and insects.
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The city of Osh lies at the crossroads
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of two Silk Road routes.
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There's the main route that heads east to China,
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and the route that dips south,
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climbs the mountainous region of the Pamir,
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crosses Afghanistan, and leads to India.
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In Osh, traders would rest, stock up,
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or sell their goods at the bazaar,
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which is still one of the largest in central Asia.
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(gentle chiming music)
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Some may have also prayed at Sulaiman-Too,
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or Solomon's Throne.
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The Kyrgyz believe King Solomon of the Bible is buried here.
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It's a sacred place for many of them,
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who come here to relieve back pain
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by sliding down this magical rock.
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A young student, Nurjamal Tokombaeva
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wants to show her city to the few tourists,
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mostly mountaineers and treckers,
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who venture as far as Osh.
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Are you really sure King Solomon of the Bible
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is buried here, or is it a local legend?
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There are several versions.
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Some people say King Solomon was really buried here.
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It's a fact.
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Until the 17th century
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the Kyrgyz were predominantly shamanic
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before converting to Islam.
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Are there still traces of shamanic rituals here?
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The only witnesses,
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the only evidence that remains are these caves.
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This spot is a place of pilgrimage and prayer.
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Praying to these stone statues
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is one of the vestiges of shamanism.
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What other myths and beliefs
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are associated with Sulaiman-Too Mountain?
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There are great many caves,
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including Mother Cradle Cave.
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People who can't conceive come here to make wishes.
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Another very strange myth,
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before these steps were built, if a woman managed
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to get to the top of the mountain unaided,
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she was regarded as a good wife.
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It's also said
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that the prophet Muhammad himself came here to pray.
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But there's no mention in the Quran
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that he came to Kyrgyzstan.
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It's regarded as a myth.
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There's no evidence to support it.
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Do you as a Kyrgyz feel closest to the Western world,
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the Turkic sphere, or to China?
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You're just 300 kilometers away, after all.
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In my view, each of these countries
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has contributed to Kyrgyzstan's development.
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Russian is still one of our country's official languages.
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As for China, there's intensive trade between us.
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And then Islam is another thing
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the Kyrgyz people and the Turks have in common.
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(upbeat acoustic music)
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Throughout the 19th century,
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the Russians and the British who came
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from the Indian empire to the south
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were locked in intense rivalry for control
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of this part of Central Asia.
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It gave rise to fierce competition
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with spies disguised as pilgrims and scientific researchers.
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And it was Rudyard Kipling of Jungle Book fame
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who called it "The Great Game",
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while the Russians referred to it as "Turnir Teney",
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or the Tournament of the Shadows.
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But as you can see here, the Russians won.
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(upbeat acoustic music)
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This statue of Lenin is one of the largest still standing
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in the former Soviet Union, even though the nomadic Kyrgyz
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suffered at the hands of the Soviets
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who tried to forcibly settle them.
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(upbeat acoustic music)
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(birds chirping)
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Kyrgyzstan's strategic position
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at the crossroads of Asia's different civilizations
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still gives rise to power struggles, due in large part
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to the resurgence of Islamic fundamentalism.
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(calm flute music)
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(water splashing)
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A vestige of Islam's introduction to the region,
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the Uzgen mausoleum complex
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at the far end of the Fergana Valley
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includes a 44 meter high brick minaret
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erected under the Kara-Khanid dynasty.
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Bizarrely, this Muslim monument
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is topped with a Buddhist symbol as if to illustrate
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how the Turkic and Mongol peoples of Central Asia
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have always been torn between the rising and setting suns.
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(calm flute music)
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Kyrgyzstan can definitely be described
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as the epicenter of the Silk Road.
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All the north-south and east-west routes
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of the old caravan road meet here.
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Known as the Switzerland of Central Asia
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these mountains cover 90% of the country.
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It's also the site of one of the most
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important battles in history: the Battle of Talas
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between the Arab and Chinese armies in 751 CE.
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(gentle music)
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Few battles have so influenced
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the linguistic, cultural, and religious map of the world.
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Talas marks the point
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where the Chinese stop their expansion to the west.
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(camera clicks)
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A buffer zone, isolated due to its high altitude
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and never-ending winters,
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Kyrgyzstan has a population of 5 million,
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and three times as many livestock
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in an area almost as big as Great Britain.
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(goats bleating)
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(gentle music)
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(distant shouting)
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In the summer months,
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many families head to the mountain pastures
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to live is nomads with their herds.
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The villages built by the Soviets in the valleys
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are all deserted from late April to October
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when the snow makes the Mountain trails impassable
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until the following spring.
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(upbeat music)
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Their ancestors conquered every empire
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and every great city of Asia
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among Genghis Khan's savage hordes.
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Many hordes then integrated,
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becoming Chinese or Iranian over time.
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Not the Kyrgyz though.
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They returned to the harshness of the steppe and mountains.
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(birds chirping)
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Given these landscapes, who could blame them
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for preferring their traditional yurts
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to the comfort of modern cities?
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Each family drives their herds to the clan's pastures.
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One such pasture lies on the shores of Lake Song Kul.
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This is the ancestral land of Issyk,
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one of the 40 great tribes
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of the Confederation of Kyrgyz nomads.
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It's so beautiful, it's a truly remarkable landscape.
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There's the steppe, but as well as that,
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it's the middle of summer
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and there's this melted snow all around us.
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We're 3,200 meters above sea level,
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the air is very very cool.
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There's an extraordinary sensation of freedom.
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There are no fences, no roads,
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no electricity pylons, no hassle.
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Hello!
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(soft foreign music)
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(speaking foreign language)
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How are you?
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Good, thanks.
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Alfred.
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Go in.
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I can go in?
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Okay then, let's go.
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Thank you.
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Hello.
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Shall I sit here?
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Oh, this is nice, being served tea like this.
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What a spread.
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The nomads are unbelievably hospitable.
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You turn up totally unannounced and within five minutes
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there's bread, jam, churned cream, and tea.
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Almaz, that's the boy's name.
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Hello, Almaz!
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He's a shy one, Almaz.
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Being knee high to a grasshopper,
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I bet he's more at ease on a horse than with strangers.
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This is the nomad's great delicacy, fermented mare's milk.
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Alright, I'm gonna try it.
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Come what may.
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William of Rubruck who was Louis IX's envoy
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to the Mongols in the 13th century
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said it had the same rough taste as a champagne
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and wasn't quite as good.
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There are two schools of thought.
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(speaking in foreign language)
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It's really really strong.
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It actually tastes like cheese.
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I think it's slightly alcoholic.
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There's alcohol in it.
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It's tasty.
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It's like vodka.
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Vodka?!
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Yeah, makes you slightly tipsy.
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Woohoo!
(laughter)
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(foreign music)
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Among the Kyrgyz, the yurts belong to the women.
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While the men are away
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in the alpine pastures with their herds,
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guiding caravans over the mountain passes, or at war,
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the wives manage the household.
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(horses whinny)
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The historian Herodotus described the yurt
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back in the 5th century BCE.
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Swathed in felt made of sheep's, goat's, or yak's wool,
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these yurts consist of a lattice of flexible wooden poles
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set up directly on the ground.
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They take 2 hours to put up.
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The whole family can sleep in them,
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huddled around the stove even when the temperature
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plummets to 40 degrees below zero.
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As you can see, there are no forests in these parts.
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So to make fires, to keep warm and cook,
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the Kyrgyz nomads use dried cow dung.
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It's here, drying.
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It explains the slightly fatty smell of the smoke,
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which isn't very pleasant.
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But, as it's very windy all's well.
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Legend has it, a Kyrgyz chief once gave 1,000 horses
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as a betrothal gift to a Chinese emperor
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00:13:01,060 --> 00:13:02,860
in exchange for his daughter's hand.
268
00:13:05,140 --> 00:13:07,670
So the princess, Liu Chujian left the refinements
269
00:13:07,670 --> 00:13:10,410
of court life in Beijing to marry the nomad chief
270
00:13:10,410 --> 00:13:12,023
and live in the alpine pastures.
271
00:13:13,330 --> 00:13:14,830
She's still famous in Kyrgyzstan
272
00:13:14,830 --> 00:13:16,563
for her poems, including this:
273
00:13:17,497 --> 00:13:19,110
"The round tent is my palace
274
00:13:19,110 --> 00:13:21,170
Its walls are made of felt
275
00:13:21,170 --> 00:13:22,980
Dried meat is my only food
276
00:13:22,980 --> 00:13:24,910
Kumis is my drink
277
00:13:24,910 --> 00:13:27,983
Endlessly I dream of my country and my heart is all bruised"
278
00:13:31,242 --> 00:13:33,909
(foreign music)
279
00:13:35,650 --> 00:13:39,113
The big deal on the shores of Lake Song Kul is Buzkashi.
280
00:13:40,490 --> 00:13:42,450
A dangerous and violent sport
281
00:13:42,450 --> 00:13:44,970
played by the by the steppe's finest horsemen.
282
00:13:44,970 --> 00:13:49,680
Buzkashi or Ulak Tartysh in Kyrgyz, literally goat grabbing,
283
00:13:49,680 --> 00:13:52,370
involves battling for the headless carcass of an animal,
284
00:13:52,370 --> 00:13:53,713
which serves as the ball.
285
00:14:00,271 --> 00:14:01,920
(distant shouts)
286
00:14:01,920 --> 00:14:03,570
In a display of skill and daring,
287
00:14:03,570 --> 00:14:05,950
the two teams of riders attempt to carry the carcass
288
00:14:05,950 --> 00:14:07,540
across the goal line.
289
00:14:07,540 --> 00:14:09,300
It's pretty much no holds barred.
290
00:14:09,300 --> 00:14:11,443
And very few games end without injury.
291
00:14:12,691 --> 00:14:16,048
(foreign music)
292
00:14:16,048 --> 00:14:19,381
(whistles and shouting)
293
00:14:22,430 --> 00:14:25,020
Along the Silk Road I've talked a lot about Marco Polo,
294
00:14:25,020 --> 00:14:28,110
Ibn Battuta, Nicola Bouvier, and Amin Maalouf.
295
00:14:28,110 --> 00:14:29,210
But when I see these guys
296
00:14:29,210 --> 00:14:31,660
racing across the vast steppe in a game of Buzkashi,
297
00:14:31,660 --> 00:14:34,930
I can't help but thinking of Joseph Kessel's The Horseman,
298
00:14:34,930 --> 00:14:37,590
a marvelous romantic book that has fired the imagination
299
00:14:37,590 --> 00:14:39,580
of generations of school kids.
300
00:14:39,580 --> 00:14:41,263
For me, it's a dream come true.
301
00:14:42,657 --> 00:14:46,590
(speaking in foreign language)
302
00:14:46,590 --> 00:14:49,460
Are we allowed to hit each other in the face with a nagaika?
303
00:14:49,460 --> 00:14:50,970
No, no, only with your horse.
304
00:14:50,970 --> 00:14:52,550
It's in the rules.
305
00:14:52,550 --> 00:14:54,450
Are you allowed to get your horse to bite another horse,
306
00:14:54,450 --> 00:14:56,650
or kick another horse, or ride it very hard?
307
00:14:58,290 --> 00:15:00,220
These horses are wild.
308
00:15:00,220 --> 00:15:01,910
You have to try to not get bitten.
309
00:15:01,910 --> 00:15:04,550
It pulls and then if you let go it can happen.
310
00:15:04,550 --> 00:15:05,793
They're wild after all.
311
00:15:07,000 --> 00:15:09,350
They don't understand our language.
312
00:15:09,350 --> 00:15:12,297
And are these incredibly tough, competent, brave horses
313
00:15:12,297 --> 00:15:15,520
Genghis Khan's horses or Silk Road horses?
314
00:15:15,520 --> 00:15:17,430
Or are they Kyrgyz horses?
315
00:15:17,430 --> 00:15:18,920
They're Kyrgyz horses.
316
00:15:18,920 --> 00:15:20,160
Kyrgyz thoroughbreds.
317
00:15:20,160 --> 00:15:21,990
These horses here can climb the mountains
318
00:15:21,990 --> 00:15:24,150
and scale the rocks like mountaineers.
319
00:15:24,150 --> 00:15:26,400
We're at 3,200 meters above sea level.
320
00:15:26,400 --> 00:15:28,070
The passes are at 4,000 meters.
321
00:15:28,070 --> 00:15:30,050
Yes. They're tough and strong.
322
00:15:30,050 --> 00:15:33,000
Is it more of a work horse, or a horse for sport?
323
00:15:33,000 --> 00:15:33,833
It's Universal.
324
00:15:33,833 --> 00:15:35,260
For horse races too.
325
00:15:35,260 --> 00:15:36,280
It can do everything!
326
00:15:36,280 --> 00:15:37,133
That's right.
327
00:15:39,204 --> 00:15:41,565
(excited yelling)
328
00:15:41,565 --> 00:15:44,232
(foreign music)
329
00:15:51,658 --> 00:15:54,991
(cheering and shouting)
330
00:15:56,287 --> 00:15:59,160
Aibek, where did Ulak Tartysh originate?
331
00:15:59,160 --> 00:16:02,190
Ulak Tartysh is the legacy of our forefathers.
332
00:16:02,190 --> 00:16:05,630
It's a game for real men, a dangerous game.
333
00:16:05,630 --> 00:16:07,910
You can fall, get injured, and so on.
334
00:16:07,910 --> 00:16:11,000
The jijit, the young men would play this game.
335
00:16:11,000 --> 00:16:12,700
They were future warriors.
336
00:16:12,700 --> 00:16:14,460
It was a way to train for war.
337
00:16:14,460 --> 00:16:15,470
How to ride a horse,
338
00:16:15,470 --> 00:16:17,400
how to pick things off the ground,
339
00:16:17,400 --> 00:16:19,663
wrest something from the enemy's hands.
340
00:16:21,284 --> 00:16:22,932
(foreign music)
341
00:16:22,932 --> 00:16:26,325
(cheering and clapping)
342
00:16:26,325 --> 00:16:30,620
(speaking in foreign language)
343
00:16:30,620 --> 00:16:32,170
Even though Buzkashi is no longer
344
00:16:32,170 --> 00:16:33,390
a way of training for war
345
00:16:33,390 --> 00:16:35,780
as it was in the days of Attila and Genghis Khan,
346
00:16:35,780 --> 00:16:37,343
it is by no means just a game.
347
00:16:38,410 --> 00:16:40,880
These ferocious matches actually enable the nomads
348
00:16:40,880 --> 00:16:43,110
to select the best horses among the winners
349
00:16:43,110 --> 00:16:45,280
to preserve the combativeness and agility
350
00:16:45,280 --> 00:16:47,130
of this breed, which does them proud.
351
00:16:48,097 --> 00:16:50,029
(birds chirping)
352
00:16:50,029 --> 00:16:53,362
(cheery acoustic music)
353
00:16:57,130 --> 00:16:59,090
It's impossible not to fall under the spell
354
00:16:59,090 --> 00:17:01,140
of this country and its people.
355
00:17:01,140 --> 00:17:03,220
These vast unspoiled spaces
356
00:17:03,220 --> 00:17:04,440
where there is a love of freedom,
357
00:17:04,440 --> 00:17:07,726
a taste for the simple life and the great outdoors.
358
00:17:07,726 --> 00:17:11,059
(cheery acoustic music)
359
00:17:14,030 --> 00:17:15,790
Although remote, the Kyrgyz Mountains
360
00:17:15,790 --> 00:17:17,540
are less isolated than in the past.
361
00:17:18,880 --> 00:17:21,260
Kyrgyzstan's peaks may seem timeless,
362
00:17:21,260 --> 00:17:22,910
yet time has caught up with them.
363
00:17:24,150 --> 00:17:25,910
Take this highway built by the Chinese
364
00:17:25,910 --> 00:17:27,860
to cross the country from east to west.
365
00:17:29,940 --> 00:17:30,910
It's part of China's
366
00:17:30,910 --> 00:17:33,600
massive multi-billion New Silk Road project,
367
00:17:33,600 --> 00:17:36,150
which aims to link Central Asia to the Caspian Sea.
368
00:17:38,484 --> 00:17:41,234
(birds chirping)
369
00:17:47,615 --> 00:17:50,650
(foreign music)
370
00:17:50,650 --> 00:17:53,620
A land of nomads and Yuits, Kyrgyzstan has little to offer
371
00:17:53,620 --> 00:17:55,343
in the way of historical remains.
372
00:17:56,630 --> 00:17:59,160
Isolated on the steppe, this unusual brick tower
373
00:17:59,160 --> 00:18:00,890
close to the capital, Bishkek,
374
00:18:00,890 --> 00:18:03,973
highlights Kyrgyzstan's place on the edge of two worlds.
375
00:18:06,850 --> 00:18:09,470
This tower dominates the ancient site of Burana,
376
00:18:09,470 --> 00:18:12,160
capital of the Kara-Khanid empire.
377
00:18:12,160 --> 00:18:14,420
It was built in the 11th century as a minaret.
378
00:18:14,420 --> 00:18:17,280
But around it are remains of earlier Buddhist temples
379
00:18:17,280 --> 00:18:19,223
and Nestorian Christian crosses.
380
00:18:20,450 --> 00:18:22,370
It's impossible not to think of the stone tower
381
00:18:22,370 --> 00:18:25,080
mentioned by the classical geographer Ptolemy
382
00:18:25,080 --> 00:18:26,581
where, according to legend,
383
00:18:26,581 --> 00:18:28,380
caravaneers from Persia and China
384
00:18:28,380 --> 00:18:30,203
met regularly to exchange goods.
385
00:18:32,450 --> 00:18:33,920
The minaret actually post dates
386
00:18:33,920 --> 00:18:37,040
the legendary stone tower by over 1,000 years.
387
00:18:37,040 --> 00:18:39,520
No one knows for sure where the tower stood.
388
00:18:39,520 --> 00:18:41,070
And several other sites claim the honor
389
00:18:41,070 --> 00:18:43,220
of being the vestige of the ancient border.
390
00:18:44,930 --> 00:18:46,990
But there's no doubt though, that Burana stands
391
00:18:46,990 --> 00:18:49,193
as testimony to Kyrgyz traditions.
392
00:18:50,170 --> 00:18:52,453
Thanks, in part to these funerary steles.
393
00:18:53,390 --> 00:18:55,390
There's something moving about these nomad figures,
394
00:18:55,390 --> 00:18:59,120
which even after death stand proudly facing the steppe.
395
00:18:59,120 --> 00:19:01,893
Their faces burned by the Sun and whipped by the wind.
396
00:19:03,220 --> 00:19:05,920
This is very interesting, a Bronze Age petroglyph
397
00:19:05,920 --> 00:19:08,840
dating from 800 to 500 BCE,
398
00:19:08,840 --> 00:19:10,980
which represents a totemic animal.
399
00:19:10,980 --> 00:19:14,720
It's a kind of big wild sheep with huge spiraling horns.
400
00:19:14,720 --> 00:19:17,000
This animal, which is endemic to Central Asia,
401
00:19:17,000 --> 00:19:19,100
was named after Marco Polo.
402
00:19:19,100 --> 00:19:21,443
So here's the celebrated Marco Polo.
403
00:19:23,180 --> 00:19:25,840
These old Stones erected on the steppe might see modest
404
00:19:25,840 --> 00:19:28,980
but they perfectly symbolize the Kyrgyz nomad's nature.
405
00:19:28,980 --> 00:19:30,943
Pure, serene, and unchanging.
406
00:19:41,090 --> 00:19:42,290
The Soviets may have built
407
00:19:42,290 --> 00:19:44,060
apartment blocks and kolkhozes here,
408
00:19:44,060 --> 00:19:47,030
just as the Chinese are building roads today,
409
00:19:47,030 --> 00:19:47,960
yet I get the impression
410
00:19:47,960 --> 00:19:51,157
it would take a whole lot more to dent Kyrgyzstan's soul.
411
00:19:51,157 --> 00:19:52,804
(gentle music)
412
00:19:52,804 --> 00:19:55,554
(birds chirping)
413
00:20:03,300 --> 00:20:05,210
The descendants of Genghis Khan's horde
414
00:20:05,210 --> 00:20:07,293
still possess a love the great outdoors.
415
00:20:08,500 --> 00:20:11,310
Like these retired Bishkek police officers
416
00:20:11,310 --> 00:20:13,130
who prefer to gather around yurts
417
00:20:13,130 --> 00:20:15,140
when it comes to celebrating the good old days
418
00:20:15,140 --> 00:20:17,743
with plenty of vodka and Russian songs.
419
00:20:17,743 --> 00:20:20,993
(lively foreign music)
420
00:20:38,374 --> 00:20:41,124
(thunder cracks)
421
00:20:44,900 --> 00:20:47,190
The most striking feature of this nomadic culture
422
00:20:47,190 --> 00:20:48,513
may be the storytellers.
423
00:20:49,530 --> 00:20:53,920
Known as Manaschis, they recite the monumental epic Manas,
424
00:20:53,920 --> 00:20:56,340
the national poem, whose half a million lines
425
00:20:56,340 --> 00:20:58,641
are passed down orally.
426
00:20:58,641 --> 00:21:02,474
(singing in foreign language)
427
00:21:07,730 --> 00:21:09,910
Something happened to me.
428
00:21:09,910 --> 00:21:12,480
I used to work as a legal expert.
429
00:21:12,480 --> 00:21:14,080
One day I saw spirits.
430
00:21:14,080 --> 00:21:15,870
First those of very large people,
431
00:21:15,870 --> 00:21:18,133
then characters from the Manas epic.
432
00:21:19,760 --> 00:21:23,410
Only after did I see the spirit of Manas in person.
433
00:21:23,410 --> 00:21:26,180
After that, I was very sick and a Healer came to see me
434
00:21:26,180 --> 00:21:29,310
because in his dream, Manas had commanded him
435
00:21:29,310 --> 00:21:32,270
to come find me and tell me I was predestined
436
00:21:32,270 --> 00:21:34,603
to recite the Manas.
437
00:21:34,603 --> 00:21:37,090
(singing in foreign language)
438
00:21:37,090 --> 00:21:38,380
How long did it take you to learn
439
00:21:38,380 --> 00:21:40,320
these thousands and thousands of lines?
440
00:21:40,320 --> 00:21:41,673
How did you go about it?
441
00:21:43,860 --> 00:21:46,993
I've been reciting the Manas for more than 10 years now.
442
00:21:48,040 --> 00:21:50,210
And even after so many years reciting it
443
00:21:50,210 --> 00:21:52,320
and knowing it in its entirety,
444
00:21:52,320 --> 00:21:54,310
I've never managed to recite the whole epic,
445
00:21:54,310 --> 00:21:56,453
simply because of the time it would take.
446
00:21:58,190 --> 00:21:59,573
I Know It off by heart.
447
00:22:02,170 --> 00:22:03,890
I had 5 or 6 difficult years
448
00:22:03,890 --> 00:22:06,669
trying to enter the world of the Manas.
449
00:22:06,669 --> 00:22:10,502
(singing in foreign language)
450
00:22:26,471 --> 00:22:28,080
When I started reciting the Manas
451
00:22:28,080 --> 00:22:30,940
for the first 30 minutes or even hour,
452
00:22:30,940 --> 00:22:33,610
I'm aware of what's going on around me.
453
00:22:33,610 --> 00:22:36,040
After that, you don't see anything anymore.
454
00:22:36,040 --> 00:22:39,010
You're totally immersed in Manas world.
455
00:22:39,010 --> 00:22:42,200
You're in Manas world, and you recite what's going on in it.
456
00:22:42,200 --> 00:22:43,210
In that world.
457
00:22:43,210 --> 00:22:46,533
It's something even we Manaschis cannot comprehend.
458
00:22:49,009 --> 00:22:53,623
(singing in foreign language)
459
00:22:53,623 --> 00:22:56,160
A healer and poet, Uyana Ismailov admits
460
00:22:56,160 --> 00:22:59,260
he's a defender of the old religion of the shamans.
461
00:22:59,260 --> 00:23:02,290
Although Islam prohibits it, he still prays to Tengri,
462
00:23:02,290 --> 00:23:03,940
the supreme spirit to whom
463
00:23:03,940 --> 00:23:05,843
his ancestors made incantations.
464
00:23:17,880 --> 00:23:20,700
To the north, the Tian Shan, or Celestial Mountains,
465
00:23:20,700 --> 00:23:23,740
rise to a height of 7,000 meters.
466
00:23:23,740 --> 00:23:26,310
To the south, the Pamirs the Hindu Kush
467
00:23:26,310 --> 00:23:28,400
climb to over 7,000 meters too,
468
00:23:28,400 --> 00:23:29,973
before joining the Himalayas.
469
00:23:30,970 --> 00:23:32,780
The caravaneers had to leave their horses
470
00:23:32,780 --> 00:23:34,500
and Bactrian camels to rent yaks,
471
00:23:34,500 --> 00:23:37,393
the only animal capable of tackling the eternal snow.
472
00:23:39,160 --> 00:23:41,870
Even in such conditions, the trails were only accessible
473
00:23:41,870 --> 00:23:44,250
for a few months each summer.
474
00:23:44,250 --> 00:23:46,353
When you climb the valleys toward eastern Kyrgyzstan
475
00:23:46,353 --> 00:23:49,120
and the Chinese border, you can see the roads
476
00:23:49,120 --> 00:23:50,820
are no more tarmacked than they were
477
00:23:50,820 --> 00:23:52,773
when Marco Polo crossed the Pamirs.
478
00:23:54,830 --> 00:23:57,390
Our Venetian adventurer admits he suffered quite badly
479
00:23:57,390 --> 00:24:00,361
from altitude sickness during the crossing to China.
480
00:24:00,361 --> 00:24:03,278
(calm piano music)
481
00:24:04,199 --> 00:24:06,532
(dog barks)
482
00:24:13,156 --> 00:24:16,400
(motorcycle revs)
483
00:24:16,400 --> 00:24:19,343
The last Kyrgyz stop on the Silk Road is Tash Rabat.
484
00:24:21,481 --> 00:24:24,064
(somber music)
485
00:24:28,910 --> 00:24:30,830
Tash Rabat means Stone Fortress.
486
00:24:30,830 --> 00:24:32,460
In this region where all the buildings
487
00:24:32,460 --> 00:24:34,200
are made of sun-dried bricks,
488
00:24:34,200 --> 00:24:35,910
it's the only one to have survived.
489
00:24:35,910 --> 00:24:37,330
Archaeologists believe it may have
490
00:24:37,330 --> 00:24:40,160
originally been a Nestorian Christian church.
491
00:24:40,160 --> 00:24:43,000
We're at an altitude of 3,100 meters above sea level,
492
00:24:43,000 --> 00:24:45,760
in the middle of the Celestial Mountains, the Tian Shan.
493
00:24:45,760 --> 00:24:48,363
China is just 85 kilometers away now.
494
00:24:52,600 --> 00:24:54,140
All the Caravans that travel between
495
00:24:54,140 --> 00:24:56,160
the cities of Samarkand in Uzbekistan
496
00:24:56,160 --> 00:24:59,160
and Kashgar in China went through this valley.
497
00:24:59,160 --> 00:25:01,090
Tash Rabat was a bustling depot,
498
00:25:01,090 --> 00:25:02,900
as well as a military stronghold
499
00:25:02,900 --> 00:25:05,190
with its dormitories for soldiers, its prisons,
500
00:25:05,190 --> 00:25:07,423
and its warehouses to last the winter.
501
00:25:12,270 --> 00:25:14,930
To me, few places seem so imbued with the presence
502
00:25:14,930 --> 00:25:17,543
of Marco Polo and his adventure companions.
503
00:25:20,850 --> 00:25:23,140
Nowadays the road to China skirts this mountain
504
00:25:23,140 --> 00:25:25,093
and the Tash Rabat trail is a dead end.
505
00:25:29,360 --> 00:25:32,500
So this Valley is one of the most isolated in the country.
506
00:25:32,500 --> 00:25:34,090
Only a few families and their herds
507
00:25:34,090 --> 00:25:37,853
brave the cold in these unspoiled, wide open spaces.
508
00:25:40,749 --> 00:25:43,416
(foreign music)
38344
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