The World Nomad Games sees itself as an alternative to the Olympics. The event also helps restore Kazakhstan’s nomadic identity.
Human-Animal Entanglement: Audaryspak is a wrestling competition on horseback. Photo: World Nomad Games
Like boxers entering the ring, the two riders enter a dusty outdoor stadium outside Astana. In the background, three full-size replicas of Soviet carrier rockets—Soyuz, Zenit and Proton—line the horizon on one side, while the four minarets of the massive State Mosque jut out on the other.
Ermek Kuralbay from Kazakhstan and Jensenbek Turdibekov from Kyrgyzstan are announced with a booming voice, both wearing red and blue velvet capes covering their strong upper bodies. The cheers clearly show who the Kazakh audience’s heart is beating for. Audaryspak is the name of the sport in which riders force their opponents to dismount and dismount. At the starting signal, the athletes take off their capes and immediately a ball of people and animals is formed.
Like many wrestling sports, Audaryspak is very technical and difficult to evaluate for the untrained eye. After 1 minute and 30 seconds, the referee, also on horseback, stopped the fight. Video evidence shows. In the end, it was a victory for Kuralbay and Kazakhstan, who, as usual, left the stadium with a gold medal on the first day of the 5th World Nomad Games tournament.
Surely there could be more picturesque locations for a nomadic festival in the world’s largest landlocked country, but here, in the future capital in the middle of the desolate Kazakh steppes, the organizers have probably found the perfect balance between tradition and tradition. The World Nomad Games has become a brand that draws solo travelers, travel bloggers, and international media to Central Asia.
The thin line between tradition and modernity
“The World Nomad Games were launched in 2014 to showcase Kyrgyzstan and its nomadic culture on the world stage. After two successful events in Kyrgyzstan and one in Turkey, Kazakhstan has now taken over the organization of the Games. Sports Minister Yermek Marzikpayev immediately announced that the Games would be elevated to “Olympic level.”
With sports like Kökpar, a type of polo in which two teams ride horses to place dummy goats in a goal circle, various equestrian and wrestling disciplines, and nomadic strategy and skill games, the World Nomad Games aims to be an alternative to the Olympics. As such, the top medalists are not wealthy industrialized nations, but Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan. But there are subtle differences between traditional nomadic sports and the professionalization of the games.
Apart from the competitions, there is little traditional atmosphere along the eight-lane highway outside Astana. Yurts and plastic tents rise high on the grassy plains of the ethnic village, which offers a cultural program of nomadic folklore, traditional costumes and music. Central Asian food is served in large pots, but the nomads here need not go without an iced latte. A major coffee franchise has shipped a portafilter machine to the yurt village.
“It’s only in recent years that the Kazakh elite has really returned to their nomadic identity,” says Ulan Bigozhin of Nazarbayev University in Astana. Under the previous president, the focus was more on the West and on looking as futuristic as possible, as was the case with the 2017 World Expo in the capital. “Now we see more traditional costumes, and equestrianism is playing a bigger role again,” explains Bigozhin. Especially in the current political climate, Kazakhstan borders China and Russia, has a large Russian-speaking minority, and nationalist symbolism plays a bigger role.
Nevertheless, the atmosphere of the individual competition is very fair. Athletes from “small” countries like the United States or Turkey cheer even if they do not have the chance to face the Central Asian champions. The stadium erupted in cheers when the president of the Turkish Equestrian Federation announced that the athletes would be given a horse for every point they scored in goat polo. The announcement is working, at least in the match against Hungary, where they have no chance. However, as in almost all sports, the fight for the gold medal is between Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.
