Life & Culture - The Times Of Central Asia

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Podcast

Pannier and Hillard’s Spotlight on Central Asia: New Episode Coming Sunday

As Managing Editor of The Times of Central Asia, I’m delighted that, in partnership with the Oxus Society for Central Asian Affairs, we are the home of the Spotlight on Central Asia podcast. Chaired by seasoned broadcasters Bruce Pannier of RFE/RL’s long-running Majlis podcast and Michael Hillard of The Red Line, each fortnightly instalment will take you on a deep dive into the latest news, developments, security issues, and social trends across an increasingly pivotal region. This week, the team looks at the role of clusters in Uzbekistan's farming sector, which is key to understanding what Mirziyoyev's comments about farmers receiving some $1 billion in profits from this year's cotton harvest really means. Special guest: Umida Niyazova, the director and founder of the Uzbek Forum for Human Rights.

Kazakhstan Tourism

Kazakhstan’s Charyn Canyon Ranks Among World’s Top 20 as Tourist Numbers Surge Fifteenfold

Charyn Canyon in southeastern Kazakhstan has ranked 17th in the Worldworthy 100: Canyons & Gorges 2026 international ranking. It was the only destination in Central Asia to make the list of 100 canyons and gorges across 46 countries. The Grand Canyon in the United States ranked fourth, while Letchworth Gorge in New York State took first place. Visitor numbers at Charyn Canyon have increased more than fifteenfold over the past five years, rising from 16,105 in 2020 to 249,928 in 2025. The number of visitors more than doubled from 117,793 in 2024. Charyn is located approximately 200 kilometers east of Almaty, Kazakhstan's largest city. The canyon stretches for 154 kilometers along the Charyn River. Its best-known section is the Valley of Castles, where reddish rock formations resemble fortress walls, towers, and palaces. Established in 2004, the national park covers approximately 127,000 hectares. In addition to the canyon, it protects an ancient grove of Sogdian ash trees in the Charyn River valley. The protected area is also home to gazelles and other rare wildlife. Charyn can be reached from Almaty in several hours by car. Visitors often combine a trip to the canyon with visits to the Kolsai Lakes and Lake Kaindy in the northern Tian Shan Mountains. Kaindy is known for its submerged spruce forest. An earthquake-triggered landslide blocked a mountain gorge, creating a lake that submerged the forest. The trunks of the trees still rise above the water. The growth in tourism has prompted restrictions. In 2019, authorities banned private vehicles from descending into the canyon. The park has since developed observation platforms, introduced visitor transportation services, and opened a visitor center. In 2025, work also began on widening the road at the main checkpoint to ease congestion. Other national parks in Kazakhstan, particularly those near major cities, are also struggling with excessive visitor numbers. Environmentalists have warned that heavy tourist traffic is damaging vegetation and contributing to litter and other environmental problems in protected areas, including Charyn. Worldworthy awarded Charyn a score of 9.48 out of 10. Its ranking draws on traveler reviews, travel guidebooks, and media coverage. The organization lists 5,441 visitor reviews and ratings for Charyn, although the final ranking is an editorial assessment rather than a public vote. Kazakhstan is developing tourism infrastructure in its mountain regions, around its lakes, and along the Caspian Sea coast as it seeks to attract more international visitors. The Times of Central Asia previously reported on the country's plans to expand its tourism destinations and the challenges holding back the sector's development.

Central Asian Music

Meirambek Besbayev and the Dombra: Music That Connects Generations

As a teenager, Meirambek Besbayev became famous across Kazakhstan with Boztorgai (The Lark), a song about an orphan searching for his mother. He sang it on all three days of a national competition in 1991, and it became his signature piece. Besbayev turned 50 on November 7, 2026, and marked the occasion with a concert tour across Kazakhstan. He gave two concerts at the Palace of the Republic in Almaty on November 6. The Gaissin Orchestra and his mentor, composer Altynbek Korazbayev, joined him onstage. Today, Besbayev is one of the most recognizable figures in Kazakh popular music, with a repertoire spanning folk songs, traditional musical poetry, and contemporary compositions. From Childhood Talent to National Fame Born in 1976 in the Zhambyl region of southern Kazakhstan, Besbayev was ten when Korazbayev first heard him sing. In the summer of 1987, he performed at the Balasagun Palace of Culture in what is now Taraz, during a poetry competition honoring the Kazakh poets Zhambyl Zhabayev and Kenen Azerbayev. He sang Sagyndym Kenen Atamdy (I Miss Grandfather Kenen). Korazbayev was one of the judges and sent for him afterward, Besbayev later recalled. Abdirakhman Asylbekov wrote the lyrics to Boztorgai, and Korazbayev composed the music. In 1989, the song was written down as Kara Bala (literally, The Black Boy). Korazbayev later named it for the lark in the song. Besbayev continued his musical education in Almaty at the music boarding school named for Kulyash Baiseitova. He later earned an acting diploma at the Kazakh State Institute of Theater and Cinema, a predecessor of the Temirbek Zhurgenov Kazakh National Academy of Arts. His theatrical training is evident in his singing, particularly in the way he uses pauses to bring out the meaning of the lyrics. He favors a natural vocal sound over elaborate ornamentation. The Dombra and the Art of Kazakh Singing The dombra is a traditional Kazakh instrument with a long neck and two plucked strings. For centuries, musicians have used it to accompany songs and poetry. They also play kuis, instrumental compositions that can tell a story, evoke a mood, or recall a historical event without words. Two of the most prominent dombra composers are Kurmangazy Sagyrbayuly and Dauletkerey Shygayuly. Kurmangazy’s Saryarka, named for the uplands of central Kazakhstan, and Adai, named for a Kazakh clan, are among the best-known works in the national repertoire. In 2014, UNESCO inscribed the Kazakh traditional art of dombra kuy on its Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. Musicians pass the pieces from teacher to pupil and within families, along with the stories associated with them. Although Besbayev is best known as a pop singer, his concerts also draw on two forms of Kazakh musical poetry, terme and tolgau. In terme, the performer sings instructive or philosophical verses rhythmically, usually to the accompaniment of the dombra. Tolgau is a freer poetic form that reflects on human destiny, society, and historical events. Both call for a strong command of language and the ability to bring...

Kyrgyz Art

Bishkek’s Vanishing Spaces Through the Eyes of Artist Sonata Raiymkulova

On Abdymomunov Street in Bishkek, a café serves Qurt Mocha, a drink based on coffee, hot chocolate, and qurt, the local extra-salty Kyrgyz cheese. It’s easy to get addicted to it, and the presentation is aesthetic enough to make a captivating Instagram story. Perhaps it’s still a long way before this will become the next matcha latte, coveted by ‘it girls’ around the world, but certainly not for lack of trying on my part. “I always wanted to try this coffee shop,” artist Sonata Raiymkulova tells me. Elegant and slightly coy, she is certainly an ‘it girl’ of the Central Asian art world herself, “… but I’ll take some green tea instead,” she concludes. While I start feeling like an easily gulled tourist, she sits across from me in the Kölökö coffee shop, lightly tapping on her iPad and showing me her virtual portfolio. The coffee shop has a beautiful garden, with dim lights and a serene nightly atmosphere. I can’t help but notice how this contrasts with the air, which is so heavy with smog that it’s hardly breathable. Like the livability of Kyrgyz cities, issues such as pollution are precisely what Sonata, a former architect with a passion for urbanism, tackles in her work. Her drawings, installations, and performances don’t necessarily look Kyrgyz, or at least not like what foreigners would expect Central Asian art to look like. Not so much qurt in them, so to speak. Rather than attaching herself to some recognizable traditional elements, Sonata tackles the present of her city, Bishkek, where she was born and raised, and where, after her architectural studies, she took up contemporary art. Her Dō – I use the Japanese term as her father steeped her and her brother in Japanese traditions - is collaborative and a little unorthodox. In 2016, she joined Estelik (also known as “monument of memory”), a Bishkek project in which artists, artisans and participants swapped brand-new stools for old, colorful ones and piled their haul into an impromptu massive monument. In 2021, she was one of more than 40 artists from the five Central Asian countries involved in Art Plov CA, a British Council-supported project run from Tashkent. Her studies also took her to Moscow to the HSE Design School, where she graduated. In 2023, she won a Prince Claus Fund Seed Award, one of 100 awarded that year across more than 60 countries. She later told her university she had known about the prize for years but had been too scared to apply, and that winning mostly meant doubting herself less. In February 2024, she had a solo show at DREIVIERTEL in Bern, in collaboration with the Residency.ch programme. She has also had shows in Karlsruhe, Milan, Almaty, and Moscow. This summer she was back in Almaty with Bishkek Gothic, a series made with her brother Marat Raiymkulov for Efes Art Space’s Sayran city route. Raiymkulova's work moves between the personal and the political, exploring the human body as well as Bishkek's changing urban...

Adoption

A Social Media Like Helps Reunite Kazakh Adoptee with His Birth Family

When Rustam Masimov joined a video call with his uncle in Almaty, he was reconnecting with a family he had left behind as a young child. Adopted in 2010 and raised in Europe, the 21-year-old had been searching for his relatives in Kazakhstan. “Hello, my dear nephew!” were Alimzhan’s first words. The reunion followed a search that gained momentum through a single social media like. It helped confirm the identity of Rustam’s uncle, whose old online profile eventually led to a working phone number. [caption id="attachment_60353" align="aligncenter" width="1200"] Screenshot of the video call between Rustam and Alimzhan[/caption] The Search Begins Rustam’s adoptive mother, Hildie, had been trying to help him learn more about his origins. She and her husband also adopted a daughter from China, and supported Rustam’s efforts to find his birth family. I took up the case after finding it on Facebook, working independently and pro bono. The search drew on family background material, information from official records, and relatives’ recollections. According to background material supplied for the search, Rustam was born on January 23, 2005, at Hospital No. 4 in Almaty. On April 4, 2008, the police rescued him from an apartment on Chernyshevsky Street after he was left without parental care. He was subsequently placed in Children’s Home No. 2 and later the Zhanuya center. His mother, Zarina Masimova, had also spent part of her childhood in an orphanage. The material describes her struggles with addiction and the termination of her parental rights. Rustam was adopted in 2010. Zarina died in Karaganda in January 2011. The information also named his father, Eskeldy, and several maternal relatives, including an aunt named Natasha and an uncle, Alimzhan. These names provided starting points. [caption id="attachment_60355" align="aligncenter" width="1200"] Zarina Masimova with her young son, Rustam.[/caption] A Digital Clue One obstacle was the surname. Searches for Masimov repeatedly brought up news stories about Kazakhstan’s former prime minister, making it harder to find the family among the results. After reviewing numerous profiles on social networks, I found a long-inactive Odnoklassniki account in Alimzhan’s name. A like left by a woman named Natasha helped confirm that it belonged to Rustam’s uncle. Alimzhan had not logged into the account for more than five years, but cross-referencing the profile with regional databases eventually revealed his current phone number. The first call brought an unexpected discovery. Alimzhan said the family had believed Rustam was adopted by U.S. citizens in 2010. He had not known that his nephew was growing up in Europe. When he learned that Rustam was looking for his relatives, he welcomed the chance to reconnect. Meeting by Video I helped facilitate a video call and translated the conversation, with Rustam and Hildie joining from Europe, while Alimzhan spoke from Almaty. Alimzhan described his childhood with Zarina and their time in the orphanage. He recalled receiving a call in January 2011 informing him that his sister had died from tuberculosis. He said he never learned where she was buried. The conversation also brought a...

Sports

Kazakh Race Walker Stripped of Asian Games Gold Over Shoes Receives State Award

Kazakh race walker Yasmina Toxanbayeva, who was stripped of an Asian Games gold medal in September because her shoes did not meet competition regulations, has received a state award. On November 9, Kazakhstan's President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev awarded her the Eren Enbegi Ushin Medal (For Distinguished Labor). On September 27, at the Asian Games in Aichi and Nagoya, Japan, Toxanbayeva completed the 42.195-kilometer race in 3 hours, 22 minutes, and 20 seconds, finishing almost four minutes ahead of her nearest rival. However, after the finish, officials determined that her shoes were not on the list of models approved for competition by the international governing body, World Athletics. The Kazakh athlete was subsequently disqualified, and the gold medal went to China's Danzengquzong. The Kazakhstan Athletics Federation challenged the decision, arguing that Toxanbayeva's shoes had been inspected before the start and that she had been cleared to compete. The federation also promised to pay her the prize money for winning, regardless of the outcome of the dispute. Despite her disqualification, Toxanbayeva was among the athletes recognized with state honors for their performances at the 20th Asian Games and the fifth Asian Para Games. The decree lists Toxanbayeva as a participant rather than a medal winner. Twelve other Kazakh athletes received the Eren Enbegi Ushin Medal. Five Asian Games champions were awarded the Kurmet Order, including cyclist Alexey Lutsenko, who became Kazakhstan's first six-time Asian Games champion. Karateka Sofya Berultseva, who won gold in Japan, received the Parasat Order. Kazakhstan finished the 2026 Asian Games with 84 medals: 12 gold, 24 silver, and 48 bronze. The national team placed eighth in the medal standings, climbing three positions from the previous Games in Hangzhou, where Kazakh athletes won 80 medals, including ten golds.