Kyrgyzstan Life & Culture - The Times Of Central Asia

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Women's Rights

8 March Women’s Rights Rally Takes Place in Bishkek

A rally in support of women’s rights took place in Bishkek's Maxim Gorky Square on March 8, International Women’s Day. More than a hundred people gathered at the square, including activists, public figures, and city residents who came to support the initiative. The rally has become one of the traditional events held in the capital of Kyrgyzstan on 8 March. For about ten years, marches and public gatherings dedicated to equal rights and women’s safety have been organized in Bishkek on this day. In previous years, participants more often held marches through the city center. However, this time the authorities allowed the event only in the format of a peaceful rally in the park. Initially, the organizers planned a march, but the gathering ultimately took place in Gorky Square. [caption id="attachment_45112" align="aligncenter" width="225"] @TCA[/caption] The rally began during the day and lasted for about an hour. Police officers monitored public order during the event. Participants gathered in small groups, held posters and banners, and discussed issues related to women’s rights and gender equality. Among those present at the rally were Member of Parliament Elvira Surabaldieva, former ombudsman Atyr Abdrakhmatova, as well as human rights defenders, content creators, and public activists. Representatives of various civic initiatives and activists who regularly take part in similar events in Bishkek were also present. Many participants brought posters addressing themes of equal rights and women’s safety. The signs included slogans against domestic violence and calls to protect women’s rights. Posters traditionally serve as the main visual element of such events, helping participants draw attention to issues of gender inequality and the need to address cases of violence. [caption id="attachment_45113" align="aligncenter" width="225"] @TCA[/caption] Rallies dedicated to women’s rights are held in Bishkek every year on March 8. They usually bring together activists and residents who want to remind the public that International Women’s Day is connected not only with celebrations but also with the historical struggle for equal rights. Despite changes in format over the years, such events remain among the most visible civic initiatives in the capital of Kyrgyzstan focused on gender equality and women’s rights.

Tourism

Kyrgyzstan Advances Construction of Ala-Too All-Season Ski Cluster

On February 25, Kyrgyzstan’s Ala-Too Resort OJSC and the Austrian company Doppelmayr, a global leader in cable car construction, signed a contract for the installation of four additional cable-car lines at the Jyrgalan resort. The site represents the first phase of the Ala-Too Resort project, a flagship state investment initiative to develop an all-season mountain ski cluster in the Issyk-Kul region, east of Lake Issyk-Kul. Construction of the Ala-Too Resort cluster, which will combine three resorts, Jyrgalan, Ak-Bulak, and Boz-Uchuk, began in August 2025. The new agreement follows a contract signed last year under which Doppelmayr is currently building two cable-car lines at Jyrgalan. Their commissioning is scheduled for May 2026. The four additional cable-car lines are expected to be completed by the end of this year, with the official opening of Jyrgalan planned for December. Once operational, the total length of cable-car lines at the resort will exceed 8 kilometers, while ski trails will extend to 46 kilometers. Doppelmayr has also completed a 1-kilometer cable-car line in the Ala-Archa State Nature Park, located about 30 kilometers from the capital, Bishkek. Officially opened on February 18, it became Kyrgyzstan’s first gondola lift. According to the Ministry of Economy and Commerce, the Ala-Too Resort project will be implemented in stages through 2038, with total investments estimated at approximately €1.2 billion. The cluster aims to attract up to 4 million tourists annually. The total area of the mountain cluster will cover 3,916 hectares, with ski slopes extending to 260 kilometers. Project developers state that this would place Ala-Too Resort among the world’s top ten resorts by total trail length and make it the largest ski destination in Central Asia. The development plan includes the construction of private villas and three- to five-star hotels, as well as a panoramic restaurant, conference facilities, a medical center, a stadium, an amphitheatre, and recreational parks. Infrastructure works are currently underway, including the construction of power transmission lines, drinking water systems, and wastewater treatment facilities. Reconstruction of the road linking Jyrgalan with Karakol, the administrative center of the Issyk-Kul region, has also begun. The Ala-Too Resort project is expected to provide a significant boost to Kyrgyzstan’s tourism sector, positioning the country as a major destination for mountain skiing in Central Asia.

History

An Early European View of Nomadic Central Asia

During a period when Central Asia remained largely unknown to European audiences, Among Kirghiz and Turkimans offered Western readers a rare first-hand account of the vast steppe and desert regions. The book was written in the late nineteenth century by Richard Karutz, a German traveler whose work belongs to the broader tradition of European exploratory travel literature. I first encountered this book while studying in the United States and later incorporated it into my research. A copy preserved in the library of the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., was published in Leipzig in 1911. Since then, it has been regarded as one of the more noteworthy works in early European writing on Central Asia. Who Was Richard Karutz? Richard Karutz was a late nineteenth-century German traveler and writer who journeyed through parts of the Russian Empire’s Central Asian territories. Though not widely known today compared to some British or Russian explorers, Karutz represents a generation of European intellectuals fascinated by the perceived “frontier zones” of empire, regions seen as remote, exotic, and culturally distinct. [caption id="attachment_44400" align="aligncenter" width="312"] Richard Karutz[/caption] He was neither a colonial administrator nor a military officer; rather, he traveled as an independent observer. His writings reflect the curiosity of an educated European shaped by the intellectual currents of his era, including Orientalism and the growing interest in ethnography. Like many travelers of his time, Karutz sought to document ways of life he believed were on the verge of transformation under imperial modernization. Across the Steppe and Desert In Among Kirghiz and Turkimans, Karutz traveled among communities then commonly referred to in Russian and European sources as “Kirghiz”, a historical term often applied to Kazakhs, as well as Turkmen tribes. His route took him across vast grasslands, caravan routes, and oasis settlements shaped by pastoral migration, tribal organization, and Islamic traditions. Rather than producing an official report or military survey, Karutz wrote in a personal and descriptive style typical of travel literature. His narrative often reads as impressionistic reflection rather than systematic analysis. He documents everyday life, including nomadic encampments and felt yurts, equestrian culture and elaborate codes of hospitality, tribal leadership and clan loyalty, as well as desert trade routes and caravan movement. Mangyshlak, a peninsula on the eastern coast of the Caspian Sea in present-day Kazakhstan, features prominently in his descriptions. Significant mineral deposits were later discovered there, leading to its designation as a “peninsula of treasures.” Mangyshlak is characterized by stark desert landscapes and was once described as a barren land consisting largely of sand and stone. In the Middle Ages, it served as a gateway for trade between East and West. The region also played a role in the early history of Turkmen communities. Karutz’s writing attempts to capture both the hardship and the quiet grandeur of steppe existence. Depicting Nomadic Society A central strength of the book lies in its attention to social organization. Karutz was particularly struck by the mobility of Kazakh life, seasonal migrations, a livestock-based economy, and...

Mountaineering

Reporter Christopher Wren, Member of 1974 Team That Found Climbers´ Bodies on Lenin Peak, Has Died

Christopher S. Wren, a journalist for The New York Times who was part of a 1974 American expedition that discovered the bodies of seven Soviet women climbers on Lenin Peak, on today’s border between Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, has died at the age of 89. Wren died at home in Vermont on February 15, the newspaper reported, quoting his daughter Celia Wren. The journalist reported extensively from the Soviet Union and China during the Cold War, as well as other regions, and his report on the discovery of what he called “one of the worst tragedies in modern mountaineering” was among his most dramatic dispatches. Wren, an experienced mountaineer, was with a team that found the bodies of the all-female Soviet group on Lenin Peak, a 7,134-meter mountain in what was then part of the Soviet Union. Many international climbers had gathered there that year at a time when the Cold War dominated global politics. The body of an eighth Soviet climber was found after Wren and his teammates left the site. “The Soviet press did not report the deaths of the country’s best women climbers until after I had returned to Moscow and revealed the disaster in The New York Times,” Wren wrote in his 1990 book The End of the Line: The Failure of Communism in the Soviet Union and China. Usually accessed from the Kyrgyz side, Lenin Peak is not the highest mountain in Kyrgyzstan, nor is it considered the most technically difficult. Russian climber Natalia Nagovitsina and an Italian friend, Luca Sinigaglia, died last year on Pobeda Peak, the country’s highest mountain at 7,439 meters above sea level. Kyrgyzstan’s Mountaineering and Sport Climbing Federation says Lenin Peak is popular among “beginner climbers.” The peak, the federation says, “is one of the most accessible 7000s in the world for climbing, one of the five world peaks in terms of popularity, and its base camp - Achyk-Tash - is the most convenient in terms of infrastructure accessibility among peaks of this height.” Infrastructure and communications at the mountain were more basic half a century ago, and the perils of high altitude, the cold, winds and storms are significant. In 1974, Russian expedition leader Elvira Shatayeva and her party got into trouble in a storm as they descended from the summit. In radio calls, she told base camp that they were dying and, according to Wren’s book, her last words were: “Please forgive us. We love you. Goodbye.” Heading toward the summit after the storm cleared, Wren and his group found the bodies of the stranded Soviet women. “A body is stretched on the snow before us. With a chill of recognition, I know it is Elvira Shatayeva, the women's team leader with whom I sat and talked one evening several weeks earlier,” Wren wrote in a 1974 article. The Soviet media blamed the storm for the disaster. But Wren said he wondered if more transparency and communication among climbing teams at Lenin Peak, despite heightened tension and rivalry between...

Politics of Language

The Language Nobody Wants to Speak About: Russian’s Uneasy Place in Central Asia’s Cultural Conversation

Rhetoric in segments of the Russian media has sharpened debates over sovereignty and influence across Central Asia, pushing these concerns beyond policy circles and into everyday conversations. The region is reassessing not only pipelines and alliances, but language itself. In politics, this shift is visible and symbolic. In culture, it is more difficult to discern. The Russian language still shapes how Central Asian art is funded, circulated, and institutionally processed, even as institutions distance themselves from Moscow’s influence. This contradiction sits at the heart of contemporary cultural life in the region. Artists produce work rooted in Kazakh, Uzbek, Kyrgyz, Tajik, or Turkmen histories. They title exhibitions in local languages. They speak passionately about decolonial futures and cultural sovereignty. But when the catalogue is written, the grant application submitted, or the curatorial text sent abroad, the language quietly shifts. First to Russian, sometimes to English, and only occasionally does it remain in the local language. This is not nostalgia, but a structural inheritance. Russian remains the shared professional language of much of the urban cultural sector. Edward Lemon, President of the Oxus Society for Central Asian Affairs, argues that the language’s endurance reflects both ideology and pragmatism. “While local languages have become much more widespread as the Central Asian republics have strengthened their nationhood and as there has been an increase in anti-Russian sentiments since the invasion of Ukraine, Russian language use remains widespread,” Lemon told TCA. “Despite the ideological imperative to reduce reliance on Russian, there are some pragmatic reasons why it remains prominent. High levels of migration to Russia, particularly from Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Kazakhstan, mean that a basic competence in the language is essential to survival for many Central Asians. Russian remains a language of interethnic communication, particularly in Kazakhstan, where ethnic Russians, for the most part, are reluctant to speak Kazakh. While English has become more widespread and some of the Central Asian languages are mutually intelligible, Russian retains a status as a diplomatic, business, and civil society language for those working in multiple countries. Russia also remains a language of education. Over 200,000 Central Asians study in Russia, by far the largest destination in the world. Russian-language schools remain prominent at every level in Central Asia, from kindergarten to graduate schools. In short, while the usage of Russian is in slow decline, its position is relatively entrenched.” For cultural institutions, this reality means that distancing from Moscow politically does not automatically sever the linguistic infrastructure through which grants are written, exhibitions travel, and contracts are signed. Naima Morelli, an arts writer focused on contemporary art across Asia-Pacific and the Middle East, argues that the issue is less about elimination than coexistence. “For me, it makes sense that Russian continues to function as a practical operating language across Central Asia’s cultural infrastructure, as an inherited connective tissue of sorts. In the hypothesis of getting rid of it, the most obvious alternative for a shared language for exchanges across countries in Central Asia is English, which the global...

Driver's Licenses

Kyrgyzstan to Introduce One-Year Temporary Licenses for New Drivers

Kyrgyzstan plans to introduce a one-year temporary driver’s license for driving school graduates in an effort to ensure that new motorists develop sustainable skills for safe and responsible behavior on the road, according to a draft resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Kyrgyzstan currently undergoing public discussion. The training period at driving schools in Kyrgyzstan has recently been extended from 2.5 months to 10 months. Under the proposed resolution, students demonstrating excellent academic performance would be eligible to take exams after four months of training and receive a temporary driver’s license valid for one year and restricted to use within the country. According to the draft’s explanatory note, a temporary license would allow new drivers to assess their practical skills under real road conditions. If, during the one-year period, they do not commit serious traffic violations or cause traffic accidents, they would be issued a permanent driver’s license. If a driver holding a temporary license commits serious traffic violations or is found responsible for an accident within one year, the temporary license would be annulled, and the driver would be required to return to driving school to complete the remaining six months of the standard training program. The initiative is intended to improve discipline among new drivers and help reduce road accidents. The proposed measure is part of a broader set of reforms aimed at strengthening driver education and lowering accident rates. In a related move, Kyrgyz authorities have suspended all private driving schools until August 30, 2026. During this period, driver training will be limited to state-run institutions. The length of training has also been extended from 2.5 months to 10 months. Officials say the reforms are designed to eliminate corruption and ensure that drivers are properly prepared before receiving licenses. Additionally, Kyrgyzstan has introduced stricter traffic enforcement measures aimed at curbing repeat violations and improving road safety. Under the new rules, drivers who commit three serious traffic violations within a 12-month period are required to retake the traffic rules examination. The reform follows concerning national road safety data. In 2025 alone, Kyrgyzstan recorded 8,456 traffic accidents, resulting in 900 deaths and 12,169 injuries. Over the past decade, more than 75,000 accidents have claimed over 9,000 lives.