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 appears as a multi-legged, turning animal of hooves, tails, heads and human fists, one rider handles to lift and hoist the carcass underneath his leg, dashing towards the objective with 2 groups of 7 horsemen chasing him from all sides – some to secure him, others to wardoff him, whatever the expense. The danger of damaged fingers and jaws is all too real.
This is not a motionpicture however a videogame of kokpar, a horseback sport recognized 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.
Held in the futuristic Kazakh capital of Astana, the 5th edition of the World Nomad Games is a event of the sport, culture and unity of the nomadic individuals of Asia’s Turkic countries.
The bi-annual occasion began 10 years ago in Cholpon Ata in Kyrgyzstan, with 30 nations gettinginvolved, after previous Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev recommended the videogames would be a great method to display the area’s culture in an age of busy globalisation.
“We are the descendants of sensible and brave wanderers who were able to protect their distinct identity and offered us the civilisation of the Great Steppe,” Kazakhstan President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev stated at the grand opening of the videogames on September 8. “Our typical task is to treasure this spiritual heritage and to pass it on to future generations.”
Tokayev likewise resolved the suffering in other parts of the world, particularly in Gaza, while stressing the videogames’ function in fortifying relationships amongst countries, much in the exactsame method as the justrecently concluded Olympics.
In the verysame method that France utilized the Olympics to display Paris and French culture to the world, so Kazakhstan utilized its veryfirst time hosting the World Nomad Games to display the origins of the Kazakh steppes, symbolising the serene affiliations of past nomadic empires below a standard nomadic yurt.
‘Three videogames of guys’
This year’s occasion, the veryfirst held in Kazakhstan, was potentially the biggest to date, including more than 2,000 professionalathletes from 89 nations varying from Angola to Argentina, Hungary to Sweden, and Turkmenistan to Zimbabwe.
They all came together to takepart in 21 conventional videogames that have their roots in the “three videogames of guys” (archery, fumbling and horse racing), which affirm to the abilities of the individuals who ruled the steppes of inner Asia for thousands of years, from Silk Road traders to