A new triumph for Central Asia’s Nomads

September 28

According to tradition, the first week of September is when the nomadic peoples of Central Asia’s great steppes pack up and move from their summer to their winter pastures. In honour and respect of this century-old nomadic habit, from September 8 to 13, the steppes surrounding Kazakhstan’s futuristic capital, Astana, held the fifth edition of the World Nomad Games.

If you have no idea what I am talking about, imagine the Olympics, but substitute all the traditional sports you are used to expecting with unknown and yet very ancient disciplines that stem from what Genghis Khan’s Mongols defined as the “three games of men”: archery, wrestling and horse racing — with plenty of crossover and no mutual exclusion.

Now, think of seeing this all in the Ethno-aul village, 10ha of dedicated event space decked out as a nomadic encampment strewn with stages, dozens of round gers (traditional felt nomadic tents), and many proud people strutting around in their beautiful traditional Kazakh clothes, some carrying golden eagles and falcons on their arms, others pulling regal (and very endangered) Kazakh Tazy hunting dogs by the leash.

This makeshift nomadic encampment in the Kazakh steppe to the south of Astana boasted an atmosphere halfway Lord Of The Rings, halfway Olympic challenge. For the first time in the game’s history — started in 2014 to promote the regional nomadic cultures and defy globalisation, the World Nomad Games had three editions in Cholpon Ata, Kyrgyzstan, and one in 2022 in Iznik, Turkey — the event hosted over 2000 athletes from 89 different countries around the world, from Asia to Europe, Africa to Latin America, who came to “battle it out” — for no better term — to the last medal. Some international wins, too: Italy’s Betty Vuk won one gold in the autochthonous Qazaq kuresi making the Kazakhs proud someone from so far away could master their martial art heritage.

Among the 21 different games, the highlights were audaryspak, a quirky and exciting form of horseback wrestling in which contestants must fight and pull their opponents off their mounts, and kusbegilik — the waning art of establishing a bond between a master and his birds of prey. I saw the performances of majestic golden eagles, falcons, and hawks, whose flight speed and reaction to the owner’s command to get the bait from his hand were assessed by the jury.

Beyond the Ethno-haul and the adjacent Kazanat Hippodrome, Astana’s sports palaces held competitions in several different wrestling styles, including the local Qazaq kuresi and Kurash, where fighters perform in standing position with no fighting on the ground allowed. Back at the Ethno-haul, the crowds cheered the Powerful Nomad Strongman Competition, a nomadic Iron Man challenge for the over 90kg weight category. It included tests of weight lifting, javelin throw, and, most entertaining, the towing of a 200kg trolley through the sandy arena. Very few current-day nomads managed to pull the thing as a couple of good ol’ oxen would do, but the one big man who managed to get past 10m before giving up the ghost received a long, loud, crashing standing ovation.

Horsemen battle it out during a wild game of kokpar. Credit: Kit Yeng Chan/The West Australian

Of course, one of the most exciting games was kokpar. This wild horseback sport is best described in English as “a game of horse rugby with a dead goat” — for the international occasion (and possibly to avoid the cries of the most politically correct foreign spectators) the “carcass” used at the Fifth World Nomad Games was a fake rubber model. But a dead animal is normal in this discipline played across most Central Asian nations with slightly different variations and other names like kok boru, ulak tartysh and buzkashi — the latter being Afghanistan’s much-loved national sport, currently allowed even by the Taliban rulers.

In a week of games, host nation Kazakhstan won 112 medals, including 43 golds and the much-coveted kokpar medal, which they snuggled over their friendly southern neighbour and former Nomad Games host, Kyrgyzstan, which won instead in the similar horseback polo competition of kok boru. It was announced that the landlocked nation is also expected to continue carrying the nomadic torch as the next host nation of the Nomad Games 2026 edition.

“We thought of expanding the locations of the games to other nations like Azerbaijan,” said Zharasbayev Serik Maratovich, the Vice-Minister of Tourism and Sports of the Republic of Kazakhstan, in a media conference on September 11. Kazakhstan’s tourism plans are to reach even farther afield; Maratovich explained how, after ten years, the World Nomad Games are one of the region’s diamond heads in terms of tourism, but there’s promise of new, faster electric trains on their extensive, and huge, railway network, an increase of direct flight routes from western hubs, and the introduction of a “nomadic food heritage” as a new strand in the country’s already ripe tourism offer.

“Maybe [for the] 2030 or 2032 [editions], it’ll be possible to host the World Nomad Games in North America because we have common ground there,” said Maratovich. “Our geography should be expanded and become a worldwide project with greater attention. We want to popularise our games, and ask anyone, yourself included, to help spread the word.”