Everything you should know about a YURT!

[kasymov]

Let’s start with a small definition of what is a yurt and for how long it has been in Central Asia! Basically, it is a cylindrical dwelling capped with a conic roof as listed in the picture above and it exists for thousands of years. It is believed that Genghis Khan popularized them while fighting along with his horde along Asia.

Yurts are very popular even now, they are popular in Central Asia because they are having several huge advantages- portability, durability and they are extremely cheap or even free (they are made out of skins or felt).  Outside Asia they also became popular, and there even is an yurt camping in Canada and 17 more in USA, but of course, they are far from the genuine experience that can be lived in one in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan or even Turkmenistan, where you can find the biggest one in the world!

Silkroadexplore.com offers you the unique experience of living inside of a Kyrgyz yurt, which is considered an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO.

Its specific is a circular frame made usually from wood, covered with skins and braided with ropes, these specifics make the process of assembling and disassembling much faster and allows the Kyrgyz nomads to take their yurt everywhere with themselves.

Yurts are made from natural, organic materials. According to the tradition, all the community works together, while being supervised by experienced women artisans that are working on weaving, spinning, braiding, felting, embroidering, sewing and other traditional handicraft techniques. Yurt creation involves the whole community of makers, and cultivates common human values. Men and their neophytes work hand in hand in the making of the wooden frame and covering it with leather, bone and metal details. Women are the ones who decorate the interior and exterior with special ornaments of zoomorphic vegetative and geometric patterns.

The knowledge of the yurt-making people, both men and women, who produce yurts and the interior ornaments are usually inherited from parents to kids and stay always within the community as a divine tradition

All festivities, ceremonies, births, weddings and funeral rituals are held in a yurt. Though the modern Kyrgyz Nomads don’t live in the yurts all the yearlong anymore, just when going to the high summer pastures in the mountains, which is from early spring to late autumn.

As such, the yurt remains a symbol of family and traditional hospitality, fundamental to the identity of the Kyrgyz people.

Don’t lose the chance to experience these unique feelings of living along the Kyrgyz Nomads in a real yurt, a place where history has stopped.

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