Kyrgyzstan is a place of contrasts that confounds expectations. Its landscape is one of deep green valleys and high craggy peaks – the Pamir Mountains where Kyrgyz people have fled in times of trouble for centuries. The country’s politics is as dramatic as its scenery. Since independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, there have been three revolutions in as many decades. Traditional nomadic ways of life persist alongside modern notions of political participation. Kyrgyzstan has the only electoral democracy in Central Asia, precarious though it may be.
Kyrgyzstan lies at the heart of the Silk Road. Searching for trade, conquest and glory, people from many empires passed through these lands – the Turks, Mongols, Uzbeks and most recently the Russians, who annexed the country in 1876. Each colonizing power left influences that the Kyrgyzstanis wove into their own culture as elegantly as local women sew the country’s famed felt carpets.
