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Astana, Kazakhstan – Clouds of dust rise from the sandy ground of a playing field as a dozen horses converge, their riders standing in their stirrups as they direct their mounts towards an odd target: the headless and disembowelled carcass of a goat laying in the dust.
From what appears as a multi-legged, rotating creature of hooves, tails, heads and human fists, one rider manages to lift and hoist the carcass beneath his leg, dashing towards the goal with two teams of seven horsemen chasing him from all sides – some to protect him, others to thwart him, whatever the cost. The risk of broken fingers and jaws is all too real.
This is not a movie but a game of kokpar, a horseback sport known and played across 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 fifth edition of the World Nomad Games is a celebration of the sport, culture and unity of the nomadic peoples of Asia’s Turkic nations.
The bi-annual event started 10 years ago in Cholpon Ata in Kyrgyzstan, with 30 countries participating, after former Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev suggested the games would be a good way to showcase the region’s culture in an era of fast-paced globalisation.
“We are the descendants of wise and brave nomads who were able to preserve their unique identity and gave us the civilisation of the Great Steppe,” Kazakhstan President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said at the grand opening of the games on September 8. “Our common duty is to cherish this sacred heritage and to pass it on to future generations.”
Competitors in the traditional archery competition in Astana [Kit Yeng Chan/Al Jazeera[Tokayev also addressed the suffering in other parts of the world, especially in Gaza, while emphasising the games’ role in strengthening friendships among nations, much in the same way as the recently concluded Olympics.
In the same way that France used the Olympics to showcase Paris and French culture to the world, so Kazakhstan used its first time hosting the World Nomad Games to showcase the origins of the Kazakh steppes, symbolising the peaceful interconnections of past nomadic empires beneath a traditional nomadic yurt.
‘Three games of men’
This year’s event, the first held in Kazakhstan, was possibly the largest to date, featuring more than 2,000 athletes from 89 countries ranging from Angola to Argentina, Hungary to Sweden, and Turkmenistan to Zimbabwe.
They all came together to participate in 21 traditional games that have their roots in the “three games of men” (archery, wrestling and horse racing), which testify to the skills of the peoples who ruled the steppes of inner Asia for thousands of years, from Silk Road traders to the Golden Horde that preceded the 15th century Kazakh Khanate.
Besides kokpar, some of the most interesting games were audaryspak, a horseback wrestling competition where a sportsman must wrestle his opponent from his horse, and kusbegilik, a hunting game with birds of prey (majestic golden eagles, falcons and hawks) whose flight speed is assessed by launching them on a lure or counting how long it takes the bird to reach a bait in its owner’s hand.
A falcon and his master during the kusbegilik bird of prey flying competition [Kit Yeng Chan/Al Jazeera]There were also several different styles of wrestling, such as the local Qazak Quresi and Kurash, entirely performed in standing position, as well as the Powerful Nomad Strongman Competition, which included weight lifting, javelin throwing challenges and pulling a 200kg (440-pound) bullock cart by naked hand and muscle.
The games also went beyond sport to include strategy such as Togyzkumalak, a board game in which a player wins by collecting the highest number of stones, and live performances of aitys, Kazakh and Kyrgyz folk-orientated improvised music and poetry duels which became part of UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2015.
Kazakhstan won the games with a total of 112 medals, including 43 golds, followed by Kyrgyzstan with 65 medals and Russia with 49, but there were plenty of surprises.
Betty Vuk, an Italian female judo fighter and member of Italy’s Qazak Quresi Foundation, secured Italy’s only gold medal, and first in the Nomad Games, in traditional Kazakh wrestling.
Other winning nations included Hungary – which won eight medals, including one gold, surpassing Turkey, India, China and Turkmenistan – and Romania, Poland, Moldova, France and Australia, underlining the growing appeal of traditional Central Asian games and martial arts around the world.
While the 2026 edition will return to Kyrgyzstan, future games could take place far beyond the steppe.
“Maybe in 2030 or 2032, it’ll be possible to host the World Nomad Games in North America because we have common ground there. […] Our geography should expand and become a world project with wider attention,” Kazakhstan’s vice-minister of Tourism and Sports, Zharasbayev Serik Maratovich told the media. “We want to popularise our games and ask anyone to help spread the word.”
Kyrgyz and US athletes compete in audaryspak or horseback wrestling [Kit Yeng Chan/Al Jazeera]Back on the kokpar field, the goat was made of rubber, but a dead animal is the norm in a sport that has slightly different rules and names depending on where it is played.
It was Kazakhstan that emerged as the eventual winners of the kokpar tournament, taking home the gold ahead of Kyrgyzstan.
