Be forewarned.  

This blog post has nothing to do with design or art, museums or swishy restaurants. 

Nope. 

If I had an editor, she would say, “No go.” 

But I don’t and I can do whatever I want. 

And in this case I want to share an absolutely fascinating experience in KYRGYZSTAN, LAND OF MIGHTY HORSEMEN. Against a dramatic and remote landscape we photographed  a team playing an ancient game often called Dead Goat Polo. The official name is KOK BORU.

This game has been played in this land of nomads for 5,000 years. Horses have always had an essential role in the lives of the Central Asian nomads.They were the first people in the world to learn the skill of horseback riding.

What happens?  Basically it is rough rugby game on horses with a headless goat used as a ball. We didn’t watch an actual game instead our photography guide set up  the local team to race around the field for us showing us what happens during a real game. Yep, they did it over and over for us so we could get our shots. It was really fun.  

The game is the most popular in Central Asia. It is  also known as Buzkashi (Afghanistan, Tajikistan), Kokpar (Kazakhstan) and Ulak Tartysh (Kyrgyzstan), Kok Boru is an ancient honored tradition among the nomadic tribes.

Kok Boru is played by two teams. The goal is to pick up the goat carcass from the ground, race it across the field and toss it into the center of the kazan, a ring of tires functioning as a goal. As you can imagine, the other team is trying to stop this from happening and get the goat into the other Kazan.

Each team has their own kazan, one at either end of the field. Every time the carcass is thrown into the kazan, the team scores a point.

There are three rounds in the game, each lasting about twenty minutes. The team who scores the most during the three rounds is the winner of the game.

It’s pretty tough on the player to lift a 40kg carcass with one arm off the ground while remaining seated on a moving horse that is being pushed around by other players and horses.

Sounds awful but once I got used to the idea it was pretty fascinating to watch and try to capture these incredible athletes and their horses with my camera.

It looked pretty dangerous to me. The game involves ramming into each other trying to get that goat away. According to Nomad culture, the player’s performance during the game proves that he is a  real man and worthy of respect within the community.

What happens to the goat? Historically, the winners cooked it for dinner. It’s a big honor for them to eat the meat after the game.

I think it would be fun to see an actual game. It probably would be hard to photograph but I’d enjoy the whole spectacle  of it all. I think this means I need to go back to KYRGYZSTAN.   Please note I went on this trip in May/June of 2023.  For a variety of reasons, it has taken me a while to process photos and create this blog post.  

If you want to learn more, there is a series on Netflix called Home Game. One of the episodes is about Kok Boru.  

The tour I enjoyed in Central Asia was organized by Fantastic Photo Tours. https://fantasticphototours.com