World Nomad Games put the spotlight on the sport of the Great Steppe

Athletes from 89 countries take part in 10th edition of games featuring sport including horseback wrestling.

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.”

Toka