Kyrgyzstan

Kyrgyz shepherds guide sheep across a grassy hillside. Live­stock raising is Kyrgyzstan's chief agricultural activity, with sheep being the nation's most important kind of livestock.

Facts in brief about Kyrgyzstan

Capital: Bishkek.

Official language: Kyrgyz.

Area: 198,500 km². Greatest distances— east-west, 935 km; north- south, 435 km.

Elevation: Highest—Peak Pobedy, 7,439 m above sea level. Lowest— Naryn river at the western border, 500 m above sea level.

Population: Estimated 1996 population—4,754,000; density, 24 people per km²; distribution, 38 per cent urban, 62 per cent rural. 1989 census—4,290,442. Estimated 2001 population— 5,071,000.

Chief products: Agriculture— cattle, cotton, eggs, fruit, goats, grain, milk, pigs, vegetables, wool. Manufacturing— construc­tion materials, food products, machinery, metals, textiles. Mining antimony, mercury.

Flag: The flag has a red field with a yellow sun in its centre. The sun bears a yellow disc with two intersecting sets of three curved red bands. See Flag (picture: Flags of Asia and the Pa­cific).

Money: Currency unit— som. One som = 100 yin.

Kyrgyzstan, formerly known as Kirghiz, is a moun­tainous country in central Asia. It became an independ­ent country in 1991, after 70 years as a part of the Soviet Union. Kyrgyzstan covers 198,500 square kilometres. For Kyrgyzstan's total population, see the Facts in brief table with this article. Bishkek is the capital and largest city. The official language is Kyrgyz.

Government. A president serves as head of state and is Kyrgyzstan's most powerful governmental official. The people elect the president to a five-year term. A prime minister and cabinet of ministers run the daily opera­tions of the government. The president appoints the prime minister, who then appoints the cabinet of minis­ters. A one-house parliament, called the Supreme Coun­cil, makes Kyrgyzstan's laws. Its 105 members are elected by the people to five-year terms. Kyrgyzstan's main units of local government are regions and districts.

Kyrgyzstan's highest court is the Supreme Court.

There are also regional and local courts. All judges are elected to five-year terms.

People. About 52 per cent of Kyrgyzstan's people be­long to the Kyrgyz ethnic group. They speak Kyrgyz, a Turkic language. Most of the ethnic Kyrgyz live in rural areas and live by herding and farming. Ethnic Russians make up about 22 per cent of the population. They speak Russian, live mainly in urban areas, and hold most of the country's industrial and technical jobs. Other eth­nic groups include Uzbeks, Ukrainians, and Germans.

All Kyrgyz people and Uzbeks are Muslims. Most of the other people are Christians.

Among the ethnic Kyrgyz, tribal organizations and large kinship units called dans play important roles in social customs. Each tribe consists of a number of clans. A Kyrgyz clan includes all people who are descended from a common ancestor through their father's side of the family. Senior clan members function as community leaders. Traditionally, tribal leaders have been the most respected members of Kyrgyz society. When the Soviets took over, Kyrgyz tribal leaders were given high govern­mental positions. Today, tribal leaders hold most of the regional and national government offices in Kyrgyzstan.

Kyrgyz social life is centred around the family. Mem­bers of an extended family live together in one house­hold. Such a household might include parents, children, married sons and their children, and other relatives. Kyr­gyz tend to marry only people in their own clan.

About 62 per cent of Kyrgyzstan's people live in rural areas, and about 38 per cent live in urban areas. Most urban dwellers live in cement apartment buildings or stucco houses. For hundreds of years, large numbers of rural Kyrgyz were nomadic (wandering) herders who raised livestock in mountain valleys in the summer and

moved them to the foothills in the winter. In the 1930's, the Soviet Union set up government farms and forced herders to live on them. Today, most of the rural people live in mud-brick houses in villages. But some rural peo­ple still raise livestock in the nomadic life style at least part of the year. These people live in portable, tentlike yurts, constructed of a round wooden frame covered with felt.

The Kyrgyz people wear both Western-style and tradi­tional clothing. Traditional clothing for men includes a padded or a sheepskin coat, boots, and a white felt hat with black flaps. Married women often wear a white tur­ban made of a long scarf.

Traditional Kyrgyz foods include shurpa (mutton and vegetable soup), and besh barmak (a dish of lamb and noodles with broth). Popular milk products include cheese, ayran (a yoghurtlike drink), and kumiss (fer­mented mare's milk).

The Kyrgyz people enjoy folk songs and dancing. The recitation of epics (poems about heroic events) is a tradi­tional Kyrgyz event. One of their most famous epics is the Manas, a poem describing Kyrgyz history.

The government requires children to attend school between the ages of 7 and 17. The country has 10 schools of higher education.

Land and climate. The Tian Shan and-Alay moun­tains cover most of Kyrgyzstan. About three-quarters of the country lies at an altitude of more than 1,500 metres above sea level. Peak Pobedy, the country's highest mountain, rises 7,439 metres in the Tian Shan along the border with China. Only about 15 per cent of Kyrgyzstan is below 915 metres above sea level. These areas in­clude plains and mountain valleys. Most of the people live in these relatively low places. The country's chief riv­ers include the Chu, Talas, and Naryn.

Temperatures in Kyrgyzstan vary with altitude. Sum­mers are very warm and dry in the valleys and plains, and cool in the mountains. July temperatures average 16 to 24° C in the valleys and plains and about 5° C in the mountains. Winters are chilly in the lowlands, but ex­tremely cold in the mountains. January temperatures av­erage — 5 to —14° C in the lowlands and —28° C in the mountains.

Economy. Agriculture accounts for about two-fifths of the value of Kyrgyzstan's economic production. Live­stock raising is the chief agricultural activity. Sheep are the most important kind of livestock. People also raise cattle, goats, and pigs. They graze yaks in the high mountains. Less than 10 per cent of the land is suitable for raising crops. Farmers rely on irrigation to provide water for most crop growth. Chief crops and other lead­ing agricultural products include cotton, eggs, fruit, grain, milk, vegetables, and wool.

Manufacturing makes up about a third of the value of production in Kyrgyzstan. Chief manufactured products include construction materials, food products, machin­ery, metals, and textiles. The country's major industrial centre is Bishkek. Mines in Kyrgyzstan yield a number of minerals, including antimony, coal, gold, lead, mercury, petroleum, uranium, and zinc.

Kyrgyzstan has only one major railway. Roads link major Kyrgyz towns, but not all are paved. Buses are the chief form of transport. An airport at Bishkek handles all flights to and from Kyrgyzstan.

Radio stations broadcast from Bishkek and other cit­ies. The country publishes newspapers and magazines in Kyrgyz and Russian.

History. Nomads who raised livestock were the first people to live in what is now Kyrgyzstan. They settled into the region from various parts of northern Asia. Dur­ing the 500's and 600's, Turkic tribes began to invade the region. Waves of Turkic invasions continued into the 1100's. Mongols conquered the area in the early 1200s. The Mongols established regions called khanates, which were ruled by chieftains. Some of the country's people probably descended from the Turkic and Mon­gol tribes. In the 1600's, Islamic missionaries called sufis brought Islam to the region.

Kyrgyzstan remained primarily under the domination of Mongol peoples until 1758, when China gained con­trol. The Chinese maintained loose rule over the Kyrgyz until the 1830's, when the oppressive Khanate of Kokand conquered the Kyrgyz people.

The Russian Empire began to expand into central Asia in the mid-1800's. It defeated the Khanate of Kokand in 1876 and made the region a Russian province. The Rus­sian government took control of vast areas of land and encouraged Russian, Ukrainian, and other Slavic peas­ants to settle there. Tens of thousands of foreign agricul­tural workers came. The settlement restricted grazing land and lowered the Kyrgyz standard of living. In 1916, the Kyrgyz rebelled, unsuccessfully, against the Rus­sians. Thousands were killed on both sides, and as many as 150,000 Kyrgyz people fled to China.

In 1917, Communists overthrew Russia's czar and took control of that country. The Soviet Union was formed in 1922 under Russian Communist leadership. In 1924, the Soviets made Kyrgyzstan an autonomous oblast (self-governing region) of the Soviet Union called the Kara- Kyrgyz Autonomous Oblast. In 1936, the region became a Soviet republic called the Kyrgyz Soviet Socialist Re­public.

Soviet rule changed many aspects of life in Kyrgyz­stan. The Soviet Union established a powerful Commu­nist government and took control of all industry and land in Kyrgyzstan. It forced nomadic herders to settle on government farms. The Communist Party also be­came the only legal political party. In addition, Soviet law forbade certain traditional cultural practices, such as religious instruction. However, the Soviet government helped develop agriculture and industry in Kyrgyzstan. School and health-care systems were also improved.

In the late 1980's, the Soviet government began giving people more freedom. In 1990, Kyrgyzstan declared that its laws overruled those of the Soviet Union. In mid- 1991, the Communist Party was dissolved, and Kyrgyz­stan began moving toward creating a free-enterprise economy. The government began selling off farmland and businesses to private owners. The Soviet Union broke apart in December 1991, and Kyrgyzstan became an independent country. The country joined the Com­monwealth of Independent States, a loose association of former Soviet republics.

The new nation's problems include tensions between ethnic groups. Conflicts exist between the Kyrgyz and the Uzbeks over territorial claims and other disputes. In 1990, violence broke out between the two groups, re­sulting in hundreds of deaths. See also Commonwealth of Independent States, Tian Shan.