ASTANA, Kazakhstan -- How to find a thousand komuz players and gather them all in one place?
Such is the type of unusual demand placed on organizers of the World Nomad Games, a now decade-old showpiece that draws athletes and tourists from countries across the world in a celebration of the sports, music, and culture of nomadic peoples.
The fifth edition of the games, currently taking place in Kazakhstan's capital, Astana, is perhaps its most impressive yet, with 89 countries reportedly sending around 2,500 athletes to the games.
But the founding games in 2014 and two others -- in 2016 and 2018 -- were held in Kazakhstan's Central Asian neighbor Kyrgyzstan, where the authorities were under pressure to justify their worth against the financial cost for a cash-strapped country.
Back in the summer of 2016, education professional-turned fundraiser Bermet Tursunkulova was under pressure to find masters of the komuz -- a lute-like instrument popular in Central Asian music -- and quickly.
"I can't remember who originally had the idea of the 1,000 komuz players, but by June, not much had been done, and we really had to move," Tursunkulova said.
"I reached out to a colleague, Gulnara Aitbaeva, whose NGO worked on preserving traditional culture. We found a conductor and began reaching out to schools in remote regions of the country, because it was very important that the ensemble came from all corners of Kyrgyzstan."
Finding the virtuosos was one thing. They also needed to be transported, fed, and costumed.
This was where the Kyrgyz government's partners, mainly the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency, stepped in.
By September 3, 2016, everything was in place for the sound of 1,000 komuzes to ring in the second World Nomad Games in Kyrgyzstan's eastern Issyk-Kul region, with most of the audience completely unaware that the ensemble had never rehearsed as a collective.
"Many times during the organizing process, I asked myself why I had become involved with it at all, because it was also so stressful and last-minute," Tursunkulova recalled.
"But to see them playing there at the opening made it all worth it. I think that everyone that saw that, whether at the venue or on television, would have had goosebumps."
Those goosebumps might be back in 2026, after Kyrgyz Culture Minister Altynbek Maksutov on September 10 told journalists that the games "will return to their homeland" in 2026.
No Need To Invent
Sports coordinator and Kyrgyz tourism expert Askhat Akibaev is often credited as the inventor of the World Nomad Games.
It isn't a title that Akibaev cares much for.
"The inventors of the games are our ancestors and the ancestors of all nomadic peoples. All of these games already existed in some form. It wasn't like some apple fell on our heads," said Akibaev, who has been offering his assistance to the Kazakh organizers this time around.
And what are these games you can expect to see in Astana until the international competition wraps up on September 13?
On tap are events like mas wrestling, a one-on-one stick-pulling game attributed to the Yakut people of Siberia. Mounted archery, a horseback skill that dates back to antiquity, is a popular contest. And other eye-catching sports like eagle-hunting, similar to falconry, will be on display.
Then there are the less physically intensive games, such as one that involves tossing the ankle bones of a sheep, and variations on mancala, an ancient board game with strong traditions in sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East.
But the World Nomad Games would not be the World Nomad Games without the sport described in one website’s preview of the games as "headless goat polo," even if the version staged in front of a partly foreign audience uses a synthetic model instead of the traditional goat carcass.
When planning the first games in 2014, Akibaev encountered skepticism that traditional games would be of interest to tourists or even locals, as well as doubts that Kyrgyzstan had the logistical capacities and infrastructure to pull it off.
The cynics were largely proven wrong, but was holding such a big event worth it for a small country where even providing citizens with basic services can be a challenge?
Akibaev cited data on tourism over the duration of the first three games, whose attendance was boosted by a visa waiver introduced for citizens of a number of developed countries in 2012.
"Let’s say we spent $10 million on all these games. If before the first games, just over 2 million tourists visited Kyrgyzstan, then, in 2019, after the last games it was more than 6 million," Akibaev said. "What is more, we proved to ourselves and the world that a small country can do something global."
A Big Tent Party
Kyrgyzstan's wealthier neighbor, Kazakhstan, also faced questions about the rationale for holding the games, which had their fourth edition in Iznik, Turkey.
After Kazakhstan suffered its worst seasonal floods in more than half a decade this spring, President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev announced that the budget for the games would be downsized, while another international event, the Astana International Forum, was scrapped completely.
The reported cost of the current games was around $12 million, as national companies weighed in and at least one competition was taken off the schedule.
But the colorful September 8 opening ceremony sprinkled with the stardust of Kazakhstan's most globally famous singer, Dimash Qudaibergen, gave the impression that few expenses had been spared, as the history of the Kazakh people was told by synchronized dancers, powerful lighting, and dramatic music.
"I myself am an artist, and I was very proud of our choreographers and performers," said Aziza Jorobek, a young woman wandering around the "ethno-village" where traditional crafts and food are sold close to the games.
"I'm also happy that there are young volunteers here who are helping the foreigners, because our people don't speak much English," Jorobek said. "I was proud that Kazakhstan could do something on this scale and level."
First held the year that Russia seized control of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula and began ramping up military aggression in eastern Ukraine, the World Nomad Games era has coincided with a period of heightened tensions between Moscow and the West.
Ukraine has sent athletes to the World Nomad Games in the past but did not on this occasion.
But as of 2022 the games are one of the few sporting games in the world where athletes from Russia and the United States are competing in the same space under their respective flags.
Toqaev, a career diplomat who became Kazakh president in 2019, stressed sport as a "symbol of respect and solidarity," in a keynote speech at the opening delivered in Kazakh, which along with English has been the language of the Astana games.
"Kazakhstan is known to everyone as a land of peace and coexistence," Toqaev said. "I am confident that the [World Nomad Games] will help foster international solidarity."
