MOUNTAIN LIFE - Coast Mountains | Fall / Winter 2017

FALL/WINTER 2017 MLCM 93 Discovering Meaning, Mountains (and Epic Spines) in the Land of 40 Tribes Words & Photography :: Jesse Levine The goat decapitation takes much longer than expected. We have just bounced up a dusty road above the small village of Bokombaevo, rolling to a stop in a lush pasture backdropped by the snow-capped peaks of the Tian Shan. The shepherds pull a hogtied goat from the trunk of their 1980s-era Toyota Corolla and go at it with what looks like a rusty butter knife. Little do we know, things are only going to get weirder. “Headless goat polo,” as our guide Kas calls it, is known as Kok-boru or “Blue Wolf” in the local language. The game dates back to the 10 th century when nomadic shepherds of central Asia played it to honour the constant struggle of defending their flocks from wolves. Tradition dies hard in Kyrgyzstan. Unlike goats... Their job done, the shepherds crush out their cigarettes, mount their horses and race towards the goat carcass, now laid out in the centre of the pasture. Nurlan, the most athletic of the bunch, stretches his body to the ground and in one smooth motion swings the 70-pound, headless carcass onto his horse. With a crack of his whip, Nurlan lets out a howl and gallops towards a ring of rocks at the other end of the pasture. The other horses fol- low suit and crash into him while their riders clutch and grab for the bloody goat. Nurlan gracefully weaves through the chaos and loops around the rock ring before forcefully tossing the goat into its centre – point scored! We watch, speechless with awe. This was not what I was expecting when my friend Rafael asked me to come to Kyrgyzstan to help film a snowboard movie. KYRGY ZSTAN CONNE CTIONS