ULUPAMIR, Turkey — Amid snow-capped mountains and sweeping valleys, a group of men watch their friend hurl a bone into the distance. They are playing "asik oyunu," a game originating from the steppes of Central Asia that involves tossing a sheep’s ankle bones, called "chuko." But these men are far from home and only a two-hour drive from the eastern Turkish city of Van.
In the mountain village of Ulupamir (literally “Great Pamir”), a handful of Kyrgyz people hold on to their traditional lifestyle. “In the summer we play a lot of Buzkashi,” says Yusuf Alp, one of the participants, referring to another Central Asian sport in which horse-mounted players seek to place the headless carcass of a goat into a goal. The game, depicted in the book “The Horsemen” by French novelist Joseph Kessel, is also known for being the national sport of Afghanistan.
