Traditionally nomadic, Kyrgyz people would move from pasture to pasture with their herds of yaks, sheep & goats in the vast mountain ranges of Kyrgyzstan throughout the year, living in quick-to-assemble yurts made of a wooden frame covered in wool felt and relying on the region’s natural resources for their livelihoods and energy supply.

The arrival of the Russians in the late 19th century brought a lifestyle change and the Nomads became a settled people, though many aspects of their nomadic culture persist today and are strong elements in the Kyrgyz identity.

The family that hosted me/averted a night camped out in a thunderstorm are now "settled" in the sense that they have a home in village below, temporarily relocating into the high mountain pastures around the Asan-Tukem & Yeti-Oguz valleys when the snows melt to reveal fertile grassland for their cowherd to graze.

Self-sufficent, the family forages for berries to make their own jams, bakes their own bread from their precious store of flour, tends to a modest vegetable garden & hunts for meat.  Family life is traditional in the sense that the the cowherds, Akil & Nurel, tend to the welfare of their animals whereas Merim & her son Murza remain at home and chop firewood, milk the solitary cow & prepare meals.