Steppe Issue 4

Of Goats and Dragons Buzkashi, played avidly across Central Asia, is a game of superlatives: the most exhilarating, violent and spectacular contest to involve men and horses. A kind of Central Asian polo, buzkashi is played on horseback between two teams of riders competing to win possession of a headless goat, calf or sheep carcass, which is then carried and thrown across the opposition's goal line. Leo Docherty dives into the fray. Photographs by Christopher Herwig. On Central Asian TracksSetting off with only the travelogue of an eighteenth century Sufi mystic and a book on the Muslim shrines of Xinjiang, historian Alexandre Papas and photographer Lisa Ross observe the 'cult of saints' as they follow along the holy paths of the Taklamakan Desert in search of Xinjiang's active Sufi shrines. steppe Guide: Issyk Kul This glorious alpine lake and its environs offer unlimited possibilities for adventure and exploration. Set deep in the heart of the TianShan at 1,600 m above sea level and long cherished as the jewel of Central Asia, Issyk Kul - the world's second largest alpine lake - occupies a special place in the Kyrgyz heart. Rowan Stewart and Susie Weldon take us there. Photographs by Christoph Schutz.Cookery: Noodles from the Other China Xinjiang is a noodle-eater's paradise. During their travels there over the last twenty-five years, including recent research trips for their latest book, Beyond the Great Wall: Recipes and Travels in the Other China, Naomi Duguid and Jeffrey Alford have eaten - and have watched people knead, shape and cook - a stupendous quantity of noodles. Photographs by Richard Jung.Top Ten Monuments to LeninDespite Vladimir Ilyich Lenin's request before his death that no memorial be created for him, by the 1980s there were statues of him in every city, town and village in the Soviet Union - honouring the man and symbolising socialist idealism. In addition, streets, squares, collective farms, medals, wheat hybrids and even an asteroid were named after the architect of Soviet Communism. Photographs by Christopher Herwig, Paul Lowe, Kurmanbek Makeshev, Vladimir Pirogov and Michael Steen. Snapshot: Boomtown Birthday The best views of Kazakhstan's capital, Astana, are had from Baiterek, a spherical observation tower nearly 100 m tall symbolising a Kazakh legend in which a mythical bird lays a golden egg in a poplar tree. From this vantage point, the scale of Astana's construction is clearly visible: cranes and skyscrapers rise in all directions, in stark contrast with the vast emptiness of the surrounding steppe.