For my lodging during my Kazakhstan excursion, I will be staying with a local Kazakh in Southern Kazakhstan where the Kazakhs are the predominant ethnicity in comparison to the northern Russian- and Ukrainian-Kazakhstanis. The second I arrived, they all stood up, almost in unison, as a sign of greeting. They showed me to a special seat they have for guests, the tor. They offered me kumiss and it tasted creamy and refreshing like yogurt, as it is a fermented milk drink. After I finished the kumiss, they said hello to me. I asked them why they waited so long to say hello. They told me they wanted me to refresh myself and relax before they bothered me with conversation. Later, we had supper at the dastarkhan, the feast table. They had made a variety of meats including horse meat-it tasted pretty good-and shashlik(similar to shish-kebabs), and plov, a type of rice pilaf. After the meal, we had tea in the chaikana, tea house, and continued our conversation.
The next day, my host family played music. Music is an ancient tradition of Kazakhstan, dating back to the stone age. Most of the family's songs were passed from one generation to the next through oral tradition until just recently in the 1900's when some of the common ones were purchased at the bazaar. My host family practices both vocal and instrumental music. They have two star instruments: the dombra and the kobyz. They also told me that professional singers are called akyns, poets, and that they have been known to have public improvising contests, sort of like a rap battle.
No comments:
Post a Comment