The Kyrgyz and their animals

In particular they are associated with horses, and sheep - but their culture also involved a number of other animals: particularly dogs and eagles, but also camels, goats, and yaks.  There were a great many names to refer to domestic animals - which delimited the age and sex of the animal, as well as if it was a sheep, goat, horse ... or whatever.  For example: a five year old horse was called a bir asiy whereas a six year old was called an eki asiy . 

Traditionally, animals had a shamanistic role in protecting against vengeful demons and evil spirits.  Dogs, for example were considered totems against evil spirits, which would protect children from evil spirits.  The spirits were also thought to be frightened of horses, and especially the kamcha (horse whip), or by the noise made by an eagle's cry.

In this section we consider a number of aspects of how traditional Kyrgyz culture overlapped with the animals which the Kyrgyz kept.