James Baquet Kyrgyzstan is another of the ‘stans, those central Asian countries with a suffix indicating “place of.” Like many, if not all of them, it was once passed through by trade routes running from the Indian subcontinent to China and beyond. Thus it was an oasis on the Silk Road — which is something of a misnomer. A German explorer, Ferdinand von Richthofen, coined the phrase “Silk Road” (in German) to refer to the network of trade routes connecting Eeast and West. But it was a network, not a single road; so perhaps “Silk Roads” would be more accurate. Anyway, Kyrgyzstan is located on China’s westernmost border, and is further surrounded by Kazakhstan on the north, Uzbekistan and Tajikstan to the west, and Tajikstan on the south as well. The national and official language and main ethnic group (nearly 75 percent) are Kyrgyz; Russian is also an official language. Other ethnic groups include Uzbeks (15 percent), Russians (nearly 6 percent) and others. The Kyrgyz language and people are Turkic. The people are about 80 percent Muslim and 17 percent Russian Orthodox. In legend, the Kyrgyz people were originally the 40 clans of Manas, a folk hero who united them against the Uyghurs in the early ninth century. “Kyrgyz” means “forty,” and the flag of Kyrgyzstan features a sun with 40 rays. Having been pushed into their current location in the 13th century by the Mongol expansion, they were subsequently dominated by the Qing Dynasty, the Uzbek Khanate, and finally the Russians, becoming a Soviet satellite until independence in 1991. Like many former Soviet bloc countries, Kyrgyzstan has had economic difficulties since independence. Agriculture and mining are mainstays, but with the loss of the Soviet Union market, exports dropped off dramatically. Gold is the No. 1 export. Several Kyrgyz sports reflect the people’s nomadic past, including one well-known game in which teams of horsemen attempt to carry the body of a headless goat across the other team’s goal line. Vocabulary: Which word above means: 1. roads over which goods are exchanged 2. chief parts 3. element attached to the end of a word 4. having a wandering lifestyle 5. groups of families 6. elegant material made from thread spun by caterpillars 7. fertile, watered area in a desert region 8. end of a field; crossing it equals success 9. country under the influence of another 10. net-like arrangement of connections | 