Myths and legends of Kyrgyzstan
Kochkor
There are a number of legends associated with how the village of Kochkor
got its name. Perhaps the most romantic tells of a poor, well educated,
young man - a traveler. On one of his journeys he stopped at the camp of
the local Khan. The Khan had a daughter who was very beautiful - and many
of the local prices had already tried to woo her - all of them unsuccessfully.
In short, the traveler met her and fell in love - asking the father to allow
her to marry him. Although the Khan laughed at the poor traveler, he was
not amused and decided to teach him a lesson. He decided to set the would
be son-in-law an impossible task. He offered the young man a chance to breed
camels for 10 years (!) and if in that time his stock increased by a hundredfold,
then he could marry the princess. The young man was so in love with the
girl that he set about his task. The first winter was unusually harsh. One
day there was an eclipse of the sun and a chill fell across the face of
the earth and a storm blew in. The wind was so strong that the man could
not even open his eyes. Exhausted, using the last of his strength, the young
man cried allowed �Kach kar, Kach kar!� (which roughly translates as �Go
away snow, Go away snow!�).
Nature heard his cry and took pity on him - the storm abated, the wind
died down and the snow stopped falling. From that day, so the legend has
it - it rarely ever snows in Kochkor.
Incidentally, the young man was successful: he prospered and his herd of
camels increased by the required amount and so he eventually married his princess.
They had a son who became a great warrior.
Another legend tells of an old widow, who was very poor, who sent a sheep
to market. She couldn't go herself - so she entrusted it to a couple of
her friends. The sheep was already very skinny and looked very sickly and
the friends did not look after it very well on the journey. As a result,
when they arrived at the market, no-one wanted to buy the animal. There
was an organized "sheep-fight" and the men decided to enter the animal.
Because it was thin it was able to fun around a lot more than its rivals
around which it literally rang rings � until the opponent dropped from fatigue.
Having done so well, it was entered for another, bout � and another. As
well as earning a lot of prize money - and from bets, it became famous and
the village was named in it's honour - Kochkor.
Kyrgyzstan travel