Barskoon is a village on the southern shore of Issyk-Kul, better known as a starting point for the gorge above it. But the reason to stop in the village itself is the yurt workshop, which is one of the better things on the whole trip.
Sights & Culture
Ak-Orgo Yurt Workshop
The workshop was set up by a man and his mother, he's had six visits from Planeterra, the G Adventures foundation, and now employs around twenty people. The division of labour is straightforward: yurt construction is done by the men, felt carpet-making by the women, several of whom work from home. Both sides of the operation are running at a level of craft that has also become a level of light engineering, he's invented a felt cutter, a faster method for making the reed screens that form the yurt walls, and a knot machine that pulls string through from another room. The wood shop for the yurt frames completes the picture.
The visit takes you through all of it. We helped fill in a felt carpet design by pressing coloured felt into a pattern, a process called snatching, which is then pressed flat with water. There's a machine for the 30-metre carpets that replaces an hour or more of hard work by hand. We also helped erect a yurt, which goes up faster than you'd expect and involves more coordination than it looks like it should.
Lunch afterwards was excellent, salad, soup, and dumplings that were the best of the trip so far, with music from the owner to finish. There is also a very good dog called Alder.
I actually reached out to them when I got back to Sweden to buy a yurt, but was told they had paused manufacture for a year or so to focus on building the owner a house.
Shopping
Ak-Orgo felt carpets
The workshop sells felt carpet squares and larger pieces directly. Worth buying here rather than anywhere else, you know exactly where it came from and who made it.