Title Image: The Ritual Begins- Rapakan Aidarkulova, a 63-year-old woman from Karakol is a traditional Kyrgyz healer.
A crowd patiently waits, snaking around the dark halls of a small office. Some pace nervously while children bounce in laps. One’s first guess of this being an underequipped doctor’s office isn’t so far off. Actually, this busy room filled with clients who quickly enter and exit a small examination room, waiting for some mysterious physician are turning to the traditional Kyrgyz practice of healing that was once forgotten during Soviet times Rapakan Aidarkulova, a 63-year-old woman from Karakol near Lake Issyk Kul is just one healer playing an active part in this countrywide resurgence of traditional knowledge within Kyrgyzstan.
