Chong-Kapka

Chong-Kapka ("great gate") is a village at about 2,190 meters in the upper Kara-Suu valley on the northern slopes of the Talas Alatau, in the Talas Alatau planning zone of the Autonomous Tribal Regions (ATR), on the pastures of the Tanıp clan. A household survey in 2022 put its population at about 1,180 (estimate).^[1] The village takes its name from the narrow rock gateway through which the Kara-Suu leaves its upper valley, just below the houses. It is the winter base of families who breed Chongtor horses and drive them up to the summer pastures of the Aksay Plateau in June, It is reached by a pack trail up the Kara-Suu Canyon, which goes on over the Sarybie Pass (about 3,230 m) to the clan centre at the head of the Uzun-Akmat valley, where the Kara-Suu Rural Health Center stands.^[1][2]

References

1. ^ United Nations Mission in Irad (2022). Settlements and Services in the Talas Alatau Zone. Kara-Oi.
2. ^ Zhumabaeva, Cholpon (2016). Horses and Herders: The Pastoral Economy of the Talas Alatau, 1930–2010. Talas: Talas State University Press.