Kyshtoo (Pastoral Term)

Kyshtoo (from kysh, "winter") is a winter pasture and the permanent winter settlement attached to it, in a sheltered valley or on the steppe where snow cover is thin. Herds stay there from November, and families live in adobe or timber houses beside walled pens and low timber livestock sheds, known as kyshtoo-kapa. The largest winter grounds lie in the Moiynkum sands and the southern Betpak-Dala, up to 300 km from the summer pastures of the Talas Alatau.