In the remote regions of the Tien Chan mountains in Kyrgyzstan, French horse devotee Jacqueline Ripart hopes to find the last remaining specimens of the small, tough horses with which Genghis Khan once conquered Central Asia and which are now threatened by extinction. Under Soviet rule, the Kyrgyz horse was bred with Russian breeds to…

BISHKEK—Kyrgyz and Tajik border guards exchanged fire in three separate incidents in a border dispute on Wednesday, killing at least two people, officials on both sides said. The clashes came on the eve of a regional security summit, and a day after new fighting between Armenia and Azerbaijan raised fears of instability spreading to other…

The unearthed remnants of an ancient Buddhist temple in Kyrgyzstan will be opened to the public in mid-September as part of UNESCO’s Krasnaya Rechka world heritage site, according to reports. The ancient Buddhist temple, which was built over 1,000 years ago, was the second temple discovered near the northern part of Krasnaya Rechka (City of Nevaket)…

MOSCOW—Fighting between the border guards services of Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan has wounded at least six people, local news reports said Thursday. The conflict reportedly began near the Kyrgyz city of Batken after Tajik border guards closed a road that leads to sizable towns in Kyrgyzstan’s west. Kyrgyz authorities say the Tajik guards have fired with…

To meet today’s nomads, the film director Sibylle d’Orgeval had to cross Kyrgyzstan, from the capital Bishkek to Lake Issyk Kul. Then through the mountains and high pastures where the shepherds live she’ll head for the south of the country. She’ll cross the Trans-Alay mountains on her way to Tajikistan in the Western Pamirs populated…

MOSCOW—A nationalist politician who was released from prison amid protests that overthrew Kyrgyzstan’s president last year has been elected as his replacement. Voters in Sunday’s election that gave Sadyr Zhaparov a landslide 79 percent victory also approved a referendum to change the constitution to give the presidency more power. The vote followed the ouster of…