According to tradition, every family at the ceremony will receive a dish full of fresh meat and a bottle of vodka. Despite the fact that the Mugat are Muslims, alcohol, and especially vodka is an accepted legacy of heavy Russian influence in the region.
Fresh meat and vodka are very desirable products for Mugat, symbolizing prosperity. Guests will take this meat home.
Lamb is often the meat of choice.
Like Roma gypsies, gold teeth are common fashion for the Mugat. The gun pictured in this photo is a toy gun intended as a gift for the boy being circumcised. Guns are strictly forbidden in Uzbekistan.
Teenage Mugat girls enjoy their time at the ceremony. Most ethnologists believe the Mugat have Indian origins, causing many to draw parallels between the Mugat and the Roma gypsies of Europe. The comparison is not based solely on ethnicity, but also on lifestyle. The Mugat, like the Roma Gypsies, live on the fringes of society and have strong and insular communities.
Sunlight and dust streams around Buzkashi players in Sharinav, Tajikistan. Spectators stand on a mound nearby - audience members often wander as close as possible to watch the game.
Sunlight and dust streams around Buzkashi players in Sharinav, Tajikistan. Spectators stand on a mound nearby - audience members often wander as close as possible to watch the game.
At a Navruz commemorative match in the mountains near Dushanbe.
A farmer holds the head of a goat he just sold for extended rounds of a buzkashi game in Sharinav, Tajikistan. The goat carcass is normally prepared the day before the match.
A player puts on his boots before a match near Dushanbe.
A buzkashi player tries to escape from a rival at a match in Tezgar, near Dushanbe.
An assistant buzkashi player in training at a match in Tezgar, near Dushanbe. As Tajikistan modernizes and young people increasingly move to Russia and elsewhere to work due to the lack of jobs in-country, the future of buzkashi is unclear.
Young spectators view a horde of buzkashi horses from a nearby hill in Dangara, southern Tajikistan.
A buzkashi player tapes up his fingers to ward off cold and blows from other players' whips during a winter match near Hissor, western Tajikistan.
A new goat is handed off during a match in Jirganak, western Tajikistan, after the earlier goat is too destroyed to continue with.
Spectators rally around a snowy buzkashi field. The truck in the foreground is both the prize truck, the announcer's truck and the holding pen for goats (buz) for the game.
Assistants to master buzkashi players exercise their horses in the fog near Jirganak, western Tajikistan.
A buzkashi rider wearing a USSR jersey takes a break during a foggy match.
Players set up the goal posts for a buzkashi game in a winter fog at Jirganak, Tajikistan.
A buzkashi player relaxes his horse between buzkashi rounds in Nojibolo, Tajikistan.
Using carpets won by the horseback riders, buzkashi fans near Hissor set aside time for afternoon prayers.
Young buzkashi players taking a break from a muddy match in Nojibolo, western Tajikistan.
Buzkashi players fight for possession for the buz during a muddy match in Nojibolo, western Tajikistan.
Too slow to jump to a retreat with the rest of the audience, an old man is lost in the dust of a horde of buzkashi horses.
Nasriddin Hissor, 5-time Soviet buzkashi champion, rides out of the fray with the buz. Unlike many other sports, senior players with the most experience are often the best and most respected players
Players battle for possession of a goat carcass in a Buzkashi scrimmage in Novobod, Western Tajikistan.
Audience members watching a match near Korgan-Teppe, Tajikistan, with the bikes they used to get to the buzkashi field from nearby farming villages.
Khurshed's brother, Suhrob, exercises his horses in the mountains near Dushanbe.
Kalash woman and girl look through the doors of a Kalash temple. Brun Village, Bumburet Valley, Chitral Region, Pakistan.
Kalash children practice traditional dance at the Kalasadur School for Kalasha children in the Bumburet Valley.
Kalash boys play a version of “Cat’s Cradle” at the Kalasadur School for Kalasha children in Bumburet. The school was built with money from Hellenic Aid, led by aid-worker Thanassis Lerounis. Lerounis was later kidnapped and held by extremists for eight months.
Kalash children attending a mixed Kalasha and Muslim school built by the Agha Khan Foundation.
Kalash girls wearing veils while attending public school in Brun Village.
Family members doing chores in a Kalash settlement, Bumburet Valley.
Kalash girl cares for her brother while her mother prepares “cahaka” and unleavened bread made of corn. Brun Village, Bumburet Valley.
Kalash girl and her grandmother. The Kalash believe themselves to be descended from Alexander the Great. Bumburet Valley.
Kalash girls look out from inside a Bashali-- a women's house. Kalash women segregate themselves during menstruation and childbirth.
Fatha Rahman brings freshly cut hay onto his roof for storage. .
Kalash children playing on a donkey, Bumburet Valley.
Kalash girl preparing to bathe, Bumburet, Pakistan. Her “susutr,” (headdress), hangs on a nearby tree. Bumburet Valley.