npr:

Two bare-chested men on horseback wrestle. The goal is to pull your opponent off the horse so a part of his body touches the ground.

Three dogs chase a dummy clad in a fox or hare skin to see who’s fastest. Biting an opponent is grounds for disqualification.

And then there is this sport: “Each team seeks to throw as many goat carcasses as possible into the tai kazan (goal) of the opposing team.”

They’re definitely not Olympic sports but they are a part of another global competition: The World Nomad Games, held in Kyrgyzstan last September. That’s the landlocked central Asian nation of 6.2 million that, centuries ago, was a stop on the Silk Road traveled by traders from China to the Mediterranean. In modern times, it was part of the Soviet Union until it declared independence in 1991.

Read more about The World Nomad Games

Photos by Nicolas Tanner for NPR