Major Herbert Wood, an officer in the Royal Engineers, described the joys of staying in a Qaraqalpaq yurt during two days of exceptionally
heavy rain in 1874:
"On this occasion our party found shelter in a kibitka, which was carried bodily across a swollen stream to us, by a dozen brawny
Karakalpaks, whose heads only showed above the surface of the water.
Of all temporary habitations which are welcomed by the weather-worn traveller, none can come up to a kibitka for snugness and for
comfort. Sheltered behind its felt-covered walls from the howling wind outside, and basking in the flames of the fire, whose wreaths of
smoke rise gracefully to the opening in the roof, the dreariness of the desert is forgotten, and fatigue soon passes, as, wrapped up in
lambskins, one blesses with honest Sancho, the man who first invented sleep."
"Under the yurt", Igor Savitsky's charming painting of the interior of a Qaraqalpaq yurt
Image courtesy of the Qaraqalpaq State Museum of Art, No'kis.
Qaraqalpaq yurt interior at Qazaqdarya in 1975.
Note the electricity supply, radio, table lamp, and sewing machine.
A complete kitchen installed inside a Qaraqalpaq yurt at Bozataw in 2004.
Family of a retired Qaraqalpaq sovxoz director taking afternoon tea inside their yurt.
Erkindarya, 2005.
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