Roofing in Kyrgyzstan

Kyrgyzstan is a mountain country dominated by the Tien Shan range. Its best-known roof is that of the felt yurt, whose wooden crown ring, the tunduk, is so central to Kyrgyz identity that it forms the centre of the national flag. Permanent houses in villages and towns are mostly built of clay or brick with timber roofs, and the country's high earthquake risk shapes how they should be built.

Climate and hazards

Winters are long and cold, with heavy snow in the mountains, and summers in the valleys are hot and dry. The whole country is seismically active. Roofs must carry snow and, in an earthquake, act together with the walls; traditional earth houses perform poorly where this connection is weak.

Roofing history

Nomadic herders of the Kyrgyz and their predecessors lived in felt yurts for centuries; the earliest written description of yurt-like dwellings, by Herodotus, concerns the Scythians of the Central Asian and Black Sea steppe. The Kyrgyz yurt has a lattice wall, bent roof poles and the tunduk crown at the top, covered with felt from the herders' own sheep. Men make the wooden frame and its leather, bone and metal fittings; women make the felt coverings and the decorated interior textiles. In 2014 UNESCO recognised the knowledge and skills of making Kyrgyz and Kazakh yurts as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

In the Soviet period, building followed all-Union codes, including seismic design codes from the 1960s (SNiP II-A.12-62 and SNiP II-A.12-69).

Traditional and vernacular roofs

• Yurt: felt-covered timber frame with tunduk crown.
• Clay-walled house: according to the World Housing Encyclopedia, houses with clay walls on stone foundations and timber roofs are found in all regions of the country, in rural and some urban areas. They are classed as highly vulnerable to earthquakes, partly because the roof beams are not joined into a rigid horizontal diaphragm and the walls are not anchored to the roof with metal straps.

Codes, standards and regulation

Kyrgyzstan has continuously updated its seismic codes since independence in 1991. The current code is SN KR 20-02:2018, Earthquake engineering. Seismic design code.

Notable roofs

• Tunduk on the national flag: adopted on 3 March 1992 and redesigned with effect from 26 December 2023, showing the yurt crown seen from inside, within a sun of 40 rays.

Local roofing terms

• tunduk / tyndyk (Kyrgyz): crown ring of the yurt

Sources and gaps

Information on modern roofing materials, statistics and industry in Kyrgyzstan: published information is limited.