The New York Times
The New York Times CAROLYN DRAKE
Kyrgyzstan, teetering between democracy and authoritarianism since the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, is caught between the rising economies of the east and its own nomadic heritage.
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JUST celebrating its sweet 16, Kyrgyzstan, a mountainous nation on the eastern edge of Soviet Central Asia, is literally, and figuratively, at a crossroads.

Two thousand years ago, it was a well-trodden slice of the silk trade routes that first linked the East and the West. During the 19th century, this part of Asia was considered crucial because it sat between Russia and India, Britain’s most valuable colony, becoming a focal point in the British and Russian rivalry for supremacy in Central Asia.

Since the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, Kyrgyzstan, teetering between democracy and authoritarianism, has again emerged as a crossroads of cultures and politics. China is building roads and hoping for a piece of the Kyrgyz gold industry. Muslims and Christians are seeking followers where atheism was once the rule. Europe and the United States are asserting influence through N.G.O.’s and by backing political changes.

Even so, nomads high in the mountains struggle on with their traditional ways, and Lenin statues dominate cityscapes. History is not dead.

Traveling across the country this spring, I felt as if I were taking a trip to an international cultural exhibition in the Third World. The convergence of cultures was visible at every turn. My pictures reflect the composition of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit meeting held this month in the Kyrgyz capital of Bishkek — China and Russia, the Central Asian republics of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, as well as observer nations like Iran, Pakistan and Mongolia.