ESCONDIDO: Portable life of nomads takes shape on museum floor

By RENEE RAMSEY - For the North County Times | Thursday, October 2, 2008 11:15 PM PDT ∞

Workers construct a yurt, a round, domed, trellis-tent dwelling, as part of a new exhibit called "Nomadic Legacy" at the Mingei International Museum in Escondido. This yurt won first prize in a contest in 1995 celebrating the 1,000th anniversary of Kyrgyzstan's epic poem, "Manas." (Photo by Waldo Nilo - Staff Photographer)

Obolbekob Ishembi helps put together a round, domed, trellis-tent dwelling called a yurt as part of a new exhibit at the Mingei International Museum. The exhibit, called "Nomadic Legacy," will run from Oct. 12 through March 22, although museumgoers can watch workers build and rebuild the yurt every day through Oct. 10. (Photo by Waldo Nilo - Staff Photographer)

Workers begin to piece together a yurt, a trellis-tent dwelling that is part of a new exhibit called "Nomadic Legacy" at the Mingei International Museum in Escondido. (Photo by Waldo Nilo - Staff Photographer)

ESCONDIDO ---- On the ground floor of a museum in Escondido, visitors will have the rare opportunity to watch the construction of an elaborate tent dwelling of the nomads of Central Asia ---- not just once, but several times.

Staff members at the Mingei International Museum on Thursday worked beside visiting builders from Kyrgyzstan to erect a massive domed yurt, the portable homes used by Kyrgyz nomads for thousands of years.

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Because this is a how-to exercise for what eventually will become a traveling exhibit, museum visitors each day through Oct. 10 can watch the intricate work of building, dismantling and rebuilding a traditional yurt.

On Oct. 12, the centerpiece of the museum's "Nomadic Legacy" exhibit will have been rebuilt a final time for the start of its run through March 22 at the downtown museum.

"It's been called the most beautiful yurt in the world," museum director Rob Sidner said, watching workers use brightly colored braided tassels and wool strips to bind curved wooden poles and trellises.

Sidner said it takes about four hours to build the festival yurt. A hand-carved wooden door marks the entrance to the felt-covered structure. At 22 feet in diameter, it's larger than those typically used as homes.

Museum staff members Dandridge Mitchell and Michael Grant, both of San Diego, were among Thursday's first-time yurt builders.

"It's like putting together a giant tinkertoy," Mitchell said.

"We're used to nails and screws. They're using cloth to bind it together and pieces of leather for bolts," Grant said. "It feels so organic."

The yurt, which was shown at the museum's Balboa Park site in San Diego in 1997, had been accorded its "most beautiful" label during shows in Kyrgyzstan and Amsterdam in 1995.

Wal-Mart heir Christy Walton brought the yurt to the United States, loaning it the San Diego County museum for the Balboa Park show and then donating it to the museum in 2007.

The Escondido exhibit also will feature displays of rugs, clothing and jewelry representing a region where Alexander the Great and Marco Polo once traveled along the Great Silk Road between China and Iran.

Woven rugs representing some of the more than 80 nationalities that contributed to the culture of Kyrgyzstan already adorn one museum wall. Colorful Iranian woolen saddlebags made by nomads for their camels, are displayed on another wall for the upcoming exhibit, formally titled "Nomadic Legacy ---- Tent and Textiles of Central Asia and Iran."

Upstairs at the two-level museum, colorful Uzbek, Tadjik and Russian robes were being readied Thursday near exhibits of a Kyrgyz bridal headdress and an Afghan fur hat.

"The designs are so rich and exotic and complex, and most of them were worn every day," Sidner said, adding that the new exhibit is an apt reflection of the museum's name. Mingei means "everybody's art," from the Japanese words for everybody (min) and art (gei).

"We think it's important that art has a great role to play in connecting people, rather than pulling people apart," Sidner said.

For more information, visit www.mingei.org.

Renee Ramsey is a freelance writer for the North County Times