Material from the Turmush archive / Publication from 2020
Azamat Baizakov, who is 30 years old, works alongside his father Battal to create bows that can shoot up to 200 meters. The process of making one bow can take up to a month, after which the product undergoes quality testing before reaching its owner.
In an interview with Turmush, Azamat shared that they originally sourced materials for their products in the mountainous area, finding bones and horns of ibexes left behind by predators. "My father has been doing this work for 13 years, trying various approaches. In the past, an arrow could only fly 30 meters, but over time we managed to increase this distance to 100, 150, and even 200 meters. I also became interested in this craft and started learning from my father. The process is very labor-intensive, and the price depends on the effort put in. We go to the mountainous area to find the necessary materials, then we divide them into parts and use a machine to give them the desired shape. My father does most of this work. Recently, our bows have started to attract interest from buyers in Arab countries, and we also receive orders from Russia, Chechnya, and Kazakhstan," the craftsman shared.
With the income from selling bows, Azamat and his family were able to open a fish farming business. They plan to build lightweight structure cabins by the water to develop tourism and host guests. "We do not limit ourselves to just making bows. From the leftover materials, we also make kamchi (whips). All the money earned over the past 8 years has been invested in the farm — we now have a pond covering 1.5 hectares. In the future, we plan to create an ethnocomplex to attract tourists," Baizakov added.
