Ruh Ordo is odd, earnest, and very Kyrgyz: an open-air cultural centre on the shore of Issyk-Kul, named for the writer Chinghiz Aitmatov and built around ideas of faith, national identity, art, and spiritual dialogue. It has chapels, sculptures, exhibition rooms, lake views, and enough symbolism to keep a guide talking for a long time.
It is not a conventional museum, and that is part of the point. Visit with a little patience and you get a window into modern Kyrgyz nation-building, not just a tidy display of old objects.