Appropriate Kalyn?

Ignore advices from the girl here with nickname Evil-Panda-Witch, such people in our society called as "Шерменде".

Kalyn is very important part of the kyrgyz rural culture.

About 10 years ago the average kalyn in Kyrgyzstan was like 100k som, at that time 1 dollar = 42-44 som, or 2300$-2500$.

I don't know how different traditions are in other regions of Kyrgyzstan, but where I come from, besides kalyn, all sorts of sweet and vodka, the groom's side gives 1 cow/or the equivalent money to the mother of the bride.

1k$ is less than 90k soms, prices for cheapest cows starts from 130k and higher.

Your partner can say whatever she wants, you'd better ask her other relatives about it directly.

these are all traditions from the tribal past. If you don't give enough, then you will lose respect from the girl's relatives, every time they will hint about it to you, mock and trash talk behind your back.

Remember, in your case excuses such as "бир элбиз", "бир журтбуз", "кыргызбыз, жаштар бактылуу жашап кетсе болду" doesn't apply to you, because you are not Kyrgyz man, you're far away tribe. I mean people in Kyrgyzstan most of them time don't even mix with northern or southerners, and you're completely foreign man, so their expectations would be high.

So i think it should look like this:

  1. 1500$ for her mother as "Эне сүтү"
  2. Kalyn 2000$-3000$
  3. 1000$ for goods, gifts, sweets, vodka and so on.

And what about feeding in restaraunts? Most of the places start from 1000s up to 5000 som for 1 person. Your clothes, car etc on average expect to spend from 300k to 700k som. Good luck.

/r/Kyrgyzstan Thread