The problem with having a single internationally recognized symbol of a traditional lifestyle is that it can become a cliche that gets in the way of further understanding.
The tunduk on the
Kyrgyz flag gets right by abstracting away from the yurt image itself. There is always a delicate balance. The symbol gains power by rolling up and accumulating within itself the "cultural capital" of thousands of individual lived experiences. But, like a
black hole sun, the symbol finishes by sucking all of the actual life out the soil that nourished it. Eventually, you cannot escape the gravitational pull of the symbol, and it obliterates the lived reality, and starts turning up everywhere.
Then you have to either ignore the symbol altogether, which seems like a sad loss, or use some clever planning and carefully applied force to move the symbol just enough so that it will not be sucked into the black hole, but use the symbol's pull as a
gravitational slingshot to fling your new use of it onto an entirely new path, where it will arrive with great force.
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