(b) The word ‘Kyrgyz’ is believed to have been derived from the Turkic word for ‘forty’ in reference to the forty clans of Manas, a legendary hero who united forty regional clans against the Uyghurs. Literally, it means ‘we are forty’. The 40-ray sun on the flag of Kyrgyzstan is a reference to those same forty tribes, and the graphical element in the sun’s centre depicts the wooden crown of a yurt – a portable dwelling traditionally used by nomads in the steppes of Central Asia.