I guess @rocamorar misunderstood the clue that the Epic is 'thought to be more than 1,000 years old' than Homer's Odyssey. I misunderstood the clue as well until I read the comments.
the thing in the middle is the tunduk, which is the center part of the roof of the yurt. It does have 40 sun rays around it though, that are supposed to represent the 40 Kyrgyz tribes.
I saw a documentary on this and it seemed very staged and ritualized. The young girl was crying but I think it's because she knew that's what was expected. Very weird custom but not too far removed from the cultural expectation of how men and women should interact that I found in many countries, even Russia.