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I think I was in my mid-teens when I read this (so mid-late 2000s)—unfortunately all I can remember is a mess of details that have not so far helped me to track it down (you should see my google searches lol). It was in English and seemed like a fairly recently published book.
From what I remember the plot itself was quite bizarre/unclear and the overall tone of the book was quite surreal, starting out semi-realistic, but with more (possibly?) supernatural/fantasy elements coming in toward the end.
It started with a Western man (I think) arriving in some Asian city in a presumable contemporary time period. I think he had taken on some sort of role in a museum. The city itself is multicultural, with Westerners, Muslims and a rather enigmatic native people group, who (and this is the detail I remember most clearly) have a major cultural thing about 'hanging up the bones of their ancestors', like, they hang them up in the doorways of their houses, and in various parts of the museum, and its a major taboo for an outsider to enter those forbidden areas.
There is a woman belonging to this native group who is some sort of guide/friend (employee?) of the protagonist, though, like the people group as a whole, her character feels somewhat ambivalent and mysterious.
I remember towards the end of the book is when it began to get really strange—various groups began arriving at the city, including some sort of pseudo-Christian jogging cult who wore tracksuits and "plexiglass crosses", and a group of hippie Middle-Earth cosplayers, led by a guy dressed as Gandalf. The protagonist encounters these sort of giant, mobile (sentient?) water-sacks, which are apparently for the native people, who have to begin some sort of epic pilgrimage through the desert.
I wanna say it was called something like Midnight in Kandahar?? or something? But I really don't know. Thanks in advance for your help!