Lakeside News’ Senior Reporter Pam Keene continues her adventures around the globe with her latest installment – Marco Polo’s Silk Road. The adventure took her to parts of the former Soviet Union where she experienced life in Central Asia beyond her expectations.
When the former Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, this part of Central Asia was divided into five countries: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. Called “The Stans,” each has its own distinct history, its own independent governments, laws and characteristics that are built on centuries of changing rulers and occupation.
Cotton fields, white Chevys, a bevy of brides create memories of Uzbekistan
Before heading to Uzbekistan, six of us spent the first week of our 3-week adventure exploring Tajikistan, the most southeastern “stan” bordered to the south by China and Afghanistan. Having seen how Tajikistan handled its emergence from communist rule and five years of civil war, our journey to Uzbekistan would tell a different story.
Cotton is a major agricultural commodity and export and can be picked by hand or machine.
Our journey crossing from Tajikistan into Uzbekistan included traversing mountains, driving past large expanses of desert and acres and acres of snow-white cotton ripe for the picking. As one of the world’s leading cotton-growing nations, the country exports cotton to Turkey, Russia, China, Iran and Poland.
As we drove into the capital of Tashkent the wide avenues and modern buildings were a stark contrast to most of Tajikistan. We were in the big city, now – the capital of Uzbekistan and the largest city in Central Asia. The familiar shapes of domes of mosques dotted the skyline, along with Central Asia’s Tashkent TV Tower, the tallest structure in Central Asia at 1,230 feet.
The skyline of Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan is modern with more and more skyscrapers being built.
After the other seven travelers arrived in Tashkent, off we went to visit Independence Square with the Crying Mother Monument and its eternal flame honoring more than 400,000 Uzbeki soldiers who perished in WWII. Uzbekistan’s Courage Earthquake Memorial, created to honor the people who rebuilt the city after its devasting 8.3 earthquake in 1966, stands tall on the exact spot where the earthquake struck.
In Tashkent we first noticed the inordinate number of white Chevrolets on every city street, parked in front of stores and restaurants, and scooting along the streets and avenues. We quickly learned that around 2008 GM Daewoo changed ownership and became GM Uzbekistan, first producing tens of thousands of Chevrolet Lacettis, all of them white.
Our trip leader Batir told us that if you want to order any other color of car, there’s a hefty surcharge; thus more than 99 percent of all the Chevrolet automobiles that are produced in various plants throughout Uzbekistan are white.
A bowl of plov, left, is often served with quail eggs and pickles. Hot tea is the beverage choice for meals.
Uzbekistan’s national dish – plov – is traditionally eaten every Thursday and Sunday, but we were in for a treat. The Central Asian Plov Center is open every day, serving thousands of dishes of the flavorful and hearty rice pilaf with spices, meat, carrots, onions and dried fruit. The huge building that was part restaurant/part open kitchen bustled with cooks shredding beef, baking non or lepeshka bread baked in a tandyr/clay oven. What a production.
Next city: Samarkand’s Registan Square always brims with locals, tourists, bloggers, brides and families, no matter when you visit. Bloggers were the worst. All over the world – Central Asia is no exception – they hire photographers, purchase yards and yards of colorful fabric and pose, pose pose until they have just the right image for their Instagram accounts. Needless to say, I bought into the concept by making photos of them. (Story Feature photo on home page)
Samarkand’s Tomb of the Alive King is the supposed burial site of one of Muhammad’s cousins. The small black rectangle is his grave.
Registan Square is more than a large community gathering place. It’s surrounded by azure-blue mosaic-covered madrassahs – religious and secular schools that offer education in the traditions of Islam, from training Imams who are religious leaders in the mosques to providing cultural support for craftspeople preserving Central Asian ancient arts.
Here come the brides: Our first encounter with brides was almost overwhelming. Everywhere we turned, beautiful dark-haired young women in voluminous pearl and sequined-covered gowns posed for photos with their families, grooms and friends. Many marriages are arranged in Central Asia; it’s a process too complex to explain here, but the celebrations are extravagant and can be quite costly. The elaborate gowns are rented. And it’s not usual for 250 to 500 people to show up for the lavish reception after the ceremony for delectable and plentiful buffet meals.
As one of the oldest cities in Central Asia, Samarkand factored heavily in the Silk Road from China to Europe. It’s one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in Central Asia and is considered a major hub of cultural and scientific developments.
All that remains of the Ulugh Beg Observatory built in 1420 are the stones and half-round chamber that supported the Fakhri sextant.
Some of us were surprised – for me, astounded – to learn that in this area of Uzbekistan scientific and astronomical discoveries were happening about the same time as well-known 14th and 15th century western mathematicians, including Copernicus and Galileo. I had never heard of astronomer Ulugh Beg but now I will never forget his name.
In the 1420s he built an amazing observatory to track the altitude of stars and planets, measure the duration of the year and predict eclipses. Designing a cylindrical building to house the world’s largest astronomical instrument at the time, Ulugh Beg’s observatory was a scientific marvel. Although the observatory was destroyed in 1449 and was not rediscovered until 1908.
The observatory’s museum, built in 1970, includes scientific manuscripts, star charts, astrolabes and a miniature reconstruction of the observatory. Our afternoon prompted some deep scientific, mathematic and astronomic discussions and I learned much more than I ever did in my college astronomy class, including that the concept of zero introduced in the 7th century by the Indian mathematician Brahmagupta. Check it out if you don’t believe me!
Two women who taught English to Uzbeki students and talked about the benefits of arranged marriage versus marriage of love.
Back to those arranged marriages, we spent an afternoon in a discussion with two very modern Uzbeki women: one married for love and the other according to the Islam custom.
Both women worked at a school that taught English to young people. The hallway and classroom were filled with drawings students made of their impressions of the United States and other western countries.
Another lovely bride lifts her vail to share a smile.
For centuries the practice of arranged marriages has been prevalent in the middle and far east. Typically the families of the bride and groom arrange the marriages after several meetings among the parents without the prospective bride and groom present. The parents on both sides are looking for a “suitable” match for their children, asking candid questions, talking about each family’s finances and background and even asking around the neighborhood to ensure that the family has no situations in their past that could be embarrassing.
The prospective groom, usually in his early to mid-20s, will meet with his possible in-laws with his parents present to make sure that issues such as mutual respect, compatibility and religious values are in line with each other.
In arranged marriages, the bride, usually in her late teens or early 20s, will be expected to move into the groom’s parents’ house and after marriage help with household chores for the family. Another way the groom’s parents check the suitability of the bride is by observing her serving tea. It’s quite a ritual but can be very telling about the young lady’s upbringing.
It’s not uncommon for the couple to meet in person only a few times before their wedding in arranged marriages. However, the process of finding the best husband or wife in the traditional way very rarely ends in divorce.
While dress is more casual in Uzbekistan, many women prefer to cover their forehead and hair.
When young ladies and young men meet outside of this framework, such as in college or at work, a great deal of back-and-forth takes place, too. The couple must convince their parents that the two of them are right for each other and deeply in love.
Many traditions and concepts in Islam still apply to both love and arranged marriages: commitment, willingness to recognize and accept the life-changing aspects of marriage, and all parties must agree willingly.
So far, my trip to Central Asia has been much more eye-opening than I anticipated. I pictured smaller towns that were not very modern, many people, especially women, dressed in traditional garments with their heads and perhaps their faces covered, and lots of agriculture and open spaces. What I found as we continued our journey was so much more. Stay tuned.
In February, a deeper journey along the Silk Road to Bukhara and beyond.
Photos: by Pamela A. Keene
