Story and Photos by Ashok Khanna.
Feature image: Khiva Old City Wall, Uzbekistan
Touring ancient Silk Road sites in Uzbekistan, I learned how centuries of Chinese trade with Europe brought great wealth to Samarkand, Bokhara, and Khiva, the heart of the Silk Road. During the seventh century, for instance, the area was in constant flux. It was conquered and culturally influenced by Persia, Alexander the Great, and the Arabs. Samarkand’s fabled riches likely lured Genghis Khan to conquest in 1220. As a result, Uzbekistan has significant historical, cultural, and religious influences on our world of today.
Tashkent: Landing in Tashkent half-past midnight after two long flights, ten hours from Washington, DC, to Istanbul, a three-hour layover, and then a five-hour flight to Tashkent, as I entered the terminal, long lines greeted me at all ten immigration booths. Fortunately, the process was simple. With no checked luggage, I exited quickly and searched for a taxi. Despite the hour, it was crowded with pilgrims searching for transport–a melee. Luckily, a taxi driver found me, showed me his credentials, and quoted a fare below what I had been told to expect. He carefully drove his Chinese-made BYD electric car through the crowd and onto wide, well-lit boulevards. I asked him about his car, which had a luxurious, modern interior, a sizeable monitor, and a quick-charging battery. Surprisingly, he paid just $21,000 for it. Apparently, historic Chinese influence was still evident. Upon arrival at the Lotte Hotel, I learned it was built in 1958 during the Soviet era to accommodate writers from Asia and Africa. Unlike other Soviet-era hotels, it boasted classic architecture reminiscent of a country estate.
Jetlag jarred me awake early the next day, driving me to walk out into the crisp sunny morning. Centrally located, the hotel was near the majestic Navoi State Opera, and opposite the Ballet Theater. My walk took me along the wide Islam Karimov Boulevard with three lanes each way. Its sidewalks were being cleaned by a bevy of middle-aged women in traditional dress using wide natural brooms. There was an inviting, lush green park with a café every few blocks past the ministry buildings and the central bank. Many Chevrolet automobiles were in traffic, with yet more parked. General Motors had, until recently, a virtual monopoly on assembly in Uzbekistan. Now, Daewoo, BYD, and others are allowed similar rights. That first walk certainly disabused me of the notion that Uzbekistan was a third-world country.
History connecting Uzbekistan, India, and Pakistan: In 1398, Amir Timur (Tamerlane), the revered ancient ruler of Samarkand, invaded India and defeated the Sultan of Delhi. Timur sacked the city and left, taking Indian craftsmen with him to Uzbekistan. Years later, in 1526, Babur, Timur’s great-great-great-grandson, a descendant of Genghis Khan on his mother’s side, conquered Delhi again, but unlike his ancestor, he stayed and established the Mughal Empire. It lasted three centuries and was only replaced by the British in 1857. The historical connection between Uzbek, North-West India, and Pakistan is evident today in the spoken languages, with words shared in all three languages. As a result, I could understand many food names, shop signs, and building names if written in the Latin script, but today, due to Uzbek-Russian history, many are written in Cyrillic.
Russian History: In the 19th century, colonial Britain took India, and Tsarist Russia dominated Central Asia. Following the Soviet revolution, Uzbekistan emerged in the Soviet Union as the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic. I later learned the Uzbek people remember the Bolshevik period as hopeful, the Stalinist era as nasty, and the post-WWII Soviet time (especially Brezhnev’s rule) as secure. In 1991, following Glasnost and the dissolution of the USSR, Uzbekistan became an independent country. Like all former Soviet Socialist countries, it experienced a difficult political and economic adjustment. Many men and women went to prosperous countries to work during the transition. As its economy stabilized and the polity liberalized, some returned.
Today: Uzbekistan is a secular state with a constitutional government. The first president, Islam Karimov, was authoritarian, but his successor, Shavkat Mirziyoyev, has implemented reforms to liberalize governance and the economy. Uzbekistan has gold, copper, uranium, oil, and gas deposits, and also exports cotton. Its per capita income is about $3,000, but the country feels more prosperous. Most Uzbeks follow Islam, but some follow Russian Orthodox Christianity, Judaism, and Buddhism. People learn Uzbek, Russian, and Tajik, but most of the conversation I heard was in Russian. Many people have East Asian features, including a few hundred thousand Koreans resettled in Uzbekistan by Stalin. Food is similar to Turkish, with various Kebabs and salads including fresh, tasty vegetables, especially eggplant and beetroot.
Tashkent Tour: The tour company had not arranged much of a program for the first day; it was just an orientation walk around the neighborhood, which I had already seen on my morning walk.
We learned that Tashkent was devastated by an earthquake in 1966, with its epicenter in the middle of the city. Most structures, including old archeological sites, were destroyed, except for the stolid Soviet-style buildings. Soviet Chairman Brezhnev visited and rebuilding started with the help of workers from other Soviet Republics. Like other Soviet cities, Tashkent now has wide boulevards lined with sturdy buildings. Modern steel and glass structures have been added since independence. When the rebuilding was done, many of the soviet earthquake workers stayed, changing the ethnic composition of the city.
Three of my fellow Silk Road tour members and I decided to have a light dinner in a nearby café. We then went to the Uzbekistan Conservatory of Music to hear a visiting French musician perform a medley of composers, including Chopin and Ravel. The audience was appreciative and asked him to play several encores.
Tourism started on the next day. This included the Hero Monument, a massive statue of a man guarding a woman against the shifting ground, commemorating the earthquake of 1966; Independence Square, celebrating the break from the Soviet Empire in 1991; and a war memorial park, to preserve the memory of the men that died (538,000), and went missing (128,000), in World War II. We strolled to the parliament building, a newish Soviet-style structure; then walked around a Romanov villa, now a museum; and, for a view of the city, the observation deck at the Uzbekistan Hotel. From there, we saw that the city was covered with gardens and greenery along the wide boulevards, and the Timur monument was also set in a lush park.
Chorsu Bazar: Our walking tour took us through Chorsu (crossroads) Bazar in the old city. The huge market is divided by product type, e.g., bread and confectionery, meat, eggs, dried fruit, and cheese. The aroma of fresh bread baked in Tandoor ovens was appetizing.
Astronaut Subway Stop: Our walking tour guide related Uzbekistan’s important role in the Soviet Space Program, including the nearby Baikonur Cosmodrome, a launch site for many soviet missions, and space engineering contributed by Tashkent companies. Again, disabusing me of the notion that Uzbekistan was a third-world country.
Central Asian Pilaf Center: After a drive through heavy traffic, we arrived at the prominent Tashkent eatery preparing vast amounts of plov, the local version of rice pilaf. We were lucky to find a table for eight people in a vast hall. The plov was prepared with rice, beans, and raisins, all fried in a mixture of vegetable oils with meat flakes sprinkled on top. The dish was heavy, but was accompanied by thick and creamy yogurt to help it down.
There was no need for dinner that evening. Instead, I walked the length of Broadway Alley near our hotel. It was an active street with food stalls, street artists, and playgrounds. I stopped at “Just Wine”. There, I enjoyed two excellent wines from the MSA Family Winery—a full-bodied dry Riesling and a Bayan Shirey, a local grape, that was a lighter dry white wine. I was particularly impressed by the quality, as I hadn’t expected to find wine in Uzbekistan.
Samarkand: Traveling southwest from Tashkent to Samarkand by coach, we covered 200 miles in five and a half hours on a two-lane intercity road that was poorly maintained. Rest stops had also not been modernized for tourists. The landscape between the cities was agricultural, flat, and green, planted with grain and vegetables. We passed villages with simple concrete brick dwellings covered by corrugated tin roofs. Doors to homes in villages, towns, and cities seemed to be objects of pride as all were ornately decorated.
Like Tashkent, Samarkand had wide boulevards, but buildings in the Soviet-Modernist style were not as new or high. The city felt more comfortable and manageable than Tashkent. As one of the oldest cities in the world, Samarkand was established on the Silk Road in the eighth or seventh century BCE. Now, it feels dedicated to the memory of Amir Timur (Tamerlane). Our hotel was between an imposing statue of Timur located in a traffic circle, on the left, and his mausoleum, on the right.
Ulugh Beg Observatory: Our first visit was to an observatory. Unlike his grandfather, Timur, Ulugh Beg was an intellectual rather than a warrior. He spoke several languages and excelled in mathematics and astronomy. His observatory, found in 1908 by archeologist Vasily Vyatkin, was the finest of its era. Considered an accomplished observational astronomer, he constructed madrassas (colleges) to pass on his love of learning. During his brief rule, the Timurid dynasty reached its cultural peak.
Timur’s Mausoleum: Ulugh Beg completed Timur’s mausoleum. It was designed predominantly by an architect from Isfahan, utilizing the decorative style of that city with carved bricks and mosaics. The main section is a highly decorated octagon that houses the crypts of several Timurid descendants. The dome, azure on the outside, is said to be the prototype of Humayun’s tomb in Delhi and later the Taj Mahal in Agra. Considering its age and intricacy, it is stunning. We left just as it began to drizzle, so I returned the next morning to further appreciate its bright, shining, sunlit beauty and to photograph it.
Registan Square: The next morning, we visited the magnificent Registan Square with its three madrassas (Islamic schools) surrounding a vast public square buzzing with tourists. The schools were built between 1420 and 1636 and have survived several earthquakes. During Soviet times, these masterpieces were restored; later, UNESCO refurbished them. The highlight was the mosque on the left-hand side of the courtyard, which was intricately decorated with lapis blue and gold leaf to symbolize Samarkand’s wealth. The delicate ceiling, with abundant gold leaf, is flat, but its tapered design gives it a domed look.
Departing the square, we walked along a broad pedestrian boulevard with upscale shops and restaurants on both sides to visit the imposing Bibi Khanum Mosque, which, in legend, was a gift to Timur from one of his wives. Its complex construction has three domes, four minarets, an intricate, colorful ceiling and mihrab (prayer niche), and a vast courtyard containing a huge Quran stand made of marble.
In the afternoon, we visited Shah-i-Zinda, the mausoleum of a cousin of the Prophet Mohammad who is thought to have brought Islam to the Uzbeks. The memorial includes a series of mausoleums along a narrow alley, some elaborately decorated.
Returning to Registan Square the next day, I wandered through the square with fewer tourists and walked down to the Bibi mosque. En route, I ducked into a building that housed artists and craftsmen, hoping to find an abstract painting to commemorate my visit, but the only atelier with that type of work was closed. Back at the hotel, dinner included a beautiful view of the sunset from the hotel’s roof deck while eating a shrimp salad from a local restaurant, accompanied by a glass of Bagizagan dry white wine from Samarkand, which was acceptable, but not as good as the MSA Family wines. As Uzbekistan is a doubly landlocked country, meaning all its surrounding countries are also landlocked, seafood is scarce. That dinner was my only taste of seafood in Uzbekistan.
Cultural visit: To experience local farming culture, we drove to a village on the outskirts of Samarkand. The city ended abruptly, and with it, the paved roads. We traveled through lush green fields planted with vegetables and some vines. The daughter of a family who spoke English accompanied us to her home. We entered through a large, high gate into a rectangular compound with an open courtyard. The compound housed elderly parents and their son’s family, with his two daughters and wife. We were directed to a kitchen and dining area, which was especially for guests. We chatted with the daughter and her cousin, who also spoke English, about their daily lives. The father, an English teacher, arrived later and told us his story of working for years in Brighton, England, and San Francisco, doing basic jobs like dish washing to support his family in Tashkent. The fortunate outcome of his challenging post-Glasnost expat experience was learning English, so he now earns a living teaching it. To better view the village, we hiked up a hill and enjoyed the view of the small town sheltered beneath a mountain with a stream flowing through the heart of it.
On another day in Samarkand, the tour group met with two wives, one a bride in an arranged marriage and the other who chose her husband. About 60 percent of marriages in Uzebekistan are still arranged. Coming from India, I was familiar with this dilemma, as about 90 percent of marriages there are still arranged. Theoretically, on the one hand, choosing such an essential aspect of life is crucial for happiness. This choice is often made at an age when informed decisions may not always be wise. In contrast, an arranged marriage is a contract between two families. The families bolster the contract, and affection between the couple can grow over time and can become enduring.
Bukhara: We left Samarkand for Bokhara on a fast train. The train station was modern, and the trip, which took less than two hours, was comfortable, as good as the Shinkansen trains in Japan and just as punctual. The landscape was flat, with some agricultural areas planted and green, while the unirrigated regions appeared arid with shrubs. We passed through some small, impoverished villages, but most towns looked modern and newly built. On arrival, we then then drove through a semi-urban area to Bokhara. Our hotel was close to the Old City, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and the main tourist attraction for its many monuments.
Our trip leader escorted us to the main square, which was bordered by two caravanserais (caravan lodging) with a park in the middle and a mosque and shops on the sides. Bukhara’s history during the Silk Road era was a center of trade, scholarship, culture, and religion. At a nearby synagogue, we learned there was a sizable Jewish settlement for centuries, which ended with their recent migration to Israel. A short distance away was the old market, where I stopped to view the gallery of a master miniature artist.
That evening, we enjoyed a traditional dance and music show. Music was provided by a small guitar-like instrument and a tabla-like hand drum. The dancers’ movements were similar to Indian classical dance.
Bukhara tourist sites: Our morning walking tour began with a visit to the Ismoil Sominy Memorial, an Iranian Zoroastrian religious site. The religion was founded by Zoroaster before 600 BCE and survived until the 7th century, when Islam displaced it. We continued to the Chashma Ayub mausoleum and the legendary Job’s Well, where legend says he struck his staff into the ground, causing a spring to emerge. We ended the morning at the Ark Citadel, the city’s massive fortress built in the 5th century—all remarkable and memorable sites. After lunch, and an extensive bazaar tour, we arrived at the Kalyan minaret, 150 ft. high and 30 ft. in diameter at the base, which has survived earthquakes since the 11th century.
Before the morning heat, I strolled the old city’s labyrinth of shops. Old town Bukhara is one vast bazaar with tourist offerings nestled among the many monuments, just as it was during the Silk Road era.
Bukhara cultural experience: From Bukhara, we drove to Nayman, a village of 3,000 residents. We talked to the mayor, a former policeman, about the town and his challenging job of finding workers to maintain services when so many young people leave the village searching for more modern opportunities. As we walked to a family compound, boys and girls from the nearby school came to talk to us about their ambitions. English was among the languages they were learning. Like Samarkand, the family compound was entered through a high rectangular gate, and the open courtyard was planted with fruit trees and vegetables. We helped plant tomatoes and make a traditional lunch of plov, somas, fritters, and salad, which we later enjoyed in the guest dining room. The host was a retired army medic who also worked in a hospital.
Returning to Bukhara that afternoon and knowing I was searching for an artistic keepsake, the trip leader took me to a gallery. There, I found and liked two abstract paintings by the same artist. After staring at both for a while, my choice was made, but packing it to be checked luggage was challenging.
A brief edited comment about the artist: “Since 1978, Abdullaev has actively participated in national and international exhibitions; in 1988, he joined the Artists Union of Uzbekistan, and was awarded the Gold Medal of the Academy of Arts (2007). The art of Muzaffar Abdullaev’s temperament is raging in his canvases; paints seem to be flowing from his fingers, creating a turbulent action on the canvas. Depicting his vision of the world with the language of colors, he invites the viewer to reflect on life and its joys, past and present, while maintaining the national style of his visual language – a peculiar one, akin to music.”
Khiva: The drive from Bukhara to Khiva took almost 8 hours after several short stops and a longer one for lunch. The landscape for the first half of the drive was arid steppes with small bushes protruding from caked earth. After that, it became desert, a soft granular sand with an occasional hard-scrabble plant rising out of it. Finally, the landscape turned green at the Amu Darya River, and irrigated farms were planted with vegetables. The Amu Darya River once reached the Aral Sea, but no longer does due to its being drained for irrigation. The first half of the drive was smooth on a concrete road, but the road became rocky after we crossed the Amu Darya River.
Legend has it that the oasis of Khiva is where Shem, son of Noah, discovered water in the desert and joyfully shouted, “Hey va.” The town is now a living museum known for its many minarets. Our modern yet simple hotel was across from one of the entrances to the old city, so our tour guide walked us into the fort, which serves as a vast marketplace for tourist trinkets. It features restaurants, small shops, and stalls, and is near the four minarets for which Khiva is famous.
The next morning was spent in the old city, visiting the UNESCO Toshhovli Palace, built in the 18th century for the ruler of the Khiva Khanate, Allah Kuli Bahadur Khan. As the original residence of the Khans, it featured more than 200 rooms, three courtyards, the Dzhuma Mosque, and the Konya Ark (fortress) with its reception hall, throne room, residence, stables, and harem. It was a fantastic stroll through Khiva’s past, reconstructed with UNESCO’s help. Unfortunately, the temperature climbed that day to reach 100°F, which didn’t help the long walk. That evening, I joined the group for dinner on the rooftop of a restaurant in the old city. The night lights and the ensuing fireworks show were terrific, making the dinner magical.
Nukus: After a leisurely morning, we set off from Khiva for Nukus, our last city. The road was not good, so the going was slow and bumpy. When irrigated, the landscape was green; when not, it was hardscrabble. Traveling through villages and small towns, we arrived at Nukus around 5 PM, close to the dry Aral Sea, in the autonomous region called Karakalpakstan. I walked a few blocks to the local market and stopped at a beer shop to exchange words with a few locals. We didn’t get far because I don’t speak Uzbek or Russian, and they didn’t speak English.
Once a small watering stop on the Silk Road, the area was “closed” under the Soviets, and the army used it for chemical warfare research.
Nukus Museum, aka the State Art Museum of the Republic of Karakalpakstan, was our leading stop. Its avant-garde art collection is one of the finest in the world, second in size only to the Russian Museum in St. Petersburg. Established in 1966 by Savitsky, who collected most of the Central Asian artworks, and became the museum’s first curator. He also purchased artworks by Russian artists who had painted in, or were influenced by, Central Asia. With the museum, he sought to inspire the next generation of Karakalpak artists. The vast majority of artworks he collected were not put on show in the museum until 1985, a year after his death. It was only after the Independence of Uzbekistan in 1991 that the full extent of the collection and its importance were realized in the art world. We were given a two-hour tour guided by one of the curators. I especially liked Alexander Volkov and Vassily Lysenko’s paintings.
After an extended visit to the museum, we had a delicious and filling meal at a nearby Turkish restaurant. Then, I wandered around the town, unsuccessfully looking for packing materials for the painting I purchased in Bukhara. Fortunately, the hotel provided a used cardboard box that fit the painting well. The next day, we took a flight from Nukus back to Tashkent. The flight was late (of course), but we still arrived with time for a last bit of tourism.
We ended our 14-day tour back in Tashkent, with enough time to visit the Museum of Applied Arts, housed in a mansion formerly owned by a Russian diplomat. The museum had displays of traditional art— woodwork, metalwork, jewelry, ceramics, rugs, wall-sized paintings in the miniature style, and traditional embroidered clothes. It was an impressive and representative collection of Uzbek crafts. I also had time to enjoy a last glass of Bayan Shirey wine at Just Wine, before our sumptuous farewell dinner at a swish restaurant near our hotel, ending with farewell speeches.
IF YOU GO:
Cultural experiences: Most tour companies make appointments with locals to give travelers a flavor of life in the country. In Tashkent, a local gave us his thoughts on the Soviet times and the difficult transition when it was difficult to find work and pay for services the soviet state had previously provided. The arranged meetings in Tashkent, Samarkand, and Bukhara felt somewhat staged, but were a worthy effort to convey life and Uzbek culture.
Hotels and Food: Our guide mentioned that the tour company chose the hotels because of their location, which was accurate for all of them. The Lotte Hotel in Tashkent, a member of a Korean chain, was comfortable. The Sultan Boutique in Samarkand, Amelia Boutique in Bukhara, Asia Khiva in Khiva, and Jipek Joli in Nukus were adequate two-to-three-star hotels.
As I mentioned earlier, since Uzbekistan is a landlocked country, the protein in every meal was some kind of meat. I adjusted my pescatarian diet to vegetarian and was quite happy with the variety of soups and salads, in which the vegetables tasted better than those in the US. The accompanying Tandoori bread was also fresh and good for sopping up the dressing.
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