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The full list of historical sights In Tashkent, Bukhara, Samarkand and Khiva

             "Magic Tour to the Past"  by A. Karandashev

  What can be more pleasant in an early summer morning of Uzbekistan than to sit on comfortable leather cushions of your car and start a "magic tour" through millenniums to Samarkand? The road will merrily run in front of you and unexpectedly you will drive into a legend - a wide chine that meets you at the entrance to Samarkand and which are called by common people as Timur's Gate. Local people will gladly tell you a legend that several centuries ago Timur, the ruthless conqueror of Asia, and his innumerable troops approached Samarkand but mountains stood high on their way protecting the city. Timur did not want to waste time searching for mountain passage and he ordered his soldiers to cut the road in the chine. Since that time this place has been called Timur's Gate.

  Still being under impression of the legend and the beauty of the flower carpet that spread itself upon mountain slopes you find yourself in Samarkand and your eyes witness pictures of ancient time. At the very entrance to Samarkand you can see the monument to Ulugbek - a ruler of Samarkand, philosopher and astronomer. He discovered 1015 stars, registered in international astronomic charts under his name. By this Ulugbek brought fame to Samarkand and to the East in general. Time and natural disasters ruined his observatory, damaged his astronomic instruments but failed to efface the memory of this outstanding ruler of Samarkand who preferred a telescope and books to a sword and throne.

  Nowadays Samarkand is a big modern city with standard houses, noisy bazaars and citizens always hurrying with their never-ending routine work, who, possibly, got used to the abundance of historical monuments left to us by generations of skillful craftsmen, both famous and unknown. The city has been reconstructed several times. Yet, whenever you walk out to the Registan Square you feel as if you made a long journey to past centuries.

  It was Timur, who initiated the construction of this square and every next ruler of Samarkand made his own contribution. It seems that builders, architects, artists and other craftsmen had never left this place. They fostered and groomed their works, covering them with sophisticated floral ornament, unique wood carving, alabaster carving, making unbelievably beautiful window sun screens called panjara which were assembled from hundreds of wooden fragments without a single nail or glue. Alabaster carving was the most labor consuming works as masters had to apply ornament before the wet material dried out.

  For centuries artists had been collecting recipes of their paints, keeping them in secret and handing down from generation to generation. Minarets and mosques, mausoleums and palaces decorated by these paints have lived through centuries neither loosing their shine, nor turning into dust. Modern masters use all means with monuments, which, nevertheless, suffer from destructive effects of nature and time. They have to repeat restoration works more often than their predecessors many centuries ago.

  An engineer of the XXI century design buildings being well equipped with a computer and vast knowledge about nature and resistance of materials. What kind of knowledge and instruments could engineers of the XV century have if Ulugbek madrassah has survived till our time and continues to resist political and natural outbreaks? One of the earthquakes deflected one of the minarets of Ulugbek madrassah from its vertical axis though it has withstood over centuries and still stands as if listening to the breathing of the Earth.

  Recalling the scope of destruction caused by the earthquake in Japan and remembering what high technologies were applied in construction of these buildings, one cannot agree that ancient craftsmen were exceptionally skillful. Some buildings, certainly, collapsed and the beauty was lost forever. Samarkand is not an exception. Yet, monuments that have lived till now will always remind us that high technologies and comprehensive knowledge of construction are not everything. Just put a tiny part of your soul into your creation - and you may be sure that it will live through the centuries. We can be proud that the inclined tower in the Italian city Pizza has a brother in Samarkand - a minaret of Ulugbeks madrassah.

  The time of our visit to the past flew by, the evening sky reminds you that you should go back. We suggest you stop for a moment and buy local round bread famous all over Uzbekistan. People say that transit buses passing this city stop specially to give passengers a chance to buy this bread and present it to their relatives and friends upon arrival. There is also a belief that people organizing a feast arrive in Samarkand especially for this kind of bread. We tasted it and may sure you this bread is very delicious. By the way the recipes of this bread are also the heritage of the past. So if you have a day to idle away and wish to make a trip into the past, go to Samarkand. The impression will be unforgettable.

                                        "Night in Bukhara"

  The Bukhara city, the city of my childhood, city full of beauty, greatness and mystery. I was born in this city, grew up on these narrow streets, playing games. And the memories about walks through the ancient city became my vivid recollections.

  Bukhara is a city-oasis, right in the middle of dessert, what itself is a big miracle and salvage for traveler. The weather is usually very hot here and many citizens during the daytime try to spend their time at home where coolness becomes a great pleasure. When the evening comes, the folk come out for walks and to spread the big "dastarhon" (table cloth) and sit on "tapchan" drinking green tea. It's when the real Uzbek tea drinking starts. All the family, in Uzbekistan it is usually very big, come together and discuss the main themes of the day, usually it is crops and prices on local market, and listen to the stories told by elders. In Uzbek family they are always honored and their advices considered as valuable as gold. Often the people go to sleep early to get up early and do the big half of the work till the heat captures the town. The city slowly falls into sleep and everything calms down with crickets singing and city lamps shining upon the empty streets. That's when I liked to explore the city. When the night comes the city view changes. You lose the track of time. As if you become the witness of oriental tales, waiting to see the flying carpet in the sky full of night stars or the camel caravan passing loaded with embroidered bags. You nearly stop breathing when you see the minaret "Kalyan", the guard standing between two madrassas, covered by moonlight. Slowly sitting down onto the steps, that are still warm, you listen to the song of the wind, telling about the great achievements and works of the past. These moments give the sense of incredible beauty that you will with your heart and make you feel the blessing of ancestors that lived on the sacred land. Looking at the beautiful patterns on the walls of monuments, one starts to understand how big the heritage left to us is and how skillful the craftsmen were. This atmosphere of magic covers you, entering the very part of your soul, and makes you feel the beat of the history. At night all ancient creations start talking with you in the language of heart, granting with eternal love for the great and blessed city. In your dreams you continue the remaining of old Bukhara walls and looking at the only left entrance gate you understand how big the city was circled with the thick wall. You slowly touch the gates and feel the hard wood that was tested by centuries. The old streets you walking along were once crowded by merchants rushing to bazaar, poets and writers eulogizing the beauty of orient, singers singing the songs about legends, wise men hiding the eastern mysteries. Realizing that ancient civilizations grown up by this land, left you the pearls of their creations as a heritage, fills you with the sense of pride and gratitude to homeland, to streets of childhood, to house that was build by your grandparents. You bow to great and holy city, to its noble view and cultural heritage. The dawn will again lighten the city, and again and again it will welcome the seeking travelers wishing to find the key to oriental mystery.

                    "Conolly and Stoddart"

                  by CalumMacLeod and Bradley Mayhew

  When Colonel Charles Stoddart rode into Bukhara one week before Christmas 1838, on a mission to reassure (he emir over British movements on his southern border, little did he know that he was to be kept in the foulest pit in Asia for over three years, tortured and tormented by a sadistic, paranoid madman, finally to be publicly beheaded in the central market square of the holy city, abandoned by the very country which had sent him there.

  Things had not gone well from the start. Totally unsuited for the tasks ahead and unschooled in the essential subtleties of Eastern diplomacy, Stoddart rode up to the Ark when he should have dismounted, floored an attendant instead of offering the customary sign of submission and was equipped with neither gifts nor letters from the Queen. Earlier that day he had saluted the emir on horseback in the Registan and the offended emir had not responded, except lo glare demonically at Stoddart for just a moment too long for the Englishman's good. Now his response was more emphatic. Stoddart was thrown into a six-meter deep vermin-infested hole, salubriously named the Bug Pit, a victim of his own ignorance and arrogance.

  For the next three years the sadistic Nasrullah played with Stoddart like a cat with a mouse and his treatment yo-yoed with the rise and fall of the British Empire. He was eventually moved from the Bug Pit into the marginally less revolting Black Hole and when the British took Kabul in July 1839 he even lived for a time in the house of the Chief of Police. In the meantime the vermin were led raw offal to tide them over until Stoddart's return. Only once, when an executioner climbed down a rope into the pit with orders to execute him on the spot, did Stoddart's nerve understandably crack. He became a Muslim and was rewarded with house arrest.

  Then in September 1840, light at the end of Stoddart's tunnel rode into town in the shape of Captain Arthur Conolly, of the sixth Bengal Light Cavalry. A quintessential Great Game player, Conolly had even invented the phrase. His mission impossible-to unite the perpetually warring khanates of Central Asia against Russia and to open up the Oxus to the dual benefits of God and British-made goods. Yet other factors motivated this complex one-man rescue mission. His zealotry hardened on a long sea passage to India with the Bishop of Calcutta and his heart broken by a jilting lover, Conolly had nothing to lose. Within weeks however, events had conspired against the two men and both were back in jail, their fate finally sealed by an unsolicited letter from the treacherous vizier of Herat, Yar Mohammed, describing Conolly (Khan Ali) as a spy, and a second missive from the Governor General of India, disowning him coldly as a 'private traveler'. The third long-awaited reply to the emir's personal letter to Queen Victoria never even arrived. All three confirmed the emir's most paranoid suspicions. When reports came of the British defeat in Kabul and their subsequent massacre in the Khyber Pass, Nasrullah knew he had no retribution to fear.

  On 24 June 1842, the two men limped into a packed Registan, dug their own graves and knelt silently before them, their arms tied behind their backs. Eyewitness accounts state that Stoddart was the first to be beheaded (though it is more likely that he had his throat cut) and that Conolly was soon to follow (although some say that as a convinced infidel up until his death, he would have suffered a different fate than his converted compatriot). Their bodies were buried where they fell, forgotten and abandoned.

  But not quite. Three years later the eccentric Bavarian clergymen Joseph Wolff arrived in Bukhara direct from Richmond, Surrey, his journey funded by a Conolly and Stoddart Society whip-round. Armed with little more than three dozen copies of Robinson Crusoe in Arabic and an array of cheap watches, Wolff had come to reason with the most brutal and unpredictable ruler in Asia. He had, at least, learned from Stoddart's mistakes. Dressed in full red canonicals, he prostrated himself before the emir, crying "Allah Akhbar'' a full 30 times instead of the proscribed three. For, as Fitzroy Maclean wryly notes, Wolff may not have been prepared to become a Muslim, but he was prepared to go to considerable lengths to avoid being thrown in the Bug Pit. In the end the brave eccentric's demands were refused and he was soon sent packing as the band played God Save the Queen over the emir's hysterical laughter. Later, in his bedchamber, he was forced to fight off the advances of an unveiled beauty sent to tempt him in the night and as he slept he clasped a package of opium to numb the potential pain of sudden execution. Eventually however, Wolff was freed to leave Bukhara, his life saved by his own ludicrousness, and the last page was turned on the Conolly and Stoddart legend.

  But not quite. Twenty years later, incredibly, Conolly's prayer book arrived through the post at his sister's house in London. The verses, which had given him such relief in his darkest hours had become his final testament, the last of his diary entries ending abruptly in mid-sentence...

           Uzbek Silk Embroidering (XIX-XX centuries)

  Silk embroidering was available for majority of women in Central Asia. Popularity of embroidering is explained by historical traditions and customs. People embroidered mostly for marriage preparation, as different embroidered goods were included in compulsory part of bride's dowry.

  Dowry usually consisted of "runjo-joypoosh" -embroidered bed sheet for newly wedded couple's bed, "suzane" - wall decoration, "tankpocoon" - big bed sheet for bath, "sachek" - decorated towel with embroidered ends, "boogjama" - big square coverlet for wadded blanket, "boogcha" - coverlet for keeping clothes, "choy halta" - bag for tea making, "belbog" - fiance's belt, "roomolcha" - handkerchief, etc. Clothes were also decorated with embroidering.

  Later, domestic art schools were created in accordance with embroidering peculiarities and traditions on different territories. There were some centers of art sewing in different regions and towns: Bukhara, Sharifkhan, Vabkent, Gijduvan, Nurata, Urgut, Shakhrisabz, Djizzak, Tashkent, Pskent, and Fergana. Art school of handmade silk embroidering of Bukhara was most famous of all schools. Embroidering of Bukhara school was one of the most impressive and beautiful in Central Asia. Main feature of that school was professional usage of tambour sew (one of the embroidering ways) and it's multicolor.

  The main theme of pattern is round pattern. It can be separated on concentric rounds, sectors, stars, etc. Usually rounds are decorated with leaf garland. There is a knot frame (wavelike vegetable leafs). Besides that, it's different for colors, sharp combination of soft colors. Multiple facts about textile producing can be found in documents of middle age writers (Istara, Ibn Haukal, Narsahi, etc). They tell about superiority of cotton and wool fabrics, made in Merv, Bukhara and Samarkand. From these and other documents it's clearly seen that embroidering was made on cotton fabric of white color - "carbos byas" and sorrel color - "malfa".

First, for big decorative embroidering low-quality half cotton and half silk fabrics ("adras" and "shoyi"), blue, pink, yellow, orange, violet, green colors fabrics were used. Later, high quality cotton and silk fabrics were used for embroidering. Embroidering was made with silk, wool and cotton threads, painted with natural paintings. Threads were mostly painted with vegetable paints, which were very colorful and firm. Paints recipes were made in big secret. "Isparik" (yellow color) was made out of dried filed flowers. Another way of getting yellow paint - was out of rhubarb's roots. For getting black color pomegranate's or onion husk or tea was used. One of the vegetable paints was "marena-ruan", which was used for printing patterns on fabric. To make "ruan" "morena" roots were put in boiling water. That procedure gave red color. This paint was put in warm place and brought to fermentation. After that, paint became yellow. Dark-velvet and purple-red paints for silk painting were made out of the "bakale" ("bakale-fernan" in Russian) - beechen Brazilian tree. There were 2 kinds of "bakale" - "kizil" (red) and "kora" (black). These colors were used for silk and suede. "Lajuvar" - azure was brought from rocky Badahshan (Tajikistan territory). In Bukhara 3 kinds of "Lajuvar" we used - deep blue, sky-blue, green-blue. Fabrics were painted in different kinds of blue and green. Threads were also painted using "indigo" - Indian plant. For stuffing patterns on gray-fabric, vitriol and alum were used. In the beginning of 20 century aniline paints were used for painting threads and fabrics. But this lead to deterioration of quality of embroidering paints. They faded under sun. But new paint added contrast and color to embroidering, gave it new features of modern times. In art embroidering, foremen from Bukhara used many technical means. Sews and details sections were of particular importance. Big surfaces of decoration were filled with one-sided smoothness "basma", two-sided "durua" and were made by special needles. And as a result of this work with little tambour sew "urma" with "bagiza", the effect of color enrichment was achieved.

Sew chains "urma" were often used for bordering, contour and pattern separation. The forewomen from Bukhara are used to combine above-mentioned ways in their technology. In different centers of embroidering art, main attention was brought to exact sewing technique and it created it's different and unique styles. Bukhara forewomen mostly used "urma" sew. Forewomen from Sharifkhan, Gijduvan and Vabkent regions were most famous. The difference was in the technical sews they were using. You can see a lot of rainbow patterns in their work -"afar", "urma", "chindahael", "kandahael" and "daraush". In Sharifkhan goods were made by "urma", "kandael" techniques and in Vabkent and Gijduvan -"bosma" and "urma" techniques were mostly used. There are most common kinds of decorative patterns in embroidering that was made in the region:

A) With separation of central field of pattern border. Such composition of embroidering can be found in all embroidering of Bukhara region. B) Rhombus net - "tobodonn", consist of shoots (there are flower patterns in its' cells.) This compositional pattern can be seen in Sharifkhan embroidering. C) Rappoport - with continuing vegetable themes, situated in horizontal lines. These compositions are typical for Gijduvan embroidering of beginning of 20th century. D) With central beam-like, big, round rosette. This composition was used by Bukhara embroidering forewomen.

Compositions of bed-sheets and coverlets for newly wedded couples -"joypoosh" and "ruydjo" were made in 2 ways:

A) "I" like, framed from 3 sides, except for the lower part, which was sewed with special border. B) With separation of arch from 3 sides with wide sewed frame.

Compositions of all praying carpets are the same. Special arch - "mihrab" that oriented praying person to Mecca (sacred place for all Muslims) was separated and was framed from 3 sides. Compositions of pillow-cases -" taknalush" were based on symmetric line. Big plant with symmetric branches on both sides was always embroidered on central field. This compositions created volume-like flower plant - "gool-bumta" or tree - "gool-darahf.

Compositions of tablecloths - "dasturhon", coverlets for "sandal" (national table), kerchiefs - "rumol", handkerchiefs - "dast rumol", men's belts - "belbog", mirror bags - "oyna-halta", comb bags - "shona-halta", bags for papers - "juggir" can be separated into 2 parts:

A) Usually corners of fabric were embroidered with patterns and borders were embroidered with pattern frame. B) Central fields and borders were embroidered with pattern frame, it was concluded with velvet from opposite sides. As an additional elements, flower patterns, round made in rosettes, leafs, etc. were used.

From ancient times embroidering showed ideas of people about nature and life. In Uzbek embroidering the main theme is nature - flourishing gardens, flowers, etc. The roots of traditional themes and forms of suzane can be found in fabrics of ancient times and in wall paintings of early middle-age time (Varahsha, Pyiajkent, Puykent). When it comes to psychological and visual perception, the Sharifkhan and Gijduvan embroideries were famous for their softness and tenderness of colors. Warm and soft colors were in harmony on gray fabric of dim and yellow colors. It transferred good mood to spectaculars. Embroidering with light-green, lily, blue-green, crimson colors, rosettes and flower motives expressed poetic and holiday spirit. If background of suzane was colorful, special colors were added to create new type of threads. Embroideries of Vabkent and Gijduvan schools were characterized by brightness and dynamical color selection. At the end of 19th and in the beginning of 20th century Uzbek embroideries, still keeping its old traditions, became more widespread and embroidering technique became ruder, colors became sharper. Handicraft fabric -"karbos", which was the base of embroidering, was substituted with factory made fabrics - silk, sateen, chintz and adras. After Bukhara Khanate became a part of Soviet Union in 1920-30th, embroidering received powerful impact. As a result of deportation of huge amount of craftsmen, objecting to new authorities, handmade silk, karbos and adras disappeared.

After that, new embroidering became smaller and was made with "muline" threads. Instead of handmade suzane, new suzane were made using chain stitch machine. After becoming independent in 1991 many kinds of lost handicrafts were restored. Nowadays exhibitions became one of the most widespread and popular cultural events of Uzbek people. Old traditions, craftswomen schools and old embroidering techniques are now restored. Big part of embroidering now is used as decoration of Uzbek houses, women's and kid's clothes, bedroom's, sofa, beds, kid's beds accessories. Craftswoman Zukhro Allaberdieva in Sharifkhan, Marhabo Aripova and Dilbar Khalimova in Bukhara, Abdullo Nazrullaev in Gijduvan and many others opened their centers and workshops of embroidering.They are working to restore embroidering traditions of Bukhara, Gijduvan and Sharifkhan schools of embroidering.