Samarkand, march 22-24th, 1st impressions

We went from Tashkent to Samarkand  by “train grande vitesse”  TGV, 200 kms an hour, amazing! 40 dollars for a business class seat one way! Within 2,5 hours we were in Samarkand;

 

The name of the city alone recalling associations with 1001 night, sensual, silk road centre of wisdom and trade.  We had a lovely small hotel, way beyond the big tourist group sort of thing, privately owned and recently redone.

With a beautiful view on the famous Bibi-Ghanum mausoleum. Bibi being the Chinese princess, wife  of Emir Timur, the big boss here in the 14^th centur.  Timur the Lame, better known as Timurlane. He is the guy that inspired all those beautiful buildings, both Madrassas  (universities, we would call them, learning centres where students had their own cells) and mausoleums  where his family and dear ones were buries. Interesting to see those buildings of a scale unknown till then, at the same time that  we- in Europe - were building Cathedrals  in a similar scope of grandeur and finesse.

The streets are still wet with melting snow, and ostentative gaspipes delivering cooking gas to the houses.  The weather is good, 18 degrees Celsius, beautiful sunshine and it feels like a spring holiday, which it is: Navruz, 21^st of March.

Roberts' fieldtrips in Uzbekistan.

 After two one-day fieldtrips it was time for a long one. Scheduled to start Monday late afternoon for Samarkand it was only on Wednesday morning 5 o’ clock thast we could set out as my passport was bound up in registration procedures. It was raining heavily which did not deter our driver to bounce from one pothole to the other and by the time dawn was breaking we were getting close to Samarkand where the rain turned into snow.

(N.B. on this map, Tashkent is in the Northeast, in the yellow ' neck'  towards the Fergana valley, which is coloured brown because of the mountainous area.  Taking the road South-west, an inch down, Bucha is on the rim of the lightbrown area, then Samarkand is the next town, on the river (it takes a 4 hours drive to get there). Buchara is straight to the west form Samarkand, another ' inch' on the map. From there Robert went South, almost tot the border with Afghanistan. The beautiful walled city of Khiva is much further west, in the desert.)

We attended a meeting in Pastdargom, south of S., where the list of on-farm objects to be prepared by our project was discussed with the local representatives of the project, water users associations (WUA) and other stakeholders. I feel my attendance as purely ceremonial as I do not understand the Uzbek language and cannot read Russian either but in this bureaucratic, top-down community my presence is an absolute must. So I pay attention and listen carefully, without understanding much. After a field visit to some of the objects we proceed to Bukhara, through a flat and boring landscape. The only trees we see stand along the irrigation canals, which don’t make for a lively change either.

In Navoi we have lunch, the national dish Plov, a kind of Pilav. After enquiring with the waiter what would be a normal quantity we order one kilo, which turns out to be a huge mountain of delicious food but far too much for the four of us. We arrive in Bukhara at around 5 p.m. and I am too tired to walk around to get a first impression of the town. When we go out for dinner it is dark and there is nothing to be seen. The next morning to Alat, towards the Turkmenistan border. Underway lots of “snow” which at 17 degrees turns out to be salt.

Before starting a crop farmers have to leach their land to wash the salt out of the root zone, after which they apply manure and start cropping, applying excessive amounts of water to keep the salinity levels under control.

The sediment from the canals,

although good soil of low salinity, is not spread out on the fields and rises to two meter high on the embankment.

In the meeting it turns out that the WUA is not too interested in using the available money as they have to pay back 50% of the investment cost. Bottom up remains a tricky approach for Government and World Bank officials. It will lead to interesting discussions during the next WB mission. We lunch with the stakeholders on Samsa, the local Samosa and toast with one bottle of wodka. On to Karshi in Kashkadarya province. We pass the natural gas facility in the desert where the smell of rotten eggs cannot be ignored. Sulfur is one of the by-products of purification of the gas.

Close to Karshi we cross a large irrigation canal 350 m3/s. The water is being lifted from the Syr-Darya by 6 pump stations, before flowing back heavily polluted with fertilizers, chemicals and salts to deposits in the desert, where it evaporates.

Without irrigation this country would not exist and it is not amazing that the Aral Sea has been so severely reduced. The temperature is around 23 degrees and it feels like a mild summer day. The next morning it rains and we go on fieldvisit. A muddy business. The landscape remains flat as a pancake and reminds me of the polder in NL also because of all the canals and drains that cross our way. Lunch is a two bottle of wodka affair as it is my birthday and that must be celebrated of course. Returning to the north gives us a good view on the foothills of the Himalaya; the fruittrees are apricots.

On the way back, while stretching my legs on a petrol station I am attacked by a bitch, which is of the opinion that I am too close to her pup (20 m). My trousers are ruined and I have 4 fang marks on my legs ( and a tetanus shot!) . The dog is vaccinated against rabies recently as the owner is able to proof with its health certificate and my tetanus is valid for another three years, so sterilization with alcohol and some bandages do the trick. Back in Tashkent my colleague/interpreter calls on a medical friend to have a professional look at my leg and after some additional alcohol on the scratches it is time for a beer and pumpkin soup. All’s well that ends well. 

The annual conservatorium concert, March 15

I gladly accepted the invitation by my Uzbek teacher, Mukaddis, to come to the annual concert of the conservaorium at 15:00 in the afternoon. The concert being given by the teachers, performing traditional Uzbek music and songs. Impressive, all of it!

The building from 2002 is made to impress, dimensions are far beyond human proportions. In one of the pictures you can hardly see the student practicing trumpet playing on the top balcony.

In the entrance they used traditional style decorations, quite nice actually.

The theatre itself is relatively normal, but for the sun-decoration in the background.


















                                                                  
The music is of a new kind to me. Somewhere in between Arabic (songs with-to our ears- a wailing sound and melody) and Hungarian Gipsy dance music. Interesting of all was that the session begun with a fairytale, beautifully told, even though I couldn’t understand a word. Then the songs were woven into the fairy tale, so it obviously became a story. Pity that Mukaddis couldn’t stay and translate.

The music is of a new kind to me. Some musical instruments  were also different from what we know and – so amusing-  they played the violins while holding them upright on their knees.

The visitors are mostly older people, as the younger ones prefer pop music.  Women all wear a scarf or (exceptional)  a hat. The men all wearing traditional square skullcaps.

the foodmarket

March 13, 2012

Today started as a sunny day, and as I missed my outing yesterday, I decided to join Robert in the taxi that brings him to the office at 08:30, in order to investigate the area behind the office. There is a mosk and “the” big food market, and I might walk back. I didn’t walk in the end as I bought too much and that was heavy. There were all sorts of things that I hadn’t found up to then: laurel leaves, ground red chili pepper, and other spices.

The office must have been a nice building once upon a time, with nicely laid out wooden floors. It is a bit deteriorated now, but well, his office room is not bad at all:  a room with a view! I was introduced to the Uzbek deputy team manager, a very friendly gentleman our age.

Fresh bread is being sold in huge quantities! And tortlar (tort is for cake and lar is the plural) was offered to me” 3 pieces for only 5000 Cym, which is 1,50 euro

Before I come to the actual open food market on the first floor, there are some interesting boutiques on ground level:  the wool & embroidery shop is really crowded – would all those women do so many handicrafts at home? There are also very kitsch type materials for sale. In the other stores and in the market, only men do the buying.

The market is very spacey and airy, and feels very safe. People don’t bother me, but they do look at me,

as I am obviously a foreigner, taller and blond

(well lets say that grey looks blond too J).

There are women sitting on the stairs selling fresh green herbs only. For amazingly low prices: 200 Cym for one bunch of coriander, which is 5 cents!   Before I take pictures I ask the people involved if I may. This usually leads to interesting dialogues (I am afraid not in Uzbek yet) about where I come from (Golandya), and then the men mention Ajax and Feyenoord; I manage to say thank you (rahmat!) and wish them a very good day:

 Kunigiz Yachshi Ustin.

The Friday mosk I didn’t dare enter as a woman. But is looks quite nice from the outside

The cafeteria looks quite festive, Chinese influence? 

Socializing in Tashkent

12mar11 

Learning Uzbek. From the start I had this feeling that I wanted to learn Uzbek instead of Russian. Especially since Russian is, in fact, the language of the Soviet supremacy, which the Uzbeks discarded in 1991 when they became independent. Last week, while visiting the arts & crafts museum, I accidentally met a nice older guy, who appeared to be co-auther of a guide about Tashkent; he also translated it from Uzbek into English. Long storys short, he is now my Uzbek teacher. Robert still considers learning Russian, as more people speak Russian than Uzbek. I find it difficult to memorize the words, that have nothing in common with the languages I know. F.e. “have a nice day” is 

Kuningiz yakhsi utsin. “My name is Yeleka”  seems more logical: Mening nomim Yeleka. Yachshimisiz: how are you? Rahmat, men yakhshiman:  thanks, I am fine.

Finding wine. On one of our reconnaissance walks we spotted a small storeshowing winebottles in the window,  in a street lined with expensive (brandnames) boutiques (f.e.: ZARA  coming soon here!).


So while Robert had  to work on some documents on saturday
morning, I set out, with map in order not to get lost. Indeed there was wine! About 2,40 euro a bottle, fine Italian wine produced in Uzbekistan. They prove a bit sweet(dolce) but are drinkable. Imported wine came from Georgia and was 24 euros a bottle. Next to the winestore was a really beautiful red woollen wintercoat for sale, which I wouldn’t mind having.       I could have it for 230 dollars, said the guy in English.
I realized it was about the same price as the delicately painted miniature we saw the day before, of the derwish reading a book in order to broaden his world - I rather prefer the miniature for my birthday then.

Making acquaintances-1. Thursday evening we were invited at Michel and Lily’s. Michel is a French freelance consultant our age, working for ‘Roberts’ project, living here for 20 years already with his Uzbek wife Lily, who speaks French(she was a teacher), Uzbek and Russian.

That evening was good to recuperate my French! And interesting! Lily’s grandparents were – with thousands of others - deported from Korea by the soviets, her mother then being 8 years old. The original idea was that they would mingle with and spy on the Japanese. Since Koreans are enemies of the Japanese they appeared to be useless to the regime, so they were dropped at one of the outer borders, in the Fergana valley of what is now Uzbekistan. Some history we never learnt about!

Making acquaintances-2. Saturday morning walking out of our apartment building, we found our English-speaking Uzbek neighbour (of the floor beneath us) cleaning the little patch of green outside. What a surprise! Robert had already thought of doing that as it looked so miserably, but obviously they were of the same mind. And as it is springtime, on march 21 they celebrate “Navrus”  here, it is time to do something about the parks and gardens. He introduced us to his father, who couldn’t speak English, he was sorry to say. But.. the guy spoke German fluently, had been a professor in Leipzig, so we developed quite a nice conversation. He then told us that one daughter was working in Singapore, as a diplomat and another one in London. And they were visiting there annually. And of course we must come and visit soon! Somehoe we felt more at home in this bloc, our Marhalla! A Marhalla is traditionally an area where the extended families live together. They celebrate deaths and births and weddings together, and are a strong social unit. When one is thrown out of, or leaves,the Marhalla, you are lost. 

To the arts& crafts fair. Lily said we must go to this fair on Sunday at the intercontinental hotel. So we took a taxi (1,50 euro, private people earning some extra money with their cars, usually standing rather ubiquitously along the roadside) to meet Lily and her daughter ther. It was like a bijenkorf warehouse grand sale: overcrowded with grabbing women, and I was one of them- such beautiful carpets, rugs, wollen or silk, and eautiful embroidery. I came home with two handmade traditionally dressed dolls, another embroidered handbag, and a very nice embroidered shirt.

About the Arts & Crafts in Uzbekistan

 March 10, 2012

Silk. From the book “A carpet ride to Kiva, I learnt that China’s secret about how to make silk, (the silk worm) was transported along the silk road in the elaborative hairstyle of a Chinese princess. Marrying a Barbarian, she was prepared to do, but living without silk was inpossible. In Khiva an oasis in thedersert, the people know since how to make silk and how to dye it with natural colours (Walnut for bwown/ silver,  Madder root (from Afghanistan) for red, dried pomegranate skins for deep gold, indigo; a blend of onion skins, quince, apple vine and mulberry leaves gave a cheerful buttercup yellow.

The silk is both used for weaving and for embroidery

hey use either the silk alone, silk mixed with cotton 50-50, or cotton alone. In the museum store I bought a silk shawl, in ikat weaving, beautiful colours!

Weaving:

In the governmentwarehouse I bought 3 lenghts of mixed cotton-silk, to decorate our walls. See pictures. T

Embroidery. In the museum I found embroidered materials, for decoration , in two styles: “suzani” , stitches are made next to each other filling up a line or flower etc. Another one is like crocheting. I bought a handbag done like that ( picture above). The symbols are interesting: pomegranate and almond again, for love and good luck!  

Pottery & china; The lady in the museum shop told me that her fathers family made the pots, somewehere on the road to Samarkand. The craft is as old as the world. I couldn’t resist to buy one bowl because of its nice design and shape, and put it to good use making a cheese souffle in it.  The china goes back to the 20st century only, and has very often cotton in its decorations. Here is our teapot and cups.

Wood carving- well now this is impressive! They use the Islamic tradition of non figurative decorations, but also leaves and flowers.

Miniature painting. This is an old art, which they used for decoration of books. Nowadays ( we spoke to a miniaturist painter at work in an old former Madrassah, muslim school), students can get a government paid 5 year education/ training to become a miniature painter.

A 6x 10 inches picture (15x 25 cms) costs 250 american dollars. And would take 4 weeks to make. They are unique products and show very different scenes, poetic, landscapes, etc. For Roberts birthday a bought a small one of a bird, 20 dollar.  The actual paining is 4x7 cms. (1,5 x 2,5 inch). They also had a lovely, colourful 8-angular low table for sale, which would fit perfectly in our still empty room, but that cost 2500 dollar, so I am only dreaming of it now. Roberts’ practical remark was:  what will we do with it when we are done here after 2,5 years? It doesn’t fit in our relatively crowded house in Renkum anyway.

First impressions

A Monday morning, sun shining brightly and briskly. I go out for a walk in the neighbourhood to get to know my new surroundings. picture right is around the corner.

In front of the presidents residence, nearby, the road is blocked for cars, but pedestrians are allowed, be it behind a fence. To prevent the inhabitants of the apartments opposite spying, a huge and elongated billboard has been placed in the greens. Impressively organised greens though, with sprinkler tubes inserted everywhere, for irrigation during the hot and dry season from June-August.

 

There‘s a canalized river and a decorated bridge. Decoration is an Uzbek tradition, their craft, their special gift. And I will see more

proof of that later.  According to our guide-book, here, in the central area of Asia, an amalgam of arts and crafts developed as a result of the exchanges on the silk route, in the Caravanserai, in the bazaar and in the oasis, all between 300 - 1100 AD.

Also insights in science and religion were developed in such exchanges. Abu Ali ibn Sina, “the Prince of All learning” , in the west better known as Avicenna, was the greatest medic of the world in his time. He systemized the knowledge of his time in a philosophic encyclopedia, around the year 1020; which, when translated in Latin in 1543, became the text book for western medicine until well in the 19^th century. He also translated Aristotle in Arabic. Al Beruni ( 973-1048) knew 500 years before Columbus that the wrld was round, that the earth went around the sun. An astronomer, historian, poet, geographer, pharmacologist , mineralogist, he served in the academy of learning in Gurganj.

The walk along the riverside is revealing: in Europe, since about 40 years, we live and build towards the water, as it has scenic and recreational qualities. Here the water is “ in the backyard”  Although at some point there is a restaurant (now closed) next to it, and  a nice stretch of green with trees.

Next must be a cotton factory or institute, as the long wall is decorated with the cotton fruit all along.

And amazing to see the huge pipes running alongside: the city-heating system, legacy of the Soviet time (ended in 1991).

My next purpose is the museum of arts and crafts. The pictures tell all, embroidery, pottery, jewelry, woodcutting, natural dying of silks, ikat weaving:

Everywhere in the designs we find the cotton motif,

 the pomegranate( for good luck) and the almond.

I wil tell more about those arts and crafts in the nest entry,

bye for now, Jelleke