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