The Travelling Teacher: Uzbekistan

July 14-15

Hello everyone!

My next stop in Uzbekistan was one of the region’s most famous names: Bukhara.

The Mir-i-Arab madrassa, which is
still a working Islamic school

The Kalon Minaret and Mosque - the former s almost 900 years old

Sitting 480 km from Khiva, this place was one of the most spiritual towns in what we now call Central Asia. It was the hometown of Imam al-Bukhari, an Islamic scholar whose book is seen as the second holiest in Islam after the Quran.

Abu Ibn Sina, who wrote one of most important early
books on medicine, was also born here

The Bolo Hauz mosque, which is also called 'Gallery of the Pillars'

Islamic influence dominates in Bukhara, which is currently Uzbekistan’s third-largest city. Even its full name translates as ‘Pillar of Islam’. Though Uzbekistan classes itself as a secular state, many of its inhabitants identify as Muslim. Everywhere you look in central Bukhara you will find a madrassa, minaret or mosque, many of which use the blue tiles which the Uzbek Silk Road towns are renowned for.

Quite a lot of Muslim women were at the mosque at sunrise

The interior of the Kalon Mosque, which can hold 12,000 people

The main area of interest to a visitor is the old town, a collection of wider streets between two small ponds. The more popular pond is called Lyabi-Hauz. There used to be many more but they were often housed nasty bacteria as well as water. The Soviets buried almost all of them: these two remain.

A lovely reflection of the khanaka, originally a Sufi
safe house, is created in the morning

The Lyabi-Haux pool has a fountain show until 11pm on summer evenings

Bukhara was assimilated into the Uzbek SSR in 1924, after a few years of heavily-monitored ‘independence’. Before that, many battles between the locals and Soviets occurred, with Bukhara crushing Russian advances in 1918. It’s interesting that the communist government left the Islamic buildings standing, though they were converted for more practical, atheist uses.

The main mosque was changed into a warehouse by the Soviets,
reverting to original use after independence in 1991

The Mir-i-Arab madrassa was holding exams so we couldn't explore inside

At this time Bukhara was an independent emirate, rivalled by Khiva’s khanate to its west. It was the location of one of the more gruesome episodes of British imperial expansion, when the British and Russians were ‘exploring’ this area as part of expeditions now called ‘The Great Game’. One British explorer, Stoddart, arrived in Bukhara and was soon arrested by the emir. Another Brit, Connolly, came to secure his release. They were both made to dig their own graves and then beheaded in the Registan.

Stoddart apparently showed a lack of respect to the emir by riding his horse
up to the ark's entrance, rather than dismounting and walking

The emir of the time, Nasrullah Khan, was known as 'The Butcher'
and killed 28 relatives to become the leader

The Registan is the main square outside the Ark, Bukhara’s old fortress. I never made it inside, owing to seeing other sites and avoiding the +40°C heat, but it looked impressive from the outside.

Pickpockets from bazaars would be stripped naked and put on a donkey,
which would parade the criminal for others to see and vilify

This seemed a more comfortable option than trekking in the fierce heat

I didn’t get to see the Ark’s interior because a friend and I got up at 5am to witness the beauty of the Islamic buildings at sunrise, when the light is soft enough to give the mosques and madrassas new character. It was a challenge to leave an air-conditioned room to go into the heat – a crazy statement for 5:30am – but we witnessed a lovely sunrise and saw Bukhara in a different, quieter majesty.

The sandy glow of suntise on the Kalon Mosque

It was incredibly peaceful experience, with the only sound being
birds and women shuffling towards the mosque

The height of the Silk Road’s importance was obviously a time before air conditioning. Back in the day, people could stay cool in Bukhara’s three domed bazaars.

The larger dome housed one of the bazaars

Spices were a common commodity on the Silk Road

They’re built in such a way that they create a vacuum between the two layers, meaning that the market’s interior temperature can be vastly different to that of the outside air. This helps in winter as well, when the temperature drops below -20°C. Hard to imagine that when you’re dripping with sweat at 7am but I do believe them.

It's not high tourist season so the bazaars were pretty quiet

Decorative knives like these can set you back up to $350

A refreshing mountain mint tea from a bazaar

Those three bazaars each used to specialise in a certain good. This is no longer the case but one of those products is commonly seen: carpets. Bukhara carpets have a certain style (geometric) and colour (blood red) and apparently are known around the world. I don’t remember seeing them at CarpetRight, maybe because they were out of our price range. Their speciality is a ‘magic’ carpet, which is one layer but has a different pattern on each side. It takes two women, working simultaneously, two years to complete one of these carpets.

The carpets are made by hand out of silk or wool from camels, sheep or goats

This capert is sold for $48,000. Birthday's
coming up, mum and dad...

Close to the carpet shop is my favourite sight in Bukhara: the Kalon Minaret. Like sunsets, I seem to be a sucker for a minaret. This one is simply stunning, with different patterns neatly dividing the 47 metre tower. It was built in 1127 and survived the bulldozing which was suffered by the rest of the city, both from Ghengis Khan and Tamerlane.

Legend has it that Genghis Khan was so overcome with awe when seeing the minaret
that he demanded it not be destroyed. Everything else was razed.

Originally used as a lighthouse, there are 105 steps to the top

One lovely story about the minaret is that they used to push suspected female adulterers off the top in a sack to their deaths. OK, that part isn’t the lovely bit; the nice part is the story of one very clever lady. She insisted that she jump from the top and had decided to wear a lot of clothes for the occasion, meaning that they created a parachute effect when she jumped, allowing her to survive. Apparently this method of death was stopped soon after.

During this time is was also called the 'death minaret'

There are 16 windows at the top - I'm not sure which
one they were shoved out of

When those two warriors travelled in this area of the world, they probably feasted on Uzbekistan’s national dish: plov. Each area will make the rice-based dish in a different way to give it a unique flavour. We were shown how the dish was traditionally cooked in the Bukhara area before having a delightful and copious portion of meat and rice cooked with onions, garlic, carrots, raisins and an innumerable number of spices.

These are the ingredients before the rice -
the raisins give the plov a lovely sweetness

This all took place in a local house
in Bukhara's Jewish Quarter

Good food in Uzbekistan is often washed down with good vodka. This was done the night before in a restaurant whilst watching football. We were taught how to say cheers in Uzbek: ol’dik. Yes, we did giggle the first time we said it aloud.