A "Plov' is as good as a feast

PLOV, the national dish of Uzbekistan, is relished not only by the citizens of Uzbekistan but by all the peoples living in Central Asia. Fragrant, hot, ready to melt in the mouth, the rice is cooked with carrots, onions, and garlic, and served in white mountains on a huge platter with morsels of mutton or beef. Among the Uzbeks, Kara-Kalpaks, Kazakhs and Tajiks and other peoples of Central Asia, it is the favourite dish for special occasions and holidays.

Rice cultivation is believed to have come into Central Asia originally from the Indus plain. Whilst there is not enough archaeological evidence to give a precise date as to when this development happened, it is believed that the emergence of irrigated rice cultivation coincided with the emergence of technology of how to build large scale and complex irrigation networks, a phenomenon connected with the appearance in the cultivated oases of the first urban trading centres sometime during the 6th millennium B.C.

As with other regions of Antiquity with arid climates the frontiers of the earliest State structures in Central Asia largely corresponded to the limits of irrigated land. By the end of the second and the beginning of the last millennium B.C, these irrigated lands accounted for the territorial outline of many states, including Bactria which developed on the upper course of the Amu Darya and its tributaries, Dagestan on the Terek, Margiana on the Murghab, Parthia in the foothills of the Kopet Dag mountains, Sogdiana in the valley of the Zeravshan, and Khorezm in the ancient delta of the Amu-Darya. The Greek historian Herodotus (c. 484-420 BC) mentions an irrigation installation existing on the river Ak (Akes) which watered the lands on the borders of Khorezm, Hyrcania and Parthia.

Under the Persian Achaeminid dynasty (sixth-fourth centuries BC) which dominated a large part of Central Asia, the development of agriculture was stimulated by the construction of canals, where wheat, barley, millet and many other crops were grown, including both grapes and rice.

When Alexander the Great was treading the path of conquest to India around 327 BC, rice was reportedly already widely grown in Bactria.

In addition various Chinese sources report that rice-growing was widespread in Central Asia by the second century B.C. The traveller and diplomat Zhang Qian tells how in the Ferghana and Parthia that "the way of life is sedentary, agriculture is practiced, rice and wheat are sown; wine is taken from the vine'.

Cooking up Plov (Source: The Australian Newspaper)

Traditionally rice was only grown on land belonging to the wealthy and powerful. This started to change in the second half of the nineteenth century, when most of the region became part of Tsarist Russia and peasants also began to grow rice for the market, on rented land.
Rice and the dishes prepared with it were primarily the food of the richer population up until this time. However at important ceremonial occasions - weddings, funerals, and the new year festival (navruz) dishes prepared from rice have long been a fixture. Today in Uzbekistan Plov is still cooked at the home of the bride and bridgroom to be served at weddings and other important family occasions and is an important ingredient in the ritual food served at funerals.

Plov today is still a popular street food. Prepared in giant saucepans often cooked in the street, it is widely available in cafes, canteens and restaurants.

There are over forty main recipes for plov (ED: hundreds of variants) using meat, carrots, onions and other vegetables, raisins, etc. The art is proudly transmitted from generation to generation. Cooking plov requires plenty of strength and staminal. A saucepan may contain anything from 50 to 300 kilograms of food.

For each kilogram of rice the cook must add an equal quantity of meat, carrots and onions, not forgetting condiments which give plov its distinctive taste. Woe betide the cook who does not know how to boil rice so that the grains don't stick together! .... until the dish is ready for the whole family or at festivals where many hundreds of trenchermen may gather for the feast.

Source: A 'plov' is as good as a feast - national dish of Uzbekistan Boris V. Andrianov UNESCO 1984 and other Plov sites.

Note: A handful of 15,000-year-old burnt rice grains was discovered by archaeologists in 2003.

News Item : Vice Speaker of Uzbek Parliament calls on Kyrgyzstan to abandon project of building Kambarata hydropower stations

Water is the lifeblood of Uzbeekistan and particularly the western areas such as Karakalpakstan. Blocking vital flows for questionable power stations in highly vulnerable areas is as such a critical national issue. I republish a recent commentary by the Vice Speaker of Uzbek Parliament and Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Central Council of the Ecological Movement of Uzbekistan Boriy Alikhanov who has called on Kyrgyzstan to abandon the controversial project of building the Kambarata hydropower stations a long abandoned Soviet scheme. His most pressing concern is that the cascade of Kambarata stations upstream from Uzbekistans populous Ferghana valley is located in a critically dangerous 9-10-point seismic zone.

Key parts of Boriy Alikhanov statement translated into english follows.

"Toktogul water reservoir with capacity of 19.5 billion cubic meters of water is the subject to increased risk, since the breakthrough of a dam can cause flooding and destruction of 50 thousand square kilometers, including the entire eastern and north-eastern part of the Fergana Valley, and the deaths of millions of people. Kambarata hydropower stations are objects that increase the overall risk of catastrophe. The consistent location of these high-pressure facilities significantly increases the risk of disasters, as a breakthrough in the cascade of Kambarata dams is very likely to lead to disaster at the Toktogul hydropower station. It becomes obvious that the construction and operation of water facilities in the seismically dangerous area of Naryn River Valley poses a threat to the appearance of a cascade effect of destruction, when a slight break in one place will cause a chain reaction with the occurrence of uncontrollable flow of water and mud weight. This represents a huge threat to the safety of downstream areas of Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kazakhstan,"

He has also recalled that in accordance with international law, the requirements of the UN Convention "On Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes" (1992) and "On the Non-Navigational Uses of International Watercourses" (1997), before implementation of planned measures, which may have significant adverse effects on other countries, a watercourse State must promptly forward a notice to the countries."This notification is accompanied by technical data and information, including environmental impact assessment in order to enable the notified States to evaluate the possible effects of planned measures. The Geneva Convention on the Impact of Hydropower Production to Other States also points out that in case a country wishes to carry out the development of electricity, which can cause serious harm to any Contracting State, the States concerned shall enter into negotiations with a view to concluding an agreement that allows for such development. The position of the Ecological Movement of Uzbekistan in this regard remains unchanged, it proposes to abandon the implementation of projects that threaten life of millions of people in the lower reaches of Transboundary Watercourses and supports options that are not related to risk of negative consequences"

Source: Central Asia News 28 June 2012

Book Review : Ancient Irrigation Systems of the Aral Sea Area: The History, Origin, and Development of Irrigated Agriculture

Ancient Irrigation Systems of the Aral Sea Area: The History, Origin, and Development of Irrigated Agriculture Edited by Simone Mantellini, Oxbow Books, 2012

Ancient Irrigation Systems in the Aral Sea Area is the English translation of Boris Vasilevich Andrianov’s work, Drevnie orositelnye sistemy priaralya, concerning the study of ancient irrigation systems and the settlement pattern in the historical region of Khorezm, south of the Aral Sea (Uzbekistan).

This work holds a special place within the archaeological schools of the C.I.S (former Soviet Union) because of the results obtained through a multidisciplinary approach combining aerial survey, and fieldwork, surveys, and excavations. This translation has been enriched by the addition of introductions written by several eminent scholars from the region regarding the importance of the Khorezm Archaeological-Ethnographic Expedition and the figure of Boris V. Andrianov and his landmark study almost 50 years after the original publication.

Source: https://peabody.harvard.edu/node/536
 

Aral Sea Entry in the Encyclopedia Britannica 1911

The Aral Sea (Kazakh: Арал Теңізі Aral Teñizi; Uzbek: Orol Dengizi; Russian: Аральскοе Мοре Aral'skoye More; Tajik: Баҳри Арал Bakhri Aral; Persian: ‎دریاچه خوارزمDaryâche-ye Khârazm) lay between Kazakhstan (Aktobe and Kyzylorda provinces) in the north and Karakalpakstan, an autonomous region of Uzbekistan, in the south. The name roughly translates as "Sea of Islands", referring to more than 1,534 islands that once dotted its waters; in Old Turkic the word "aral" means an island ire. sea of islands.

Formerly one of the four largest lakes in the world with an area of 68,000 square kilometres (26,300 sq mi), the Aral Sea has been steadily shrinking since the 1960s after the rivers that fed it were diverted by Soviet irrigation projects. By 2007, it had declined to 10% of its original size, splitting into four lakes – the North Aral Sea, the eastern and western basins of the once far larger South Aral Sea and one smaller lake between North and South Aral Seas.

By 2009, the southeastern lake had disappeared and the southwestern lake retreated to a thin strip at the extreme west of the former southern sea. The maximum depth of the North Aral Sea was 42 m as of 2008.

HISTORIC ARAL SEA

Reproduced in part is the entry on the Aral Sea from the eleventh edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica (1911) which gives an interesting description of what the sea was once like.

ARAL, a lake or inland sea in the west of Asia, situated between lat. 43° 30' and 46° 51' N., and long. 58° 13' and 61° 56' E. It was known to the ancient Arab and Persian geographers as the Sea of Khwarizm or Kharezm, from the neighbouring district of the Chorasmians, and derives its present name from the khirgiz designation of Aral-denghiz, or Sea of Islands.

In virtue of its area (26,233 sq.m.) it is the fourth largest inland sea of the world. It has nearly the same length as width, namely about 170 m., if its northern gulf (Kichkineh-denghiz) is left out of account. Its depth is insignificant, the maximum being 220 ft. in a depression in the north-west, and the mean depth only 50 ft., so that notwithstanding its area it contains only eleven times as much water as the Lake of Geneva. Its altitude is 2422 ft. above the Caspian, i.e. about 155 ft. above the ocean. The lake is surrounded on the north by steppes; on the west by the rocky plateau of Ust-Urt, which separates it from the Caspian; on the south by the alluvial district of Khiva; and on the east by the Kyzyl-kum, or Red Sand Desert.

On the north the shores are comparatively low, and the coast-line is broken by a number of irregular bays, of which the most important are those of Sary-chaganak and Paskevich. On the west an almost unbroken wall of rock extends from Chernychev Bay southwards, rising towards the middle to 500 ft. The southern coast is occupied by the delta of the Oxus (Phan, Amu-darya), one of the arms of which, the Laudan, forms a swamp, 80 m. long and 20 broad, before it discharges into the sea. The only other tributary of any size that the sea receives is the Jaxartes (Sihun, Syr-darya) which enters towards the northern extremity of the east coast, and is suspected to be shifting its embouchure more and more to the north. This river, as well as the Amu, conveys vast quantities of sediment into the lake; the delta of the Syr-darya increased by 134 sq. m. between 1847 and 1900.

The eastern coast is fringed with multitudes of small islands, and other islands, some of considerable size, are situated in the open towards the north and west. Kug Aral , the largest, lies opposite the mouth of the Syr-darya, cutting off the Kichkinehdenghiz or Little Sea. The next largest island is the Nikolai, nearly in the middle. Navigation is dangerous owing to the frequency and violence of the storms, and the almost total absence of shelter. The north-east wind is the most prevalent, and sometimes blows for months together. The only other craft, except the steamships of the Russians, that venture on the waters, are the flat-bottomed boats of the Kirghiz.

In regard to the period of the formation of the Aral there were formerly two theories. According to Sir H. C. Rawlinson (Proc. Roy. Geog. Soc., March 1867) the disturbances which produced the present lake took place in the course of the middle ages; while Sir Roderick Murchison contended (Journ. of Roy. Geog. Soc., 1867, p. cxliv. &c.) that the Caspian and Aral existed as separate seas before and during all the historic period, and that the main course of the rivers Jaxartes and Oxus was determined in a prehistoric era. The former based his opinion largely on historical evidence, and the latter trusted principally to geological data. There is no doubt that in recent historical times Lake Aral had a much greater extension than it has at the present time, and that its area is now diminishing. This is, of course, due to the excess of evaporation over the amount of water supplied by its two feeders, the Amu-darya and the Syrdarya, both of which are seriously drawn upon for irrigation in all the oases they flow through. Old shore lines and other indications point to the level of the lake having once been 50 f t. above the existing level.

Nevertheless the general desiccation is subject to temporary fluctuations, which appear to correspond to the periods recently suggested by Eduard Bruckner (b. 1862); for, whereas the lake diminished and shrank during 1850-1880, since the latter year it has been rising again. Islands which were formerly connected with the shore are now some distance away from it and entirely surrounded by water. Moreover, on a graduated level, put down in 1874, there was a permanent rise of nearly 4 ft by 1901. The temperature at the bottom was found in 1902 by Emil Berg to be 33.8° F., while that of the surface varied from 44.5° to 80 5° between May and September; the mean surface temperature for July was 75° F. The salinity of the water is much less than that of the ocean, containing only 1.05% of salt, and the lake freezes every year for a great distance from its shores. The opinion that Lake Aral periodically disappeared, which was for a long time countenanced by Western geographers, loses more and more probability now that it is evident that at a relatively recent period the Caspian Sea extended much farther eastward than it does now, and that Lake Aral communicated with it through the Sary-kamysh depression. The present writer is even inclined to think that, besides this southern communication with the Caspian, Lake Aral may have been, even in historical times, connected with the Mortvyi Kultuk (Tsarevich) Gulf of the Caspian, discharging part of its water into that sea through a depression of the Ust-Urt plateau, which is marked by a chain of lakes (Chumyshty, Asmantai). In this case it might have been easily confounded with a gulf of the Caspian (as by Jenkinson). That the level of Lake Aral was much higher in postpliocene times is proved by the discovery of shells of its characteristic species of Pecten and Mytilus in the Kara-kum Desert, 33 miles south of the lake and at an altitude of 70 ft. above its present level, and perhaps even up to 200 ft. (by Syevertsov).

Amu Darya sturgeon

The fish of Lake Aral belong to fresh-water species, and in some of its rapid tributaries the interesting Scaphirhynchus (ED: Amu Darya sturgeon) , which represents a survival from the Tertiary epoch, is found. The fishing is very productive, the fish being exported to Turkestan and Russia. The shores of the lake are uninhabited; the nearest settlements are Kazala, 55 miles east, on the Syr, and Chimbai and Kungrad in the delta of the Amu.

Authorities.- Makshhev's "Description of Lake Aral," and Kaulbars' "Delta of the Amu," in Zapiski of Russ. Geogr. Soc., 1st series, v., and new series, ix.; Grimm's Studies of the AralCaspian Expedition; Nikolsky's "Fishing in Lake Aral," in Izvestia, Russ. Geogr. Soc., 1887; Prof. Mushketov, Turkestan, vol. i. (1886), which contains bibliographical references; Rosier, Die Aralseefrage (1873); Wood, The Shores of the Aral Lake (1876); and Berg in Izvestia, Turkestan Branch of Russian Geog. Soc. (vol. iii., Tashkent, 1902). (P. A. K.)

Source: http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Aral

ED Note: In the 18th and 19th century European writers used the word "Kirghiz" (the early Anglicized form of the contemporary Russian "киргизы") to refer not only to the people we now know as Kyrgyz, but also to their more numerous northern relatives, the Kazakhs and the Karakalpaks. When distinction had to be made, more specific terms were used: Burut (буруты), Kara-Kirghiz (кара-киргизы) or "Dikokamenni Kirghiz" (дикокаменные киргизы) for the Kyrgyz proper, and Koisaks for the Kazakhs.

Stay in a real Yurt

Arriving at the Ayaz Qala Yurt Camp at dusk with the Sultanuvaysdag mountains backlit by the setting desert sun glowing a fiery red is particularly spectacular

The Yurt is a traditional transportable home for the nomadic turkic peoples of the steepe of Central Asia. In Karakalpak Yurta are known as qara u'y. In Russian the structure is called "yurta" (юрта), whence the word came into English.

Yurts are very ancient first appearing in the Late Bronze Age XII-IX centuries BC. Yurts vary with different sizes, and relative weights. They can be assembled or disassembled easily and be carried compactly on camels or horses and be rebuilt on another site. Complete construction takes around 2 hours.

Traditional Yurts consist of an expanding wooden circular frame carrying a felt cover. The wood frame is bent to shape using steam. The structure of the Yurt comprises a crown or compression wheel, supported by roof ribs which are bent down at the end where they meet the lattice wall. The top of the wall is prevented from spreading by means of a tension band which opposes the force of the roof ribs. The structure is usually covered by layers of fabric and sheep's wool felt for insulation and weatherproofing.

The inside of most Yurts feature a central fireplace or stove, with the smoke venting out of the crown of the structure. Families also traditionally use ornate wooden chests to store their cookware, clothing and bedding. Raised wooden platforms give the residents a place to sit or lay down. The traditional decoration within a yurt is primarily pattern based. These patterns are generally repeating geometric patterns. All patterns can be found among not only the yurts themselves, but also on embroidery, furniture, doors, and other objects within the Yurt. Yurts can be surprisingly warm during the harsh winter months; during the hot summers, flaps in the felt are lifted to allow breezes inside, cooling the interior

In Karakalpakstan one of the best places to experience living in a Yurt is at the Camping ground of Ayaz-Kala in the Elikkalinsk (“50 forts”) district of Karakalpakstan. The Yurt camp is located 25 kilometers to the nearest town Buston and around 150 kilometers from Nukus. It can also be accessed from Urgench via Biruniysky pontoon bridge across the Amu Darya River (Distance 70Km).

The camp is set amongst picturesque hills of the steppe at an elevation 30-40 meters above the plain, near the ruins of an ancient fortress Ayaz-Kala(IV-II centuries BC) and opens up onto the Sultanuaizdaga ridge on the one side and onto Lake Ayaz-kul on the other. The interior furnishing of residential Yurts at the camp consists of thick cotton mattress used both as both beds and seats, there are also copper jugs with water for washing. Each tent can accommodate from 20 to 25 people. There are 2 shower rooms and 2 restrooms not far from the guest yurts. A separate yurt is used as a dining room where guests can gather for a meal with a separate kitchen where meals are cooked on the hearth.

You can combine a stay at Ayaz-kala with a tour of the ruins of ancient fortresses Ayaz-Kala or to the many nearby Kala's including a rare Zoroastrian Tower of Silence. They also have camels for a ride in the desert or even a trip on a motorboat on Lake Ayaz Kul.

When you're a guest at Yurt Camp Ayaz-Kala you're offered the best of everything ... from the traditional blankets to the vodka! Musicians from the local village organise performances around the evening camp fire... staying in a Yurt is a really great way to experience Karakalpakstan.

The lower course of the Amu Darya

It is believed that the Amu Darya's lower course across the Kara-Kum Desert has gone through several major shifts in the past few thousand years for much of the time, the most recent period being in the 13th century to the late 16th century, the Amu Darya emptied into both the Aral and the Caspian Seas. Sometimes, the flow through the two branches was more or less equal, but often in this period, most of the Amu Darya's flow split to the west and flowed into the Caspian.

In ancient times the river was dammed by at least two large works: one lies near Amuy, at the beginning of the lower course, today called Carjuy, and the other was at Gurganj where the river bifurcated into two beds. Al-Muqaddasi one of the most notable geographers and scholars of his time,originally from Al-Quds (Jerusalem) around  985 AD describes the Gurganj dam as an amazing work of engineering, built all of wood and resembling sea-works in wood and wickerwork.

Just above this point, the river's course splits: a small branch runs north to the Aral Sea, but another larger branch runs west, past the town of Gurganj, into a deep depression called the Sarykamysh, about 155 miles SW of the Aral Sea. This Sarykamysh depression lies about 100 metres deeper than the river's bed at Gurganj. From the Sarykamysh, a dried-up riverbed called the Uzboi runs through the Balkhan hills all the way to the Caspian Sea.

The Aral Sea's level is itself only about 20 metres deeper than river level at Gurganj. Everything depends on the river's level. In times when the larger branch of the Oxus emptied into the Sarykamysh then in effect it became the true basin of the Amu daya not the Aral Sea.

At the Sarkayamysh the larger part of the river's waters end, like those of other desert lakes: evaporating, without exit. However in times past when little irrigation-water was used upriver, the filled basin of the Sarykamysh overflowed and discharged through the Uzboy into the Caspian.

History of the river's several courses:

Present-day back to about 1575 AD: both Jaxartes and Oxus rivers (the Syr Darya and Amu Darya) run to the Aral Sea, as they do today. Around 1575, the Amu darya's course changed.

Evidence: Abulghazi Khan, born 1603 and ruled 1642-63, wrote that the course of the rivers changed thirty years before his birth. Anthony Jenkinson, British trader and diplomat, the envoy of Queen Elizabeth, and the agent of a company founded in England for trading with Moskovia wrote in 1558-59 describing how the Oxus ran in the Uzboi channel but no longer reached the Caspian Sea, and made the prediction that the demands for irrigation would soon lead to a complete desolation of the region.

From 1575 to 1221 AD (the date of the Mongol invasion) the Amu Darya discharged into both the Caspian and the Aral Seas--usually the main branch ran to the Caspian, but during at least one period, a side branch also ran to the Aral. Thus the seas were linked. There are perhaps four courses which this river seems to have followed at various periods. At this time, the river split just above the town of Gurganj; the main branch ran south of the town (coursing westward) filled the Sarykamysh (about 150 miles SW of the Aral Sea) ran through the Uzboi bed SE to a gap in the Balkhan hills (over 100 miles SE of Krasnowodsk) and discharged into the Caspian Sea opposite the group of islands called Oghurtcha or Aghyrtcha.

Evidence: 1) In 1392, Zahir al-din al-Mar'ashi a native of Mazandaran, describes in detail every waterway from Mazandaran to Khwarizm. 2) Shihab al-din 'Umar al-'Umari (d. about 1348) remarks on the authority of witnesses from Khwarizm "On Khwarizm borders ... a country ... Mangyshlaq, a steppe ... separated from the Djaihun (Oxus) by the Ak-Balkan hills north of Khurasan." 3) In the reign of Oldjaitu (1304-16) Hamdallah al-Mustaufi speaks of the caravan route from Gurgan by way of Dahistan (the modern-day Mashhah i Misriyan) to Gurganj, which had just been surveyed and was 110 fars (380 miles) in length between Dahistan and Gurganj--and says on the Uzboi there was a great waterfall, called in Turkish gurledi, roaring; and a side branch of the Amu Daya fell into the Aral Sea--and tells how the discharge of water of the Amu Daya into the Caspian had raised the sea's level so that the peninsula of Abaskun (Pliny's Socanda) was submerged. 4) The historians Marino Sanudo (1325) and al-Bakuwi (beginning of the fifteenth century) confirm this description.

The river changed its course in 1221 because the armies of Genghis Khan destroyed the great dam at Gurganj : record of ibn al-Athir, xii, 257. From the tenth century to 1221, the Amu Darya seems not to have flowed to the Caspian. However the records are vague and contradictory.

Evidence: the earliest is from ibn Khurdadhbih, but is vague because of variants in texts; Ibn al-Raqih at the beginning of the tenth century, tells a legendary and thus unverified story; ibn Rustah (writing between 903 and 913 AD) carefully describes the mouth of the river's main branch, showing that it discharged into the Sarykamysh. Istakhri (about 960 AD) says the river flows into the Aral Sea. Al-Ya'qubi (about 890) however says it falls into the Caspian.

Muqaddasi--the author of the description of the Gurganj dam--circa 985 AD, relates a legend according to which the Uzboi as the Oxus' main branch had once, long ago, carried water (ergo, it did not do so in Muqaddasi's day) and reached the town of Balkhan in Khurasan; however once the inhabitants of Kath (the pre- and early-Muhammedan capital, 30 miles east of Khiva) had diverted the whole course of the river to their easternmost branch for 24 hours, the river did not turn back to the Uzboi channel and the whole Balkhan region was laid waste by lack of irrigation.

According to Byzantine historians, this region then called Balaam was settled before the Muslim conquest as ot already had irrigation then, and the Amu Darya flowed into the Caspian. (It is not possible to settle an entire region without a major river to provide water.)

In high antiquity, Strabo (C.510) and Polybius (x,48) both mention a waterfall of the Amu Darya; this is probably the waterfall of the Uzboy mentioned by Hamdallah.

Evidence: Seleucus of Persia planned to connect the Caspian by a canal with the Black Sea, if a report of the exploration of the Caspian should be favorable. This took place not later than 282 B.C. Xenocles, the gazophylax of the archives of Babylon, had made accessible for study to Patrocles (the agent sent to study the issue) the original documents with observations by Alexander the Great's general staff concerning the problem. The purpose of the project was to develop trade. Strabo xi (c.509 and 518) quotes Aristobulus speaking of the transport of Indian merchandise on the "well navigable Oxus" (in the present day, the river is not navigable; the water-level fluctuates too much) to the Caspian and across the sea and thence through the Caucasus to the Euxinus or Black Sea . . . This plan of Seleucus' implies that the Oxus was known to discharge into the Caspian, else the whole project would fall to the ground. Hence, in the early third century BC the Amu Daya flowed into the Caspian.

Source: Ernst Herzfeld, Zoroaster and His World, vol II, 1947. Ernst Herzfeld, Professor of Oriental Archaeology at the University of Berlin.

Karakalpakstan to host Asrlar Sadosi Festival May 5-6 2012

The Republic of Karakalpakstan, located in the northwest of Uzbekistan, has drawn an increasing interest in recent years from art specialists, archeologists, researchers and travelers. The region is famed for its unique culture, rich historical legacy, rare natural landscapes, and ancient and medieval monuments as the area is home to numerous archeological sites.

The bulk of the events to be held as part of the Festival will take place at Tuproq Qala Fortress Town (built around 1st-2nd centuries A.D. , the capital of Ancient Khorezm). The town is located in Ellikqala District, where archeological excavations were launched in 1940. The district’s name means fifty fortresses (ellik – fifty, qala - fortress). Archeological excavations suggest that the fortress served as a center of religious rituals and structures built during the Zoroastrianism epoch (ED: The Zorastrian Prophet Zoraster is believed to have been born in the Republic). Tuproq Qala was the central palace of the Khorezmshahs and is one of the oldest buildings in Central Asia. It has been declared and protected as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The Festival attendees will also have an opportunity to visit the Savitsky Museum in the capital Nukus, which is sometimes called “the Louvre in a Desert” by virtue of its rich collection. Presently, the Museum boasts over 90,000 exhibits that represent primarily Russian and Turkistan avant garde and post-avant garde art. Of special note are Karakalpak applied art collections as well as unique archeological exhibits. According to the estimates of specialists and the art media, the Savitsky collection is the one of best collection of artworks in Asia and houses the world's second largest collection of Russian avant garde art.

The Festival program will include contests for folkloric groups, national costumes and dance, traditional games such as uloq-kukari (an amazing display of horsemanship), tournaments of Kurash (Traditional wrestling), cock and ram fights, tightrope walking and a culinary competition (featuring chefs from various parts of the country). Another highlight of the Festival is the Applied Art Fair which will run throughout the festival featuring ceramics, embroidery, miniature artworks, weaving and woodcarving.

The scientific component of the Festival will be of particular interest presenting workshops focusing on Karakalpakstans' archeological finds, avant garde art and its unique culture and traditions and human interaction with the environment.

The Festival is annually attended by up to 50,000 people, including members of international organizations and the diplomatic corps, culture and art professionals, specialists, researchers, youth groups and international guests.

The fifth Asrlar Sadosi Festival will help to shed light on the little known facets of ancient and modern Uzbekistan, while putting on the festival map this unique region. Previous festivals have been held in Shakhrisabz, Tashkent Region, Khiva and Bukhara. This time the Festival is expected to present a combination of incredible landscapes, history and culture of Karakalpakstan.


Source: Edited version of http://www.fondforum.uz/en/news/karakalpakstan-to-host-asrlar-sadosi-festival-2012/