Monday, September 20th - Bukhara, Uzbekistan

 Summer palace mirrored room

 Summer Palace

 Gorgeous ikat

 Cotton boll

 On top of Chor Minor

 Nadir Devon Begi Medressa

 Twilight over Bukhara

 Blackmail photo of Larry

 Scott in Pasha pose

Magnificent suzani

Drove 5km north of the city to visit the Summer Palace of the last ruler of Bukhara which was built between 1911 and 1917 and was only used for three years.  Our guide explained that this was used as a summer home as opposed to the Ark, which was a military palace for old Bukhara rulers.  The interior was richly decorated in colored mirrors (which gave an effect not unlike being inside a kaleidoscope), floral and geometric painted walls, and carved stucco in a honeycomb pattern at the ceiling.  Some of the rooms housed examples of antique ikat and embroidered textiles. 

We met the director of the Summer Palace who told us that he is one of the authors of the 99 Ikat Khatans book that Mehmet Chetenkaya (sp?) also co-authored.  He is also one of the co-curators (or contributors to) the upcoming Central Asian Textiles show at the Textile Museum in DC.  The palace is in a sad state of disrepair.  Our guide asked the director why the museum was not better maintained given high admission fees  charged to groups.  Essentially he said that fees earned by this site are not allocated 100% to it but rather are distributed across many state sites, some of which are "profitable" and some not.  We couldn't help but wonder if this was a convenient way to hide misallocation and theft of of money away from public institutions and into the hands of government officials. 

On the way back into town we stopped to walk into a cotton field and see the process of cotton-picking up close.  Women pick cotton by hand with no machinery.  Cotton harvesting is done in waves across different fields.  They make a first pass picking an entire field collecting the ready and available cotton.  Then they move to the next, and so on, and when all the fields are done they repeat the process until all the bolls have opened and been picked.  We watched women stuffing enormous heaps of cotton (larger than they were ) into muslin sacks.  Men took the sacks and hoisted them into trucks.  Looked like a much easier job to me!

Once back into town we visited the Chor Minor, or Four Minarets.  This is no longer a functioning mosque so we could go inside and climb to the roof for a view across the rooftops of the neighborhood. 

Had lunch at a Persian man's home; decor similar to the nice home in Samarkand where we had dinner but this one seemed to me to be far more affluent.  The afternoon was free for (yeah) shopping.  We scoured the various bazaars and I have to say that shopping in Bukhara was disappointing; I can't help but wonder if you know the right people and can find good antique shops if you'd have a different impression.  But not having this contacts it's disappointing.  Nevertheless I did find a few items to add to my collection:  a beautiful Bukharan suzani; two antique women's hats (red velvet with silver coins and a square sequined one).  Barbara Kelley was incredibly helpful in bargaining for a good price for my suzani.  She has the same skill that Cliff Meyer has; she treats bargaining as a game, has a good nature and keen sense of humor and the shopkeepers love dealing with her.  Scott bought two ikat neckties.  We roamed around in the hot afternoon sun until about 4:45 when we returned to the hotel.

Dinner at 6:30 on a rooftop overlooking the city.  Got there just as the sun was setting.   From the roof you can see how truly ancient this city is – a lovely vista of mud houses with tin roofs and the occasional mosque.  (OK, there are satellite dishes everywhere, but this is the only nod I could see toward the 20^th century.)

Since it was our last night in Uzbekistan, the travel company gave us all goofy gold hats and I had fun taking photos of Scott and Larry assuming the "pasha" poses.  

Bukhara, Uzbekistan - Sept 19

 Saminid Mausoleum

 Bolo-Hauz Mosque

 The Ark

 Young girl with "uni-brow"

 Miri-Arab Medressa

 Kalyan Mosque

 Exterior of bazaar

 Suzani that I would eventually purchase

 Neighborhood where we would have dinner

 Nadir Devon Begi Medressa

 Scott and a lamb skewer

My five hat purchases


Had an whirlwind day seeing Bukhara's sights. Bukhara is different from and older than Samarkand. Bukhara was the capital of the of the Samanid state in the 9th and 10th centuries and as the culutural heart of Centra Asia . Bukhara succumbed in 1220 to Jenghiz Khan and in 1370 fell under the shadow of Timur's Samarkand. In the 16th c the Uzbbek Shaybanids made it Bukhara khanate . The Shaybanid Bukhara was a vast marketplace with dozens of specialist bazaars and caravanserais, more than 100 medressas (with 10,000 students) and more than 300 mosques. For the purposes of today's sightseeing, I will leave the history here although obviously it continues (in a torturous fashion) for centuries.

Began the day at the Ismail Samoniy Mausoleum (also called The Samanid Mausoleum in another book) which dates from the 9th/10th c. This is a beautiful square, untitled but highly textured structure that we were fortunate enough to see ine the raking morning light. The bricks are arranged such that beautiful patterns emerge in the surface of the building and inside you can clearly see the architecture of the done. Again there is no tile work on thiis building at all, or color, other than that of the natural mud bricks. Superstition has it that if you make a wish and walk three times around the building your wish will come true. Was too busy photographing to try it. Then quickly to an unknown-holy-man's mausoleum which I need to track down the name of.

On the way to this stoop I passed a woman selling wonderful antique hats. Sasha helped me to negotiate and ended up paying $20 per for five hats: two from Kyrgyzstan, one from Turkmenistan, one from Uzbekistan and one from Kazakhstan. Somewhere along the way I heard my name being called to come quickly and join Sasha for a run to a local fabric shop. There are two other women on the trip who wanted to buy ikat and off ran through a fabulous local market (me snapping pictures and trying not to get lost as the three of them ran ahead). We finally arrived at a pedestrian street lined with shoops selling things to the local people (not for tourists). Arrived at the store and all fabrics were new and not quite what we were looking for. So I felt we had our own trip to see "yard good" in Bukhara. I enjoyed seeing the local women selling produce; the vendor selling birds and men selling spices. We ran ran ran and finally rejoined the group at a lovely old wooden Bolo-Hauz Mosque.

Next to Magoki-Attari Mosque which has no tile decoration at all except for a few pieces of turquoise tile that are original to the building, over the entryway. Inside this mosque today is a small display of Bukharan carpets (not a very good one) but something to see.

On to the grand citadel called The Ark (built in the 18th c) which was the palace of the Bukhara amir, housed mosques, government administration, etc. It is reminiscent of the Red Fort in Delhi or some of the other grand forts of India. The Art was considerably destroyed in 1920 when the Red Army subjected the city to air bombing and attack. Inside was a small history museum that included a few examples of clothing and ikat.

Ran ran ran to the spectacular Kalon Minaret, buit by Arsian Khan in 1127. The minaret is 47m tall and in 850 years has never needed anything but cosmetic repair. There are 14 ornamental bands, all different, and the tower includes the first example of glazed tile that would later cover monumental buildings under Timur's rule. Adjacent is the Kalon Mosque (took a video of the place it's so large), and across the courtyard is the Mir-i-Arab Medressa (1535) that remains a working medressa today.

Had a brief discussion of carpets (by no means the kind of presentation worthy of an SFWG trip) at a carpet shop and then lastly (whew!) to the Modir Devon Begi Medressa (1622) . Can't find the discussion in my book but the exterior had two gorgeous birds over the entrance.

Will post photos of all later; this hotel, once again, charges by the megabyte uploaded so I'm being stingy.

Had dinner outside beside a pool at the Lyabi-Hauz Plaza. I had veggie shish and Scott had minced beef. Plus lots of vodka for me.

Samarkand to Bukhara - Saturday, September 18

 Gur-Emir Mausoleum

 Gur-Emir Mausoleum

 Gur-Emir Mausoleum

 Gur-Emir Mausoleum: Tamerlane's jade tomb

 Gur-Emir Mausoleum

 Ak-Sarai Mausoleum

 Women at the bazaar

 Cow parts anyone?

 Me with honey-sellers

11th c Caravanserrai Roboti Malik


Another beautiful cloudless cool day. Finally got to visit the tomb of Timur (Tamerlane), the Guri Amir Mausoleum (1404). My guidebook called the building "surprisingly modest" and I suppose given Timur's stature and power it might be. But it's also beautiful with a turquoise blue dome over a building of dark and light blue mosaic tiles. Inside shines with gold. The ceiling is gold honeycomb below which Timur, two sons and two grandsons, including Ulugbek, are buried. Timur's stone is a slab of green jade. To quote from lonely planet "Timur's stone (was) once a single block of dark green jade. In 1740 the warlord Nadir Shah carried it off to Persia, where it was accidentally broken in two - from which time Nadir Shah was said to have a run of very bad luck, including the near-death of his son. At the urging of his religious advisors he returned the stone to Samarkand, and of course his son recovered."

I'm quoting from Monuments of Central Asia by Knobloch: "In 1941 Timur's grave was opened by the Soviet Archaeological Commission, who found here the skeleton of a man who, though lame in both right limbs, must have been of powerful physique, tall for a Tartar and of a haughty bearing. The examined the skeleton and the remains, which included fragments of muscle, skin, and some hair of the head, eye-brows, red mustache and beard. The skull indicated Mongol features".

We dashed briefly next door to get a glimpse of the Ak-Saray Mausoleum (1470), a tiny gold honeycombed gem.

Then we walked for a bit through the town bazaar. It was surprising how neat and clean the place was; markets that sell fruits, vegetables and meats, etc., tend not to be. I bought some cumin, coriander and locally grown saffron for a total of $5. Women tended to be the vendors and they were quite friendly and agreeable when I asked for a photo. Scott even took one picture of me with two women who were selling honey. Bees were in the honeycomb next to me the entire time. We sampled the local bread hot from the oven. The bread is round, thick around the edges and thin and the center.

At lunch (at the hotel) we ate delicious vegetables: beets, cauliflower, cabbage, potatoes, carrots, zucchini, then vegetable soup, and then a main course of meat (??) rice and squash.

At 1pm boarded the bus for a 4 hour drive to Bukhara. On the way stopped at an 11th c caravanserai called Rabat-i Malik. The untiled but brick patterned archway was beautiful. The funny (read odd) thing is that we had been told that we had a pit stop coming up and this was the spot they were referring to. We were told to go behind the facade and find a private spot. Call me crazy but I found this strange given the fact that this was an historical monument. Crow Canyon trip this isn't! We came, we saw, we peed.

The road between Samarkand and Bukhara is surprisingly bumpy despite being a new. My guidebook says that the journey that takes us four hours would have taken six or seven days in the Middle Ages.

Funny things about our hotel room in Samarkand:
- We had a mini-bar but it wasn't plugged into anything. Scott investigated and found that the plug for the mini-bar didn't fit (i.e., didn't have the right prongs) to fit into any of the outlets in the room.
- We had the "control panel to nowhere" on the bedside consoles. There were five knobs and various switches that didn't control anything.

Checked into the Bukhara Palace Hotel. Quite the misnomer. This is really a trip back in time to the old Intourist Soviet Hotels complete with babushka on each hall who pops her head out when you exit your room to check on what you're doing. The walls have eyes here. To quote Scott, our room is quite the "love nest". Mattresses are hard as a board. The bottom sheet doesn't wrap around the top end of the bed so I fear moving around too much during the night and finding myself in direct contact with the mattress. Not a happy thought.

Went to dinner and were vehemently prohibited from sitting at a table when the entire restaurant was empty because three tiny tables had been allocated to our group. No other tables were to be used! This set the tone for the evening. Vodka was good and continues to be the best deal in town. I've had vodka each night have have yet to pay more then $1 for a glass. Some evening it's even free.

Oh yes, the mini-bar in our room here doesn't plug into anything either.