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 20th 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.
