Tajikistan Life & Culture - The Times Of Central Asia

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Laughter Amidst Ruins: Rediscovering Tajikistan’s Resilience Through Comedy and Cultural Exchange

The UN General Assembly's Human Rights Council recently condemned the government of Tajikistan for its failure to implement the recommendations of a 2019 study by UN representatives. The study focused on the unreconciled atrocities and societal wounds caused by the civil war that swept through the republic after the collapse of the Soviet Union. More than 60,000 people died in this war, and more than 250,000 fled the republic. Reading this news, I was reminded of and reflected on post-war Tajikistan, which I visited in the late summer of 2000. At that time, the country had been in a state of fragile peace for two years, and you could still feel the tension in the air. Since my visit to the country in 2000, the Tajik Civil War has been reflected on by many people in the arts. In the same year that UN researchers were raking up the old tragedy, the film Kazbat was released in Kazakhstan. This movie is a military drama about the real deaths of 17 soldiers of the Internal Troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan (now the National Guard), who fell into an ambush in Tajikistan on April 7, 1995. A little earlier, in 2017, Russian writer Vladimir Medvedev released the novel Zakhok, which talks about the horrors of that six-year war through the struggles of a single family, where the mother is Russian, and the children are half Tajik. My visit to this war-torn country was for a reason most wouldn’t have expected - a comedy festival. The group that I traveled with consisted of my teammates, Almaty residents, as well as people from other Kazakh, Uzbek, and Kyrgyz cities. Despite coming from all over Central Asia, we ended up in Tajikistan for the first international СVN festival (СVN - Club of the Funny and Inventive) in Central Asia. СVN is an improv and sketch comedy competition involving students that originated in Soviet times, the point of which is to satirize the surrounding reality through theatrical skits and question-based improv. Due to its satirical nature, СVN was banned for two decades during the Soviet-era. It was later revived during Perestroika, and, in the shortest possible time, became a phenomenon in all universities in Russia and across almost all of post-Soviet space. In Kazakhstan, СVN was developed immediately after the collapse of the USSR. Alma-Ata, which was the capital city back then, organized its own league, which included teams from the leading national universities of that time - Kazakh State University, Narkhoz, Almaty Institute of Transport Engineers, and Almaty State Medical Institute. I belong to the second generation of СVN players. Our task was to popularize this game throughout the republic and attract not only universities but also colleges and schools. Later, the new СVN league went beyond Kazakhstan, starting with friendly meetings with universities from Bishkek, Tashkent, and other Central Asian cities. Then, the International League of СVN, which was created and headed by Alexander Maslyakov, who passed...

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British Museum Opens Silk Roads Show – With Help from Uzbekistan, Tajikistan

The British Museum opened Silk Roads to the public on Thursday, delivering a highly anticipated exhibition about the vast, interlocking routes that connected cultures across Asia, Africa and Europe for centuries and includes ancient chess pieces and other items on loan from Uzbekistan as well as Tajikistan. The show, which runs until Feb. 23, 2025, aims to get beyond traditional notions of spices, camels and sand dunes, as well as the misconception that there was one “Silk Road” - a single pathway that ran across Central Asia, linking traders in the West with those in the East. While the Silk Roads network lasted for millennia, the British Museum is focusing on the period between AD 500 and 1,000, when contacts accelerated and religions and technology flourished across far-flung regions. “Rather than a single trade route from East to West, the Silk Roads were made up of overlapping networks linking communities across Asia, Africa and Europe, from East Asia to Britain, and from Scandinavia to Madagascar,” the museum says in its introduction to the London show. The British Museum worked with 29 national and international partners on the exhibition, which includes objects from Uzbekistan and Tajikistan that have never been on display in Britain and highlight the importance of Central Asia to the continent-sweeping saga of the Silk Roads. Uzbekistan, home to Khiva, Bukhara and Samarkand and other sites associated with the ancient network, is a big player in the exhibition. It is lending “the oldest group of chess pieces ever found” and a six-meter-long wall painting from the ‘Hall of the Ambassadors’ in Afrasiab, an ancient spot in Samarkand, according to the Uzbekistan Art and Culture Development Foundation. “The painting evokes the cosmopolitanism of the Sogdians from Central Asia who were great traders during this period,” the state foundation said. Saida Mirziyoyeva, a daughter of Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev and a senior presidential aide, attended the exhibition roll-out this week. “A must-see for anyone passionate about Silk Road history!” she said on X. The National Museum in Tajikistan, which started working with the British Museum on plans for Silk Roads in 2022, has said it is lending items “related to the Buddhist culture of the 7th and 8th centuries, found in the monuments of Ajinateppa, Kafarnihon, and Vakhsh.” Objects on display include a Buddha figurine found in Sweden; an Islamic-style map drawn for the Christian king of Sicily; a Chinese ceramic dish found in a shipwreck in Indonesia; a gilded silver cup whose components indicate links between Scotland and West Asia; a gold shoulder clasp with Indian garnets that was found at the Sutton Hoo ship burial in Suffolk; and a gold bowl found in Romania that was linked to the Avars, an originally nomadic group from the northeast Asian steppe. The exhibition is not just about physical objects. There are also stories about an African king, a Chinese princess and other characters whose lives were connected to the Silk Roads, and insights into religious encounters and the spread of...

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Uzbekistan Leads Central Asia in World Happiness Report

The World Population Review has announced this year's list of the happiest countries in the world. Since 2002 the World Happiness Report has used statistical analysis to determine the probable wellbeing of countries. To determine the happiest country in the world, researchers analyzed Gallup poll data collected from 143 countries over the past three years. The index looks at six categories: gross domestic product per capita, social support, life expectancy, freedom to make life choices, generosity of the general population, and perceptions of internal and external corruption levels. The seven happiest countries in the world for 2024 are all in Europe, with six of them being in Northern Europe. Finland is in first place, followed by Denmark, Iceland, Sweden, Israel, the Netherlands, and Norway. Afghanistan ranked as the least happy country in 2024, placing 143rd. This is due to factors like low life expectancy, low GDP per capita, and the impact of the Taliban takeover. Uzbekistan takes 47th place in the ranking and is the happiest country in Central Asia. Kazakhstan is next, in 49th place overall, falling from 44th last year. Kazakhstan’s relatively slow population growth will allow the country to continue makihttps://timesca.com/uzbekistan-leads-central-asia-in-world-happiness-report/ng economic progress and reduce poverty in the coming decades. Tajikistan ranks 88th on the list. The World Happiness Report says: “Tajikistan’s population boom threatens its economy and resources. The government has implemented laws in the past to encourage contraception, and while this has helped bring down the birth rate, the country still has a long way to go.” The report doesn’t provide information about Kyrgyzstan and Turkmenistan this year. According to the most recent data for them, Turkmenistan was 78th in 2022, and Kyrgyzstan was 62nd in 2023.

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Citing Obstacles, Polling Group ‘Central Asia Barometer’ to Stop Work

Central Asia Barometer, a non-governmental group that surveys public opinion in Central Asia with the help of international partners, said on Monday that it faces insecurity and challenges to “academic freedom” and will temporarily suspend all operations on December 1. “This long-planned decision is due to the growing insecurity and challenges in conducting ethical survey research in the region, which has significantly impacted our ability to continue our work,” Kasiet Ysmanova, director of the Central Asia Barometer, said in a statement. The group is based in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. While Ysmanova did not go into details about the problems that the Central Asia Barometer was encountering, rights groups have long pointed out that advocates for freedom of expression and other democratic principles can face persecution in a region steeped in authoritarian traditions. Earlier this year, Kyrgyzstan´s passage of a law tightening control over non-governmental organizations that receive foreign funding raised more concern about the erosion of such rights, though the government there alleges that some of the groups are corrupt and has urged international critics to stay out of its internal affairs. In April, the Open Society Foundations criticized the law as restrictive and ill-defined and said it was closing its national foundation in Kyrgyzstan. Maximilian Hess, founder of Ementena Advisory, a political risk company based in London, said on X that the Central Asia Barometer was “long a valuable resource to researchers such as myself” and that its suspension of operations was a “very worrying development.” The Central Asia Barometer says its mission is to provide data that helps institutions make informed decisions for the benefit of people in the region. Its website lists 18 partners, including the U.N. International Organization for Migration, Sunway University in Malaysia, the Friedrich Ebert Foundation in Germany and Abu Dhabi-based TRENDS Research & Advisory. American partners include D3 Systems, Inc. and the Central Asia Program at George Washington University. The Central Asia polling group says it gets funding from research grants, paid subscriptions to survey data, omnibus surveys and contract work for research. Last year, the Central Asia Barometer conducted research on attitudes in Central Asia toward Russia's war in Ukraine, and Central Asian perceptions of Turkey and other countries. In addition, Ysmanova, the director, wrote an article about awareness in Central Asia of discrimination against labor migrants for a book about human rights in the region. The group has also surveyed people about the economy, the environment, public health and other issues. The group said that it will maintain a small team to answer emails and other requests after ceasing operations on December 1. “We hope that the situation regarding academic freedom in the region improves, allowing us to resume our activities in the future,” Ysmanova said.

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Day Four at the World Nomad Games: Mighty Deeds at a Global Gathering

On day four of the World Nomad Games, themed as the “Gathering of the Great Steppe,” TCA attended the finals of the Powerful Nomad competition, and spoke to visitors from the West about what had drawn them to Kazakhstan and the Games. “I'm an American traveling around the world,” Andy from Houston, Texas, one of a group of friends who’d met on the road in Central Asia told TCA. “I’ve wanted to come to the World Nomad Games for quite a few years, now, but haven't got the chance. I'm traveling full-time this year and figured I’d swing by Kazakhstan and check it out.” “It’s so cool to be here and see all the sports and cultures together,” Liam from Vancouver, Canada, added. [caption id="attachment_23061" align="aligncenter" width="2560"] Image: TCA, Stephen M. Bland[/caption] “We knew about the World Nomad Games from having lived in Kyrgyzstan,” Allison from Miami told TCA. “So, when we found out about this one, we decided to come because it's been on the bucketlist. It's been a blast!” “We’re here because we’re doing the five Stans; When we arrived, we found out this event was going on, so we figured we had to come. We really want to see the hunting with birds. Everyone's been very welcoming, and the food has been good,” Lauren from San Diego said. “I’m traveling in Kazakhstan because I wanted to do horseback stuff,” said Hellie from the UK. “I’ve never been to Kazakhstan before. I was curious about the Games, and it’s amazing how much I’m learning here. The tents from the regions are really cool.” [video width="1920" height="1080" mp4="https://timesca.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/IMG_3959.mp4"][/video] Reflecting the cosmopolitan crowd, on the field for the final of the powerful nomad strongman competition were athletes from around the globe: Cyprus, Armenia, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Romania, China, Nigeria, Iran, Belarus, Spain, Kuwait, Russia, India, and Kazakhstan. Given the response from the raucous, flag-waving home crowd, you didn’t need to be able to hear the announcer to know which was the Kazakh competitor, but warm and hospitable as ever, all of the competitors were well supported, particularly the ebullient Jerry from Nigeria. [caption id="attachment_23063" align="aligncenter" width="2391"] Image: TCA, Stephen M. Bland[/caption] In the opening discipline of squats with a 100-kilogram bag – with four objects protruding which made it resemble a carcass - the hulking men strained every sinew, with some faring better than others, whilst one keeled over as if having suffered a hernia. It came as no surprise, as outside the arena a smaller, lighter weight set up to challenge spectators saw many fall afoul. Next up was pulling a trolley weighing 200 kilos, which resembled a horse carriage. “Bad luck; it was his first time trying,” the ever-comedic commentator chipped in after the participant from Kuwait managed three meters. Others fared far worse. The standout, however, was the tallest man in the competition, the entrant from Iran, who managed a staggering twenty-six meters. [video width="1920" height="1080" mp4="https://timesca.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/IMG_3968.mp4"][/video] “Wow!” the announcer chimed. “It will be very difficult to bring...

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Kazakhstan’s Rich Cultural Heritage: Thirteen Elements in One Yurt

Nestled among the yurts of the 2024 World Nomad Games Ethnoaul (Ethnic Village), one yurt in particular provided a promotional VIP space for the distinguished Russophone poet, politician, UNESCO ambassador, International Democratic Party Chairman of the People’s Congress of Kazakhstan, and anti-nuclear activist Olzhas Suleimenov. A hushed silence spread inside the circumference of the AZ i YA (a Russian play on the word “Asia”) yurt, named in honor of Suleimenov’s 1975 book about the conceivable Turkic origin of the epic Old East Slavic poem The Tale of Igor's Campaign. Bystanders were ushered out when the Almaty-born Suleimenov arrived. The aforementioned book caused controversy when it was released in the Soviet era and was almost banned when Suleimenov was accused of “national chauvinism” and “glorifying feudal nomadic culture.” By contrast, the purpose of the AZ i YA yurt is to educate the unenlightened and celebrate the thirteen elements of “Kazakhstan's Rich Cultural Heritage.” Those thirteen elements, as explained by the yurt’s translator and self-proclaimed “young scientist” Dana Tursynova, include Aitysh, a spoken word poetry contest with dueling dombra (two-string instrument), or the Kyrgyz komuz (two or three strings), in which two protagonists improvise on the topics of opposing ideas, retorts, and general frustrations. Tursynova described it as “conveying political problems” and “the sound of a nation [aimed at] the government.” At a neighboring yurt, Aitysh—delivered with gravelly belligerence—was audibly comparable with a modern battle rap. Another element is Nasreddin Hodja, a 13th-century folklore storyteller who—similar to the Aitysh tradition—used humor to air political grievances and other types of narrative. [video width="848" height="478" mp4="https://timesca.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/WhatsApp-Video-2024-09-10-at-23.43.20.mp4"][/video] A further element is Korkyt-Ata (translated from Kazakh as “granddad”), a 9th-century philosopher, who, in his pursuit of immortality discovered that death was always waiting for him. As he gained enlightenment, he somehow had enough free time to craft the kobyz, an ancient Turkic stringed instrument. Thus, he is known as the founder of Kazakh string and bow instruments. The yurt, the round portable homes of the nomads, is an element, as is orteke, where the dombra musician surpasses the average one-man-band status by operating moving wooden puppets connected to his fingers via the strings to convey multi-task theater. The sports elements comprise kazakhsha kures, traditional Kazakh wrestling, which in recent times has traded the long-established grass turf for a mod con carpet, board-type games, such as Assyk, designed to sharpen the intellectual and physical development of children, and Kusbegilik, or hunting with birds of prey, a Kazakh cultural heritage as well as a major sport in the WNG. Edible elements combine katyrma flatbread, an important part of Kazakhstan’s communal relations in the interchange of goodwill (e.g. “have a good life”) when sharing the bread, and horse breeder festivities, where kumis, fermented horse milk, is the culinary highlight. The main heading of the yurt’s pamphlet handout is the substantially worded International Centre for the Rapprochement of Cultures Under the Auspices of UNESCO. In one small yurt (on one big steppe), the cultural round-up of folklore, tradition, and...