Tajikistan Life & Culture - The Times Of Central Asia

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Public Health

Reports of Suspected Plague in Russia Prompt Central Asian Health Checks

Reports surrounding the death of an employee at an anti-plague research institute in Russia’s Irkutsk region have prompted health authorities across Central Asia to tighten sanitary controls and review preparedness measures. Russian officials have not confirmed that the employee contracted plague or that a laboratory accident occurred. Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan have nevertheless announced additional checks or heightened readiness in response. Officials across the region say there is no cause for alarm, but the response reflects the sensitivity that remains around cross-border infectious disease threats after the COVID-19 pandemic. What Is Known Russian authorities have released few details, but reports say an employee at the anti-plague institute in Shelekhov, near Irkutsk, accidentally broke a test tube containing live bacteria. That employee, a female aged 27 or 28, was hospitalized on September 29, but she died on October 2. The hospital where she was treated was reportedly placed under quarantine, and nearly 200 people who might have come into contact with her are under medical observation. There are also reports that four more hospitals are under quarantine, with some 100 people hospitalized as a precaution. Russian officials deny these reports and say health specialists are on the ground in the area investigating and have urged the public to wait for an official assessment of the situation and not spread rumors. The Response in Central Asia Kazakhstan shares a 7,800-kilometer border with Russia; the distance from far northeastern Kazakhstan to Irkutsk is more than 1,500 kilometers. While that is comforting, the distance from Kazakhstan to Wuhan, China, is some 3,600 kilometers, and the coronavirus that originated in Wuhan in 2019 eventually reached Kazakhstan and everywhere else in the world. On October 5, Kazakhstan’s Health Ministry said it was aware of the reports from Irkutsk, was following the situation closely, and had ordered closer checks at border crossings and other entry points. “Sanitary and quarantine controls are being conducted at state border crossing points,” a Health Ministry statement said, “No individuals with elevated temperatures, signs of illness, or suspected highly dangerous infections have been detected across any mode of transport.” The Health Ministry said the chances of plague, or “pneumonia of undetermined etiology” crossing Kazakhstan’s borders were low. Kyrgyzstan’s Health Ministry also said it had ordered close checks of people entering the country in response to reports about the situation in Irkutsk. “Specialists monitor individuals, vehicles, and cargo crossing the border to prevent the importation and spread of infectious diseases, including highly dangerous infections,” the Health Ministry said. The same measures are being implemented in Tajikistan. Said Davlatzoda, the head of the Health Ministry’s Department of Sanitary-Epidemiological Safety, Emergency Situations and Emergency Medical Care, said orders went out that every person crossing into Tajikistan must have their body temperature measured. Workers from the department have been instructed to ask people arriving whether they are experiencing symptoms such as nausea and vomiting, headache, weakness, and muscle and joint pain. Personnel from the Sanitary-Epidemiological Safety Department have also been told to wear disposable hazmat...

Asian Games

Central Asia Wins 186 Asian Games Medals as Uzbekistan Finishes Fifth

Athletes from Central Asia’s five countries won 186 medals at the Asian Games in Japan, where Uzbekistan finished fifth overall and Kazakhstan claimed the region’s largest medal haul. The 20th Summer Asian Games were held from September 19 to October 4 in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan. China once again topped the medal table, followed by Japan and South Korea. Uzbekistan won 70 medals, including 21 golds, matching its fifth-place finish at the previous Games in Hangzhou. The result follows a 13th-place finish in the medal table at the 2024 Paris Olympics. Kazakhstan won 84 medals, including 12 golds, and finished eighth in the standings, up from 11th at the previous Asian Games. Among Kazakhstan’s champions was road cyclist Alexey Lutsenko, whose two victories took his Asian Games career tally to six golds, making him the country’s most successful athlete in the competition by number of gold medals. Boxers Torekhan Sabyrkhan and Aibek Oralbay also won gold. Kazakhstan’s men’s épée fencing team claimed another title, while Vladislav Yakovlev and Ivan Chernukhin took gold in the men’s pair rowing event. Kazakhstan’s Yasmina Toxanbayeva crossed the line first in the women’s marathon race walk, a 26.2-mile event, but was disqualified because her shoes did not comply with World Athletics requirements. The Kazakhstan Athletics Federation challenged the decision. Tajikistan won 16 medals and finished 22nd, surpassing its previous record of seven medals at a single Asian Games. Before the Japan Games, the country had won 35 medals in total across all previous Summer Asian Games appearances. Kyrgyzstan finished 26th with 14 medals, including one gold and three silvers. The country also won 10 bronzes, and all but one of its medals came in combat sports. Turkmenistan’s two silver medals went to karate athlete Davut Nazmyradov and weightlifter Shahzadbek Matyakubov. Matyakubov finished second in the men’s 110-kilogram category behind Uzbekistan’s Akbar Djuraev. The next Summer Asian Games will be held in Doha in 2030.

Central Asian Music

Put the Needle on the Record: Anvar Kalandarov on Rescuing Soviet Central Asia’s Lost Sounds

For decades, some of Soviet Central Asia’s most inventive recordings survived in an awkward limbo. The music existed, but often on ageing vinyl, scattered tapes, private collections, and copies traded amongst collectors at increasingly extortionate prices. The musicians themselves could be difficult to trace, while the legal ownership of recordings made under the Soviet system was rarely straightforward. Tashkent-based archivist, collector, and producer Anvar Kalandarov has made that ambiguity part of his work. He runs Maqom Soul Records, an Uzbek label devoted to bringing overlooked Central Asian recordings back into circulation. His work ranges from Soviet-era jazz and Uyghur folk rock to music that resists easy classification altogether. [caption id="attachment_57434" align="aligncenter" width="1740"] Anvar Kalandarov holding Synthesizing the Silk Roads; image courtesy of the subject.[/caption] Kalandarov was one of the curators behind Synthesizing the Silk Roads: Uzbek Disco, Tajik Folktronica, Uyghur Rock & Tatar Jazz from 1980s Soviet Central Asia, released by Ostinato Records in 2024. The Times of Central Asia previously traced how wartime evacuation, Soviet recording infrastructure, and Tashkent’s role as a Silk Road crossroads helped create the unusual musical environment captured on that compilation. His more recent projects include Digging Central Asia: Musical Archaeology Along the Silk Road, a collection spanning recordings from the 1970s to the early 1990s, and Maqom Soul’s reissue of Oleg Gotskozik Quintet’s Oriental Suite. Originally issued by Melodiya, the Soviet state record label, in 1979, Oriental Suite fused jazz with Central Asian modal ideas and was recorded at Tashkent’s Gramrecord studio. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTQgbjMNO74 The work is a fusion of archaeology and restoration, with the twists of a mystery story. Kalandarov spoke to The Times of Central Asia about how these recordings are found and given a new lease on life decades after they were first made. TCA: When you decide to reissue a Soviet-era Central Asian recording, where does the process usually begin, and how do you locate the best surviving source material when original masters may be scattered or missing? Kalandarov: It’s different every time. Sometimes I come across the music first; it catches my attention, and only then does the real work begin - finding out who recorded it, where the musicians or their families are today, who holds the rights, and whether the original recordings still exist. In a way, every project becomes a small detective story, because you’re often looking for something that most people have already forgotten about. It’s the same with master tapes. Some recordings have survived in our state archives, while others are still with the musicians or their families, and sometimes you have to look for completely different sources. Of course, the ideal situation is to find the original master, but that isn’t always possible. Tracking down the best surviving source can become a major part of the reissue process itself. [caption id="attachment_57431" align="aligncenter" width="1460"] Anvar Kalandarov; image courtesy of the subject.[/caption] TCA: How difficult is it to establish who holds the rights to these recordings today, particularly when musicians, composers, Soviet state labels, archives, and...

Archaeological Heritage

Paleolithic Sites and Pamir Petroglyphs Added to Tajikistan UNESCO Tentative List

Tajikistan has added two groups of archaeological sites to UNESCO’s World Heritage Tentative List: Paleolithic sites in southern Tajikistan documenting early human occupation, and petroglyph complexes in the high-altitude Pamirs. Tajik authorities announced the additions on September 21, although both entries were submitted to UNESCO on June 19, 2026. The first group comprises Kuldara, Lohuti, Obi Mazor, and Khonakho in the Khovaling district of southern Tajikistan’s Khatlon region. UNESCO describes the archaeological complex as one of the most significant Paleolithic heritage areas in Central Asia. The sites provide evidence of early human occupation and adaptation to mountainous and semi-arid environments and help researchers study the dispersal of early human populations across Eurasia. Kuldara is particularly significant. According to UNESCO, the site preserves cultural layers dating to the Lower and Middle Paleolithic periods and has yielded numerous stone tools. Together with the neighboring sites, the complex documents different stages of early human history and changes in stone-tool technology. The second group lies nearly at the opposite end of the country, in the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region (GBAO), which covers much of eastern Tajikistan and the Pamirs. The nomination includes five petroglyph complexes: Langar, Darshair, Shakhta, Nayzatash, and Bakhmaljilga. The rock carvings were created over thousands of years, from the Mesolithic and Neolithic periods through the Bronze and Iron Ages and into the medieval period. They depict ibex, argali sheep, deer and predators, as well as human figures, hunting scenes, symbolic compositions, and geometric motifs. The hunting scenes and other images give archaeologists a record of life in high-mountain communities. They also document cultural contacts in the Pamirs, a region that has long stood at a crossroads between Central, South, and East Asia and the Iranian cultural sphere. UNESCO's Tentative List is an inventory of properties a country intends to consider for future nomination. A property must first appear on that list before the country can formally nominate it for World Heritage status. With the two additions, Tajikistan now has 18 properties on its Tentative List. Five properties in the country are already inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage List. They include Sarazm, a settlement dating from the fourth to the third millennium BCE near Panjakent; the Cultural Heritage Sites of Ancient Khuttal in southern Tajikistan; and Tajik National Park, which encompasses a vast area of the Pamir Mountains. Archaeological finds in southern Tajikistan include a royal seal from the Kushan period. Around two millennia ago, the Kushan Empire extended across parts of present-day Central Asia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and northern India.

Sportsmanship

Kazakhstan’s MMA Gold Medalist Comforts Tajik Opponent at Asian Games

A mixed martial arts (MMA) fighter from Kazakhstan embraced and comforted his distressed Tajik opponent after defeating him to win gold at the Asian Games in Japan. It was one of the more striking scenes so far at the Games, which began on September 19 and run until October 4. China was at the top of the medal standings with 78 medals, including 48 golds, on Wednesday. Japan and South Korea were in second and third place, respectively. Kazakhstan was fourth with 19 medals, including seven golds. Kadyrbek Shynbayev, a 22-year-old MMA fighter from Kazakhstan, won Tuesday’s final in the up-to-71-kilogram weight category, beating 25-year-old Behruz Khurshedzoda of Tajikistan by a 3-0 judges’ decision. The fighters were competing in the “modern” variant of the combat sport, in which they wear shorts and a rash guard, or tight athletic shirt, instead of the traditional gi, which consists of a jacket, pants, and a belt. Shynbayev let out a roar of triumph after the result was announced, and his team celebrated on the sidelines. He paraded for a moment with a national flag wrapped around his shoulders, but then noticed Khurshedzoda on his knees on the competition mat, visibly overcome by his loss. Shynbayev, in blue, approached his red-clad adversary and embraced him. Still wearing their bulky gloves, the two men talked. Khurshedzoda tapped his own head with his glove. Then the pair stood up together and hugged one more time as videographers and photographers recorded the scene at the Nagoya City Inae Sports Center. The Sports.kz news portal described Shynbayev’s actions as a “beautiful gesture” and posted a video of the scene on Instagram. Kazakhstan’s Jibek Joly TV showed Shynbayev and other medal winners being welcomed at Almaty airport after returning from the Asian Games. Shynbayev also won the Asian MMA Championship title in January. At that time, Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Defense identified him as a military private. Tajik media, including the state-run Khovar news agency, reported on Khurshedzoda’s contested road to the final in Japan. In the semifinal, judges awarded victory to his opponent, Yryskeldi Duisheev of Kyrgyzstan, but Tajikistan’s delegation appealed, and the decision was reversed in Khurshedzoda’s favor. Duisheev received a bronze medal. MMA includes striking, grappling, throwing, and submission techniques. The sport made its debut at the 2026 Asian Games, which are being held across Aichi Prefecture, including Nagoya. The Asian Games are held every four years.

Education

New OECD Assessment Reveals Central Asia’s Student Performance

International student assessments help governments identify where students are succeeding, where they are falling behind and how learning outcomes are changing over time. The Programme for International Student Assessment, or PISA, tests how well 15-year-olds can apply what they have learned in science, mathematics and reading to real-world problems. Run by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the assessment is intended to identify weaknesses and track whether learning improves over time. The results released on September 8 show improvement in some areas, declines in others and significant gaps in the regional data. PISA 2025 placed particular emphasis on science and introduced a new assessment of computational problem-solving, part of its broader work on learning in the digital world. What the Results Show Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan participated nationally. Tajikistan was represented by Dushanbe rather than a national sample, while Turkmenistan did not participate. Participant Science Math Reading Comp. ProblemSolving Kazakhstan 420 414 385 449 Kyrgyzstan 363 364 344 388 Dushanbe, TJK 334 382 368 — Uzbekistan 438 N/A N/A 402 OECD average 482 463 461 500 Kazakhstan recorded the highest published regional scores in mathematics, reading and computational problem-solving, while Uzbekistan recorded the highest score in science. Uzbekistan’s mathematics and reading results were not published, preventing a complete comparison across the three core subjects. Central Asia remained below OECD averages, but Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan scored higher than several EU member states in some subjects. Across OECD countries, average mathematics and reading performance fell to the lowest levels yet recorded by PISA. Science was comparatively stable. What Changed The latest scores and the longer-term trends do not always point in the same direction. Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan both participated in PISA in 2022, while Kyrgyzstan’s previous participation was in 2009. Country ComparisonPeriod Science Math Reading Kazakhstan 2022–2025 −4 −12 −1 Kyrgyzstan 2009–2025 +33 +33 +30 Uzbekistan 2022–2025 +83 N/A N/A Kazakhstan’s mathematics score fell by about 12 points from 2022, a statistically significant decline for the country. Its smaller declines in science and reading were not statistically significant. Kyrgyzstan improved in mathematics, reading and science compared with its previous participation. The gains cover 16 years rather than a single PISA cycle. Uzbekistan recorded the largest movement in the regional results. Its science score rose from 355 in 2022 to 438 in 2025, an increase of 83 points. That was also the largest science gain among education systems with comparable results worldwide and more than twice the next-largest increase of 38 points. What Other Assessments Show Other international assessments help put the larger changes in context. Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan were the only Central Asian countries to participate in the 2023 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study, or TIMSS. The assessment tests younger students and uses a different methodology from PISA. Among eighth-graders, Kazakhstan scored 443 in science and Uzbekistan 396. Two years later, PISA recorded science scores of 420 for Kazakhstan and 438 for Uzbekistan. The assessments cover different students and testing methods, so the scores cannot be compared directly....