Uzbekistan 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.

Nobel Prize in Literature

Uzbek Writer Hamid Ismailov Appears in Bookmakers’ Odds for 2026 Nobel Prize

British bookmaker Ladbrokes gives Uzbek writer Hamid Ismailov odds of 33/1 for the 2026 Nobel Prize in Literature. The Ladbrokes list also includes Haruki Murakami, Margaret Atwood, Salman Rushdie, Stephen King, and J.K. Rowling. Bookmakers’ odds, however, have no connection to the Nobel Prize’s official nomination process. Details of nominations are kept secret for 50 years, and the literature laureate is selected by the Swedish Academy. The 2026 laureate will be announced on October 8. This year’s Nobel Prize carries an award of 12 million Swedish kronor, or about $1.2 million. Ismailov was born in 1954 in Tokmok, in what is now Kyrgyzstan, and grew up in Uzbekistan. He was forced to flee Uzbekistan in 1992 after coming under pressure from the government of then-President Islam Karimov over his writing and political views. His works were subsequently banned in the country. He settled in the United Kingdom and went on to work for the BBC World Service for 25 years. Ismailov writes principally in Uzbek and Russian. His international profile has grown through English translations of novels including The Railway, The Dead Lake, and The Underground. His novel The Devils’ Dance, translated from Uzbek by Donald Rayfield with John Farndon and published by Tilted Axis Press, won the EBRD Literature Prize in 2019. In 2025, Ismailov’s We Computers: A Ghazal Novel, translated from Uzbek by Shelley Fairweather-Vega and published by Yale University Press, was named a finalist for the U.S. National Book Award for Translated Literature. The novel draws on Persian poetic traditions and literary history to explore artificial intelligence. Its story centers on a French poet and his Uzbek translator, who experiment with a computer program capable of analyzing and generating literary texts. The Nobel Prize in Literature, first awarded in 1901, went to Hungarian writer László Krasznahorkai in 2025.

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...

FIDE Chess Olympiad

Uzbekistan Wins FIDE Chess Olympiad Gold on Home Soil in Samarkand

Uzbekistan has won the Open section of the 46th FIDE Chess Olympiad in Samarkand, claiming its second title after its breakthrough victory in Chennai in 2022. The hosts entered the final round with 18 match points, one ahead of defending champions India. Uzbekistan defeated Ukraine 2.5-1.5 to finish with 20 points, while India drew 2-2 with Hungary. India’s draw meant Uzbekistan had secured gold even before its match against Ukraine had finished. India and Germany both finished on 18 points, with India taking silver on tiebreak and Germany bronze. Mukhiddin Madaminov delivered the decisive win on board four against Ukraine, while the other three games ended in draws. [caption id="attachment_57312" align="aligncenter" width="1774"] Uzbekistan’s players during the final round of the Chess Olympiad in Samarkand. Image: FIDE[/caption] Uzbekistan won its first seven matches before Germany handed the hosts their only defeat of the tournament, 2.5-1.5, in Round 8. The team responded by beating the United States, the top seed in the Open section, in Round 9, before defeating Armenia 3.5-0.5 in the penultimate round. The winning squad consisted of Javokhir Sindarov, Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Nodirbek Yakubboev, Shamsiddin Vokhidov, and Mukhiddin Madaminov, with former FIDE world champion Rustam Kasimdzhanov serving as captain. Four of the five players had also been part of Uzbekistan’s gold medal team in Chennai in 2022. “The most important thing is how much attention is being paid to chess in our country,” Kasimdzhanov said at the Olympiad’s final press conference. He credited support from the president and prime minister with giving the team the conditions it needed to prepare and compete. Kasimdzhanov also pointed to the relationship among the players as an important factor in the team’s performance. “Such unity does not exist in every team. We are together, we are friends, and that helps us.” Preparations, he added, extended to details beyond the chessboard. “We did everything we could. We left nothing to chance,” he said. “Considering how important this tournament was, we carefully thought through even the smallest details.” The Samarkand victory extends Uzbekistan’s run of medals at three consecutive Olympiads: gold in Chennai in 2022, bronze in Budapest in 2024, and gold again in Samarkand. Abdusattorov also won the individual gold medal on board one in Samarkand, posting a performance rating of 2869. Kazakhstan won silver in the women’s competition after drawing 2-2 with Poland in the final round. China took gold, while India claimed bronze on tiebreak. The competition ran from September 16 to 27, following the opening ceremony on September 15. Before the tournament, FIDE said a record 400 teams had registered across the two main competitions, with 208 in the Open section and 192 in the Women’s section, surpassing the previous record set in Budapest in 2024. The home victory also came days after Uzbekistan increased financial rewards for its leading chess players. Under Presidential Resolution No. PP-346, adopted on September 21, gold at the senior World Chess Olympiad or Chess Paralympiad carries a one-time award of $200,000 for each player. The corresponding...

Medieval Archaeology

What 20 Animal Teeth Reveal About Medieval Herding Along Uzbekistan’s Silk Road

Most histories of the Silk Roads follow merchants and precious cargo, while the daily work of herders rarely enters the record. At Kafir Kala, a fortified settlement about 7.5 miles southeast of ancient Samarkand in present-day Uzbekistan, researchers examined 20 excavated molars for chemical traces of what livestock ate and where they fed. The analysis suggests that several sheep may have grazed in foothills to the south during summer and eaten millet or wild grasses in winter, while goats appear to have stayed closer to the settlement. Before Arab forces conquered Samarkand in 712, Kafir Kala’s citadel had an administrative role. After a major fire around that time and a brief abandonment, residents converted earlier structures into homes with hearths and domed ovens. The molars came from this later occupation, dating from the early eighth to the 12th century. Excavations recovered 6,009 animal remains from the citadel’s pre-Islamic and Islamic layers, nearly 80% of them from sheep or goats. The analysis was published in June in the journal Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences. The work formed part of the Uzbek-Italian Archaeological Project, a long-standing collaboration between the University of Bologna and the Samarkand Institute of Archaeology, co-directed by Simone Mantellini and Samaretdin Suyunov. Proteins preserved in the teeth allowed the researchers to identify 12 as sheep and four as goats; three could be classified only as ruminants, and one could not be identified. They then analyzed chemical changes in enamel that had formed over about a year. Elena Armaroli, one of the paper’s authors, is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of the Basque Country and an adjunct researcher at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia. “Sheep showed greater variability, probably reflecting access to a wider range of food and water sources, including open water,” she told The Times of Central Asia. Armaroli interpreted the pattern as possible transhumance, the seasonal movement of livestock between pastures. Many pasture plants are C3 plants, while millet and some wild grasses are C4 plants. The names refer to two ways plants use carbon dioxide to make food: the first molecule produced has three carbon atoms in one case, four in the other. The two kinds of plants leave different carbon traces in the teeth of animals that eat them. Some sheep’s teeth suggest summer grazing in the Karatyube foothills south of Kafir Kala and a different diet in winter. Oxygen values helped the researchers place the change in season. Not every sheep fit the pattern. The goats’ results were more consistent with a year-round diet of local plants and little movement away from Kafir Kala. Armaroli offered one possible reason for moving sheep. “Sheep, although generally more selective in their diet, are considered more adaptable and may be better able to exploit whatever food and water resources are available when grazing conditions are limited.” “The use of different herding strategies may have been related to the different roles that sheep and goats played in the local economy and to the different products they...