Tajik Gahvora: Harmful Tradition or Useful Childrearing Device?
For centuries, Tajik families have used a “gahvora” (cradle) to contain babies. The gahvora is one of the oldest traditions in child care and it is still preserved in the…
Women’s Perspective and the Central Asian Cinema
The founders of Central Asian countries’ national cinema include Kazakhstan’s Shaken Aimanov, with his masterpiece “The Land of Fathers”, Kyrgyzstan’s Melis Ubukeyev, with his work “White Mountains”, Uzbekistan’s Shukhrat Abbasov,…
Sweat, Blood and Central Asian Dance
Dance is an integral part of life in Central Asia; it can be seen both in rural settings and on the proscenium stage, from highly developed virtuosic classical styles to…
The Art of the Wood Carving in Tajikistan
Tajikistan has a rich heritage of exquisite wood carvings. Dr. Larisa Dodkhudoeva from the Institute of History, Archeology, and Ethnography named after Donish talks about the origins of this art…
Khorezm Lazgi: The Sunniest Dance on Earth
Lazgi is a must-see of Khorezm. Lazgi is the dance with a feel-good factor, making you feel a joie de vivre or zest for life. There is an opinion that…
Ali Shir Navayi and the Rich World of Turkic-Persian Poetry. An Interview with Nicholas Walmsley
Ali Shir Navayi born in 1441 in Herat, was a Turkic poet, writer, politician, linguist, and mystic, who was the greatest representative of Chagatai literature. He lived in the Timurid…
A Look into the Soviet Past of the Central Asian Cinema with Cloe Drieu
Researcher Cloe Drieu studied the earliest films in Central Asia that go back as far as 1924, a year that marked a political birth, with the ethnic and territorial delimitation…
How Alerte Héritage Protects the Cultural Heritage of Central Asia
The cultural heritage of Central Asia is in serious danger due to the relative poverty of the population, the high levels of corruption, and the radical rewriting of history that…
What do Theaters in Tajikistan Tell Us?
My recent visit to Tashkent (the capital of Uzbekistan) was marked by the exploration of several theaters. I saw two plays: The first, Zavtra (Tomorrow), was staged by Artyom Kim,…
Ilkhom – Inspiration that Drew from “Stagnation”
The Ilkhom Theatre was started in 1976 as one of the experimental studios under the aegis of the Komsomol Youth organization, and in my master’s thesis,[1] I traced its transformation…
Сarpet Propaganda: From Azerbaijan to Turkmenistan. The “Echo of Soviet Azerbaijan” Exhibition
The State Museum of Oriental Art of Russia, in cooperation with the Azerbaijan National Carpet Museum (ANCM), is holding an exhibition called “Echo of Soviet Azerbaijan. Carpet. Embroidery. Poster.” The…
Tajik Fashion and the Challenges of Achieving an International Breakthrough
Just recently, Tajikistan, with its rich aesthetic traditions, has seemingly made a breakthrough in the fashion arena with some great designers like Khurshed Sattorov (born in 1981), Nafisa Imronova (1991)…
How Ikat Accompanied History in Central Asia
Ikat is a fabric that got its name from the resist dye technique used to make its patterns. But I’d like to show you ikat from a different perspective. In…