History Archives - Voices On Cental Asia

The Mystery of Kyrk-Kyz: From 40 Women-Warriors to the Warriors of Light

January 16, 2020

A mysterious castle in Uzbekistan’s Surhandarya bears the name of Kyrk-Kyz, meaning “40 girls.” Was this a sanctuary of legendary women-warriors, or was it home to a group of Sufi…

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12 min

Destructing Soviet Architecture in Central Asia

December 13, 2019

Soviet architecture in Central Asia, as the name tells, is a fusion of Soviet modernity with traditional Central Asian culture that remains remarkable to this day. Persian and Islamic motifs…

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10 min

Deciphering the Saukele: The Traditional Headdress of Kazakh Brides

November 21, 2019

English transcript of the video presentation belowToday I am going to talk about one particular type of traditional Kazakh clothing: the headdress of a bride, called a saukele.Voronina-Utkina A.A. Watercolor.…

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14 min

History

How they met Tamara Khanum in London and the secret of Usto Olim Komilov’s turban

October 22, 2019

Tamara Khanum and her musicians, Credit: Vaughan Williams Memorial Library, Cecil Sharp House, London, 1935 Author Rosa Vercoe is an independent dance researcher and blogger. She is based in St…

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7 min

History

Lost Sogdian Art in China

August 6, 2019

Little is known of the lives of Sogdians in China, even though the Chinese connections of Sogdian elites played an important political, economic, and cultural role in the lives of…

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8 min

Dinmukhamed Kunaev’s House Museum

July 26, 2019

Dinmukhamed Kunaev was a leader of Soviet Kazakhstan. As the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Kazakhstan he was in office from 7 December 1964, to 16 December 1986.…

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12 min

History

The Central Asia Collection at the British Library – An Interview with Michael Erdman

April 18, 2019

The Turkish and Turkic Collections at the British Library are the largest collections of manuscript and printed material from the Turkic World housed anywhere in the United Kingdom. Michael Erdman…

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23 min

The Hungry Steppe: Famine, Violence, and the Making of Soviet Kazakhstan with author Sarah Cameron (video and transcript)

March 14, 2019

The Hungry Steppe: Famine, Violence, and the Making of Soviet Kazakhstan examines one of the most heinous crimes of the Stalinist regime, the Kazakh famine of 1 930–33. More than…

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13 min

History

How Does Central Asia Slot into the Global Jigsaw Puzzle? An interview with Peter Frankopan

December 17, 2018

Oxford University historian Peter Frankopan talks to Voices on Central Asia about his latest book, The New Silk Roads, and where Central Asia fits into the complex global jigsaw puzzle…

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21 min

History

The Last Soviet Mufti of Central Asia: Muhammad-Sodiq Muhammad-Yusuf

September 20, 2018

It was around the end of November 2002 that I first met and spoke with the most famous theologian in Central Asia, Muhammad-Sodiq Muhammad-Yusuf (April 15, 1952–March 10, 2015). Approximately…

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7 min

History

SADUM: An Effort To Establish Soviet Islam

July 12, 2018

Bakhtiyar Babadjanov, a prominent scholar of Soviet Islam, sheds some light on how the Muslims of Soviet Central Asia were administered and guided in accordance with the orders of the…

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10 min

The Conquest of Central Asia through the Turkestan Album

May 2, 2018

The Turkestan Album (Turkestanskii Al’bom—1871) was one of the great colonial photography projects of the 19th century. Commissioned by the first Russian governor-general of Russian Turkestan, Konstantin Petrovich von Kaufman,…

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8 min

History

“A Scale Model of the Contemporary World:” Nationality, Demography, and Development in the Soviet Union

April 27, 2018

When, in 1959, the USSR conducted its first census in 20 years, it revealed something remarkable about the geographic distribution of the Soviet Union’s population. Author Artemy M. Kalinovsky Artemy…

The Mystery of Kyrk-Kyz: From 40 Women-Warriors to the Warriors of Light

Destructing Soviet Architecture in Central Asia

Deciphering the Saukele: The Traditional Headdress of Kazakh Brides

How they met Tamara Khanum in London and the secret of Usto Olim Komilov’s turban

Lost Sogdian Art in China

In case you missed it

The Cruel Candor of Zhanna Isabaeva

“Captain Ikat”: Textile Fantasies of Dilyara Kaipova

The Researcher and His/Her Fieldwork in Central Eurasia (photos)

Kyrgyz Fashion: Combining Tradition and Innovation

Dinmukhamed Kunaev’s House Museum

The Central Asia Collection at the British Library – An Interview with Michael Erdman

The Hungry Steppe: Famine, Violence, and the Making of Soviet Kazakhstan with author Sarah Cameron (video and transcript)

How Does Central Asia Slot into the Global Jigsaw Puzzle? An interview with Peter Frankopan

The Last Soviet Mufti of Central Asia: Muhammad-Sodiq Muhammad-Yusuf

In case you missed it

The Cruel Candor of Zhanna Isabaeva

“Captain Ikat”: Textile Fantasies of Dilyara Kaipova

The Researcher and His/Her Fieldwork in Central Eurasia (photos)

Kyrgyz Fashion: Combining Tradition and Innovation

SADUM: An Effort To Establish Soviet Islam

The Conquest of Central Asia through the Turkestan Album

“A Scale Model of the Contemporary World:” Nationality, Demography, and Development in the Soviet Union

How they met Tamara Khanum in London and the secret of Usto Olim Komilov’s turban

Between Hope and Fear: Stories of Uyghur and Kazakh Muslim Minorities in the Xinjiang Province

Crafts and Couture from Central Asia Festival

Kazakh Graphic Illustrations of Evgeny Sidorkin

Deciphering the Saukele: The Traditional Headdress of Kazakh Brides