Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
gandists even used
akyns
to praise Lenin or popularise the latest direc-
tive from party central. Bardic competitions are still held in some rural
areas or during festivals, these days with cash prizes.
It was only with the advent of Bolshevik rule that literacy became
widespread. Unfortunately, at the same time, much of the region's clas-
sical heritage was suppressed because Moscow feared that it might
set a flame to latent nationalist sentiments. Instead writers were en-
couraged to produce novels and plays in line with official Communist
Party themes. While a number of Central Asian poets and novelists
found acclaim within the Soviet sphere, such as Tajik Sadruddin Ayni
(1878-1954), and Uzbeks Asqad Mukhtar and Abdullah Kodiri, the only
native Central Asian author to garner international recognition has
been Kyrgyz writer Chinghiz Aitmatov (1928-2008), whose novels such
as
Jamilla
and
The Day Lasts More Than A Hundred Years
have been
translated into English and other European languages.
One interesting modern work is the exiled Uzbek writer Hamid Is-
mailov's
The Railway
(2006), a satirical novel that mixes anecdote and
fantasy to depict life in the fictional end-of-the-line town of Gilas in
Soviet Uzbekistan. The novel was swiftly banned in Uzbekistan.
Music
Although visual arts and literature succumbed to a stifling Soviet-
European influence (which they're presently struggling to shrug off),
the music of Central Asia remains closely related to the swirling
melodies of Anatolia and Persia. The instruments used are similar
to those found across Iran, Afghanistan and Chinese Turkestan; the
rabab
(
rubab;
six-stringed mandolin),
dutar
(two-stringed guitar),
tambur
(long-necked lute),
dombra/komuz
(two-stringed Kazakh/
Kyrgyz guitar),
kamanche
(Persian violin, played like a cello) and
gi-
jak
(upright spiked fiddle),
ney
(flute),
doira
(tambourine/drum) and
chang
(zither). Most groups add the ubiquitous Russian accordion.
In the past the development of music was closely connected with
the art of the bards, but these days the traditions are continued by
small folklore ensembles, heavily in demand at weddings and other
toi
(celebrations). In Uzbek and Tajik societies there's a particularly
popular form of folk music known as
sozanda,
sung primarily by
women accompanied only by percussion instruments such as tablas,
bells and castanets. There are also several forms of Central Asian
classical music, such as the courtly
shash maqam
(six modes) tradi-
tion of Uzbekistan, most of which are taught through the traditional
system of
ustad
(master) and
shakirt
(apprentice). Central Asia has a
strong tradition of the performer-composer, or
bestekar,
the equiva-
lent of the singer-songwriter, who mixed poetry, humour, current af-
fairs and history into music.
Musical traditions in remote regions like the Pamirs are sometimes
preserved in just a few individuals, a situation the Aga Khan Trust
for Culture is trying to redress through its music schools scattered
throughout Central Asia.
Painting
Rendered in a style that foreshadows that of Persian miniature painting,
some splendid friezes have been unearthed in the excavations of the
Afrosiab palace (6th to 7th centuries), on the outskirts of Samarkand,
depicting a colourful caravan led by elephants. You can view copies at
Samarkand's Afrosiab Museum. Similar Silk Road-era wall frescoes
were discovered at Penjikent and Varakhsha, depicting everything from
panthers and griffins to royal banqueting scenes.
russian writer
Fyodor dosto-
evsky lived for
five years in
Semey (then
Semipalatinsk),
in Kazakhstan, as
part of his forced
exile from russia
and was married
there. His house
is now a museum.
