Latest news with #Uzbekistan
BBC News
10 hours ago
- BBC News
The fertile Silk Road valley few travellers know
In recent years, Uzbekistan has embarked on an ambitious nationwide tourism boom that is transforming much of the country. But its beating heart is in a stunning and largely secluded valley. It's dawn in Tashkent when the hulking Soviet-era train groans into the station and shudders to a halt. I've taken several crowded trains across Uzbekistan by now, but this one, bound for the eastern city of Margilan – the gateway to the Fergana Valley – is devoid of foreign travellers. Inside, I sit beside a family of three. The matriarch, Gulnora, wears a striking headscarf patterned in bold geometric motifs. I point to it and say, "Ajoyib!", the Uzbek word for "great". She smiles and tells me she got it from the valley we're headed towards. The day before, at Tashkent's blue-domed Chorsu Bazaar – one of Central Asia's oldest markets – I came across a mound of strawberries. Though small in size, they tasted like bursts of spring. Sticky-fingered, I asked the vendor through Google Translate, "Where are these grown?" He immediately answered, "Fergana." On the train, I offer the last of my strawberries to the family. Gulnora smiles again and opens her own box in response. Inside is a rainbow of fresh and dried fruit: mulberries, apricots, apples, oranges and strawberries, all coming from the valley. She then pulls out a small ceramic quarter plate and arranges a small feast for us. Cradled between the Tien Shan and Alay mountain ranges, the Fergana Valley stretches across eastern Uzbekistan, southern Kyrgyzstan and northern Tajikistan. It is one of Central Asia's most fertile regions; this lush intermountain basin, irrigated by the Naryn and Kara Darya rivers, has nurtured both crops and culture for centuries. It is also the birthplace of Uzbekistan's celebrated silk, ceramic and fruit production – a veritable holy trinity that forms the backbone of Uzbek culture. Like much of modern-day Uzbekistan, the Fergana Valley lay along the fabled Silk Road, serving as a conduit for trade, ideas and artistry between China, Persia and the Mediterranean for centuries. In recent years, Uzbekistan has been leaning into its Silk Road roots with an ambitious new tourism drive that is seeing its historical trading hubs of Samarkand, Bukhara and Khiva developing at breakneck speeds. But while relaxed visa restrictions, more connecting flights and the arrival of the nation's first major international biennial has placed Uzbekistan on more travellers' radars, critics point out that its flashy recreations of traditional Uzbek culture run the risk of turning it into a veritable Silk Road theme park. Yet, away from the nation's sanitised new resorts and ersatz "ethnographic parks", a quieter cultural revival is unfolding in the Fergana Valley. This traditional hub of Uzbek culture receives only a fraction of the visitors who flock to Uzbekistan's major cities, but it remains a living museum of craftsmanship. Ikat textiles from Margilan, one of the valley's oldest cities, are worn across Uzbekistan as skullcaps, headscarves and modern shirts and dresses. Meanwhile, ceramics from Rishtan are used in households across the country to serve food and tea. Fruit from the valley is a staple of Uzbek hospitality and cuisine, with dried apricots and raisins served alongside tea and pomegranates and cherries mixed into plov, Uzbekistan's national dish. I put my hand on my heart, as many Uzbeks do, to thank Gulnora for her company on the train, and disembark in Margilan to find my guesthouse. Appropriately named Ikathouse, it is lined with traditional wooden divans draped in vibrant ikat textiles. I soon learn that the property belongs to the family of Rasuljon Mirzaahmedov, a fifth-generation ikat weaver who has collaborated with fashion designer Oscar de la Renta to create a collection featuring Fergana's signature adras (cotton-silk blend), atlas (satin ikat) and baghmal (velvet ikat). More like this:• Khiva: The Silk Road City most tourists miss• The dark side of Uzbekistan's tourism boom• Life in Karakalpakstan: The 'stan within a stan' Margilan is the birthplace of Uzbek ikat, one of Central Asia's most complex textile traditions. Known locally as abrbandi, this silk-weaving tradition stretches back 1,000 years and was plied along the Silk Road as early as the 11th Century. While the ikat technique came to Uzbekistan after the Arab Conquest in the 7th Century, legend has it that Uzbekistan's long love of silk began in the 4th Century when a Chinese princess smuggled silkworm eggs in her hair when she eloped to the Fergana Valley. Unlike other places in Uzbekistan today, the labour-intensive weaving in Margilan is still done by hand. At Yodgorlik, one of the city's oldest silk factories, silkworms munch steadily through piles of tender mulberry leaves, growing fat until they spin delicate cocoons of raw silk. "We only use cocoons that the larvae have left behind," explains Luiza Kamolova, Yodgorlik's director. "If we kill the larvae, we kill the future of Uzbekistan's silk." The silk is then washed, stretched and tightly bundled into skeins and resist-dyed in successive stages with natural pigments: onion skins for yellow, madder roots for red, indigo leaves for blue and pomegranate skins for brown. Artisans bend and sweat over massive steaming cauldrons all day, coaxing colour into thread to build intricate patterns that emerge only after the fabric is woven. The result is a delicate, feathered blur that is worn across Uzbekistan in both traditional and contemporary fashion. "If you think of Uzbek ikat, you think of Fergana Valley," says Charos Kamalova, founder of Teplo, a marketplace in Tashkent that showcases designers from across the nation. "Every designer working with traditional textiles uses fabrics from the region. It is just a given." At Yodgorlik, a blue-and-white silk scarf is drying in the courtyard. "It is inspired by the colours of the Rishtan ceramics," an artisan tells me. "Have you been there yet?" Two days later, I am welcomed to the city of Rishtan by a giant ceramic pot standing in the centre of a roundabout. According to locals, the sculpture is inspired by a local four-handled pitcher called bodiya chuqur bodiya used across Uzbekistan to boil water for tea. At Koron, a nearby ceramic showroom, I wander through rows of vibrant pottery: bowls, tiles, jugs and glazed pomegranates in every shade and size. "The pomegranate is sacred in Uzbekistan," says Ravshan Tojiddinov, Koron's founder. "We give it at weddings for fertility, paint it on ceramics for good luck and eat it to remember that life is both sweet and sharp!" At Rustam Usmanov's workshop – the part studio, part school of one of Uzbekistan's most respected potters – I watch students sketch patterns beside stacks of half-finished vessels. "The clay we use in Rishtan has a natural reddish-yellow hue." Usmanov explains. "The entire city is quite literally built on it." This local clay is shaped and dried for up to 10 days, coated with white clay and then fired at 920C. Intricate plant-based motifs are then hand-painted before a second firing at 960-1000C locks in the alkaline glaze, revealing the intense blue tint that makes Uzbek pottery so distinct. "Every Rishtan ceramic tells a story," one of Usmanov's students tells me. "Birds are for freedom, fruits for abundance, and the jug – for water, milk, wine – is life itself. These are not just decorations, they are blessings entering the Uzbek household." Usmanov sees me photographing a yet-to-mature pomegranate hanging from a tree in his workshop's courtyard. He offers me some dried apricots, walnuts and apples, before echoing what Gulnora and so many others have told me: that the nearby city of Fergana boasts some of nation's best fruit. Hopping out of a marshrutka (shared minibus) at Fergana, the valley's namesake city, I see fruit trees everywhere. Grapevines climb across mudbrick homes, cherries droop from overhanging branches and small apricot trees bloom in courtyards. On street corners, I see locals rinsing strawberries in communal basins, children chasing runaway plums down alleys and old women shaking mulberry trees to collect the berries for jam. At the farmer's market, the offerings are dazzling: rows of sun-blushed peaches, crisp apples stacked like pyramids, purple grapes heavy on the vine and baskets of strawberries so fragrant they perfume the air. "Everything you see here was picked this morning," says a local vendor. "We grow for our families first, then the market, then whatever is left is sold for export." Thanks to the valley's rich alluvial soils and long sunlit days, Fergana's strawberries, cherries, apples and pomegranates develop a natural sweetness and fragrance that is difficult to replicate, making Uzbekistan the top fruit-producing nation in Central Asia. As I prepare to leave the valley, a small moment crystallises everything I have seen and tasted. At a roadside stall just outside the Margilan train station, an elderly woman wearing a dazzling ikat headscarf is selling freshly picked mulberries in gold-rimmed ceramic bowls, their juice staining the curved blue glaze. In that instant, I see how seamlessly Uzbekistan's holy trinity weaves itself into everyday life here. In the Fergana Valley, ikat is more than a machine-made costume worn for photos in front of the glittering new Silk Road Samarkand; ceramics are more than just souvenirs to shelve back home; and fruit is more than a welcome platter at a new caravanserai-style hotel in Bukhara. In a world speeding towards curated visuals and surface-level experiences for tourists, Fergana feels like an antidote — and that's what makes it well worth the detour. -- For more Travel stories from the BBC, follow us on Facebook, X and Instagram.
Arab News
5 days ago
- Business
- Arab News
Pakistan's Dar meets Afghan top leaders during Kabul visit to sign railway pact
ISLAMABAD: Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar met Afghanistan's prime minister and foreign minister on Thursday to discuss bilateral trade, peace and security, as he arrived in Kabul to sign a framework agreement to conduct a joint feasibility study for the Uzbekistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan (UAP) Railway Project. Dar, who is also Pakistan's foreign minister, met huis Afghan counterpart Amir Khan Muttaqi earlier on Thursday to discuss bilateral relations and trade cooperation, Pakistan's foreign office said. Talks between the two countries' officials took place amid a tentative thaw in Pakistan-Afghanistan relations, which have been strained in recent years due to a surge in militancy in Pakistan that Islamabad blames on Afghan-based insurgent groups. Kabul denies the allegations. 'On the sidelines of the signing ceremony for the Framework Agreement on Joint Feasibility Study of the UAP Railway Corridor, DPM/FM, Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar called on the Afghan Prime Minister, Mullah Muhammad Hassan Akhund,' the foreign office said. The two reaffirmed their commitment to continue bilateral engagement and agreed to maintain high-level contacts to promote bilateral relations, the statement said. 'The two leaders exchanged views on issues of mutual interest, including peace and security, trade and transit cooperation and regional connectivity,' Pakistan's foreign office said. The UAP Railway Project aims to establish a vital trade and transit corridor linking Uzbekistan with Pakistan via Afghanistan, offering the Central Asian republics direct access to Pakistani seaports. The rail link is expected to significantly boost regional connectivity, facilitate trade and contribute to long-term economic integration and political stability in the broader region. For Pakistan, which seeks to position itself as a regional connectivity hub, the UAP railway is also strategically important in strengthening economic ties with Central Asia and securing stable transit through Afghanistan, a country whose internal security dynamics continue to impact broader regional development goals. 'The signing of the Framework Agreement on Joint Feasibility Study between the three participating countries in Kabul will be an important step toward its implementation,' the foreign office said in an earlier statement. Uzbekistan and Afghanistan signed an agreement in 2017 to extend a railroad connecting the two countries that would eventually give Uzbekistan a direct link to seaports. Landlocked Uzbekistan's access to marine shipping is very limited. Efforts to repair the fractured ties between Islamabad and Kabul gained momentum during a China-hosted trilateral dialogue in Beijing in May between the foreign ministers of Pakistan, Afghanistan and China. Islamabad and Kabul agreed in principle to send ambassadors to each other's countries as soon as possible, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi had announced after the summit. The upcoming signing of the UAP railway pact, a long-discussed infrastructure project championed by all three governments, is also being seen as one of the first tangible outcomes of renewed engagement between Islamabad and Kabul.
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Morgan Stanley Lowered the Firm's PT on Joint Stock Company Kaspi.kz (KSPI), Maintained a Buy Rating
Joint Stock Company (NASDAQ:KSPI) is one of the Best 52-Week Low Stocks to Buy According to Analysts. On June 17, Morgan Stanley analyst Nida Iqbal lowered the firm's price target on Joint Stock Company (NASDAQ:KSPI) from $127 to $115, while maintaining an Overweight rating on the stock. The revised price target comes after the firm returned from an investors' trip to Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Turkey. Morgan Stanley remained positive about Joint Stock Company (NASDAQ:KSPI) after the trip; however, they decreased the group's net income forecast for 2025 by 6%. This was due to the expected losses from the company's operations in Turkey. The firm advises investors to be patient because there are near-term challenges ahead. They believe the company will face some headwinds but has good prospects in the medium to long term. Joint Stock Company (NASDAQ:KSPI) is a leading fintech and e-commerce company based in Kazakhstan. It provides an integrated ecosystem of services including online payments, digital banking, and a marketplace for shopping. While we acknowledge the potential of KSPI as an investment, we believe certain AI stocks offer greater upside potential and carry less downside risk. If you're looking for an extremely undervalued AI stock that also stands to benefit significantly from Trump-era tariffs and the onshoring trend, see our free report on the best short-term AI stock. READ NEXT: 30 Stocks That Should Double in 3 Years and 11 Hidden AI Stocks to Buy Right Now. Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Arab News
6 days ago
- Business
- Arab News
Pakistan deputy PM to visit Kabul for rail project pact with Afghanistan, Uzbekistan
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar will travel to Kabul today, Thursday, to sign a framework agreement to conduct a joint feasibility study for the Uzbekistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan (UAP) Railway Project, the foreign office said in a statement. The UAP Railway Project aims to establish a vital trade and transit corridor linking Uzbekistan with Pakistan via Afghanistan, offering the Central Asian republics direct access to Pakistani seaports. The rail link is expected to significantly boost regional connectivity, facilitate trade and contribute to long-term economic integration and political stability in the broader region. For Pakistan, which seeks to position itself as a regional connectivity hub, the UAP railway is also strategically important in strengthening economic ties with Central Asia and securing stable transit through Afghanistan, a country whose internal security dynamics continue to impact broader regional development goals. 'The DPM/FM's visit underscores the importance Pakistan attaches to the successful realization of the UAP Railway Project,' the foreign ministry said in a statement. 'The signing of the Framework Agreement on Joint Feasibility Study between the three participating countries in Kabul will be an important step toward its implementation.' Uzbekistan and Afghanistan signed an agreement in 2017 to extend a railroad connecting the two countries that would eventually give Uzbekistan a direct link to seaports. Landlocked Uzbekistan's access to marine shipping is very limited. RENEWED ENGAGEMENT While in Kabul, Dar will also meet Afghanistan's acting foreign minister and is scheduled to call on the country's acting prime minister. The meetings will cover a wide range of bilateral issues as well as regional and international developments. The visit comes amid a tentative thaw in Pakistan-Afghanistan relations, which have been strained in recent years due to a surge in militancy in Pakistan that Islamabad blames on Afghan-based insurgent groups. Islamabad has repeatedly urged the Taliban-led government to prevent militant groups, particularly Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), from launching attacks on Pakistani security forces and other targets from Afghan soil. Kabul denies harboring militants. In December, the Afghan Taliban said bombardment by Pakistani military aircraft in Afghanistan's eastern Paktika province had killed at least 46 people, most of whom were children and women. Pakistan has not confirmed the strikes but has said that it is carrying out 'anti-terrorist operations' against militants it blames for attacks in Pakistan and who it says have safe havens in Afghanistan, a charge that Kabul denies. Efforts to repair the fractured ties gained momentum during a China-hosted trilateral dialogue in Beijing in May between the foreign ministers of Pakistan, Afghanistan and China. Islamabad and Kabul agreed in principle to send ambassadors to each other's country as soon as possible, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi had announced after the summit. The upcoming signing of the UAP railway pact, a long-discussed infrastructure project championed by all three governments, is also being seen as one of the first tangible outcomes of renewed engagement between Islamabad and Kabul.
Wall Street Journal
6 days ago
- Politics
- Wall Street Journal
‘A Return to Self' Review: At Home in the World
At the end of 'A Return to Self: Excursions in Exile,' Aatish Taseer gives thanks to a host of people who made his book possible: editors, agents, facilitators of various kinds, friends and guides, even a barber in Uzbekistan. He should have also named Narendra Modi, India's prime minister, without whom his book would not have come to be. Mr. Modi, it could be said, is the book's midwife, and thanking him would have been pointedly droll. In November 2019, Mr. Modi's government revoked the British-born Mr. Taseer's Overseas Citizenship of India, thus banishing him from the country he'd grown up in, a land where he had lived for 30 of his (then) 40 years. India was his mother's country and, in many ways, his own motherland, a place where he longed to belong. What provoked this Indian ire? In May 2019, days before Mr. Modi won his second term, Time magazine published a cover story by Mr. Taseer about the man titled 'India's Divider in Chief.' The article, Mr. Taseer writes, 'enraged the prime minister' and sent his supporters 'into a fury.' Mr. Modi, a hardline Hindu nationalist, isn't a kind or forgiving man. Retribution was now certain. The story then gets murky and Mr. Taseer's book doesn't shed enough light on it. Under India's rules, a person with a Pakistani parent is ineligible for Indian Overseas Citizenship; yet Mr. Taseer had somehow secured one. He doesn't tell us how. Were strings pulled? After all, he is (as he puts it) the 'love child' of his mother, an Indian journalist, and Salman Taseer, a Pakistani politician. The elder Taseer was assassinated in 2011 by one of his own bodyguards for defending a Christian woman accused of blasphemy against Islam.
