Page 33 - Seniorstoday May 2024 Issue

Travel
Uzbekistan- Poetry in Stone
Ancient, medieval, and modern marvels jostle for attention; the beauty of
Uzbekistan lies in the layers of stories it holds, writes Vandana Kanoria
“To move, to breathe, to fly, to float, to gain
all while you give, to roam the roads of
lands remote, to travel is to live.”
—Hans Christian Anderson
Silk Roads, the term coined by Ferdinand
Richthofen during his expeditions to
the east, stretched from China to the
eastern shores of the Mediterranean with
Uzbekistan right in the middle, its cities
important trading posts. Pearls, spices,
aromatic oils, horses and most importantly
silk were all traded on these routes. Silk
was a symbol of political and social power,
a diplomatic tool to negotiate better terms,
since China guarded jealously, the secrets
of its production.
They were roads of trade of not only
exotic goods like silk, but of powerful
concepts related to the divine, a melting
SENIORS TODAY | ISSUE #59 | MAY 2024
Photographs by Vandana Kanoria
pot where ideas were exchanged, and
repackaged - intellectual and theological
spaces as well as places of commercial
importance. Before Islam came, Buddhism,
Manichaeism, Nestorianism co-existed
in peace for centuries in Central Asia.
Alexander the Great, Marco Polo, Genghis
Khan, Timur all travelled along these roads
and left behind not only tales of blood and
conquest but awe inspiring architectural
marvels ...
The BBC called Uzbekistan the “Land
of a Thousand Shrines” and indeed there
are countless religious sites across the
country, from the Graeco-Bactrian era
Buddhist monastery at Fayaz Tepe, to the
Zoroastrian altars excavated in Khorezm.
But, it is for the Islamic shrines that most
people visit Uzbekistan. There are shrines
connected with the Prophets Job (Ayub
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