A Buffet of Leftovers

When we arrived at LAX from Central Asia, one of our suitcases reached baggage claim encased in a giant plastic bag, its contents bursting from a gap left by a broken zipper. It was an apt metaphor for how we feel returning to the States.

After a month and 16 Partouts in the Stans, we are still brimming with tasty anecdotes, observations and tales (not to mention photos) that never fit into a blog. The mantra around our house is “Waste not, want not” as we squeeze anything to the last possible drop. In that spirit, we offer this buffet of leftovers from Central Asia with hopes that, as at any good buffet, there will be something for everyone’s taste.

Wearing the Wealth
Ever wondered why women’s jewelry in some Muslim countries is so … big? Usually silver, occasionally gold but … big. In the Stans, Partout was on the case. It turns out that, in some Muslim societies (Central Asian among them), tradition dictates that a divorced woman leave the marriage with nothing but the wealth she can wear. Tradition also makes gifts of jewelry common. Put the two together, and you get the bigger-the-better bling. An affluent wife leaving the marital home might depart wearing several pounds of silver or gold to secure her single future. Every woman wants at least a few hundred grams.

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Chinese Refugees
In southern Kyrgyzstan, we were guests for dinner in a Dungan home. If any of you already knows who the Dungans are, you are way better informed than we were. Dungans are ethnic Chinese (mostly Hui) Muslims who fled northwestern China to the Russian empire in the late 1800s to escape violence after a failed revolt against the Qing dynasty. Only one-third of the refugees survived the brutal winter crossing of the Tian Shan mountains. Today, their descendants form a diaspora in the Stans, especially Kyrgystan. They speak a Mandarin-based language written in Cyrillic and continue preserving traditions that endured even through the culture-crushing Soviet years.

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Officialdom for Sale
Graft and corruption in Central Asia are as much a part of life as Friday prayers. We saw this in action when one of our drivers was pulled over for a trivial traffic violation. Shaken down for more than he had in his wallet, he asked if he could borrow enough cash from us to satisfy the cop’s demands. (We said yes.) That was pocket change compared with what goes on with DUI stops in Kazakhstan. There, the penalty for driving with a blood alcohol content over 0.05% is loss of your driver’s license for seven years. Drivers routinely bribe their way out of punishment with $2,000 (USD). The ones wearing designer clothes or driving expensive cars get hit up for as much as $5,000. Efforts (like the posters above) are being made to curb graft, but it’s an uphill battle. One guide told us everyone wants to stop corruption, but nobody wants to pay the price for its end.  

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The Illusion of Democracy
Every Stan holds presidential elections, but none of them are what the democratic world would call free and fair. (Kyrgyzstan is the occasional exception.) Whoever people might vote for, the authoritarian president is re-elected, an outcome assured by his control of elections, the media and education, limits on free speech and punishment for dissent. Loyalty is the paramount qualification for any government position. Nobody can forget who runs this show because images and shrines to the president’s magnificence are everywhere. In each national museum we visited, walls and even entire galleries were dedicated to the potentate in chief. As usual, the Turkmen President for Life takes the over-the-top prize for self-embellishment: he renamed the days of the week and the months after himself and relatives. (They reverted when he died.)

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“I Want to Go”
People everywhere asked, “Where you from?” and when we answered “America,” almost invariably responded, “I want to go.” Discouraged as some of us may be about the state of the nation, the USA remains a shining light on a hill in the Stans, where democracy, freedom of speech and other liberties we consider rights are limited or nonexistent. The most common path to immigration is winning a green card in the annual US Diversity Visa Lottery – a sort of worldwide Powerball game where the prize is the legal right to live and work in the United States. One of our guides said he has applied for seven straight years. Another told us an aunt and uncle won in their 50s and left everything and everyone they knew to relocate in Brookyln. In a pharmacy, an employee hearing Doris is from America, exclaimed, “I come in December! I won the lottery! I go to Chicago!” None of the applicants thinks the move will be easy. All of them hope it will bring them and their children more freedom and opportunity.

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Tales of the Golden Horse
The Akhal-Teke, the so-called golden horse of Turkmenistan, is legendary, and Turkmens are eager to share its legends. One is that after Queen Elizabeth II was gifted an Akhal-Teke (true), her stables spent a week washing the gift’s unique metallic coat because they thought it was painted (not true). Another is that the breed was ordered destroyed by Stalin (true: Stalin and the Soviets viewed the steeds as “bourgeois decadence”) and turned into sausage (possible exagerration). Akhal-Tekes were saved from extinction only after a team of Turkmen rode and herded 15 of them 2,500 miles across the desert from Ashgabat to Moscow to demonstrate the animal’s strength and endurance to Stalin himself (true). The horse now appears on Turkmenistan’s national coat of arms, banknotes, stamps and many official government papers as well as in statues and on buildings. It may be the only image displayed as much as the president’s – and we both were privileged to ride one.

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A Lost Village of Mennonites
In the early 1880s, several families of Russian Mennonites under pressure to assimilate against their religious principles migrated to what was then the Khanate of Khiva. The 1,400-mile journey is known as “The Great Trek.” Though an infamous tyrant, the Khan of Khiva granted the refugees permission to settle outside the city. There, they built the village of Ak Mechet. Hard-working and pacifist, they became known throughout the region for their technical skills and agricultural acumen, and they flourished for 50 years. In the 1930s, the community’s self-governance was terminated under Stalin, the village’s leaders and ministers were executed or imprisoned, its assets were seized and its remaining population was forced onto collective farms. Nothing remains of Ak Mechet today, but a small gem of a museum operates within the walls of Khiva’s UNESCO world heritage site memorializing them and their lasting contributions to the area.

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Your Questions Answered

Personamysteriously asked: “Was there a highlight to top everything?”

Yes! The top motivation for Doris and Louis to travel is to learn about the world. Both of us felt we had never traveled to a region of such enormous historical significance that we knew less about than the five countries of Central Asia. Every day was mind-blowing.

Still to Come!

• “Shoot Me!”? or “Sign Me Up!”?
• Potty Talk Goes Wild
• Louis’s Last Turn