Travel Uzbekistan
On a tranquil winter night in January 1966, Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan, became forever associated with India, though in a mournful manner. Travel Uzbekistan
India’s second Prime Minister, Lal Bahadur Shastri, died unexpectedly in that city just hours after signing a peace treaty with Pakistan’s President, Ayub Khan. The agreement was brokered in the presence of Alexei Kosygin, then Prime Minister of the Soviet Union, who had mediated the negotiations between the two countries.
News of his death stunned the people of Tashkent. It is said that many gathered on the streets the following day to join Shastri’s final, mournful journey in a gun carriage along the same route to the airport – where only days earlier they had stood with flowers and flags to welcome him.
Moved to commemorate him, Tashkent etched Shastri’s name into its cityscape – renaming a prominent thoroughfare in his honour and installing a bust in a quiet park along the tree-lined avenue, where memory now lingers in bronze and shade.
Today, the statue feels almost like a place of pilgrimage for visitors from India and for people of Indian origin, like me, who come to Tashkent from different corners of the world.
So when I arrived in the city, that quiet, sacred spot was my first stop. I began my journey through Uzbekistan by standing in silence before the Indian leader whose final moments were lived here.
The ties between Uzbekistan and India stretch back centuries, forged in violence when the powerful Uzbek ruler Timur invaded Delhi in 1398 to expand his empire. A little more than a century later, his great-grandson Babur conquered India and founded the Mughal Empire, which ruled for nearly 300 years until British colonisation. That long history shaped architecture, cuisine and language – influences I could still trace while exploring Uzbekistan.
Uzbekistan’s plov, a hearty rice dish with meat, is often seen as a precursor to India’s biryani. Samsa became samosa, and non evolved into naan. Even language reflects this shared past, with words like kimat (price), kursi (chair) and gosht (meat) common to both cultures.
Rooted in antiquity, Uzbekistan’s history is a rich tapestry woven from the rise and fall of mighty kingdoms. Its strategic position at the crossroads of India, China and Europe made it a coveted prize in the campaigns of successive empires – Persians, Greeks, Turks, Arabs who brought Islam to the region, Mongols and, later, the Russians.
The land’s story is inseparable from the legendary Silk Road, the vast overland network that linked East and West. For more than two millennia, caravans carrying silk, spices and gold – along with religious ideas and cultural traditions – passed through this territory, shaping it into a vibrant crossroads of civilisations.
Uzbekistan unquestionably showcases some of the finest examples of Islamic architecture – grand mosques, intricately tiled madrasas, majestic mausoleums and soaring monuments. I encountered this architectural splendour in Samarkand and Bukhara, the country’s two most significant historic centres.
Many of these magnificent structures were built between the 14th and 17th centuries under the reign of Timur, founder of the Timurid dynasty, and his successors. Much of what had stood before was destroyed during the 13th-century Mongol invasion led by Genghis Khan, leaving little of the earlier landscape intact. Travel Uzbekistan
Samarkand is widely regarded as one of the world’s oldest cities, often mentioned alongside Babylon in Iraq and Varanasi in India. When Timur made it the capital of his vast empire, the city was transformed into a showcase of monumental architecture – its skyline rising with colossal structures that reflected artistic brilliance, spiritual devotion and scientific ambition.
Experts hail Registan Square as the city’s crown jewel. The vast paved plaza is framed on three sides by magnificent madrasas and mosques, their glazed turquoise domes and blue-tiled façades adorned with intricate mosaics and flowing calligraphy – enduring testimony to the splendour of the Timurid empire. The interiors are richly adorned with exquisite mosaics in shades of blue, alabaster and gold. Gazing at the intricate calligraphy, I felt as though sacred verses had been rendered eternal in ceramic and tile within these luminous spaces.
Other notable medieval landmarks in Samarkand include Shah-i-Zinda, a breathtaking necropolis adorned with the mausoleums of Timur’s relatives and trusted generals; the imposing Bibi Khanym Mosque; and the Gur-e-Amir, the magnificent mausoleum where Timur lies beneath a vast slab of jade.
Bukhara on the other hand, feels like a living museum, where wandering through its ancient quarters, I sensed the lingering echoes of civilisations reluctant to fade. That feeling deepened as I visited the Chashma Ayub Mausoleum – considered one of Central Asia’s oldest funerary monuments – the formidable Ark Citadel, once home to the rulers of Bukhara, the Bolo-Hauz Mosque, known as the “Mosque of Forty Columns”, and the towering Kalon Minaret, from which the call to prayer once rang out across the city, summoning worshippers to the adjacent mosque. Travel Uzbekistan
Tashkent captivated me with its interesting blend of the old and the new.
While the newer quarters showcase sleek, modern architecture along broad, tree-lined boulevards and manicured parklands, the historic heart of the city is studded with mosques, tombs and madrasas. During my visit to the Moyie Mubarek Library Museum, I was privileged to see what is believed to be the world’s oldest Qur’an, displayed reverently in a glass case. For many devout Muslims, even touching the cabinet is considered sacred – a devotion reflected in the long, unbroken queue of visitors waiting their turn.
Exploring Tashkent, I found myself immersed in the lingering flavours of the Silk Road while wandering through the bustling corridors of Chorsu Bazaar. The air was fragrant with ground saffron, cumin and coriander, mingling with the scent of freshly baked bread and sweet halva, all blending with the earthy aroma of handwoven silk carpets.
Stalls brimmed with colour and texture – pyramids of pomegranates, mounds of pistachios, vibrant Uzbek coats and embroidered caps – sustaining a trading tradition that still carries the cadence and charm of another era. Travel Uzbekistan
As my flight carried me home, I felt a deep sense of fulfilment – knowing I had walked the same paths once trodden by conquerors and merchants, scholars and pilgrims, travellers who once bridged the worlds of East and West. Travel Uzbekistan
TRAVEL NOTEBOOK
Getting There Fly Air India (www.airindia.com) to Delhi and Uzbekistan Airways (www.uzaairways.com) to Tashkent.
Stay Hilton Tashkent (www.hilton.com) in Tashkent, Hilton Garden Inn in Samarkand (www.hilton.com) and Wyndham Hotel (www.wyndhamhotels.com) in Bukhara.
Local Tour Operator Contact Orient Mice (www.orientmice.com), a trusted local tour operator for all ground arrangements.
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