Celebrating Uzbekistan`s cultural legacy

If you are planning a foray into Uzbekistan, the most populous of Central Asian countries, make sure to visit Khiva and make sure to do so no later than May 8. Historical Khiva will be hosting a grand event to honour and showcase Uzbek culture, a unique opportunity to see the traditions of Uzbek peoples in all their kaleidoscopic diversity: tightrope walking, kurash wrestling, traditional dances, cockfights, embroidery, pottery, and many more. All these will be wrapped into a two-day spectacle, on May 8-9. The upcoming event in question is Asrlar Sadosi Festival of Traditional Culture, organized annually by the Forum of Culture and Arts of Uzbekistan Foundation (Fund Forum), the country`s cultural juggernaut.

This year Asrlar Sadosi (Echo of centuries) Festival will have its venue at Ichan-Qala, a walled inner town inside Khiva city. Ichan-Qala is one of the most famous and amazing landmarks in Central Asia and the city of Khiva itself is likened to an open-air museum which has withstood the ravages of time. With a history that spans almost 2,500 years, Khiva has attracted flocks of tourists from far and wide. A visit to this truly Eastern city, with spectacular domes and minarets, will ensure that the visitor finds himself in a scene from the One Thousand and One Nights. It is, therefore, no wonder that Khiva`s Ichan Qala complex, a storehouse of ancient architectural marvels, is protected as a World Heritage Site, thereby making Khiva a destination that deserves to be on every tourist`s must-visit list.

Asrlar Sadosi Festival is the brainchild of Gulnara Karimova, the chairperson of the Fund Forum`s Board of Trustees. It is a project launched in an effort to help revive, preserve and boost Uzbek culture. The first Festival was held in May 2008 at Kainar in Kashkadarya Region, where the festivities sprawled across submontane luscious plains. The second Festival, held in May 2009, took place in Tashkent Region`s Akkurgan and Bostanlik districts. Back then the decision to select these sites as the venue for the festival was due to the 2200th anniversary of Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan. Notably, in 2009, UNESCO became a co-organizer of the festival, a fact that is indicative of the festival`s significance. Asrlar Sadosi is hence a collaborative effort by the Fund Forum and UNESCO. Khiva, which is located in the northwest of Uzbekistan, has been picked as the venue for the upcoming third Festival as this is where many forms of traditional art originated.

The Festival programme includes popular merrymaking, folk and circus performances, tightrope walker shows, a National Dress Festival, an applied art fair, cockfights, ram fights, national meals, traditional dances, songs and storytelling as well as master classes and lectures by local historians and art critics. Last year, a scientific component was added to the programme and a conference was organized as part of the Festival to focus on the book Civilizations, States and Cultures of Central Asia by academic E. Rtveladze of Uzbekistan.

With a programme as broad as this, previous events drew a multitude of international guests and art enthusiasts interested in getting first-hand experience of unique cultural festivities. “I and my wife are excited that we had a chance to see the Uzbek arts, national cuisine, textiles… all the facets of Uzbek culture”, said Loup Brefort, the World Bank Country Manager in Uzbekistan, who was among those attending the fest last year.

Asrlar Sadosi is just one of the culture projects devised by Gulnara Karimova, a devoted patron of arts, who currently also serves as Permanent Representative of Uzbekistan to the UN Office and other International Organizations in Geneva as well as Ambassador of Uzbekistan to Spain. The Fund Forum, which was established in 2004 at her initiative, has grown into Uzbekistan`s largest public organization dealing with a broad range of cultural and humanitarian issues. Since its inception, the Group has run nearly 600 projects in Uzbekistan and far beyond its confines. The Fund Forum gave itself the goal of representing Uzbek culture abroad, cultivating and expanding the country`s international cooperation in cultural and humanitarian spheres, and providing broad support to young talents and creative people.

Based in Tashkent, the organization has representative offices in Moscow, Beijing, Tokyo, Paris, Geneva and Vienna. It has established cultural ties with partners in Austria, Belgium, China, Egypt, France, Germany, Japan, Luxembourg, Russia, Switzerland and other counties. It has signed memorandums of understanding and partnership agreements with UNESCO, the British Council, the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, China`s Soon Ching Ling Foundation, Samuel Eto`o Foundation, the Austrian Association of Retirees and the National Museum of the Republic of Korea.