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UPDATE:   01 October 2006

Khiva, Uzbekistan
The ancient city in the steppe...

GUEST REPORTER:  Todd Drummond, a native of Auburn, Alabama who has spent most of his adult life living in Central Asia.

Uzbekistan, February 2006

The ancient oasis city of Khiva is located about 150 miles southeast of what is left of the Aral Sea. The entire region around Khiva, once called "the Kingdom of Khorezm," before it later became better known as the "Khivan Khanate," was first mentioned in historical sources as subject to the Iranian King Darius (521-425 BC). Located where the Amu Darya fans out into many branches (most of which used to lead into the Aral Sea), the Kingdom of Khorezm was once a lush oasis with a strong enough agricultural base to support an advanced civilization. In all stages of its history, the region was able to grow and prosper due to the development of an extensive crop irrigation and canal system. Today, due to the Aral Sea crisis, location in the steppe, and poor land and water management under both the Soviet and post-soviet regimes, the area is is hardly inhabitable by western standards. In some ways, Khiva and the area around it evoke a sense of sadness and despair for the current socio-economic plight of the people there. Nonetheless, it is a fascinating place to visit and the ancient city, the third of the great Silk Road cities, can not fail to impress the visitor.

The city state was a trading and textile center for the region for the last several hundred years. The city itself was populated by many different ethnic groups. Uzbeks often refer to the Uzbek spoken in this region as "Khorezmcha" as the local Uzbek dialect is influenced by Kara-Kalpak, Turkmen, and Kazak. The kingdom of Khorezm and then city state of Khiva had a minority of ethnic Turkmen compromising 20-30% of the population until the creation of the Soviet Republics of Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan in the 1920s. Khivans have a strong sense of local identity and they resisted the Russian Imperial encroachment for over a century being finally be captured by the Russians after the battle of Gok-Teke in 1872.

Today Khiva is struggling with the issues that plague the entire Aral sea region: unemployment, poverty, corruption, deteriorating infrastructure, and increasing salinity in the water of the region due to the erosion of the seabed and the creeping of salt water into the soil. Despite the relative isolation of Khiva (two hour flight from Tashkent) Khivans have struggled to bring tourist dollars to the region. In recent years the Uzbek government managed to get UNESCO to declare Khiva a World Heritage Site. A considerable sum was invested to refurbish the original fort walls and renovate many buildings. The old city indeed has many mosques, minarets, madrassa, fortress walls, a large caravansarai and bazaar, and an old trade quarter where craftsmen plied their trade in small workshops.

Despite these efforts, due to the current political crisis in Uzbekistan and the relative isolation of Khiva, tourists are few and far between in Khiva today. Natasha and I flew from Tashkent for the weekend and stayed in Urgench, a 30 minute ride from the old city. We were met by a friend, Firuza, who is a teacher from a village nearby. Firuza had been a participant of one of our organization's training programs and spent 6 weeks in the United States. Not only did we have a fabulous meal at her home with her family, she also "took us under her wing" and protected us from the "gatekeepers" who took "tolls" from tourists at every possible building, house, mosque, toilet, etc. within the old city complex. It is not that people were asking was a lot, but the constant hassle of paying at every step of the way would have been a serious psychological "drain on the fun" without Firuza. Firuza had done some translation work for the director of the complex which allowed us to basically have "an all purposes pass."

Khiva is different from both Bukhara and Samarkand in the sense that the main places to see are in one small city-sized area inside a old fortress complex (Ichan-Kali). Unlike Samarkand however, most buildings visible today stem from the 17th-19th centuries. In Khiva you do get a sense of being in an old city, rather than having isolated pieces of architectural splendor mixed in with a modern Soviet city as in Samarkand. On the other hand, some critics have argued that Khiva "has no real life" and is more like a "Central Asian Disneyland." Indeed, notice that in some of the street scenes there are few signs of real street life other than hawkers and those waiting on tourists. There has also been contention over where and how developers should be allowed to build their hostels and hotels in the area. Nowhere is the debate more heated than over the development of space within the territory of the old city walls. One of the more popular (and contentious) hotels is a series of rooms built into a 17th century madrassa. Guests stay in the madrassa courtyard in the same small cubicles that talibs would have stayed in the days when the madrassa operated. Next to the madrassa, other bed and breakfasts and other small hotels are under construction. Apparently, UNESCO has expressed dissatisfaction with the way that local development has taken off after they completed their major investment in reconstruction. The local authorities however, have clearly been "pro-development." The Khivan development debate is classic "cultural authenticity vs. quick income generation" discourse that pits wealthy, somewhat romantic, westerners who want to see a quaint, "culturally authentic" development, versus local authorities who face intense pressures by community members for quick income generation regardless of "ecology" or "cultural authenticity".

[Photos above and left: Aspects of textile making in Khivan, including roots and herbs used to create natural dyes.]

In addition to capturing some of the architectural highlights, I have also included some shots of textile manufacturing that is being revived in the old city in part with support from the British government. As you can see from the pictures, natural dyes are still used to dye wools for rug making as well as for yarn to sew the national Uzbek textile "Suzanne," large, cotton wall hangings with delicate embroidery. While the Uzbeks do make some wool and silk carpets, it is the Turkmen wool carpets which are best known in Central Asia and these are also both produced and sold in Uzbekistan if you know where to look.  

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