Bukhara and Surroundings

It has gotten quite warm in this region now (temps in the mid- to high-80s). We used the air conditioned bus to see some sights outside of the city in the morning, had lunch and some siesta time, then set off on foot in the late afternoon for exploring some of the crafts in the main part of Bukhara. Abdu is determined to take us only to true family-run traditional craft businesses, and not to resellers out for the tourist trade. He’s always being greeted on the street by locals passing by.

Bukhara was a critical trading hub in the Silk Road for merchants traveling between China and the west. The region is famous for centuries-old artisanal traditions, particularly gold embroidery, knotted carpet making and pottery.

There are a number of “trading domes” in the center of the city that functioned a bit like small shopping malls during the Silk Road era. A single industry would be featured under each dome, which has separate rooms for multiple merchants. The idea was to create competition so no single merchant could have a monopoly on money exchange, textiles, jewelry other necessary goods and services. Now, multiple merchants are operating for the tourists under these domes.

For our dinner, we walked down a narrow, nondescript alley to a nice restaurant where we learned how the traditional dish of “plov” (pilaf) is made. It is cooked over a wood fire using carrots, meat (usually beef), spices (including cumin seed), barberries (a bit like raisins), chilies, chickpeas and a special kind of rice. Delicious!Read more