Day 1 April 21, 2023, Afternoon
Hazrati Imam Complex
After lunch we stopped at the Hazrati Imam Complex which is flanked by a pair of 50m high minarets.
Constructed with sandalwood columns from India, green marble from Turkey and blue tiles from Iran, the complex consists of Mausoleum of Hazrati Imam, the Barak khan Madrasah, the Tilla Sheikh mosque and a library which contains the Quran of Uthman.
Uthman Ibn Affan was the third of the Caliphs (the men who succeeded Prophet Muhammed, PBUH). He created a committee to compile all the revelations shared by the Prophet. Uthman had the text written on pages of deer skin which was then compiled into the Quran (one of 5 originals spread across the Islamic world). According to legend you can still see the bloodstains of Caliph Uthman who was murdered while reading it.
Unfortunately for us the library was closed for Eid so we could not see the holy Quran but the atmosphere inside the complex was merry. Men, women, little girls and boys all dressed in their festive fineries were giggling, prancing about and flying kites.
Minor Mosque
Next, a brief halt at the Minor Mosque also known as the white mosque, a fairly new mosque opened in 2014. Surrounded by manicured gardens and built with white marble, it looked very sanitised.
A few photographs later we drove back to the city passing through The Independence Square and the Earthquake memorial.
The earthquake memorial is a huge sculpture of a family staring at a cracked cube of marble by sculptor D.B. Ryabichev, a tribute to the people who rebuild Tashkent after the 1966 earthquake destroyed huge parts of it.
Alisher Navoi Opera and Ballet Theatre
The Alisher Navoi Opera and Ballet Theatre was our next venue. Many literary and cultural institutions of Uzbekistan are named after Alisher Navoy (1441-1501), who is considered to be the founder of Uzbek literature. The opera house is a good looking, polished building designed by the Soviet Architect Alexey Shchusev.
Most of us are tired by now and so only the enthusiastic ones get off the bus.
Apparently the opera was built in part by Japanese soldiers who were prisoners of war and had been transported to Uzbekistan following the end of the Second World War in August 1945. On a side wall of the Navoi there is a plaque which says…
‘In 1945–1946 the hundreds of Japanese citizens deported from Far East took an active part in the construction of building of the theatre named after Alisher Navoiy’.
Most of those who built the Navoi were worked to death. Out of the hundreds, only a few survived the harsh winters, back-breaking work and inadequate food.
Imagine the irony…Japanese working as labourers in Uzbekistan.
Anwar, our guide points across the square towards a very generic looking hotel. What’s so special about it…I wonder. ‘This hotel was previously known as Hotel Tashkent.’ He says.
Aah…now I get it.
Lal Bahadur Shastri memorial
In 1966, India and Pakistan were at war. The Prime Ministers of the two countries met here and signed the Tashkent Peace Declaration. Some say they were forced to do it by the Soviets. The next day our Indian Prime Minister, Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri died in a ‘Dacha’ (country villa) where he was staying. The press and his aides were staying in hotel Tashkent at that time. Till date some conspiracy theorists say that he was poisoned, either by the Soviets or the Pakistanis or even by his own countrymen shocked that he had signed the accord.
We walk on Shastri street up to the monument of Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri’s smiling bust on a base made from pink granite. The memorial was created by the Uzbek sculptor Yakov Shapiro and unveiled in 1976. There is an Indian Cultural Center named after Shastri in Tashkent, as well as a school teaching Hindi.
After clicking the mandatory group photos we left with a heavy heart.
By dinnertime, most of us are tired and worn out but the sight of broadway street rejuvenates us. In the very heart of Tashkent, lies Sayilgokh street simply called Broadway street lined with emporiums, shops, restaurants and cafes. Our group strolled on this street decorated with festive lights looking at the performers and portrait artists, street musicians and dancers.
We walk into Navat, on Broadway street, a restaurant resembling an outlandish treasure box with its interiors filled with items of national heritage.
Chickpea soup with bits of lamb, tomatoes and carrots followed by juicy, succulent chicken saashlik with sliced onion salad was served while we enjoyed the live music.
Seeing us the musicians switched over to ‘Humko hami se churalo’ from the movie ‘Mohabbatein’. Swaying to the tune we got back to the hotel.
It has been a long day but I am looking forward to tomorrow.
(To be continued…)
Travel Tales of a Bengali Bibi. 