The Fergana Valley, agricultural and crafts heartland of Uzbekistanbre

a beautiful hand-embroidered silk suzani

Uzbekistan’s Fergana Valley is home to 40% of its population, much of its agriculture and a thriving handicraft industry.  Artisans produce hand-crafted silk fabrics and rugs, woven from cocoons of silk worms they grow themselves, pottery, engraved metalwork, suzanis (embroidery), and hand-carved wood doors, furniture, pillars, beams and gift items.

woodblock-decorated fabric

Our guide, Raisa, is the mother of this rebirth of the handicraft industry, so wherever she takes us, artisans greet her with great affection.  She is the epitome of the term “force of nature”.

woodblocks used for printing fabrics

One of the old madrassas in the Fergana Valley has been turned into a craft center for artisans.  The cubicles where students used to study have become small studios for artists.  One man block-prints cotton and silk fabrics with replicas of old woodblocks his grandfather and father used and that are now too worn to print sharp patterns.  He showed us the goop he’d been cooking for several days, made up of plants and other ingredients that he will use to dye his fabrics before he prints them.

weaver using 8 pedal loom

In other small cubicles, women weave silk fabrics and carpets and embroider silk and cotton fabrics into suzanis, a man fashions engraved metal samovars, door handles, scissors and plates and someone else makes pottery.  There is, of course, a gift shop as well where you can buy the handmade products.  All this is run by a man who recruits the artisans, makes sure they have what they need to succeed and markets their wares.

Raisa holding hand dyed silk threads for itak

We visited a major silk factory to see how silks are produced from worms eating mulberry leaves to cocoons to spinning silk threads from the cocoons (thread from one cocoon can be more than a mile long) to dying threads and weaving silk fabrics and carpets.  This factory produces both hand woven and machine-made silk fabrics and hand-woven silk carpets.  Fabrics may be tie-dyed, where the woven fabric is tied in places and dipped in dyes, or itak, where the silk threads are tied in cellophane tape, dyed, then retaped and dyed over and over again to get intricate patterns when the threads are carefully woven into fabrics.

taping silk threads for hand dying

One potter has built a large home and workshop with the proceeds of his pottery sales, mostly at the International Craft Market in Santa Fe, New Mexico.  He employs 10 artists to shape, hand-paint detailed patterns, glaze and fire the pottery.  We enjoyed lunch in his garden and a tour of his workshop.

Rostam, master potter, with antique plate

The Fergana Valley, which extends into Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, produces large quantities of cotton, fruits (the melons are incredible), nuts, corn, grains and animals.  In the past, it has been the heartland of opposition to the regime, but it appears to be quiet and relatively prosperous now.  Nonetheless, there are many security checkpoints going in and out of the Valley, particularly as you head over the mountains towards the capital city of Tashkent.  A real treat as you leave the Valley is a bread market with a long row of vendors selling their particular version of the typical round loaves.

bread vendor with her beautiful round loaf

In the heart of the Fergana Valley, the Kokand Khanate was founded in 1709 and lasted until the late 19^th century. 

beautifully painted ceiling in Kokand Palace

The Khan’s palace is quite beautiful, with elaborately tiled rooms, a large courtyard and a small art museum housing European paintings the Khan apparently preferred, despite their depictions of people and animals.  Women in that era, and before, wore dreadful horsehair veils and long black robes to completely cover their bodies, supposedly to avoid arousing lust in any man who might view a tendril of hair or plump ankle.

the tortuous horsehair veil

Women today usually wear modest dresses or tunics and long pants, usually a scarf (but not a headscarf) over their hair, although many wear shirts and pants or short-skirted school uniforms.  Uzbekistan is a secular country with a mix of devout and nominal Muslims.