Korean Connection

Anna

BUKHARA, UZBEKISTAN Fifty kilometers from Bukhara, Anna, a young Korean lady showed me around an animal reserve, where gazelles, and near extinct wild horses and donkeys graze freely. She told me how it is a Korean now lives in Uzbekistan. “My grandparents were among several hundred thousand Koreans who were forcibly relocated from the Vladivostok region in eastern Siberia to Uzbekistan in 1937. They were given only a few minutes notice before being herded into cattle cars. The journey took four to six months. The Russians didn’t want anyone to know that they were being relocated so they never stopped in towns, but in the countryside, where they would camp for a few days before moving on. Along the way, they were forced to take on Russian names and disown their former cultural and religious practices. Koreans now live in several villages here. My village is 90% Korean. We speak Russian. I don’t know Korean. Although we sort of practice a form of Shamanism, we’ve lost all our ties to our former traditions. But we’re also happy here now. The Uzbekistan people have accepted us and the younger Korean generation is rehabilitating the traditions of our past. Personally, I like living and raising my family here — wouldn’t want to live any place else.” I offered to tip Anna for her services, but she exclaimed, embarrassed, “No, this is not America!”