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!”

Ramadan on a Hot Day

Bukhara

BUKHARA, UZBEKISTAN “You’re really not going to eat or drink water today?” I asked my guide, Rustam, as I finished off my third bottle of water after walking three hours in the sweltering 102-degree heat. “Not until sunset. Our thirst should remind us of the poor who go hungry and thirsty all the time. At 8:20 tonight I will break the fast and drink juices, but I won’t eat much. As a practicing Shia Muslim I follow the five pillars of Islam: I believe in Allah and his Prophet Mohamed, observe Ramadan, pray five times a day, give to the poor, and someday hope to do the hajj [pilgrimage to Mecca]. In Uzbekistan, it’s not a crime for Muslims to convert to another religion. Our attitudes toward religion have been influenced by our Soviet experience. The soviets tried to eradicate our religious and ethnic identities. If we don’t know who we are, we lose our willingness to rebel. Ironically, the Soviet era left us with a more tolerant attitude toward other religions and ethnicities, because we had all suffered the same during that time. Yet there are some who would like to return to Soviet times, but there’s no returning now. We are independent— a democracy — all of the statues of Lenin have come down. We don’t want to go back to picking cotton under the Soviet occupation.”

Marriage, A Man's View

Ali

KHIVA, UZBEKISTAN As we toured the ancient citadel in Khiva, Ali, my 26 year-old Uzbek guide discussed his views on marriage: “When I’m 28 I will get married. It’s the tradition in our family that men should marry when they’re 28. My father and uncles all married when they turned 28. I don’t have time to look for a wife, so my mother will arrange the marriage for me. I have given her three criteria: my wife must be educated, willing to serve my parents for four years, and be a virgin. It’s important that she is also able to prove her virginity. A lot of women lie about these things. It’s not important that I’m a virgin, because I’m a man. I am not the youngest male in my family so eventually my wife and I will live in a place of our own. Later I may want to have more wives, not legal ones, but concubines. We are permitted to have as many concubines as we like. Concubines have no legal rights. They usually stay at home and are there simply to make me happy. Having concubines is a way for me to show off my status, like a new car, or a big house. I see nothing wrong with this tradition. My legal wife will come with a dowry and I will have to pay some amount, but not much.” 

Nice Neighborhood

A Nice Apartment

TASHKENT, UZBEKISTAN The front entrance looked like a poorly maintained apartment in the projects. “Most of the windows are barred up. Is there a lot of crime here?” I asked Kamilla. “No, not at all, this is a nice neighborhood with a good location. People just like to be careful. People who live here are mostly doctors and lawyers. Their apartments are typically 70 square meters and consist of a bedroom, kitchen, sitting room, and bathroom — sufficient for a family of three, maybe four. The apartments have a dishwasher and a wash machine, but no driers. They cost around $40,000 — to rent, around $500. Since the average salary is around $200 per month, only the better off can rent or own a place like this. But people here are very happy with their lives. We don’t have the turmoil they have in Kzrgyzstan. A lot of this is due to president, Islam Karimov, whom everybody likes. We understand him and his policies. Young people even call him grandfather. He’s been our president since our independence from Soviet rule in 1991. He doesn’t have any opposition. My mother though says life was even better under the Soviet Union. Everybody worked together and was happy then. I don’t know if that’s true. I just know that I’m happy with my situation now. The fact that I’m Russian Orthodox and the Government’s official religion is Islam hasn’t had any affect on me. I don’t feel my civil rights have in anyway been violated.

Uzbek Exchange Rate

Kamilla

TASHKENT, UZBEKISTAN “Change dollars?” The driver said. “Bank, okay,” I said. “Bank no good. Market better.” I had no idea what he was talking about and his English seemed to be limited to those few words. Weaving in and out of traffic, he pulled out a notepad and wrote 1,900 and 2,800. Pointing to the 1,900, he said again, “Bank, no good. Market better.” “Yes, okay,” I replied, thinking he would take me to an exchange kiosk. Instead he reached down and from under his seat pulled out a box full of money. “How much?” I had only one hundred dollar bills. I handed him one. In an instant, he pulled out two huge wads of Som [the Uzbek currency] and while still weaving in and out of traffic quickly counted out the difference. A few minutes later we picked up my English-speaking guide, Kamilla, so I could ask her what had just transpired. “The government sets the rate and it’s much lower than what the street pays. What did he give you?” “I think 2,800.” “That’s a good rate. I had another group that got only 2,500.” “Can I trust this guy?” “I think so. Our firm hired him. Anyway, you don’t want to try it on your own, out in the street, that’s where you get in trouble. The police are always watching. You don’t want to end up at the police station. That would be a real hassle. If you like, we can go to the bank and get your money changed instead.”

Horse Intestines

Stuffed Horse Intestines

BISHKEK, KYRGYZSTAN “No, I’m not going to eat stuffed horse intestine!” “But you got to. It’s a delicacy here in Kyrgyzstan. Everybody tries it, at least once.” Cholpon pushed the gray smelly slice of sausage into my face.  Was this gross or was I just being a wimp? I reached up to protect my mouth, but Cholpon got there first pressing the slimy slice to my lips. “Ugh! It smells rancid,” or was it just my imagination? I delicately put my fingers around the slice to stop her from pressing it further. She let go, “Come on! Take it! Take it!” I stood there with the piece to my lips. Am I really going to eat this? No way, but then (why, I’m not sure) I bit into it and just as quickly jerked it out of my mouth. “Oh my god, this is terrible – something rancid, salty, and disgusting!” Cholpon smiled and graciously took the piece from me and gulped in down. “Delicious! Absolutely delicious! — Maybe a little warm. I like it cold.” The lady behind the stand looked at us as though this scene was all too familiar. Let’s move on,” Cholpon said. Not far away were stacked bushels of white balls. “Cheese balls! They are so good. You must try one.” They looked harmless enough and I love cheese. “Okay, I’ll try one.” Cholpon bought three of them and handed me one. I bit into it. “Oh, yuck! — so salty and sour! This is terrible!” “No, it’s delicious,” she laughed, as she reached for mine and gulped it down. That was it. I wasn’t going to experiment anymore. “Just one more thing you must try.” “What’s that?” “horse milk.” “No! Are you kidding? — Absolutely not! — The thought of it makes me sick!” “You must try. Everyone loves it.” I turned and walked away. Cholpon caught up with me, a cup of milk in hand. “Here, take it! You’ll like it!” “No! No! No!” She persisted, so I dipped my little finger into the milk and put it to my lips. “Shit! That’s really sour! Bitter!” Cholpon drank from the cup, “Yes, a little sour. I like it better when it’s not as fermented.”

A Tell-Tale Stain

Lake Issyk-Kul

LAKE ISSYK-KUL, KYRGYZSTAN “My boy friend is the youngest male in his family, and that concerns me,” Cholpon exclaimed over tea at Lake Issyk-Kul, “because it means that I will have to live in his parents’ house until they die. It is the custom here that the youngest male in the family stays home to take care of his parents in their old age. When I’m at home and my younger brother and I get into a fight, he often says, ‘get out of my house.’ He’s been encouraged to think that his role is to remain in the house to take care of our parents. Women are expected to be virgins when they marry. This is so engrained that women who find themselves deflowered before marriage will have their hymens stitched so they can present themselves pure to their spouses. The same requirement does not apply to men and that seems right to me. I’m 23 and will probably marry someone my age or older. I would not expect my husband to be a virgin. In fact, that would be very odd. A custom that I find weird though is that once a marriage is consummated relatives and friends often come to the spouse’s parent’s home to see the bride. The parents of the spouse, proud of their daughter-in-law’s virginity at the time the marriage was consummated, will hang out the wedding bed sheet with a tell-tale stain. Now, I think that’s pretty sick, but I’ve seen it with my own eyes. Every groom must also pay to marry. The average price is two to three horses — a horse is worth one to two thousand dollars. In return, the bride must provide a beautiful dowry, consisting of expensive handicraft, kitchen pottery, and furniture, almost equal to the cost of the horses. Once married, the bride becomes a member of the spouse’s family and is expected to live in their house for at least the first month, a period in which she is tested to see if she can cook, clean, and maintain the household. This can be quite stressful for the bride, so by tradition the groom’s family arranges for an adopting family to be available in the event the bride has problems and needs someone to talk to. It’s considered a special honor to be asked to be an adopting family, and to be asked seven times, means you can expect to go straight to paradise no matter what your sins have been. My parents now have been asked to adopt a bride three times. 

Kyrgyzstan Photo Album

Bride Kidnapping

Bohom Gorge

BOHOM GORGE, KYRGYZSTAN “Last year there were over 1,500 bride kidnappings reported,” Cholpon explained, as we wound our way through the Bohom Gorge on our way from Bishkek to Lake Issyk-Kul. “These are the ones that were reported, but since many more go unreported, because it’s the tradition, we have no idea how many bride kidnappings there have been. During soviet times, it was called ‘cattleknapping.’ Now it’s illegal and carries a sentence of three to seven years, yet it’s still practiced. When a family wants to kidnap a bride they conduct an investigation into the girl’s family and background, whether she comes from a good family, is good at housework, and will be well suited to her new family. It’s then they decide to kidnap her. The girl may be walking alone on a street when suddenly a car pulls up with a bunch of men and they force her inside. She may yell, bite, and scream, but they don’t pay attention, and take her to her new home, which has been prepared for the wedding. The old women in the household will have a white scarf ready for her. They will place it on her and tell her, ‘don’t worry, you’re going to be happy. We welcome you into our home. If she resists, they will do everything to persuade her to stay. They will tell her, that if she resists, she will be breaking with tradition and will be unhappy for the rest of her life. An old woman will take a piece of bread and lie down in the doorway and say, ‘If you step over an old woman and this piece of bread, which is sacred to us, you will be cursed for the rest of your life.’ The threat of a curse from an old lady is scary for us and so finally the young girl agrees to stay. She stays also because to escape kidnapping is viewed by the community as having been married and divorced, so men in the village will no longer want to have anything to do with her. Sometimes the parents of the girl are upset, but other times they’re okay with it as they can see that the groom comes from a good family. My cousin, 21, very pretty, and attending the university, was kidnapped in Bishkek, but in her case it was someone we knew, a distant relative, and so, at first, my cousin didn’t even know that she had been kidnapped. It began with her being asked to come to their house to babysit their daughters while they went out to eat. But instead of taking her to their house, they took her to another house where an old lady had the white wedding scarf prepared for her. That’s when she knew that she had been kidnapped and immediately started complaining. When her brothers found out what had happened, they gathered their friends, and with guns came after her. As a result, we now have a very bad relationship with these relatives. What’s most irritating about her abduction was that the man was 31 years old, had been married twice, had a daughter, and had just divorced his second wife two days earlier. I think he wanted to prove to his previous wife that he could marry someone young, smart, and beautiful.”

People Pray to the Sky Spirit

Ascension Cathedral

ALMATY, KAZAKHSTAN Although 80% of the population in Kazakhstan is Muslim and although it’s Ramadan, there’s little evidence of the Muslim faith in the architecture or customs of the people. As we toured the sights, Cholpon mused. “We think of ourselves as ‘Momun’ Muslims, You might think of it as Muslim ‘light.’ We believe in Allah and practice a form of Sunni Islam, but we also believe in a form of Shamanism, that the sky, mountains, and those who have passed away inhabit the spirit world. People pray to the sky spirit in much the same way they pray to Allah, with their hands open and ending their prayer by pressing them to their faces. When someone dies, we prepare special bread called ‘borsok.’ When the dead smell the bread they know that we are remembering them. If I have a dream about my grandmother, who died, and make ‘borsok’ the next morning and read the Koran, her spirit will be thankful and grant my prayer. We have evil spirits too. When I come home, my mother doesn’t greet me with a hug or kiss. Instead, she hands me a cup of water into which I spit three times. She then throws the water on the side of our house to get rid of the evil spirits that I may have picked up in my travels. Not many women wear the headscarf here. Some women wear the headscarf out of respect for their spouse's parents, but as soon as they leave their home they take it off. Most people lost their religion during the Soviet period. The beautiful Ascension Cathedral, the second tallest wood structure in the world, was used for storage and then later as a museum. Now it’s been restored back to a Russian Orthodox Church. The government has made it clear that Church and State should be separate. Muslims wanted to use a public square for prayer, but the government wouldn’t allow it. They also wanted to set up a prayer room for Muslims in the parliament, but the president, who’s a Muslim, said, ‘no,’ because then they would have to do the same for all religions. There was a parliamentarian who had a very conservative Muslim agenda, but he was resoundingly defeated.

Kazakhstan Photo Album

Better in the USSR

Cholpon

ALMATY, KAZAKHSTAN As we drove from the airport to the hotel, Cholpon, my guide, a Muslim Kyrgyz, briefed me on Kazakhstan. “The Kazak people go back to the fifteenth century when various tribes joined and formed a single people. Neighboring Kyrgyzstan is much older. It dates back to the second century BC. The two countries’ cultures, traditions, and languages are very similar. Both countries speak Russian. Under the Soviet Union, the Russian population was much larger in Kazakhstan. Today it’s only about 13%. The Russians, who live here, consider Kazakhstan to be their home. They’ve been here for three or four generations. They don’t have much interest in becoming a part of Russia again. However, if you ask the older generation of Russians and Kazaks, they will tell you it was better to live in the Soviet Union — everything was provided: free health care, free education, and a job in a plant. On the other hand, the younger generation say it’s better to live independent — to be in charge of one's life. They think, if you’re motivated, you can achieve whatever you want. Competition, they say, brings prosperity. There is a trend though to bring back some of what existed during the Soviet era. Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan are making a treaty to create a free trade zone so movement across their borders will become easier. There’s also an effort underway to create a common currency similar to that of Europe’s. However, in this case, each country would also have their own currency. I think Putin is a very smart politician and people here like him — they like him better than the American president. A few years ago, when Putin didn’t change the constitution so that he could remain president, people were very impressed. I think he’s helped to raise the Russian economy and restore Russia’s influence throughout the world.”