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As a reporter,
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I've traveled the Middle East for many years.
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It's an area that has always fascinated me,
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but in my work, I've mainly covered its war zones,
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its crises, and its tragedies.
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This journey, which takes me down the Silk Road
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in the footsteps of Marco Polo,
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gives me the opportunity of exploring
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the great historical and cultural significance
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of this part of the world,
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its ancient melting pot of peoples
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and civilizations that have contributed so much to our own.
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(Eastern music)
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A fast train connects Samarkand
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to the Uzbek capital, Tashkent.
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Its name means stone village,
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but with a population today of 2.4 million people,
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the little village has certainly come a long way.
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Throughout the centuries,
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the big cities on the Silk Road
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were constantly being ransacked by invaders.
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Some fared better than others.
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Tashkent, for example,
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which chose to cooperate with the Russians
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when they arrived in Central Asia
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in the 19th century,
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and later became the Soviet's fourth biggest city.
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Today, the Uzbek capital serves
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as the nerve center for the entire region.
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As the Russian empire began to recede after 1990,
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it left behind the vestiges of the very particular
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kind of urban design that can be found throughout
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all of the former Soviet socialist republics.
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Behind the great Telyashayakh Mosque
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is the area known as Old Tashkent.
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This is where those who refuse to move into
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the buildings built by the government
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continue to live.
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It's here in Old Tashkent that one sees practically
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the only veiled women in the country.
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But in these back streets,
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what is striking is once you get in the mixture of faces,
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children who are dark, or blonde,
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or with almond shaped eyes,
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they portray many centuries of ethnic intermixing.
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In fact, there aren't many conservative muslim families
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such as these in Uzbekistan.
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Where the regime uses heavy-handed tactics
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to severely contain any Islamist fervor
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of the kind that rages just to the south in Afghanistan.
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Just a stone's throw from the Old Tashkent
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of veiled women and plaster houses
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is the big, brand new bazaar of Chorsu,
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where you can see Uzbek women like these
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in Western style dress, with their hair uncovered,
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which is the norm in this country,
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rather than the exception.
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Little clues here and there in the market reveal
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the sources of the different culinary traditions,
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and the predominant influence of certain cultures.
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You can tell we're in Asia, here.
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There are 14 different types of rice.
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And, of course, here are the spices.
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Ah, yes, from Samarkand?
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Samarkand.
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(speaking foreign language)
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It's tea mixed with saffron and cardamom.
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How much is it?
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18.
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18,000 som?
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Oh no, a little less.
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[Vendor Translator] I usually sell it at 20,
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but I'm giving you a special price.
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15,000.
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That's a good price, right?
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(speaking foreign language)
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So, 15,000 som.
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Som is the old Sogdian word for money.
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It's also the name of the national currency here.
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And even today, it's still used to mean cash or dough,
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from a large part of the silk road,
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as far as Kashgar in China.
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Thank you.
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(speaking foreign language)
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Thank you, thank you.
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(speaking foreign language)
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No, no, no.
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In French, it's merci.
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(speaking foreign language)
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(Eastern music)
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Raspberries, blackberries.
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I'd like to do that job, sorting raspberries,
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except that I'd go bankrupt
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because I'd eat all the stock up.
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(Eastern music)
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Tashkent is often described as the big metropolis
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of Central Asia, and in particular,
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because of its very vibrant cultural scene.
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The painter, Faizulla Akhmadaliev,
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one of the most famous artists in the Uzbek capital,
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exemplifies this sort of cultivated cosmopolitanism,
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which combines influences from the East and the West.
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The old painter has his own studio, lent to him by the city,
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at the top of one of these Soviet high rises
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in which the elevator only works every now and again.
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Faizulla's work is deeply influenced
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by Uzbek folklore and traditions.
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In other words,
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this means that much of its inspiration
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comes from the history of the Silk Road.
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Are you drawing a specific scene,
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or is it imaginary?
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[Faizulla's Translator] No, it comes from my imagination.
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So it's a meeting between
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three wandering Sufi mystics in a caravanserai
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somewhere near Bukhara on the Silk Road.
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(speaks in a foreign language)
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[Faizulla's Translator] There is a reason, in fact,
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why I'm interested in these three wandering Sufi figures.
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One of the greatest painters
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in the Sufi world is Ahmed Yasawi.
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He was born and grew up in my village.
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The mausoleums of Ahmed Yasawi's parents are in my village.
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And as a boy, I use to play in them with my friends.
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It's an important place from my childhood,
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and now I'm drawing energy from it.
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(light somber music)
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So do you feel that you're a European artist
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or an Asian artist?
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[Faizulla's Translator] You know what, as a painter,
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you must be yourself.
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I try not to look at the art of European painters too much.
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Claude Monet, Renoir, for example,
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are some of my favorite painters.
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I like French painters in general.
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But if I look at them too often,
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they can influence me, and I'm very afraid of that.
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I can use a European approach in my work,
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but we mustn't forget, that we're in Asia.
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(speaks in a foreign language)
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In addition to being the commercial hub
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of Central Asia,
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Tashkent is as we said an artistic and intellectual city.
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A city that embraces culture in all of its forms,
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including cooking.
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The fruits and spices in the bazaar find their way
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into a variety of dishes,
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that is the pride and joy of the Uzbeks.
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What we call fusion cuisine is, in this part of the world,
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more than just the latest culinary trend.
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Natalya Musina is a business woman
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who owns one of the best restaurants in the city.
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Here you can find manti, or Chinese dumplings,
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Russian styled tomatoes in vinegar, and Iranian rice pilaf.
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[Natalya's Translator] Here it is.
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Supreme dish.
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[Natalya's Translator] That's right.
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So this is the supreme dish pilaf,
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what's in it?
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(speaking foreign language)
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[Natalya's Translator] It's made with five Ingredients.
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The first is the meat, then the onions,
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the third is carrots,
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of course you would oil and spices,
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which is called zirvak.
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And when it's almost done cooking,
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you add the rice, and then water.
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Oh, a little water.
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[Natalya's Translator] That's it.
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Here we say that pilaf was created by Timor
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for his soldiers because its a very solid meal.
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When you eat a dish of pilaf it will keep you going,
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working, et cetera, for the whole day without any problem.
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Please, go ahead and try it.
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Oh, I'm waiting for you.
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(laughs)
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(speaking foreign language)
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Ladies first.
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[Natalya's Translator] Well here it's always...
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The men first?
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[Natalya's Translator] No, the guest.
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That's how we do it here.
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You are the guests.
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Thank you.
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(speaks in a foreign language)
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[Natalya's Translator] I'll take just a little, to try it.
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I love pilaf.
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Oh, it's very good.
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[Natalya's Translator] It's not bad.
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I always serve this to a man before he gets married.
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Is that right?
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Horse tongue?
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Mm-hmm.
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It fortifies you for the wedding.
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[Natalya's Translator] Exactly.
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What about for travelers?
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[Natalya's Translator] The travelers too.
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So this will keep me strong during the trip?
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[Natalya's Translator] Yes.
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How often do Uzbeks eat pilaf?
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How many times a week?
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[Natalya's Translator] Once a week, on Thursday.
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The wife makes a dish of pilaf,
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and afterwards you have to make love.
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That's the rule.
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Really?
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So you cook pilaf, you eat it, and then you make love?
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Okay.
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(light guitar music)
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The Fergana Valley runs east to west,
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and it was once the only crossing point
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between the Persian empire and the Chinese empire.
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Occupied by the Chinese, then by the Arab Muslim armies,
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after their victory in the Battle of Talas in 751,
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the Fergana Valley has always served as a link
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between the East and the Far East.
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(peaceful music)
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The valley is an intermountain plateau
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that is virtually 200 kilometers wide.
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The Chinese believe that the fabulous,
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blood sweating horses that were so vital
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to the emperors armies, came from here.
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(speaks in a foreign language)
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I'm Alfred, and you?
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Alfred.
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(speaking foreign language)
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Rosa.
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Goodbye Rosa, thank you.
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Have a good trip.
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Goodbye everyone.
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We've reached the Fergana Valley.
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This really is the epicenter of the Silk Road,
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halfway between Turkey and the other end of China.
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Historically, this area has served as a buffer zone.
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At one point, the Chinese empire agreed
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never to go further west than this valley,
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and the Arabs agreed never to go further east.
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(Eastern music)
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Look, that Chinese bus there
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is completely related to our subject,
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it says Marco Polo, Fergana.
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So why is this valley so critical
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to the history of the Silk Road?
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Because its the only passage between East and West.
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Here we come to the edge of the world known to the Greeks.
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Alexander the Great's last fortress is behind us.
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To the south are the Pamir Mountains
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at over 7,000 meters high
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which become the Hindu Kush and the Himalayas.
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To the north there's the Tian Shan Range,
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the mountains of the sky until all the invaders
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and all the merchants had to come through here.
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Kashgar is only 800 kilometers away
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and we're starting to see the Chinese influence.
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In the Fergana valley, there's an ancient tradition
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that continues to thrive.
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The traditional storytellers and puppeteers
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perform on the outskirts of fairs.
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The shows nowadays are mainly for children.
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Ariam, nice to meet you.
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(whistling)
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(frogs chirping)
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(speaking foreign language)
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(dog barking)
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Is puppetry an old Uzbek tradition
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00:13:22,170 --> 00:13:23,660
or is it instead a tradition
267
00:13:23,660 --> 00:13:24,960
that developed along the Silk Road
268
00:13:24,960 --> 00:13:27,173
and moved from caravanserai to caravanserai?
269
00:13:32,141 --> 00:13:34,743
[Ariam's Translator] Puppet theater has existed
270
00:13:34,743 --> 00:13:36,060
in Uzbekistan since ancient times.
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00:13:36,060 --> 00:13:38,250
We had puppeteers who performed in the streets
272
00:13:38,250 --> 00:13:39,873
and palaces for the elite.
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00:13:42,280 --> 00:13:43,980
They used puppets to tell stories,
274
00:13:43,980 --> 00:13:45,770
and portray the events and adventures
275
00:13:45,770 --> 00:13:47,510
that took place in the caravanserais
276
00:13:47,510 --> 00:13:49,793
all along the very long Silk Road.
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00:13:51,730 --> 00:13:53,350
Our children today are also learning
278
00:13:53,350 --> 00:13:55,543
the same traditional art of puppet theater.
279
00:14:00,879 --> 00:14:03,360
Is the type of theater that you do
280
00:14:03,360 --> 00:14:05,610
closer to the shadow puppetry of the Chinese,
281
00:14:05,610 --> 00:14:08,363
or more influenced by Turkish and Iranian Traditions?
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00:14:13,681 --> 00:14:14,514
[Ariam's Translator] In our country,
283
00:14:14,514 --> 00:14:16,943
puppet theater has developed around three techniques.
284
00:14:18,990 --> 00:14:20,733
We have hand-held puppets,
285
00:14:24,600 --> 00:14:25,913
puppets with strings,
286
00:14:27,510 --> 00:14:29,840
and shadow theater puppets,
287
00:14:29,840 --> 00:14:31,560
in which the shadows of the characters
288
00:14:31,560 --> 00:14:33,083
are projected onto a screen.
289
00:14:37,420 --> 00:14:39,320
Our traditional theater is a combination
290
00:14:39,320 --> 00:14:41,107
of all of these chodir.
291
00:14:43,886 --> 00:14:46,553
(duck quacking)
292
00:14:55,550 --> 00:14:57,590
Do you regard puppet theater as an art
293
00:14:57,590 --> 00:15:00,260
that is mainly entertainment for children,
294
00:15:00,260 --> 00:15:02,050
or is it a way of teaching philosophical tales,
295
00:15:02,050 --> 00:15:03,813
morals, a way of educating people?
296
00:15:08,645 --> 00:15:10,330
[Ariam's Translator] Every puppet show has a purpose,
297
00:15:10,330 --> 00:15:13,430
and seeks to shape the way children see things.
298
00:15:13,430 --> 00:15:16,260
To help them develop an understanding of life,
299
00:15:16,260 --> 00:15:18,083
and provide them with a world view.
300
00:15:21,712 --> 00:15:23,190
The children don't necessarily understand
301
00:15:23,190 --> 00:15:26,970
the words or sentences, but when they see live performances
302
00:15:26,970 --> 00:15:28,420
with characters and puppets,
303
00:15:28,420 --> 00:15:30,640
it remains in their memory,
304
00:15:30,640 --> 00:15:34,000
and in that way, the shows are able to reach the children
305
00:15:34,000 --> 00:15:35,593
and achieve their purpose.
306
00:15:49,117 --> 00:15:50,220
(Eastern music)
307
00:15:50,220 --> 00:15:52,433
Fergana has a thousand year old
308
00:15:52,433 --> 00:15:53,410
tradition of pottery making.
309
00:15:53,410 --> 00:15:55,920
The clay in the area is of very good quality.
310
00:15:55,920 --> 00:15:58,040
Very early on, the potters and ceramicists
311
00:15:58,040 --> 00:16:00,540
inherited the techniques developed by the Chinese.
312
00:16:02,200 --> 00:16:03,680
The workshops are owned by families
313
00:16:03,680 --> 00:16:05,550
who have passed on the secrets of their craft
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00:16:05,550 --> 00:16:07,740
from father to son for generations,
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00:16:07,740 --> 00:16:09,990
and exhibit their creations in the courtyard.
316
00:16:12,156 --> 00:16:15,156
(traditional music)
317
00:16:35,002 --> 00:16:36,950
there is a very zen atmosphere in this garden.
318
00:16:36,950 --> 00:16:38,700
They're very focused on their work.
319
00:16:40,560 --> 00:16:42,910
But there's a sense of serenity,
320
00:16:42,910 --> 00:16:45,143
it's a labor of patience and precision.
321
00:16:54,409 --> 00:16:56,740
Bakhtiyor Nazirov's workshop also serves as a school
322
00:16:56,740 --> 00:16:58,090
for the young people in the area
323
00:16:58,090 --> 00:17:00,680
who hope to make a living from pottery.
324
00:17:00,680 --> 00:17:03,490
The apprentices study for free with a master potter,
325
00:17:03,490 --> 00:17:05,440
and in turn, their work belongs to him.
326
00:17:12,690 --> 00:17:13,650
[Bakhtiyor's Translator] Among the generations of the past
327
00:17:13,650 --> 00:17:15,180
there were many craftsmen,
328
00:17:15,180 --> 00:17:16,750
but then under the Soviet Union
329
00:17:16,750 --> 00:17:18,610
things became difficult
330
00:17:18,610 --> 00:17:21,210
and we could no longer earn a living making pottery.
331
00:17:22,420 --> 00:17:23,930
So people in my family gave it up
332
00:17:23,930 --> 00:17:25,890
and went off to study or to invest
333
00:17:25,890 --> 00:17:27,990
in other fields in order to make a living.
334
00:17:29,030 --> 00:17:30,980
But some of my uncles stayed in this profession,
335
00:17:30,980 --> 00:17:33,030
and I too continued to work with them
336
00:17:33,030 --> 00:17:34,770
and now my son has joined them,
337
00:17:34,770 --> 00:17:36,443
which makes me very happy.
338
00:17:45,890 --> 00:17:47,330
Bakhtiyor's workshop and school
339
00:17:47,330 --> 00:17:48,870
produces very beautiful things,
340
00:17:48,870 --> 00:17:51,070
even garden gnomes, and it just goes to show
341
00:17:51,070 --> 00:17:52,410
that the impact of the west
342
00:17:52,410 --> 00:17:54,710
has reached even the remotest corners of Asia.
343
00:18:02,281 --> 00:18:05,340
(knocking)
344
00:18:05,340 --> 00:18:06,173
Hello,
345
00:18:07,230 --> 00:18:08,488
how are you?
346
00:18:08,488 --> 00:18:10,776
(speaking foreign language)
347
00:18:10,776 --> 00:18:11,609
Good, thank you.
348
00:18:13,440 --> 00:18:14,840
So this is the French classroom,
349
00:18:14,840 --> 00:18:16,390
since the pottery workshop,
350
00:18:16,390 --> 00:18:18,250
which is also a pottery school,
351
00:18:18,250 --> 00:18:19,900
is also a French language school.
352
00:18:21,250 --> 00:18:23,270
It's summer right now so the teachers are gone,
353
00:18:23,270 --> 00:18:24,560
but the children like it so much,
354
00:18:24,560 --> 00:18:26,100
they come to practice on their own,
355
00:18:26,100 --> 00:18:27,780
which is very sweet.
356
00:18:27,780 --> 00:18:29,393
What's your name?
357
00:18:29,393 --> 00:18:30,740
[Asaday's Translator] My name is Asaday.
358
00:18:30,740 --> 00:18:32,562
Hello Asaday, how old are you?
359
00:18:32,562 --> 00:18:34,170
[Asaday's Translator] I'm 14.
360
00:18:34,170 --> 00:18:36,213
14, Hello, what's your name?
361
00:18:37,187 --> 00:18:38,729
[Naze's Translator] My name is Naze.
362
00:18:38,729 --> 00:18:39,974
Naze, and how old are you?
363
00:18:39,974 --> 00:18:40,807
[Naze's Translator] I'm 13.
364
00:18:40,807 --> 00:18:42,307
13?
365
00:18:43,250 --> 00:18:44,810
This class was started by Bakhtiyor,
366
00:18:44,810 --> 00:18:46,900
he's the master potter, the head of the school,
367
00:18:46,900 --> 00:18:50,743
and also loves French, so he's combined these passions.
368
00:18:52,896 --> 00:18:53,740
For example, on this dish
369
00:18:53,740 --> 00:18:55,640
he's painted the actor Louis De Funes.
370
00:18:57,490 --> 00:19:00,200
On this one, that's on the teacher's desk,
371
00:19:00,200 --> 00:19:01,670
on a traditional Uzbek dish,
372
00:19:01,670 --> 00:19:03,283
we have the actor Jean Marais.
373
00:19:06,462 --> 00:19:08,162
Can you read what's written there?
374
00:19:09,427 --> 00:19:12,617
"Language that is careless never inspires respect."
375
00:19:13,863 --> 00:19:16,920
(speaking foreign language)
376
00:19:16,920 --> 00:19:17,753
Very good.
377
00:19:20,260 --> 00:19:22,720
I understand your second love is French Literature.
378
00:19:22,720 --> 00:19:26,327
Where does your interest in Alexandre Dumas come from?
379
00:19:30,321 --> 00:19:31,154
[Bakhtiyor's Translator] Under the Soviet regime,
380
00:19:31,154 --> 00:19:33,660
we watched a lot of French movies.
381
00:19:33,660 --> 00:19:35,200
When I was in fourth grade school,
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00:19:35,200 --> 00:19:38,480
I read Alexandre Dumas' novel The Three Musketeers
383
00:19:38,480 --> 00:19:40,230
and it made a big impression on me,
384
00:19:41,960 --> 00:19:44,040
so I decided to read other books
385
00:19:44,040 --> 00:19:45,360
written by the same author
386
00:19:45,360 --> 00:19:47,243
such as The Count of Monte Cristo.
387
00:19:48,780 --> 00:19:51,653
That's how I became interested in French literature.
388
00:19:56,110 --> 00:19:58,543
I began to read novels not only by Dumas,
389
00:20:01,570 --> 00:20:06,387
but also by Victor Hugo, Gilles de Montbrison,
390
00:20:07,819 --> 00:20:12,819
Honore de Balzac, Prosper Merimee,
391
00:20:15,377 --> 00:20:16,480
then I passed my love of France
392
00:20:16,480 --> 00:20:18,280
onto my students by watching movies
393
00:20:18,280 --> 00:20:19,253
together with them,
394
00:20:20,518 --> 00:20:23,430
and so the children started to take an interest in France.
395
00:20:23,430 --> 00:20:25,060
It was actually the children who had the idea
396
00:20:25,060 --> 00:20:27,090
of starting the French class.
397
00:20:27,090 --> 00:20:28,890
I did my part to support the project
398
00:20:28,890 --> 00:20:30,340
in any way I could.
399
00:20:30,340 --> 00:20:32,100
The students have been taking French lessons
400
00:20:32,100 --> 00:20:33,060
for three months now,
401
00:20:33,060 --> 00:20:34,513
and everything is going well.
402
00:20:35,550 --> 00:20:37,450
We're hoping the results will be good.
403
00:20:39,020 --> 00:20:42,260
At the moment we have a teacher who teaches full time,
404
00:20:42,260 --> 00:20:45,000
and he gives the children their French lessons.
405
00:20:45,000 --> 00:20:47,040
We hope that some of our more talented students
406
00:20:47,040 --> 00:20:49,933
will perhaps go on to study at the Soroban one day.
407
00:20:52,328 --> 00:20:55,328
(traditional music)
408
00:21:02,164 --> 00:21:02,997
I've now been following
409
00:21:02,997 --> 00:21:04,130
in the footsteps of Marco Polo for many
410
00:21:04,130 --> 00:21:07,210
thousands of kilometers along this legendary road
411
00:21:07,210 --> 00:21:10,730
that gets its name from its flagship commodity, silk.
412
00:21:10,730 --> 00:21:13,020
We've seen silk fabrics in many different forms,
413
00:21:13,020 --> 00:21:14,800
and in a variety of colors,
414
00:21:14,800 --> 00:21:16,980
but here in Fergana, we're finally going to see
415
00:21:16,980 --> 00:21:19,360
how the Chinese actually invented silk making
416
00:21:19,360 --> 00:21:20,963
more than 4000 years ago.
417
00:21:26,020 --> 00:21:27,580
In the shade of the mulberry trees
418
00:21:27,580 --> 00:21:30,390
that feed the bombyx mori, or silk worms,
419
00:21:30,390 --> 00:21:33,540
this factory in Marguilan handles the entire process
420
00:21:33,540 --> 00:21:35,640
of production in the traditional way
421
00:21:35,640 --> 00:21:38,223
from sorting the cocoons, to weaving the fabric.
422
00:21:47,450 --> 00:21:49,350
These two women are sisters in law,
423
00:21:49,350 --> 00:21:52,640
they are experts in spinning the cocoons of the bombyx.
424
00:21:55,194 --> 00:21:56,490
The Chinese always try to keep silk making
425
00:21:56,490 --> 00:21:58,260
a jealously guarded secret to the point
426
00:21:58,260 --> 00:21:59,720
that they didn't allow the cocoons
427
00:21:59,720 --> 00:22:01,130
or the silk making techniques to be
428
00:22:01,130 --> 00:22:03,140
taken out of the country.
429
00:22:03,140 --> 00:22:04,250
The legend in this region,
430
00:22:04,250 --> 00:22:06,630
which probably has some historical truth to it,
431
00:22:06,630 --> 00:22:08,420
is that around 2000 years ago,
432
00:22:08,420 --> 00:22:11,370
a Chinese princess was given in marriage to a Kahn,
433
00:22:11,370 --> 00:22:13,640
the king of this region of Fergana.
434
00:22:13,640 --> 00:22:15,480
The princess felt very sad about leaving
435
00:22:15,480 --> 00:22:17,110
her native land without being able to bring
436
00:22:17,110 --> 00:22:18,650
what she liked doing best with her,
437
00:22:18,650 --> 00:22:20,770
which was weaving silk.
438
00:22:20,770 --> 00:22:23,380
She thus decided to defy her father, the emperor,
439
00:22:23,380 --> 00:22:25,900
and she concealed some very special cocoons
440
00:22:25,900 --> 00:22:28,943
in her hair bun, cocoons that contained silk worms.
441
00:22:32,922 --> 00:22:34,360
You can see the tiny little embryos
442
00:22:34,360 --> 00:22:36,940
which are the larvae of future silk worms.
443
00:22:36,940 --> 00:22:38,860
This is what she hid in her hair.
444
00:22:38,860 --> 00:22:41,660
Of course, the emperor's soldiers didn't dare search her,
445
00:22:41,660 --> 00:22:43,240
especially not her hair,
446
00:22:43,240 --> 00:22:45,450
so she arrived in Fergana here in this valley,
447
00:22:45,450 --> 00:22:47,490
and she found a couple of mulberry trees.
448
00:22:47,490 --> 00:22:49,990
She put the larvae in the trees and let them grow.
449
00:22:52,730 --> 00:22:54,170
Each one of these larvae can produce
450
00:22:54,170 --> 00:22:56,810
two to three thousand more larvae within a year.
451
00:22:56,810 --> 00:22:59,050
So a few years later, there were silk worms
452
00:22:59,050 --> 00:23:02,153
and cocoons, and they began to spin the silk.
453
00:23:05,164 --> 00:23:08,164
(traditional music)
454
00:23:16,539 --> 00:23:18,930
The cocoons fibers are made from the dried saliva
455
00:23:18,930 --> 00:23:21,710
of the Lepidoptera silk worm caterpillar.
456
00:23:21,710 --> 00:23:23,980
The filaments, which are surprisingly strong,
457
00:23:23,980 --> 00:23:26,310
and can measure more than 1000 meters in length
458
00:23:26,310 --> 00:23:28,257
are spun to make the silk itself.
459
00:23:29,705 --> 00:23:32,704
(looms clacking)
460
00:23:32,704 --> 00:23:35,704
(traditional music)
461
00:23:46,660 --> 00:23:48,700
After they are dyed, the strands of silk
462
00:23:48,700 --> 00:23:49,760
are ready to be used here
463
00:23:49,760 --> 00:23:52,310
on the traditional looms of these weavers.
464
00:23:52,310 --> 00:23:55,070
The threads of raw silk have to be regularly moistened
465
00:23:55,070 --> 00:23:57,113
and combed in order to keep them supple.
466
00:23:58,596 --> 00:24:01,596
(traditional music)
467
00:24:12,130 --> 00:24:14,270
On summer evenings when it finally begins to cool down,
468
00:24:14,270 --> 00:24:15,800
the people of the Enchanted Valley
469
00:24:15,800 --> 00:24:18,330
come together at the village fairs.
470
00:24:18,330 --> 00:24:20,970
The last glow of twilight falls upon Fergana,
471
00:24:20,970 --> 00:24:23,820
the valley that is the true birth place of the silk road.
472
00:24:24,780 --> 00:24:26,090
There's something both charming,
473
00:24:26,090 --> 00:24:29,440
as well as a little archaic about these young performers
474
00:24:29,440 --> 00:24:31,030
who take so many risks in order to
475
00:24:31,030 --> 00:24:32,093
entertain a crowd.
476
00:24:34,260 --> 00:24:35,920
As I stop in these Uzbek towns
477
00:24:35,920 --> 00:24:38,650
nestled in the mountains, deep in the Asian heartland,
478
00:24:38,650 --> 00:24:41,540
I often get the feeling that I'm going back in time.
479
00:24:41,540 --> 00:24:43,420
Although the caravaneers have all but disappeared
480
00:24:43,420 --> 00:24:46,040
on the silk road, the troubadors and acrobats
481
00:24:46,040 --> 00:24:47,740
who entertain them are still here.
482
00:24:49,220 --> 00:24:50,880
It wouldn't be hard to imagine the silhouette
483
00:24:50,880 --> 00:24:53,010
of Marco Polo slipping in between
484
00:24:53,010 --> 00:24:54,400
all of these colorful figures
485
00:24:54,400 --> 00:24:56,850
to admire the performers before heading out
486
00:24:56,850 --> 00:24:59,658
once again onto the road leading to the high mountains
487
00:24:59,658 --> 00:25:01,013
of Kyrgyzstan.
488
00:25:02,088 --> 00:25:05,421
(upbeat Eastern music)
36808
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