Norooz is the traditional Iranian new year celebrated in many countries and regions such as Iran, Northern Iraq, Turkey, Azerbaijan, Afghanistan, Albania, Georgia, the countries of Central Asia suc...
Norooz is the traditional Iranian new year celebrated in many countries and regions such as Iran, Northern Iraq, Turkey, Azerbaijan, Afghanistan, Albania, Georgia, the countries of Central Asia such as Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Kazakhstan. it is also celebrated among various other Iranian and Turkic people in Iraq, Syria, Pakistan, India, Northwestern China, the Caucasus, the Crimea, and the Balkans.
2009年3月21日星期六
2009年3月20日星期五
2009年3月19日星期四
yengisar xinjiang
Yengisar! A place with a cool name that you've never heard of! It also happens to be close to Kashgar, and one of the main goals of my trip. Yengisar is famous for its knives, which have been hand crafted here for hundreds of years, the secrets and techniques passed down from father to son, from generation to generation of blade masters. They're a last vestige of the ancient Silk Road culture still living on today, and are considered an indespensible part of any Uighur man's possesions. Any time you say "Yengisar knife" in any language here, or just Yengisar for that matter, and a Uighur man overhears you, he'll imediately pull up his shirt and reveal his own, hanging from a belt in a sheath, and grin with pride. If he shares even a little of any common language with you- and sometimes even if he doesn't- he'll do his best to tell you all about it. They sell them all over Xinjiang, and especially from about Urumqi westward, but I wanted to get the real deal, hand made, from the source, and so I waited until now. It's really great to see these traditions alive and well, especially now, with the Chinese government making an active, systematic, and very thorogh attempt to eliminate the native culture and force them to sinicize, to assimilate into Han Chinese culture.
But enough about politics... let's talk about knives! They can be found in all sizes and levels of artistry and craftsmanship, and I decided before I even began my trip that this would be my one, special, forget-the-expense souvenier from this trip. I arrived here late last night, and got up this morning to go knife shopping. On the way, I met a very well equipped Chinese backpacker named Feng Chao (a guy, for those of you who, like me, still can't tell Chinese men's and women's names apart), who was there for the same reason. We went up and down the main street of the town- a small, dusty strip of asphalt in the arid environment skirting the edge of the Taklamakan desert- checking out a row of about eight knife shops. A few of them weren't very good, but the rest were really impressive. I mean, they were small, cramped, one room affairs, but the walls were completely covered from floor to ceiling with partially or completely handcrafted knives of all sizes, descriptions, and levels of quality in the ancient Yengisar tradition. Outside several, knife masters were engraving or sharpening new blades, and I got some cool pictures of them at work. After taking a long time checking out and appreciating the knives and going back and fourth from shop to shop, I finally settled on one with a silver handle, inlaid with pieces of seashell and other, similar things. This in Xinjiang, literally the place furthest from any ocean or sea on the face of the planet! It was etched with all kinds of intricate designs, and the handle contrasted beautifully with the blue steel blade, with its golden engraving. Then, it was time to put my barganing skills to work! I had done a lot of research on types, qualities, and prices of knives by talking to various Uighur men in the various cities I'd been to along the way, and so I had a good idea of what it should cost. His innitial asking price was in excess of 500 kuai (Chinese Yuan); I got it for 200. After that, I went on to buy four more as gifts, and specially select sheaths suitable for each one from various shops along the dusty road, but I won't go into details about them. Hopefully, I'll be able to get some nice pics up soon enough, and you can see the beauties! In the end, I got five knives, pluse handcrafted leather sheaths specially selected to match each one, for a total of 570 kuai, or about $75.
Perhapse mostly because of the anticipation, it was one of the most rewarding experiences of my trip!
On a more humorous note, I managed to lose my sunglasses in the local outhouse... I looked down all of a sudden, and there they were! Oh well, you win some, you lose some, and overall, I'd say I won out on this experience!
But enough about politics... let's talk about knives! They can be found in all sizes and levels of artistry and craftsmanship, and I decided before I even began my trip that this would be my one, special, forget-the-expense souvenier from this trip. I arrived here late last night, and got up this morning to go knife shopping. On the way, I met a very well equipped Chinese backpacker named Feng Chao (a guy, for those of you who, like me, still can't tell Chinese men's and women's names apart), who was there for the same reason. We went up and down the main street of the town- a small, dusty strip of asphalt in the arid environment skirting the edge of the Taklamakan desert- checking out a row of about eight knife shops. A few of them weren't very good, but the rest were really impressive. I mean, they were small, cramped, one room affairs, but the walls were completely covered from floor to ceiling with partially or completely handcrafted knives of all sizes, descriptions, and levels of quality in the ancient Yengisar tradition. Outside several, knife masters were engraving or sharpening new blades, and I got some cool pictures of them at work. After taking a long time checking out and appreciating the knives and going back and fourth from shop to shop, I finally settled on one with a silver handle, inlaid with pieces of seashell and other, similar things. This in Xinjiang, literally the place furthest from any ocean or sea on the face of the planet! It was etched with all kinds of intricate designs, and the handle contrasted beautifully with the blue steel blade, with its golden engraving. Then, it was time to put my barganing skills to work! I had done a lot of research on types, qualities, and prices of knives by talking to various Uighur men in the various cities I'd been to along the way, and so I had a good idea of what it should cost. His innitial asking price was in excess of 500 kuai (Chinese Yuan); I got it for 200. After that, I went on to buy four more as gifts, and specially select sheaths suitable for each one from various shops along the dusty road, but I won't go into details about them. Hopefully, I'll be able to get some nice pics up soon enough, and you can see the beauties! In the end, I got five knives, pluse handcrafted leather sheaths specially selected to match each one, for a total of 570 kuai, or about $75.
Perhapse mostly because of the anticipation, it was one of the most rewarding experiences of my trip!
On a more humorous note, I managed to lose my sunglasses in the local outhouse... I looked down all of a sudden, and there they were! Oh well, you win some, you lose some, and overall, I'd say I won out on this experience!
Kashgar - Yengisar -hand made knife - China
Last time I sort of ended with saying we had street food the night we came back form lake Karakul. Most of that street food is based on meat and most of it is some form of kebab. Well, people who know me also know that I like kebab. So I ate plenty. The next day I got my punishment however. I am still not quite sure if it were the kebabs or a some icecream I ate before, but my stomach didn't agree with it.The day after we came back from Karakul we decided to go to Yengisar, Yarkand and stay the night in a village near Yarkand. At first we had trouble finding the right bus station for getting there but after some asking around and a bit of luck we ended up in the right bus... well, minivan. The road was extremely bumpy so we jumped up and down from our seats most of the time. At the end of the 1.5 hour trip, we reached Yengisar and my stomach started to feel bad. I thought it would go better once I would be able to get out of the van but it didn't. At one point it was so bad I just walked in a random store and asked for a public toilet. Since most people here can't read or speak Chinese (I used a mandarin phrasebook to explain) somebody else was called to read it. At one point three people were dealing with my request for a toilet. In the meantime things couldn't get better. While I was striving to get rid of whatever I needed to get rid of, Jamie got stung by a wasp in her stomach. Of course she was in pain as well so there we sat, basically in a village that can be classified as in the middle of nowhere. After a little while they understood what I meant and one guy brought me to a toilet. Of course it was just a hole in the ground but it was not my time to be picky. I sat there for perhaps half an hour but afterwards I didn't feel better. I told Jamie we should take a bus to Yarkand and we went on our way to the bus station. But I kept feeling worse and worse and when we crossed a police station I went to ask for a toilet again. They agent said they didn't have one (right!) and put us in a cab that brought us to a hotel. There we decided to stay the night since it was of no use to continue our journey like this. After an hour or two I started to feel better and the stomach ache disappeared completely. We walked around a bit after that. Yengisar is a town that's famous in the region for their knife production. I decided that I wanted one for myself, and Jamie as well, so we visited some shops. There were two types of knives there, production models and hand made models. The hand made models are more expensive and most of the time not even on display but in a cupboard somewhere locked away. When we came however some shops showed us the handmade. In one particular one we saw two that looked rather the same but have different arabic carvings in them. We wanted those. After some bargaining we got them for a good price. Then Jamie surprised me with saying that this was her (early) birthday present for me. That came as a suprise and it's really nice of her. After that we headed back for the hotel and said good night...The next day we took the bus to Yarkand and decided to just take the bus back to Kashgar at the end of the day. On our way to there the road was again very bumpy. The tires felt like they were hitting the frame of the wheel all the time and yes, after a while we had a flat tire. The driver just put us out of the van, told us to walk a bit and just took off. Not really knowing what was happening of what would happen we just started walking. After about 20 minutes he came back with, luckily, a new tire and we could continue our journey. Yarkand was a good town to visit. Like most towns here it has a old Uyghur part and a new (always ugly) Chinese part. We had to search a bit but eventually we found the old town. Visiting that area is like going back in time. People transport themselves on wooden vehicles which is pulled by mules. Handicrafts are the biggest source of income in it's cool to see people working wood and iron and making pretty cool stuff without big machinery. The whole town had a high 'aladin' feel to it if you know what I mean. On the edge of the old town there is a bige mosque, a cemetary and a town of some lady that ment much to the region. Admission was 10 Yuan (1 euro). It was interesting to visit this although the mosque wasn't that special or anything. People where just praying and I felt (Jamie couldn't get in) a bit unwelcome. I can imagen though...We headed back to the bus after a couple hours of walking around and had a 3 hour trip back to Kashgar, where we arrived at 9 pm Beijing time. I was still a bit frightened to eat local meat so we decided to eat at John's.The next day was (is) sunday and this means big market day for Kashgar. The sunday market is devided into the lifestock market and well the other stuff market. We first visited the lifestock market which is an experience on its own. Where I said visiting the old town like going back in time, I guess time travelling didn't stop there. This lifestock market had a variaty of cows, sheep, goats, mules and other animals. It also had some foodstalls on the side where sheep where already waiting to be turned into kebabs. It's hard to explain what it looked like, I hope pictures will give some impression. After the lifestock market we headed over to the 'normal' market which was big and full of people. All kinds of stuff was sold there; carpets, knives, other fabrics, food and some touristy stuff. In total we spent a couple of hours on both markets before walking back to the hotel.And now I'm here again updating my website. Tomorrow we'll be doing our three day camel tour... really excited to be going. AFter that we have a day 'off' (my birthday) and then onto Shanghai where we should arrive on the 23rd. We have the train tickets by now so that's settled. I'll be uploading pictures after this, so check out my webalbum soon.thanks you, bye bye!
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