The big sofas of Central Asia: Kokand

Ouzbékistan, Kokand, place Mukimi, palais de Khodayar Khan, © L. Gigout, 2012

Le palais de Khodayar Khan, place Mukimi à Kokand.

The drive is quick. Kokand is in about 90 km distance with Fergana City and the road is a highway well-suited to the rich Fergana Valley. The countryside which we cross is strictly flat, unexpected phenomenon for a valley, and has en efficient agriculture. Corn and cotton fields. Sometimes, some sprawling fogged cities with uncertain shapes. Complete silence throughout the journey. I find a room in the Khudayarkhan Hotel, Istiklol Avenue. Here also, the center is new and the avenue lined with the same shops than in comparable avenues in Andijan and Fergana. But the traffic is lower and the architecture is more inspired by the Neocolonial style than by a wedding cake. In the older neighbourhoods are rich houses recently renovated. Many restaurants are close, in particular those of the pavilions on Central Park where is also a beautiful chaykhana with laced columns. The city is known for being conservative and the restaurants available do not serve wine or beer and even fewer vodka. It does not prevent some men from coming with a bottle bought in a specialised store. They take seat at reserved places fitted with folding screens which allow them to drink quiet and in discreet ways. It is a bit like drinking vodka drawn from a teapot. Nobody is fooled. This sham with the religion is a provocation against the local Talibans who forbid the sale and the consumption of alcohol under threat of punishment.

The Khan Palace was built in 1873 by Khudayar, the last Kokand Khan. No more three years later, the Tsarist troops destroyed the fortifications and deleted the function of khan. We can see in the Palace a tapshan and old pictures that represent men and women sitting on the ground. We also find there numerous documents tracing the history of the city, a very old and rich history which says that the locality was occupied at first by tribes allies of the Chinese empire in fighting the Huns. Staging post on the silk route, it will be destroyed in the 13th century by Gengis Khan who will nevertheless make of it his main home. Its golden age will come five centuries later with the new Uzbek Ming dynasty which will raise it to the level of a khanat capital and will develop an elegant civilization, with a high culture and an expansionist policy. The khanat will go so far as integrating the present capital Tashkent. He will be the last khanat, after those of Bukhara and Khiva, to be annexed by the Tsarist troops, which will finish in this way the conquest of the Uzbek territory. The former fief will know a brief period of autonomy during the 1917 Revolution in the shape of an autonomous government which will be eliminated in 1918 by the Red Army. The intervention will arouse a resistance movement known as the Basmachi movement (Basmachi = Bandit in Russian). The movement claimed the political and ethnic recognition, the economic and social equality and defended a traditional lifestyle. Unacceptable considerations for Moscow.

The vast Mukimi Central Park and its merry-go-rounds corner, almost deserted, is lined in the East by the unavoidable urban motorway. Wandering in the city swept by a violent and cold wind. Photos of tapshans. Few people speak English and not everyone speak Russian. Candy stores, retail cigarettes, sunflower seeds. My steps are leading me to the southwest of Mukimi square where is a curious chaïkhana under renovation. Inside is a large space occupied by brown crafted tapshans with slightly arched backrests. There is a fountain in the middle of the room and openings in four cardinal points. The ceiling has in its center a big hexagonal dome with lancet windows which evokes an atrium. Outside, some rustic and bare tapshans. I take photos and drink tea with the craftsmen. This chaïkhana is called Tabaruk, they say. I would like to know a little bit more about this place but I am here without interpreter. The chaïkhana opens at the back on a huge esplanade leading to the Khamza Theater which bears the name of the founder of Soviet Uzbek literature. Born in 1889, Khakimzade Niazi aka Khamza is the author of a social "diwan" (volume of poetry). He was the organizer of a travelling theater and worked to sensitize the masses on the culture, on the social justice and on the status of women. He was lynched by nationalists in 1929. Fame to him ! Today, the theater seems closed down. It is difficult to believe that this city counted 18 cinemas and 28 libraries during the Soviet era.