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| Dalle en marbre, trône de Timour à l'entrée du mausolée Gour Emir à Samarcande. |
This morning, Murodkhon, guide and historian, comes to see me in the house of Sobir who opened a gastinitsa (hotel in Russian) in Chorakha district, behind the Registan. I want to ear him about the tapshans.
- When I ask to people to speak to me about the tapshans, they don't have an answer for that. For them, the tapshan is common, as a table or a chair for us, Westerners. I perceive nevertheless that the place of the tapshan is important in the daily life at the Uzbeks. It is present in the street, in the chaïkhani and the houses. They sometimes even prefer to sleep on the tapshan as in their beds. - For me, answers Murodkhon, the chorpoya (he does not use tapshan word), it is my childhood. As soon as it is nice and sunny, after Navruz (first day of the spring and newyear on the Iranian calendar), we bring it out in the garden and we leave the house to live on the chorpoya. We had an immense apple tree at home and the chorpoya was placed under this tree. We were living there not only for the lunch or the dinner, but we were sleeping there too. We had naps there. It was natural to receive the guests there. More than the house, the chorpoya symbolizes the life of the family and the social life. My uncles and the neighbors came in the morning at home for the breakfast with my father who was a kolkhozian. People came together before the sunrise because they left very early to work in the fields.
- The tapshan as the symbol of friendliness ?
- The Uzbek cannot live solitarily. The traditional houses are protected by walls but the door is always opened. It is more difficult in big cities like Tashkent to receive people at home but, even there, there is always district chaïkhani and mahalla houses equipped with chorpoyaho. In an apartment, it is impossible to have one but there is often a raised space near a window or the balcony. The chorpoya is associated with the relaxation, the tranquillity and the musing. It is the opposite of the stress. Just by looking a chorpoya, that rests me.
- How old is it ? On miniatures we can see scenes where people seated on kinds of platform.
- You are right when you speak about miniatures. There was already something equivalent five or six centuries ago. You doubtless know the Gur Emir mausoleum ? At the right, there is a big marble stone. It was the throne of Timour where he stood on reclining posture on carpets and silk pillows. If you have time to go back to this mausoleum, see this stone. At my grandparents home, there was not yet chorpoya but a raised earth platform. We called it "soupa". This word comes itself from stoupa. - The Buddhist structures which we find in Tibet and Nepal ? How did they arrive here ?
- If you go to Dushanbe, visit the big sleeping Buddha of Adjina Tepe. He is at the Museum of Antiquities.
- When I ask to people to speak to me about the tapshans, they don't have an answer for that. For them, the tapshan is common, as a table or a chair for us, Westerners. I perceive nevertheless that the place of the tapshan is important in the daily life at the Uzbeks. It is present in the street, in the chaïkhani and the houses. They sometimes even prefer to sleep on the tapshan as in their beds. - For me, answers Murodkhon, the chorpoya (he does not use tapshan word), it is my childhood. As soon as it is nice and sunny, after Navruz (first day of the spring and newyear on the Iranian calendar), we bring it out in the garden and we leave the house to live on the chorpoya. We had an immense apple tree at home and the chorpoya was placed under this tree. We were living there not only for the lunch or the dinner, but we were sleeping there too. We had naps there. It was natural to receive the guests there. More than the house, the chorpoya symbolizes the life of the family and the social life. My uncles and the neighbors came in the morning at home for the breakfast with my father who was a kolkhozian. People came together before the sunrise because they left very early to work in the fields.
- The tapshan as the symbol of friendliness ?
- The Uzbek cannot live solitarily. The traditional houses are protected by walls but the door is always opened. It is more difficult in big cities like Tashkent to receive people at home but, even there, there is always district chaïkhani and mahalla houses equipped with chorpoyaho. In an apartment, it is impossible to have one but there is often a raised space near a window or the balcony. The chorpoya is associated with the relaxation, the tranquillity and the musing. It is the opposite of the stress. Just by looking a chorpoya, that rests me.
- How old is it ? On miniatures we can see scenes where people seated on kinds of platform.
- You are right when you speak about miniatures. There was already something equivalent five or six centuries ago. You doubtless know the Gur Emir mausoleum ? At the right, there is a big marble stone. It was the throne of Timour where he stood on reclining posture on carpets and silk pillows. If you have time to go back to this mausoleum, see this stone. At my grandparents home, there was not yet chorpoya but a raised earth platform. We called it "soupa". This word comes itself from stoupa. - The Buddhist structures which we find in Tibet and Nepal ? How did they arrive here ?
- If you go to Dushanbe, visit the big sleeping Buddha of Adjina Tepe. He is at the Museum of Antiquities.
More photos Samarkand
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