A Journey on the Silk Road Rebecca Orozco

M I R A G E 2 0 1 9 A Journey on the Silk Road

Becky Orozco

The legendary Silk Road tied the Orient to Europe for centuries. Its route crossed the steppes of Central Asia, making that region a valuable target to empires interested in controlling the rich trade. Today the region remains a crossroads between the West and the powers of Russia and China.

Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan historically make up the heart of the Silk Road. Traders established depots and military bases to protect their goods and built cities from their profits. Local entrepreneurs provided resources to the outposts. The Silk Road image of that part of these nations’ histories is evident in the many markets that still carry many of those goods. Kazakhstan was key to the Silk Road in that it provided the “technology” for long distance trade, travel and conquest. It was on the steppes of Central Asia that horse was domesticated around 5,500 years ago as evidenced in early rock art and archaeology. The control of the valuable resources of the silk route led to a long history of conquest of the region, ending with the Soviet Union takeover in the early 20th century. References to the equestrian past of the nation are common but today horses are more often seen as a menu item than a means of transport. The original population of ancestral Przwalski horse became extinct and has been reintroduced from other areas. Kazakhstan is the ninth largest country in the world, the largest land-locked, but is also the least densely populated with only 18.5 million people. Today, it is described as an independent republic, but for nearly a century it was a satellite state the former Soviet Union. Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in the last decade of the 20th century, Kazakhstan regained independence. How the Kazakhs identify themselves ethnically and culturally and even the language they speak is undergoing dramatic change. The new capital of the country is Astana and its very construction is emblematic of a country reinventing itself. Astana, which translates as “capital” in Kazakh, is a planned city, with soaring architecture and extensive public space and art. It has a very modern feel but one that seems focused toward the west. The city has multiple global franchises (McDonald’s, Burger King, Starbucks and many others). In reinventing the nation, the government has built a new capital that is in the north that is constructed to exemplify a new Kazakhstan. Bounded on the north by Russia and on the east by China, Kazakhstan balances the need for markets and the demand for its oil and natural resources with maintaining autonomy surrounded by aggressive, economic and militarily powerful nations. This balancing act is exemplified in the struggle to reestablish Kazakh as the national language with the need to maintain Russian as the

language of commerce and bureaucracy. English as a global technology language also plays a role. Uzbekistan borders Kazakhstan on the south. It, too, fell under Soviet hegemony for most of the twentieth century. It is far smaller, but faces many of the same issues. The country is working to develop tourism associated with the historic Silk Road which transversed the region for centuries. The cities of Taskent, Samarkand and Bukara contain historic architecture which reflects this history. Uzbekistan also works to reestablish its traditional language. Greater distance from Russia meant more citizens retained their native language, but Russian still is the language of business. A new generation of writers who grew up speaking Russian have created a genre of literature in that language. In June of 2018, Virginia Pfau Thompson (Cochise College ceramics instructor), Seth Polley (Bisbee High School history teacher) and I (History and Anthropology instructor) participated in the Fulbright-Hays Kazakhstan-Uzbekistan Group Project Abroad sponsored by New Mexico Highlands University in partnership with the University of Arizona. The Group project abroad was made up of rural Arizona and New Mexico Educators. The majority of the group were K-12 teachers. Five members were community college and university instructors. The program provides grants to support overseas projects in training, research, and curriculum development in modern foreign languages and area studies for teachers, students, and faculty engaged in a common endeavor. Projects may include short-term seminars, curriculum development, group research or study, or advanced intensive language programs. The following is the description of the Central Asia: Crossroads of Civilization course:

Through a study of literature, history, languages, architecture, politics, gender studies, environmental sustainability, and ethnic relations, educators will analyze cultural interactions in the border lands where the Muslim world and the Orthodox world come into contact, where Slavic, Persian, and Turkic languages/cultures meet. Travel, visits to museums and cultural sites, and attendance at one or more music/dance performances will greatly enhance classroom learning. Finally, educators will have the opportunity to interact with their Kazakh and Uzbek teaching counterparts to explore ways of sharing research/teaching challenges and creat ing connections among their students. Educators thus gain experi ences and insights that they can bring back to the classroom – along with photos and cultural artifacts purchased as part of the project.

Virginia’s project focused on her Cochise College position as instructor in ceramics. I examined language and culture, and what dynamic changes in both mean to present day Kazakhstan. We spent the first weeks of our stay at Nazarbayev University in Astana. Astana was originally a Russian fort called Akmola (Kazakh for “white tombs”) then 6

re-named under the Soviet Union to Tselinograd to designate it as the Virgin Lands City, hub of an ambitious resettlement program to move population from across the Soviet Union to the steppes and to be a agricultural hub. In 1997, the capital was moved this small town on the steppes and the planned city began construction. According to the September 2017 census data, the city has a population of about 1,100,000 inhabitants, the second largest city after the old capital, Almaty. The president of Kazakhstan is Nursultan Nazarbayev. He has been the president since independence. In the elections of 2015, he received 97.7% of the vote. With the move of the capital to the north from the traditional south and the creation of a new focus for the region, Nazarbayev seeks to remake Kazakhstan. Rich natural resources, including oil and mineral wealth, are funding “Nurly Zhol,” an extensive infrastructure program focused on modernizing the nation. Intense nationalism has become a hallmark of his leadership. Kazakhstan is officially a trilingual country. Kazakh, (part of the Kipchak family of Turkic languages) spoken natively by 64.4% of the population, has the status of “state” language, whereas Russian, which is spoken by more than 85% of Kazakhstanis, is declared an “official” language, and is used routinely in business, government, and inter-ethnic communication, although Kazakh is slowly replacing it (Culture Smart: Kazakhstan). Kazakh is now required to be used in all government meetings. English is seen as a necessary language for economic development. The government announced in January 2015 that the Latin alphabet will replace Cyrillic as the writing system for the Kazakh language by 2025. Other minority languages spoken in Kazakhstan include Uzbek, Ukrainian, Uyghur, Kyrgyz, and Tatar. English, as well as Turkish, have gained popularity among younger people since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Education across Kazakhstan is conducted in Kazakh, Russian, or both. Astana’s towering new buildings set in the vast northern steppes are symbolic of this development of a new Kazakhstan national identity. But the steppe still holds great representative power. This vast region of open grassland was home to nomadic Kazakh peoples. Their pastoral way of life is still seen as a critical part of national identity although many were forced leave that lifestyle during the Soviet period and few still practice it. The eagle hunter is symbolic ofthat identity. The eagle is part of the national symbolism and appears in the center of the Kazakh national flag. Although ethnic Kazaks make up the majority of the population, ethnic Russians still comprise almost one third. Nazarbayev University in Astana is emblematic of Kazakhstan’s changing relationship with language. Classes in the new University, started in 2012, are taught primarily in English, reflecting the focus on STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) fields. Fulbright participants, however, were required to complete modules of Russian language study

before arrival and then had Russian classes each day. We also studied Kazakh, but Russian was the major focus. For me, the new alphabet and the totally different word and sound patterns never lodged in my old brain.

The location of the University on the edge of the steppe reflected the placement of Astana overall. Its name, Nazarbayev University, is also symbolic of the role the president plays in a changing nation. There is growing concern about how the government will transition once he is no longer in power. The new university is being constructed to house 20,000 plus students but has only about 4,000 currently. Its empty newness emphasized the difficult shift in focus from the Soviet southern past to the Kazakh northern future. Russian belongs to the East Slavic branch of the Indo European Language family. Kazakh and Uzbek are Turkic languages in the Altaic Language family. Part of my own struggles to learn Russian were directly tied to the different alphabet. Letters that looked the same as those in our Latin alphabet have completely different sounds. For example “P” in Russian sounds like “R” in English. The Kazakh alphabet differs from the Latin and Russian Cyrillic alphabets. Currently about 60% speak Kazakh and 85% speak Russian (Dina Zhansigimova, Culture Smart: Kazakhstan, Kiperard, 2017). The story of Helen, a woman who helped me find my way one day when I got lost, is emblematic of the challenges faced by the Kazakhs of today. She grew up in the Soviet era in the city where Russian became the main language. She was educated in Russian and her parents spoke it at home. Now she struggles to learn the Kazakh language which as the state language is required for many kinds of employment. She is proud of her nation and its independence. The economic growth of recent years has been good for everyone. She had praise for the president who she felt was a stabilizing force for the nation. But she is worried about her place in this economy and that concern is rooted in language. Religion adds to the cultural dynamics. Islam was the historic faith of the Silk Road. With the Soviet Union came the Russian Orthodox faith along with the hundreds of thousands of political prisoners relocated to region although it was suppressed. Today, Islam is practiced by 70% of the population, Russian Orthodox Christianity by about 30% (Culture Smart: Kazakhstan), but the striking presence of Russian Orthodox churches reflects the remaining Russian ethnic population. In the countryside, on the steppe east of Astana, Kazakh remained the language of families. This linguistic division in many ways defines the struggle of the nation as it establishes itself on the world stage. It is a resource rich country with a small but growing population, much centered in the urban areas. The national language of Kazakh has been legislated as the language of the inhabitants but many do not speak it. The ethnic diversity mirrors the language divide. The nomadic pastoral