The folklore spring of Boysun

One of several reserves of our planet that remained unchanged is the Boysun Mountain site. Two hours driving in a car from the center of Syrkhandarya province of Uzbekistan will bring you to absolutely different world, where way of life has remained invariable for many centuries.

Here, in the north of Syrkhandarya, in the Kutakanga mountains the rock paintings of a "magic hunting" have remained intact. Close by, in Teshiktash cave there were discovered the fragments of Neanderthal men. Names of such settlements as Rabat, Kofirun, Derbent remind us of the fact that here for thousands of years caravans worked their ways along the Great Silk Road, the ways that are absolutely forgotten today. Through the Iron Gates, located in the narrow mountain ravine and mentioned in 630 year by Buddhist Monk Xuan Zang, the warriors of Alexander the Great, Ghenghis Khan, Amir Timur marched past.

The higher you climb the mountains the clearer is the air; plane tree and walnut groves give place to spruce woods. The earth is covered with bright emerald carpet of alpine grasslands, in the mountain springs there is murmuring crystal-clear water.

Boysun is a small island of past life that remains almost untouched by civilization. In spring on the slopes of Boysuntog peasants cultivate their grain fields using old techniques, ploughing their spots of land by harnessed horses. In each yard there is a tandyr, a stove made of clay, in which round flat bread is baked, and flour is milled in the manual or water mills, as their ancestors had done it. Dwellings are decorated with bright embroidery; floors are covered with carpets, which are woven by the skilled women of Boysun. Alongside the walls there are carved chests, which from the old times have been used as wardrobes; on the tables there are painted ceramic dishes made on the potter's wheel. Dress and shoes of women are decorated with embroidered patterns; local Boysun craftsmen make beautiful jewelry. Up to the present time inhabitants of Boysun make use of different tools manufactured by local blacksmiths.

Every family carefully keeps and passes over from generation to generation the culture of house-keeping, ancient rituals, traditions and customs filled with the sacred sense and originating from pre-Islamic pagan culture. Ritual songs and dances, the folklore of narrators - akyns, who keep local legends and traditions, live their natural life not meant for the visitants.

It was here that more than thousand years ago akyns from Uzbek clan "Kyngrad" made up the legendary epos "Alpomysh". Boysun inhabitants believe that they are the descendants of legendary Alpomysh; people retell each other the tales that associate the name of this hero with villages and ravines in the local mountains.

In the later period the legends and narratives, created by these mountain people, inspired the great poet Alisher Navoiy who described in one of his dastans a pathetic history of love between brave Farkhod and beautiful Shirin. To provide his people with water, Farkhod allegedly split with his mattock the rising mountain slope in Ketmonchopti location. And Bibi-Shirin village, which is situated near Boysun, is believed to be the village of Shirin.

The remoteness of this region, peculiar mode of life and original culture of local people allowed them, in our century of scientific and technology progress and computer technologies, to keep the best examples of spirituality created by the ancestors of Uzbek nation. In 2001 Boysun province, among other 19 regions of the world, was included in the list of "Masterpieces of oral and nonmaterial heritage of mankind" by UNESCO.

Unique folklore traditions of this pearl of Syrkhandarya, acknowledged by the world society, harmonic unity of nature, mode of life and cultural traditions of local people, made it possible in 2002 to hold here the first international open festival of folklore "Boysun Bahori" - "Spring of Boysun". To bring in this project, with the support of the government of Uzbekistan and under the aegis of the UNESCO, on the vast territory at the very entry to Boysun, there was built the park "Boysuntog".

An ethnographic museum was built on the natural height, from which along the slopes of the hill there were arranged the steps serving as tribunes for the viewers of scenic performances. From the heights there opens a beautiful view of the Boysuntog Mountains. At foothills of the mountains, there was built "Folklore village". Only local building materials, such as red sand, clay, multi-colored stone, were used for this construction. Here one can find the "area of tandyrs", recreation area with a pond, gardens and vineyards, hotel rooms in the shape of yurtas, which are typical of Boysun. Traditional alley of pise buildings, housing craftsmen's workshops, shops-dukans, chaykhanas, gives the park a peculiar picturesque aspect.

Numerous guests and participants from Uzbekistan and other countries gathered at the festival. The guests were deeply impressed by the folklore and ethnographic ensembles from Uzbekistan and Tajikistani, contest of national poets-bahshi, fair of local craftsmanship articles. Uzbek national dances featured by Daniella K. from Sweden and mastery, demonstrated by Shimara I. - musician from Japan, caused a particular interest and delight of the viewers.

Original "defile" was arranged as part of designers' contest: top models featured seventeen antique costumes, carefully kept and handed over from generation to generation by Boysun women.

Rather fruitful was the work of international scientific conference whose main theme was "Problems of retaining the national cultural traditions". Scientists from France, Japan, Great Britain, Korea, Russia, Turkey and other countries took part in the discussions on the issues devoted to the development of the national culture, its survival in contemporary conditions.

The success of the first international festival "Boysun Bahori" made it possible to hold it annually. Meeting of scientists with keepers of the national traditions, bakhshi-narrators, craftsmen, study of historical and ethnographic environment of Boysun - this unique "reserve" of cultural heritage, caused the necessity of setting up an integrated expedition to study this land.

Today Boysun can be called "Mecca" for scientists of different orientations.

With assistance of UNESCO and Japan trust fund the mutual project "Preservation of cultural heritage of Boysun" was elaborated, and expedition, consisting of art critics, ethnographers, philologists and musicologists, set off for their destination. In the mountain villages the scientists explored the centers of craftsmanship, studied the peculiarity of the national music and rituals, ancient technologies of building a yurta. There were analyzed the recipes and composition of herbs, almond roots and walnut leaves, which are used by Boysun people for dyeing of cotton and woolen fabric and leather. Researchers were interested in the traditional techniques of dressing the skin of mountain goats for making soft leather shoes - "mokki" and "mahsi", as well as making special calf leather boots for "mulaka", traditional horse games.

Boysun has always been renowned for its admirable embroidery. On the one hand the ornaments of this embroidery are characterized by geometrical motives inherited from the nomadic kungrad tribe and resembling conventionalized images of mountain goat's horns. On the other hand, there are used vegetable patterns, which have been preserved up to the present time. It should also be noted that geometrical ornaments prevail in the patterns used for manufacture of carpets, intended for decoration of yurtas, while combination of vegetable and geometrical patterns is widely used in embroidered garments and suzanes.

During the expedition scientists discovered antique techniques of the national medicine, and also a unique ritual named "dzhahar", that dates back to the formation of Sufi philosophy. Ritual spells and certain psychological spirit, required for performing this rite, up to the present time is used by the local tabibs to cure some mental diseases.

Particular archeological finds have become real scientific sensation. Uzbek specialists had studied the centers of the national ceramics of Khorezm, Ferghana, Samarkand and Bukhara regions long before. In Syrkhandarya, however, there had been known only Denau center. Members of expedition discovered the unknown center of glazed ceramics in Boysun. In the workshop of Usto Izatulla Ishankulov, whose ancestors, hereditary potters - kulols, came here from Bukhara in 19th century, there were found the samples of traditional ceramic articles. These samples of local handicraft allowed the scientists to recreate the style of medieval Bukhara ceramics which has not preserved to present day and which is not represented even in museum collections.

Some ten years ago only visiting artists wandered along the slopes of Baysuntog, sat with their paint cases in the shadows of Sayrob poplars and enjoyed the peculiar mountain landscapes of this wonderful land. Today, Boysun welcomes all those who want to make a journey through time, to perceive the ancient mysteries of pagan rituals of fire-worshippers and shaman cults, to get to know this land that keeps memories of the culture of ancient nations.

All Tourist Gems of Uzbekistan