-
Desert Castles and Canals: Evolving Discourses on the Hydraulic Heritage of the Amu Darya
Robert Willard is a PhD student at the University of Vienna, in the department of Near Eastern Studies. His current research focuses on the use of heritage as a framework for practicing and maintaining water governance in Western Uzbekistan. Robert has 10 years of experience in ecological advocacy and fieldwork in Uzbekistan, in partnership with…
-
Introduction
Views of Central Asia have historically been caught between an orientalised image from imperial powers and the visions that Central Asian societies hold of themselves. For this, the third volume of the Student Central Asia Forum, we invited proposals that consider the multitude of Central Asian horizons. We are delighted to present five submissions, encompassing…
-
Generationality and Community in Turkmenistan: A Celebration of Durdy Bayramov’s Photography
-
Evaluating Central Asia’s ‘Golden Age of Arbitration’: Prospects for a New Legal Age of Commercial Dispute Resolution
-
‘The Age of Maturity for the Turkmen Spirit’: The Ruhnama and identity production in post-Soviet Turkmenistan
Photograph: Beth via Flikr. Towering above Ashgabat’s Independence Park is a ten-metre monument of the Ruhnama: the magnum opus of Turkmenistan’s first president, Saparmurat Niyazov.1 Translated into English as ‘Book of the Soul’, it has gripped the country’s social, political, and intellectual life for nearly two decades, encapsulating the personality cult constructed by Niyazov in…
-
Kushtdepdi of the Turkmen and Its Origins
I heard singing with the distinct “hu hu” breathing pattern, and instantly, a small circle of people gently formed in the middle of the crowd in the courtyard of the groom’s house. The people in the circle—children and adults—danced around the circle stamping their right foot on the ground, and afterwards, jumping up and throwing…
