STEPPE WINTER 2007 (PB 2007)

The Savitsky Museum

The Igor Savitsky Museum of Art lies in the remote town of Nukus, the capital of the Autonomous Republic of Karakalpakstan in western Uzbekistan. The museum was established by Igor Savitsky who amassed a collection of prohibited works from the 1920s and 1930s, which stands today as a testament to the true artists of the Soviet period, many of whom were sent to camps or were forced to conform in order to survive. In this four-part article, Robert Chandler visits the museum; the museum's current director, Marinika Babanazarova remembers Savitsky and tells us about the neglected Uzbek School of Art; and we learn about the restoration work being undertaken on some of the museum's many canvases. The Young Men and the Sea

The Aral Sea, once bountiful, has virtually disappeared - the result of environmentally unsound Soviet-era policies. Yet in Kazakhstan, hope has come in the form of a World Bank and government-sponsored dam aimed at increasing the water level, and the local fishing cooperatives are experiencing a revival. Gael Guichard ventures onto the ice with the fishermen who make their living from the sea.

Flatbreads: Manna from Heaven

From Urumqi and Kashgar to Kabul, from Samarkand to Dushanbe and Ashgabat, daily bread means flatbread, called nan or naan or non in most of Central Asia. Central Asian flatbreads are usually made of leavened wheat dough baked in tandoor ovens and at their best there is nothing we would rather eat. Like food cooked over an outdoor grill, they have a hint of flavour from the fire, as well as the seductive taste and aroma of roasted grain.

Central Asian Ikats

Ikat textiles produced in nineteenth-century and early twentieth-century Central Asia are among the finest in the long history of this technique. The continually inventive range of patterns, vivid use of colour and the mastery of the technique achieved by teams of dyers and weavers all combine to produce magnificent, striking textiles.

Snapshot: Ismaili Happy People

This photograph was taken in an Ismaili village situated on the Pamir Highway in southeastern Tajikistan during Didar ('Invitation') - a celebration that takes place on 28 May every year and commemorates the anniversary of the Aga Khan's visit to the village in the late 1990s. During the celebrations the villagers dress up, dance outdoors to the accordion and drums and sing ginane (religious songs about the Aga Khan), which tell of him being their noor (light). The photograph was taken as these girls, dressed in bright atlas silk fabric with crowns on their heads, were going out to dance.

Top Ten Hats

From the middle of the steppe to the halls of Parliament and even inside the banya (public baths), Central Asians adorn themselves with colourful, elaborately decorated hats. Particularly in the densely populated Ferghana Valley, ethnic and religious identity can often be determined by what sits on top of a person's head. Hats have a language of their own and can indicate marital status, age and gender and are enveloped in superstition: an amulet pinned inside or a tuft of owl feathers on top will protect the wearer from the evil eye. From woolly hats to fox fur-lined Russian hats to the 1940s style leather cap worn by many taxi drivers, Central Asians are sure to turn your head.