Daily life in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan

 

The irony of Defying Gravity coming up on my phone as I look at a group young Turkmen college aged women and ponder their totally controlled unfree lives.

Giggling about the possibility of getting Tik Tok famous

 

That time when the ladies at the restaurant were looking over my shoulder checking out the pictures on my phone and giggling, then asked me to take a picture of them and when I did they giggled more I heard Tik Tok amidst their Turkmen words. If only I could make them Tik Tok famous.

A NYC moment in Ashgabat

When I travel I definitely like being from New York City! I love when people ask where I’m from I can just say that and don’t even need to say America/United States, especially when saying my country’s name is almost an ugly word these days. Then one night in Ashgabat when I said New York the waiter’s face lit up and he mumbled something that made me think that maybe bar had some NYC connection. Later I noticed Broadway musical wall paper and other little details like this mural. Yes, the greatest city in the world…

Islam in Turkmenistan

Turkmenistan is 95% Muslim, but it is a secular country. During the Soviet times religion was repressed and many of the mosques were closed and people were forced to practice in private at home. After independence practicing Islam was encouraged again, but it was stressed to us that the government is very wary of religious fundamentalism and keeps a close eye on religious activity. I saw very few obvious mosques and almost no active call to prayer, which feels very different than other Islamic countries I have been to. The Turmenbashi Ruhy Mosque is big and sparkly mosques, but it seemed more for show than for daily religious practice. 

These days there are no madrassas (religious schools) in Turkmenistan. Anyone wanting to study to be an imam has to go to Turkey to train. This is part of the effort to keep Turkmenistan secular. In Uzbekistan there is a bit more, but still there is only one madrassa allowed in each of the 12 territories  of the country. 

The biggest evidence of how little the presence of Islam was is that I don't have any picture to show Islam in practice there.

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NYC fans in Turkmenistan

Spotted this t-shirt on a woman waiting for the bus in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, asked to take a picture, which led to a lovely conversation. She had just gotten back from 6 months visiting her daughter in NYC. Her daughter left Turkmenistan after college to teach in China. Next stop she headed to the States and now is a NYC public school principal in a primarily Chinese district and loves it there. Also the two pictures she showed me from her trip to NY were of her trip to the Statue of Liberty and when she went skydiving! Yay America! Yay immigrants!

Visiting Turkmenistan Ruhy Mosque

 

Built in 2004 by Turkmenistan’s first post Soviet leader, Saparmurat Niyazov, or later self named Türkmenbaşy, Türkmenbaşy Ruhy Mosque in Ashgabat is the largest mosque in Central Asia. The vast prayer room can hold 10,000 pilgrims, with 7,000 men on the main floor and 3,000 women on the second level.

Beside the mosque there is a smaller version that is Türkmenbaşy’s family mausoleum. Unfortunately no photos were allowed there because it had some kookie things I wish I could look back more closely at.

During his time of leadership, Türkmenbaşy wrote a new spiritual guide and a kind of origin story for Turkmenistan. One guide told me that after 100 years under Russian control Turkmen people had to be reminded of their culture, values and history, so he created this book for them. The book was called the Ruhnama (The Book of the Soul,) and it was taught in schools and read in homes.

So… when he built this mosque he inscribed the walls of the mosque with verses from both the Quran and the Ruhnama. This, unsurprisingly, outraged many Muslims, who believed that passages from the Quran should be given far more reverence than Niyazov’s modern book of rambling moral guidance, and should not appear alongside each other. Even more incendiary was one particular quotation inscribed prominently on the entry arch to the mosque, which reads "The Ruhnama is the holiest book and the Quran is the book of Allah."

I heard that because of the Ruhnama quotes almost no one attends this mosque for religious services. It exists for tourists like me and use during special events meant to promote Türkmenbaşy’s memory or the current leader’s authority.

Like many things in Turkmenistan it’s for show. Really all I can say is it was very impressive and quite lovely to be almost alone in.

Learning about Women in Ashgabat

 

I spent one day in Ashgabat with a female guide and she and I had fun chatting about what life is like for women in Turkmenistan and NYC. I learned more about how arranged marriages work and heard that changes have been happening to help women gain success and respect in the workplace. And she was in awe of my bravery for traveling alone and being able to live as a single woman. There is definitely a pull toward old societal ways with things like strict conservative traditional dress and rules that girls and women should spend all their time with their families. but it felt nice to see her ambition in guiding and translating and hear about her life dreams.

Some of the highlights of our day were visiting a hidden wedding dress shop, where they dressed me up in the outfit that a bride wears for 40 days before her wedding. And yes, it’s heavy!!

Since I was visiting right after Ramadan, it was wedding season and I asked to check out the Ashgabat Wedding Palace, where many weddings take place and many brides and grooms stop to take photos.

I also took advantage or her “let's go wherever you want to go” attitude, and had her bring me to the Yyldyz Hotel, the fanciest and most prominent hotel in Ashgabat that has beautiful views of the city below and over the top design. It was fun to be in a place with so few tourists. When I was with kind of felt like I was welcome everywhere.

We also went to see the famous Akhal-Teke horses. They are a national symbol of Turkmenistan and appear on the country's coat of arms and currency. This horse also can also be seen on stamps and in many monuments. It’s an ancient breed with a history that dates back thousands of years and today is among the rarest, most exotic full-size horse breeds around the world.

Reflecting on being a girl in Turkmenistan

The irony of Defying Gravity coming up on my phone as I look at a group young Turkmen college aged women and ponder their totally controlled unfree lives.

Visiting the American Center in Ashgabat

 

I went to this American Center in Ashgabat, that the Embassy must run. It’s a library and a place with full internet. I guess it builds good American feelings. Anyhow when I walked in they were doing a program for a room of mostly high school kids with the finance guy from the US Embassy. They invited me to join and sitting their listing to America the Beautiful and reading the inspiring words on the walls made me suddenly burst into tears. The Turkmen people there look to America as an alternative to their authoritarian country, and I just felt so sad that I’m not sure we really stand for that stuff right now.

A guy closer to my age wanted to talk with me after. He was so down on his fellow countryman for not caring and just wanted to talk news with people. It was pretty interesting and moving. I felt bad having nothing good to say about the US these days.

Visiting Nisa

 

The UNESCO World Heritage site, the Fortresses of Nisa, are one of the earliest and most important cities of the Parthian Empire, a major power from the mid 3rd century BC to the 3rd century AD. The site is mostly unexcavated with enough excavated to start to imagine what had been there as our guide told us history and showed us pictures of what archeologists think it looked like. Situated at the crossroads of important commercial and strategic axes, this powerful empire formed a barrier to Roman expansion while serving as an important communication and trading centre between east and west, north and south.

Nisa is not just an archaeological site but a symbol of Turkmenistan's rich historical heritage, with connections to ancient trade routes and empires. It’s located just a few kilometers from Ashgabat.

I often am not that into antiquities, but this one wowed me. I think it was the way they had little pieces of historic details in the ruins for a chance to see today and yesteryear and be transported The guide also had a notebook of renderings of the site at what is imagined as its original ornate look, which was so interesting to compare to the pile of bricks and mud before my eyes. Mostly seeing Nisa was another reminder of all the great empires who crossed Turkmenistan.