History of Taraz

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We had a day off today and went to the bazaar. If I were the shopper-from-hell, it would be fine, but as much as I LOVE to shop, I do better at TJ Maxx and Tuesday Morning than at the world's largest outdoor bazaar.

Thought today I'd give you a little background on Taraz. We learned in a history class we are taking from Inter-Lingua that the bazaar sits on the many remains of the 2000 year old city of Taraz. It was destroyed completely the first time by Genghis Khan then was destroyed several more times over the years. Ancient Taraz sat along the Great Silk Road bridging China and Europe. The people here were nomads and lived in a tee-pee like structure called a Yurta (imagine a round dome shaped tee-pee) The insides were very lavish- decorated with the popular Kazakhstan rugs- hanging from the ceiling as well as covering the dirt floor. The outsides were made of wood slats forming a circle and them the whole thing was covered not with leather as you'd expect but wool! Dub has a replica of a yurta (1/2 of one- like a cross section) in the corner of his group that is kind of an awning for them to play under. I'd love to have one like this, but can't seem to find it at the bazaar. Our Inter-Lingua teacher said there is a section at the bazaar for "national" items- real souvenirs like flags, and historical elements. We have yet to find this elusive "national" section.

We've included a few photos of the bazaar today. Imagine about 5 acres packed with little booths selling everything from bras to wedding gowns to sheep heads to linoleum and ugly plastic crap. The "streets" between the rows are basically sewers if not raw sewage then streams of some sort of liquid forming little rivers. There is also a "flea market" section that people just spread out a towel and sell whatever they have. We passed such things as a Bic disposable razor (maybe used- maybe not???) a rusty screw (Bill Ballenger would be proud, no?) a dented burned frying pan- they'll sell anything!

Back to the history- After the city and subsequently the silk road was destroyed by Khan, the city was basically gone for centuries. The nomadic people (mostly Turk immigrants) still lived in the beautiful land of steppes and hills and mountains with their herds of sheep, cattle and horses. Around 1850, a new city was finally built, but the name Taraz was lost to history. In Russian times, it was named Zhambyl after a great Kazakh poet who lived 99 years. When the country became independent in 1991, the government wanted to change it’s name back to Taraz to recapture the heritage that had lain dormant for so long. You’ll still find Zhambyl listed on maps, but the new name is Taraz.

So there is your history lesson for the day! Now don’t you feel smart? You can drop that in conversation- “Wow that Taraz has some history, doesn’t it?”