Everything Is Big In Uzbekistan

The man most of the world knows as Tamerlane and generally reviles, as a ruthless invader, is revered in his native Uzbekistan as Amir Timur.

- Aniruddha Sen Gupta

Samarkand’s Registon Square brilliantly lit up at night.

Statues of him in regal mien are the centrepieces of many public spaces. His real legacy, though, is in the huge gates, mosques, and other edifices that are the touristic cynosures of the country. While Timur spent much time expanding his empire, he also added greatly to its architectural, cultural, and spiritual life.

Not all of what he built still stands, but significant monuments have been rebuilt or restored and form the spectacular centrepiece of Uzbekistan’s rich touristic banquet. The most famous of the landmarks is Samarkand’s Registon Square, which George Curzon (the same Lord Curzon who was Viceroy of India) once called ‘the noblest public square in the world’. We saw it at night, when it was brilliantly lit up, spread out like a luminous carpet below the vantage point from which we viewed it.

There were four of us on the trip – two friends and my wife Anjali and I. From the very first day, we got a welcome dose of the fascination with which people from India are treated. Walking around in the trading domes in Bukhara – ancient structures that were a fabled stop on the Silk Route a thousand years ago – we were greeted everywhere with the traditional hand-over-the-heart ‘Salaam’ and queries of ‘Hindostan? Hindostan?’ A trio of young college girls came up to us and got Anjali to sing along to Bole chudiyan, bole kangana. The Bollywood references varied with age – where the young girls went gaga over Shahrukh Khan, people from a generation previous raved about Mithun Chakraborty, while for those even older, the adulation was reserved for Raj Kapoor.