Traveling around Uzbekistan

I’ve stood in a lot of sacred places, but none quite prepared me for the Sultan Saodat complex. The mausoleum ensemble sits just outside Termez

I’ve spent enough time in Central Asian textile museums to know that Bukhara’s knitting tradition doesn’t fit the narrative we usually

I used to think beech wood was just another hardwood—dense, boring, good for furniture legs maybe. Then I watched an Uzbek craftsman named Rustam spend

The first time I stood outside the Sayid Allauddin Mausoleum in Khiva, I honestly didn’t expect much. Turns out, I was wrong about pretty much everything.

I used to think knife-making was all about the blade. Turns out, when you watch an Uzbek pichok master work—really watch, for hours in one of those cramped

I used to think basket weaving was just something people joked about as an easy college course. The Willow Branches That Survived Soviet Collectivization

The thing about Uzbekistan is that nobody really expects it to be green. I mean, you think Silk Road, you think deserts and crumbling fortresses and maybe

I used to think ethnography museums were basically dusty storage rooms with mannequins in traditional dress. Then I spent three hours wandering through

I used to think peach trees were just for eating. Turns out, in the Fergana Valley of Uzbekistan, craftspeople have been carving peach wood into intricate

I burned my first batch of samsa in a courtyard kitchen off Registan Square, and honestly, I’ve never felt more alive. The thing about learning Uzbek