Lyab-i Hauz

Hello everyone!✌

First day◉‿◉

Now, you will take information about Lyab-i Hauz which situated in Bukhara. 

                      Lyab-i Hauz

And yet those ponds of Bukhara are wonderfully beautiful. In the evening, after the muezzin has sounded from the minaret the call to prayer, the men of the city gather around the ponds, which are bordered by tall, silver poplars and magnificent black elms, to enjoy a period of ease and leisure. Carpets are spread, the ever burning chilim is passed from mouth to mouth, the samovar steams away, and lightfooted boys hand round the shallow bowls of green tea. Here the meddahs, or story-tellers, the musicians and the dancing boys assemble to display their craft. And perhaps a conjuror or a juggler comes, performing the most amazing and incredible feats of skill. An Indian snake charmer joins the throng and sets his poisonous snakes to dance, while over all reigns the peace of a Bukharan evening. No loud speech breaks the spell; items of scandal and the news of the day are exchanged in discreet whispers. So it was centuries ago in Bukhara; so it is today. There are things which not even the Soviets can alter 

The pool and the chaihana of the Lyab-i-Hauz is the modern centre of traditional Uzbekistan. A place where the very soul of Central Asia lies mirrored in a piala of steaming green tea or in the reflected symmetry of a resplendent portal, where cloudy eyed white-beards contemplate the march of time and take shelter from a land in transition.

The chaikhana is not only a way of life in Central Asia, it is also an escape and an antidote to life in Central Asia. It is the essential lubricant to friendship, trade and travel. Its professionals are a hard core of regular nine to fivers, equipped with personal teapots, pialas and backgammon sets and brandishing gleaming arrays of heroic Soviet medals. Many took part in the World War II and are a wonderful source of local oral history. In few places does the name Churchill elicit such mad affection. Sadly, in recent years the locals have largely been transplanted by tourists and the wooden tea-beds replaced with plastic seats. In 2010 the entire area was overhauled and the chaikhanas rebuilt.

During the early years of Soviet transformation red posters adorned the walls of the Lyab-i-Hauz chaikhana, one of a series of Red Chaikhanas which Anna Louise Strong noticed on her 1932 trip to Central Asia, wondering with some concern whether it was possible "that the East may lose its leisure, and drink its tea with one lump or two of propaganda?"

  This is my coursemates and our teacher💋

Go'zal and Mehrangiz gave information about Lyab-i Hauz👏

The legend of Lyabi-Hauz👀

Lyabi-Hauz complex is associated with a romantic legend. Nadir Divan-Begi, the minister of the Bukhara Emir had decided to get married. He gave his bride only earings as a wedding present which obviously offended her. She was fully aware that her husband was born into a wealthy family and could easily afford a more generous present. But the groom kept silent without saying anything.

In few years time he had built a mosque, madrasah and a number of other constructions. His wife became indignant and told him that it was unfair to spend such huge amounts of money on the construction whilst giving her such a modest wedding present - she obviously hadn't forgotten her wedding slight. Her husband responded: "My dear, look in your jewelry box". When she opened the box she could see only one earring, and thought that she was robbed, when Nadir Divan-Begi explained to her that all the constructions he had built was constructed with the price of this one earring, haven't realized the value of my present, please enjoy something that was built thanks to this earring", he said to his wife. Her face must have been a picture then.In the tea-houses of the Lyab-i-Khauz, where the lanes opened on a pool ringed with medresehs - religious schools - an immemorial conclave of old men lolled on wooden divans as if nothing had ever changed. Their heads were knotted in pale blue turbans or piled with sheepskin hats. Beards dribbled from their chins like fine wire. They sat at ease cross-legged, or dangled a hedonistic limb over the divan's edge, while the proprietors shuffled amiably between them, pouring out green tea from cracked pots. A gentle euphoria was in the air. Nothing sounded but the clink of china and a genial murmur of conspiracy. A breeze blew ripples over the water. Around them the religious schools looped in high gateways and blind arcades, in whose spandrels flew faience phoenixes. Here and there a facade cast a band of Koranic script into the sky, and under nearby plane trees a statue of Khodja Nasreddin, the wise fool of Sufi legend, rode his mad-faced mule.

The Lost Heart of Asia by Colin Thubron

Music time with old-ladies😅

I bought such beautiful

 hair-catcher from there😎

The Kukeldash Madrassah, lying to the north of the hauz, pre-dates all three of Nadir Divan Beghi's constructions, having been built in the late 1560s by the Kulbaba Kulkedash (foster brother) of Abdulla Khan II. This is the largest in Central Asia (60 by 80 metres) and the religious magnet that spurred the construction of the ensemble. Its construction is linked to the general and statesman Kulbaba Kukeldash who sponsored many civic projects during the rule of Abdullah Khan II. Its heavy brick facade conceals some elegant interior tilework and complicated vaulting systems. The madrassa's most famous student was the 20th-century writer Sadiriddin Aini.

During the Soviet period the madrassa was used for a variety of purposes, including as a hotel and a Soviet-era women's centre, a deliberate slight, one would assume, to those who believed the madrassa to be the realm of men. The Kulkedash Madrassa has now been restored to its original condition, if not its original function, and you can step inside the cool interior to admire the vaulted ceilings, colourful tilework and, of course, the numerous hujras. It houses today two souvenir shops.

This is the room of Sadriddin Ayniy👇

Then, we came back our house. I hope our next trip will be also funny:)

The end.