Postcards from Stanland
Author David Mould meets an eighteenth-century Kazakh warrior chief (batyr) in the Tian Shan Mountains.
Postcards from Stanland
Journeys in Central Asia
David H. Mould
Ohio University Press
Athens
Ohio University Press, Athens, Ohio 45701
© 2016 by Ohio University Press
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Cover image: You’re in the Polygon nuclear zone, but you wouldn’t know it.
Unless otherwise noted, photographs are by the author.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Mould, David H. (David Harley), 1949–
Postcards from Stanland : journeys in Central Asia / David H. Mould.
pages cm
Summary: “Central Asia has long stood at the crossroads of history. It was the staging ground for the armies of the Mongol Empire, for the nineteenth-century struggle between the Russian and British empires, and for the NATO campaign in Afghanistan. Today, multinationals and nations compete for the oil and gas reserves of the Caspian Sea and for control of the pipelines. Yet “Stanland” is still, to many, a terra incognita, a geographical blank. Beginning in the mid-1990s, academic and journalist David Mould’s career took him to the region on Fulbright Fellowships and contracts as a media trainer and consultant for UNESCO and USAID, among others. In Postcards from Stanland, he takes readers along with him on his encounters with the people, landscapes, and customs of the diverse countries—Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan—he came to love. He talks with teachers, students, politicians, environmental activists, bloggers, cab drivers, merchants, Peace Corps volunteers, and more. Until now, few books for a nonspecialist readership have been written on the region, and while Mould brings his own considerable expertise to bear on his account—for example, he is one of the few scholars to have conducted research on post-Soviet media in the region—the book is above all a tapestry of place and a valuable contribution to our understanding of the post-Soviet world”—Provided by publisher.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8214-2176-5 (hardback : acid-free paper) — ISBN 978-0-8214-2177-2 (paperback : acid-free paper) — ISBN 978-0-8214-4537-2 (PDF)
1. Asia, Central—Description and travel. 2. Mould, David H. (David Harley), 1949–—Travel—Asia, Central. 3. Kazakhstan—Description and travel. 4. Kyrgyzstan—Description and travel. 5. Tajikistan—Description and travel. 6. Uzbekistan—Description and travel. 7. Post-communism—Social aspects—Asia, Central. 8. Asia, Central—Social life and customs. 9. Asia, Central—Social conditions. I. Title.
DS327.8.M68 2016
958'.042—dc23
2015036332
Dedicated to my wife, Stephanie Hysmith, my lifetime traveling companion, and to the late Hubert Wilhelm, who taught me to see the world around me in new ways
Contents
TWO. Sacred Mountain and Silly Borders
THREE. How Do You Say “Rump Roast”?
FOUR. Kasha, Honor, Dignity, and Revolution
FIVE. On and Off the Silk Road
SIX. To Be a Kazakh Is to Be “Brave and Free”
EIGHT. The President’s Dream City
TWELVE. The Seven Lessons from Stanland
Illustrations
Figures
Frontispiece: David Mould meets an eighteenth-century Kazakh warrior chief (batyr)
1.1. “New Yorkistan,” by Maira Kalman and Rick Meyerowitz
3.2. Kyrgyz komuz player at Osh bazaar, Bishkek
3.3. Consumer electronics aisle at Osh bazaar
3.4. Decanting cooking oil into soda bottles at Osh bazaar