Registan

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We went back to the Registan. One of the madrasa’s had a big turquoise dome on the left side. That is a mosque. We weren’t able to see the inside the first time we went because there is a dress code. So we went back and the inside was really beautifully decorated. The rooms next to the mosque had exhibits on the history of education in Samarkand. The city has an ancient papermaking tradition that helped facilitate high rates of literacy and their paper was exported all over the world. Yesterday evening we went back for a performance in the courtyard of the madrasa with tigers on the facade. We overheard the music the other night so we asked one of the guards about it. It was very hard to find where to buy tickets for it, and the person at the main ticket counter didn’t understand what we were asking about. So we found someone who worked at a concession stand and they called a couple people and we waited, and eventually a guy walked over with our two tickets. There were only about 15 people in the audience and it was a little play about a young couple getting married. So they showcased a lot of the singing, dancing, and wedding traditions of Uzbek culture. Towards the end they had a celebratory dance and invited members of the audience, including me and Buster, to come dance. As the performance was pretty much over they had reopened the courtyard to the public and there were a lot more people. So our dancing is definitely going to be memorialized in a lot of people’s vacation photos.

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