Around the world #🌏in83hours. Episode 5 - Uzbekistan with Chetna Ramachandra

The home of Tashkent the foreboder of the silk route, the key of the Islamic Golden age, Uzbekistan, once a soviet country is ridden with gorgeous architecture, deep-rooted culture and a bounty of the earth, yes am talking about the fruits of the land quite literally. Most of the Uzbeks are Sunni Muslims, they comprise of a wide mix of ethnic groups and cultures including in minority Russians, Tajiks, Kazakhs, Tatars and Karakalpaks. The country has an extremely high literacy rate with 99.9 percent of adults above the age of 15 being able to read and write. That’s a win for any country isn’t it. It is also one of the only countries to declare the International Women’s Day as a holiday. While soups are a popular meal, green tea is the national hot beverage consumed throughout the day unless it’s summer then it’s Ayran to the rescue. It is also home to Samarkand, the region that produces a range of dessert wines from local grape varieties. Their post-Soviet inheritance greatly emboldens their Armed forces. A very lesser known location, tourists who foray into this Central Asian country are treated to a beauty like no other. The doubly landlocked country presents architecture, nature, landscape, people and food like no other. It is artful, soulful and sometimes wistful. The music of the region is called Shashmaqam which took form in Bukhara, translates to six maqams containing six sections.