Silk and Spice Festival – Bukhara

We spent a wonderful weekend in Bukhara for the annual Silk and Spice festival. We flew in on Thursday evening and got to see some of the sights at night before it got really crowded with tourists. I spent Friday training about 60 school psychologists from Bukhara and Navoi regions.

Me and Zulfiya, my translator, with the school director and a few school psychologists from the training.

Then the real fun came on Saturday when we toured the Silk and Spice festival. We saw vendors from all over Uzbekistan, as well as people from Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, and Afghanistan. Most of the vendors were selling the obvious, spices and various silk fabrics, but here were also many vendors with jewelry. Not to mention all the regular aristans of Bukhara such as the masters of silk embroidery known as Suzani, knife and scissors makers, silk carpets, and furs.