Figure 1.--Here we see the traditional dress, jewelry, and hairstyle of an Uzbek family group sitting on a beautiful woven carpet in front of their yurt, a kind of portable tent. The basic yurt design was commonly used by the nomadic peoples of Central Asia. Source: Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Prokudin-Gorskii Collection, LC-DIG-prokc-20086.

The many central Asiatic peoples (Kirghiz, Kazakhs, Uzbeks, and others) had a nomadic life style on the on the great steppe. They migrated seasonally seeking the best opportunities for food, water, and shelter. Often this mean the best grazing conditions for their livestock. Prokudin-Gorskii describes a region called Hungrstan or the Hungry Steppe. It is also called the Golodnaya Steppe and today Mirzachül Steppe. This is a vast semi-arid greassland located im what is now Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. Since the Prokudin-Gorskii images were taken, the area has experienced severe desertification, in large measure due to Soviet agricultural and environmental policies aimed at increasing agricultural production by cultivating marginal land. The Hungary/Golodnaya Steppe is a huge valley sloping from the foothills of the Turkestan Range north to Syrdarya River. Until the 20th century, isolated wells provided the only source of water. This severely limited agricultural and the primary economic use was low-intensity nomadic hearding. Some limited irrigation was inroduced in the late-Tsarist era. Prokudin-Gorskii took photographs of the nomadic hearding people. Here we see the traditional dress, jewelry, and hairstyle of an Uzbek family group sitting on a beautiful woven carpet in front of their yurt, a kind of portable tent. The basic yurt design was commonly used by the nomadic peoples of Central Asia. The Tsarist Government conquered Turkestan and other areas of central Asia in the mid-19th century. This brought them in contact with the British in India ahnd was the beginning of the Great Game as the British called it. The Tsarist Government pressed the nomadic people of thesteppe to change their lifestyle and to settle in villages, towns, and cities so they could be more controlled.

Created: 7:09 PM 4/14/2009
Last updated: 2:48 AM 4/15/2009