Monday again.
On Saturday I went to the Turkmenistan History Museum. As it is with every goverment building, this edifice is a gigantic square building with huge columns and the enitre wall made of marble. As a foreigner, I had to pay a huge sum for the ticket ; USD 10.00. The locals pay only Manat 2,000 (USD 0.10). Yep you read that right, foreigners pay one hundred times more to get into the museum.
The museum had three floors. One of the worker showed me the way to the 1st hall. The first hall is basically about the modern history of Turkmenistan post 1991 when the current president declared inpendence from the Soviet Union. There were photos and boards showing the various achievements over the past 15 years. One hilarious photo that should not be missed is the Man himself wearing an airforce uniform. The only problem was it showed his face but it quite apparent that it the photo was a fake. Someone had done a very bad job pasting the Man's face on top of the uniform. I wish I could have taken a photo.
2nd floor contained the archeological exhhibits which I think is the most interesting area of the museum. I learnt that the areas in Turkeministan have been occupied in ancient times since 3000 B.C. (5000 years ago). There were several beautiful and elaborate ivory carvings. Again I could not take photos even furtively as the attendant followed me everywhere. Other than watching me, the pretty attendant was not much help as she could not speak English.
The rest of the 2nd floor consisted of ethnographic exhibits. The exhibits were however not quite ethnically diverse as they showed overwhelmingly Turkmen artifacts leaving out the 15 percent of the population of Uzbeks and Russian.
The 3rd floor is an exhibit of the Turkem contribution in the Patrotic war. The exhibits were entirely in Turkmen and Russian language. I had no idea what it was all about.
What was obvious to me is a large part of the Turkmenistan history has been left out, namely the 110 years subjugation by the Russian empire. I guess this is not something that the goverment want to showcase.
I can't upload photos to blogspot - not sure what is the reason.
1 comment:
maybe she's pretending not to understand english. perhaps she's a spy shadowing you thinking that you're one yourself! hmmm... i must've watched too many spy movies or read too many espionage books.
but nevertheless can try asking her out on a date!
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