Silk, ikat, and ceramics in the lush valley between Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan — Central Asia's most fertile enclave
Fergana is a city of 400,000 in the Fergana Valley, a densely populated and agriculturally productive lowland basin surrounded by high mountains on three sides and shared between Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan — one of the most complex geopolitical borders in Central Asia. The city is the modern commercial centre of the valley and the base for visiting the region's craft centres: Rishtan (40km west, renowned for blue-green glazed ceramics made with local mineral pigments since the 12th century), Margilan (20km northwest, the silk-weaving capital of Uzbekistan where the entire ikat dye…
The Fergana Valley was the heart of the ancient kingdom of Dayuan (Ferghana in Chinese), famous in Chinese records from the 2nd century BC for the 'Heavenly Horses' (Fergana horses, prized by the Han Dynasty for military use and the reason for the earliest Chinese diplomatic mission to Central Asia). The valley was part of the Silk Road's primary overland corridor and was incorporated into the Kokand Khanate (1709–1876) before Russian conquest; Kokand's silk and textile industries were among the most sophisticated in Central Asia. The Soviet nationalities policy drew the valley's borders to p…