The most beautiful women in the world - Kazakhstan

The most beautiful women in the world - Kazakhstan
My holiday is drawing to an close in Kazakhstan and I leave with a sense of completion and a greater understanding of the Silk Road (Route) and the people of this hospitable land. We are having a big party and picnic this afternoon in the foothills of the Tienshans to celebrate.

Yesterday, I went for a stroll through Arbat with my wife. It was 35oC and the snow capped Tienshan mountains ringed the southern horizon. Buskers were singing, artists displaying hundreds of their paintings, and people promenading with joy. Ice cream and drink sellers were doing a roaring trade. The view of the snow somehow cooled my mind. Almaty must be one of the most beautiful cities in the world. In my biased opinion, Almaty has the most beautiful women in the world. I have been saying that for ten years now and yesterday, Friday 13 July, Black Friday, was a lucky day for me. The temperature and the bright blue sky, encouraged everyone to wear their briefest and most comfortable clothing. Men strolling without shirts drinking beer, women enjoying showing their beauty and gorgeous bodies that the Maker bestowed in abundance. I try to be detached and look at this wonder as a result of the Silk Route keeping the Kazakhstani people from in-breeding. Some countries are penalised for their geographic location such as Afghanistan and Iraq, others such as Kazakhstan are rewarded by their geography. I quote a noted woman writer on Kazakhstan, Dagmar Schreiber from her book Exploring Kazakhstan. She refers to Kazakhstan as having 126 different nationalities.

“ Both the migration movements and conquest campaigns in which the history of Central Asia is so rich, and wheeling and dealing along the Silk Route have lead to a situation, already in place at the time of Soviet power was established, in which the Kazakh territory was already home to a kaleidoscopic range of peoples; Kazakhs, Uzbeks,Turkmens, Kyrgyz, Persians, Chinese, Uygur, Dungan,Russians, Ukranians, tartars and many others already dwelt here, when Stalin started his deportation campaign. Forced migration following the outbreak the second World War caused the influ of over a million Koreans, Germans, Chechans, Ingush, Poles, Crimea tartars, Turks, Greeks and other nationalities sent across the Urals……
It is thus that Kazakhstan today represents a true melting pot of nations…. "
The 1999 census showed that the population is 15 Million, 52% Kazakhs, 31 % Russian, 4 % Ukranians, with Germans and Tartars making up 2 %. The remaining 9% consists of the 121 other nationalities.

What has this got to do with the abnormally high percentage of beautiful women ? With such a strong gene pool from the strongest and fittest surviving 90 years of famine, war, forced migration and collectivisation, you have a country where inter-marriage was common, and coincidentally the outcome is a race of very beautiful women. I’ll get labelled sexist but I make similar bold statements about the mountains, the landscape and culture, and in the past, poverty in this country..

SOME REFLECTION AND CONNECTIONS

Having now visited all places mentioned below and connected the road from Calcutta (Kolkotta) through Benares, Bodgaya, Delhi. Agra. Amritsar, Lahore, Taxilla, Peshawar, Kabul, Bamiyan, Herat, Balkh, Termez, Samakand, Tashkent, Shymkent, Turkestan, Ak Su, Taraz, Talass, Tokmak, Bishkek, Issyk Kul, Naryn, Kara Ssuu through to the Chinese border at Torugat, following fairly much the route and, places made famous by Hsuan Tsan the Chinese Buddhist Monk who travelled this way on his marathon journeys from 627 -643 AD.

I had earlier travelled and connected the above route from Herat to Meshad, Bukhara, and from Tashkent the more southern route through Khokand, Feghana, Andijan, Osh to Kashgar, The other from Kabul, through the Khyber Pass to Gilgit and Karakoram pass into China, or the more difficult one from Kabul to Faizabad, Ishkashim, cross the Amu Darya to Khorog, Murghab, and over the 4,655 metre pass of the Pamirs, down to Lake Karakul at 3,914 metre, and then into China.

It was also a pleasure on this trip to connect the route from Taskkent, Shymkent, Turkestan and to discover that the road from Turkestan to Kyzl Orda, where I spent time in 1997, ‘is a strategic place where the caravan roads from Tashkent, Bukhara and Khiva along Atbasar to Western Sberia and over Torgay to Troizk and Orenberg came together’. (Exploring Kazakhstan, Dagmar Schreiber, Caspian Publishing House, Almaty 2006)

Having crossed the Pamirs, Tienshan, Karakoram, Himalaya, Pir Panjal, Dhaula Dhar mountain ranges and crossed and recrossed countless times the great rivers of Syr Daria (Jaxartes), Amu Daris (Oxus),and the Zevershan, Ili, Chu, Ganges, Brahmaputra, Megna, the Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi, Sutlej, Beas, Indus ( the rivers of the Punjab) and camped by Lakes Issyk Kul, Karakul, Dal, Kagar and the Aral Sea, it helps somewhat to understand the hardship and deprivations the early conquerors, explorers, pilgrims and traders endured. Alexander the Great lost over 30,000 men on a surprise winter crossing of the Hindu Kush by the Khawak Pass. In summer the ascent from the Panjsher Valley is a grind, but to foot soldiers carrying armour it is inconceivable a mighty army crossed this pass in winter. Similarly, the Khardun La at over 18,200 feet in Ladakh,, a salt route from Lahdak in India to Tibet is a daunting challenge by car today, but a crossing by mule, horse or on foot makes the mind boggle.

When I worked in Pakistan, Afghanistan and India, I was fascinated by the mountain river systems. With partition, these mighty rivers had international boundaries pushed on them. Punjab - the land of five rivers were originally referred to as the Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi, Sutlej and Beas, but with partition, the Beas flows only in India, so to keep the name Punjab correct, Pakistan added a fifth river to replace the Beas, the Indus.

Many trips I have set out on, have been to connect ranges, rivers, passes and valleys that don’t quite make sense on the map. I spent many months in a place named Sidhbari, under the Daula Dhar mountains and close to Dharamsala. Somehow, the town down the road, Kangra, was the most fascinating as it appears on many ancient maps and later became an important feeder to the Silk Road and, some centuries on, to players in the Great Game.,

From Kangra. in 2004, I was able to connect the Kangra valley, with the Kullu, Lahaul and Spiti valleys.

The Dhaular Dhar and the magnificent Pir Panjal, both
ranges are the two lesser ranges either protecting, or enticing you to the greater Himalayas

Crossing the two great passes crossed by Alexander Gardiner and Moorcroft, the Kunzum La and the Rohtang La and seeing the mighty Himalayas and the majestic Pir Panjal was inspiring and to note that virtually all the people are of Tibetan stock, and they have preserved the Tibetan way of life remarkably well.

So during the last 30 years, one by one these famous places trod by Alexander the Great, Hsuan Tsang,Timur (Tamerlane) Chengis Khan, Admiral Raisa Ali (the 16th century Turkish Admiral, Marco Polo, and later all those great, and many notorious players in the Great Game, has been a fascinating experience. My next Silk Route trip is to China to make some final connecting journeys there.

Thanks to my guides and brothers in law, Erlan and Suin, who took me to Turkestan and brought the Kazakh culture alive.