Touring through both cityscapes and rural areas of contemporary Uzbekistan, one cannot ignore the vast and dramatic changes that have taken place in recent years. For those who have been here before or who long know how development and change take, some changes are more surprising (and welcome) than others. Even for those of us who are first timers to this historically variegated cultural space, there is an obvious newness to certain aspects of city life in particular–electric lawn mowers, new road construction to both accommodate and facilitate better traffic flows, modern and traditional public art, botanical and garden spaces for gathering, and more.
While recognizing this and reading about how the tourism industry has been primed by the government leadership, it is no surprise to see then that public changes are tied to the growing tourism industry and specifically the establishment of the new “Silk Road” university and its partnerships with international states or institutions like the Confucian Institute. In reading about the news and curriculum of this new institute and university, there were several references to what is being called the “uchinchi renessans” or “third Renaissance.” While much is not found among English sources, there are various articles and news items about it in both the Uzbek press and government ministries for public and tourism offices. In fact, one notes that there was an official meeting in May of 2021 about establishing such a committee or department on this third Uzbek Renaissance. One text reads:
“Republican scientific and theoretical conference on the theme of creating the third Renaissance Foundation was held at the Academy of MIA of the Republic of Uzbekistan. It was attended by the professors of the University of world economy and diplomacy Shuhrat Gayibnazarov with the lectures “The scientific basis of the foundation of the third Eastern Renaissance” and Rahman Farmonov “Historical experience and development, the third Renaissance”.”
The question for us as observers will be: to what extent will this be a rebirth, and to what extent will it be something completely new and distinct–as change in some places is truly hard to come by.
AJE