Termez
Termez has played the role of political and
cultural center, switching roles, religions, allegiances and even
locations with the consummate ease of a circus performer. Gather
its faded stars less than one roof and sit back and enjoy as Buddhist
monks discuss philosophy with Mongol invaders, Greek garrison guards
ogle Soviet tanks and Bactrian Silk Road traders talk shop with
modern Afghan entrepreneurs. Bridges become borders, which become
bridges again, heartlands fade to backwaters and cosmopolitan Silk
Road junctions shrivel into a forgotten corner of a neglected republic.For
the last 80 years Termez has been one of the furthest and most sensitively
sealed outpost of the Soviet empire, enforcing an unnatural religious
cutoff point between Islam and atheism. The modern traveler who
comes to taste the sheer variety of its of excitement that comes
from such proximity to the Oxus and Afghan border can rest assured
that he is one of the first.
|
