Official Name: Republic of Uzbekistan.
Capital: Tashkent.
National Holiday: September 1St 1991, Independence Day from Russia
Government type: Republic.
Administrative Division: 12 provinces.
President: Islam Karimov.
Location: Central Asia
Territory Size: 447, 400 Square Kilometers
Border Countries: Uzbekistan shares borders with Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan.
Population: 27,606,007 habitants (July 2009 est.)
Ethnic Group(s): Uzbek 80%, Russian 5.5%, Tajik 5%, Kazakh 3%, Karakalpak 2.5%, Tatar 1.5%, other 2.5%
Religion(s): Muslim 88% (mostly Sunnis), Eastern Orthodox 9%, other 3%
Language(s): Uzbek 74.3%, Russian 14.2%, Tajik 4.4%, and other 7.1%
Economy
Natural Resources: natural gas, petroleum, coal, gold, uranium, silver, copper, lead and zinc, tungsten, molybdenum, among others.
Industry: textiles, food processing, machine building, metallurgy, gold, petroleum, natural gas, and chemicals
Agriculture: cotton, vegetables, fruits, grain; livestock
Oil Production: 83,820 Barrels a day.
Oil Exports: 6,104 Barrels a day.
Natural Gas Production: 67.6 billion cubic meters.
Natural Gas Exports: 15 billion cubic meters.
Know a Little bit about Uzbekistan
This land was conquered by Russia in the 19th Century. During the Bolshevik revolution, they gather a resistance, but it was suppressed and the red army established a social republic in 1924. The soviets used their territory to the intensive production of cotton and grain, which led to intensive use of agrochemicals and left a serious poisoning land issue and depletion of water.
Since independence, the governments has applied polices to develop the mineral and petroleum reserves to change their agricultural economy. Nevertheless, their concerns also includes terrorism by Islamic militants, economic stagnation, and the curtailment of human rights and democratization.
Culture and Traditions
The Uzbek people is well-known for its songs. Koshuk - household song with a small diapason melody, covering one or two rows of the poetic text. The dancing character of a melody of this genre provides their performance in support of comic dances. "Lapar" is a dialogue-song. In some areas the term - lapar is applied to wedding songs "Ulan" (which is performed as a dialogue of man and women). Genre "yalla" includes two kinds of songs: a melody of a narrow range, and solo simultaneously with dance. National and professional poems of the poets of East are used as the texts for the songs. The special place in the Uzbek musical heritage occupy "dastans" (epic legends with lyric-heroic content). Also "Makoms"- are the basic classical fund of professional music of oral tradition.
The dances of uzbeks distinguish softness, smoothness and expressiveness of movements, easy sliding step, original movements on a place and on a circle.
The development of national painting began many centuries ago. At 16-17 centuries art of the manuscript and binding in Bukhara and some other urban centers has achieved significant success. The decorating of manuscript included refined calligraphy, performance by water paints and thin ornaments on fields. In Samarkand and especially in Bukhara the Central Asian school of a miniature has achieved a great success and were developed many different style directions. One of them, for example is connected with traditions of Behzod, which characterized with its gentle style of writing the letter and architectural elements.
Applied art of Uzbeks has a wealth of variety when it comes to style, materials and ornamentation. Silk, ceramics and cotton weaving, stone and wood carving, metal engraving, leather stamping, calligraphy and miniature painting are some genres passed down from ancient times. Back in the past, each region had its own cultural and ethnic traditions the unique features of which were established by local guilds that have strengthened these characteristics through their art.
Uzbek craftsmen nowadays still practice ancient jewellery making techniques for cutting gemstones, grain filigree, granular work, engraving and enamelling, also they are trying to take into account fashion demands and styles.
Embroidery is one of the most popular trends of applied arts in Uzbekistan. Every city of Uzbekistan has its own unique features such as ornamentation, composition, colour range and stitching. The finest kind of embroidery, gold embroidery is still practised in Bukhara.
The art of carpet weaving is also a very ancient form of art throughout Asia and the East, and nowadays it can be found in some of the cities of Uzbekistan today. The art of wood carving is used and adapted in modern interior design. Carved and painted tables, stools, caskets, pencil boxes and bookstands are popular pieces of furniture among local people and tourists. The art of Miniature painting and calligraphy has been revived again in its traditional form as well as some modern variants. For example miniatures stamped on leather, painted on paper miniatures, small lacquered boxes, framed pictures, pencil boxes and many other ideas skilfully painted by masters can be found in Uzbekistan.