One of the smaller provinces in the vast country of Kazakhstan is the South Kazakhstan Province. It borders Uzbekistan with only about 160km to the Uzbek capital of Tashkent. Here we see a stark contrast with the modernity of Astana and European city life of Almaty.
We started off from Shymkent, the capital of South Kazakhstan. This region is exceptionally interesting as one gets to see Kazakhstan's most native and undisturbed surroundings. Probably the oldest region of the country, it contains a high number of national monuments, and the people are predominantly Kazakhs (as opposed to a mix of Russians in Almaty) with a sizeable percentage of Uzbeks. A trip to Kazakhstan would not be complete without a visit to the South and an experience of this colourful tapestry of people and cultures.
The countryside is surprisingly green, with goats, cows, horses and camels grazing freely on the grassland. Here we get a sense of the people's nomadic past as we see shephards being led by their flocks in the vast countryside. The Western concept of farms and fences isn't anywhere to be seen here.
We visited a museum that displays old manuscripts and musical instruments, ruins of an ancient city at Otrar (an UNESCO site that is still in the works) as well as numerous Islamic monuments. As I seem to be quickly rising up the ranks as a celebrity in Kazakhstan (yeah right), I was ceremoniously invited to leave an autograph in each of these places. The largest monument in the region is at Turkestan, The Mausoleum of Khawaja Ahmed Yasawi, which I'll write about on a separate post.
Official site - http://en.ontustik.gov.kz/gw/akim-biografy
Otrar - http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/otrar
南哈薩克省是浩瀚的哈薩克一個比較細小的省份，與烏茲別克接壤，距離烏茲別克首都Tashkent 只有大概一百六十公里。在這裏，你可以看到哈薩克南部與時髦的Astana 及歐化的Almaty 的巨大對比。
旅程從南哈薩克省的首府Shymkent 開始。哈薩克南部的異常有趣都是源於這個地區最本土的風情以及完全未被污染的自然環境。與較多俄羅斯人聚居的Almaty 不同，這裏的社區主要由哈薩克人組成，而烏茲別克人亦佔有一定的部份。由於南哈薩克省擁有很多的歷史遺跡，這裏得有可能是哈薩克最古老的區域。哈薩克南部多姿多彩的文化與人民特色絶對是哈薩克體驗裏不可或缺的一部份。
哈薩克人是遊牧民族，這裏隨處可見一群一群的牛、羊、馬，甚至駱駝在嫩綠的草原上奔跑，這正正就印證了從前牧羊人在這片廣闊的大地上放牧為生的古老故事，與我們現在在歐州所見到在欄柵內的畜牧截然不同。
在南哈薩克省我們還到訪了一所展出了許多古文手稿及樂器的博物館，Otrar 古城的遺址 (聯合國教科文組織UNESCO 在那裏的挖掘考古工作仍在進行中)，以及許多其他的歷史遺跡。由於這些地方都没有太多的外國遊客到訪，在每個地方我都被正式邀請參加簽名及拍照的儀式。其中最大的遺址 The Mausoleum of Khawaja Ahmed Yasawi 位於Turkestan，稍後我將會在這裏作詳細介紹。
官方網頁﹕http://en.ontustik.gov.kz/gw/akim-biografy
Otrar﹕http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/otrar
Special thanks to:
Nurzhan Abdymomunov, Consul-General of Kazakhstan to Hong Kong
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