Museum of Applied Arts of the Peoples of Central Asia.

Museum of Applied Arts of the Peoples of Central Asia.

Trouvaille! Museum of Applied Arts of the Peoples of Central Asia.

During the city tour around Bishkek city, we can visit a small exhibition on decorative-applied arts of the peoples of Central Asia, located inside “Raritet” bookstore.

The museum has two halls. The ethnographic hall is dedicated to the cultures living in the territory of Kyrgyzstan, when the archaeological hall presents materials of monuments of various historical epochs.

In the ethnographic hall:

Russian culture is represented by Russian settlers’ belongings from the middle of the 19th century. The hall exhibits crosses, icons (XVII – XIX – early XX century), found in the city of Karakol. You can see the true sandals of Russian settlers.

You can view kitchen accessories of both Russian and Kyrgyz culture, such as, tools for baking “printed” gingerbread or tool for turning over large pieces of meat, also Tula and Moscow samovars decorated by local craftsmen in oriental (Kyrgyz / Uzbek) style.

There are boards with a various Kyrgyz, Uzbek, Kazakh and Turkmen accessories, where you can look at the difference of designs. Jewelry was believed to be a strong talisman against evil spirits and in order to protect the bride, leaving for husband’s house, she should have worn 12 kilograms of jewelry. Accessories were made of silver and coral, but interestingly, in the earrings one can see the side view of Nicholas II. For the manufacture of pendants, coins were used; somewhere they remained in the true form, somewhere in a flattened form with some new patterns.

It will be also interesting to look at the collection of weapons: daggers, sabers, guns. In the hall are also shown large objects of household items: clothes, chests and saddles.

In the archaeological hall:

There are exhibits of the Bronze Age: stone axes and ceramic tableware. Archaeological findings: spearheads, battle bracelets. Tableware of Andronovsky period is made before the invention of the potter’s wheel.

The tools of primitive man’s (Neanderthals) work: the remains of tandyrs (tandoor/stove), furnaces with ornaments; remnants of ceramic pipes from metallurgical furnaces of the Middle Ages; jugs, shards of dishes with the Star of David or Chinese characters.

There is also an interesting collection of medieval coins (Türges, Fergana, Bukhara, Karakhanid, Chinese), as well as Chinese, Persian mirrors of the 7th century.

Please, join us and see it with your own eyes!
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