ANCIENT OBJECTS REPRESENT OUR HISTORY
We, with great proud, consider our country to be "Paradise”, "God blessed country”. Why? Since this place is the one where we were born and occupied by our ancestors who inherited historic national cultural and intellectual heritage, in addition, we are living here in safe with our lovely family; hence we adore this unordinary marvelous place.
Public craftsmanship is prime example of our ancestor’s precious cultural heritage. Habitants of Karakalpakistan were occupied with fishing, livestock and farming, especially, those who lived near the river. Moreover, if you pay attention to their black national tents, shoes made of thick felt, you witness that they were brilliant at handcraftsmanship. They normally inhabited moving from field to field where there is a vast quantity of natural plants and grasses. Maybe, owing to that necessity, those black tents were constructed. Black tents "Utov” were covered with thick felt in order to keep the tent warm in the winters and cool in the summers. Even wooden lattice which support the black tents were decorated by handicraftsmen delicately. Tassels those were hang on internal doors of the black tents represent that the women of those times were master seamstresses having delicate style and taste. Decorating tents with various embroidery objects was immensely popular in those days.
In addition, thick felt those put up inside the black tents had their origin as well as shape and were ordinarily wavy. Being very historic, they required thick felt makers to possess supreme competence to make those national rugs and carpets.
Moreover, ancient artefacts found in our lands reveal that craftsmanship played a great role in their lives. Holding nation education honor, Shavkat Charshamov, who lives in "Urta qala” of our district and teaches pupils on the subject of geography, with his students who are fond of history, archeology and ethnography established primary school museum which dedicated to study a certain region's culture and economy firstly at primary school number 16 later at school number 12. He tried to find the source of over 100 discoveries together with supporting them with solid historic evidences and attained many successes. The museum which was founded by Shavkat Charshamov was awarded with the second position in the contest which is named "Uzingdan Urgulay Vatan” ("My lovely country”). There are domestic objects, clothes, various jewelries, hunting items and examples of variety of drawings (shown on the photo) among the discoveries in the museum.
Whichever objects you observe, you feel that the artists of those objects had classy taste and high intelligence.
Tamara Hudayberginova, who worked as a teacher at school number 33 about 15 years ago, was the principal of extracurricular courses which were dedicated to study a certain region's culture and economy and she managed to collect more than 100 historic craft objects. Majority of those discoveries include domestic objects, clothes and various jewelries.
Preserving those historic objects which are the prime examples of our ancestors’ craftsmanship and advancing this field (craftsmanship) are of prime concern to us and our country, thanks for independence. It has been taking actions to preserve and collect historic national cultural and intellectual heritage.
Taking this purpose into consideration, it has been established the national association named "Khunarmand” ("Handicraft”) to advance national handcraftsmanship and has been creating new talents together with gathering fans of this sphere. As a result, developing family business and recruiting women and youngsters are becoming common phenomenon.

Aygul RAJAPOVA.
Translated from Uzbek into English by Yusupov Ulugbek.

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