Khotan’s main tourist attraction
is its Sunday bazaar. The city of Kashgar in Xinjiang has for centuries
laid claim to the region’s most famous Sunday bazaar, drawing buyers
and sellers from all over Central Asia. Just last year, however, the Kashgar
bazaar was tidied up and housed in a permanent structure – obviously
much nicer for the weekly vendors but definitely cutting way, way down
on the scale of exoticism. Our guidebook noted that the Khotan bazaar,
so far completely unreconstructed, was the last place to get a real feel
(and smell) of what Kashgar used to be.
Stepping through the main
entrance, we immediately felt like we had stepped back in time. The
people, the goods for sale, the donkey carts barreling by with their
drivers yelling “Posh! Posh!” (“Get out of the way!”)
was like standing at the crossroads of international commerce in,
say, the 16th century. |
![](../../Images/Xinjiang_2004/06_Khotan_Bazaar/BazaarEntrance.jpg) |
The girls, particularly Sami, found the main
lanes overwhelming. After a few minutes we ducked into a side path that
seemed much quieter. Gul explained that even this area would normally
be crowded, but this being prime harvest time for cotton and wheat, many
people were out in their fields.
This area of the bazaar was reserved for homebuilding items – yes,
like a Home Depot. Everything from – literally – pillar to
post was for sale here.
Although this area was quiet, it wasn’t terribly interesting, so
we kept wandering until we turned a corner into the wool market.
The stacks of raw wool yarn looked cool at first:
But then the colors caught
our eye, and finally, we found the pots of dye at the end of the rainbow! |
![](../../Images/Xinjiang_2004/06_Khotan_Bazaar/colored_wool.jpg) |
Sami wanted to buy some of the dye powder, but since the stuff is all
probably super-toxic (!) we settled for watching the vendors mix up custom
colors for their customers.
A little green, a little blue, a little red, all wrapped up in a twist
of paper and handed to one veiled woman after another.
Further down the lane, an
old man approached Tom to shake his hand…and shook, and shook,
and then started talking to him, shaking all the while! With Gul helping
the translation along, he asked where we were from, how old Tom was,
and many other questions. Valiantly hanging on even as a crowd gathered
to watch and listen, Tom patiently answered. The first meeting of
the Uighur-American Friendship Society is now in session! |
![](../../Images/Xinjiang_2004/06_Khotan_Bazaar/Handshake.jpg) |
We were in the market for some Uighur hats, and soon found an entire
street dedicated to them:
Tom found a big, black lambs’-wool Cossack-style hat (“Just
remember they killed your ancestors”), and Miranda fell in love
with a furry, warm number. Sami looked good in everything, but held off
on a purchase for now.
One vendor draped Tom with
a mink scarf. We thought he was trying tell Tom he needed to accessorize
more, but actually he wanted to get him to by it for ME – but
a Muslim man would never dream of draping a scarf over another
man’s wife! |
![](../../Images/Xinjiang_2004/06_Khotan_Bazaar/TomMink.jpg) |
![](../../Images/Xinjiang_2004/06_Khotan_Bazaar/silk1.jpg) |
The interior lanes were
reserved for carpets and shimmering silks.
We did buy a length of polyester Atlas
silk – the real thing would have cost about US $300, but this
synthetic piece was only about $10. |
![](../../Images/Xinjiang_2004/06_Khotan_Bazaar/silk2.jpg) |
A carpet vendor had an
ingenious solution for his child while he was busy working!
The girls needed a nap at this point
too -- shopping, 16th-century style -- is tiring! |
![](../../Images/Xinjiang_2004/06_Khotan_Bazaar/babysleeping.jpg) |
But no rest for us grown-ups! 'Cause we had one more thing on our shopping
list: a camel!
|