Music for the Eyes: The Lakai Tribe of Central Asia

Music for the Eyes blog post (27 January 2011) by Fred and Sharon Lundahl profiles the Lakai, an Uzbek-speaking tribal group in Central Asia. The report states the Lakai are the only real nomads remaining in Central Asia, with some having settled into villages in Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Afghanistan together with their closely affiliated Kungrat and Mangit groups. It states that around a thousand Lakai still migrate seasonally with their herds and complete households from the hot plains of southern Tajikistan to summer pastures in the mountains of northern Tajikistan, returning south when winter approaches. Their migration route passes through the Tajik capital of Dushanbe, where the article states police block off streets to allow the herds and nomad families to move through the city. It states the Lakai move households of tents, clothes, furniture and cooking utensils by truck rather than on pack animals, and that they keep camels, horses, goats and sheep, with a preference for goats in modern times. The article states that since the Russian Revolution the Lakai have not woven carpets but have instead become accomplished embroiderers, using several different stitches with bright primary colours of silk thread on horse covers, saddle covers, dresses, hats, wedding head-dresses, bedding covers and bags. It states that 19th-century Lakai embroidered on homespun wool or cotton dyed with madder root, while 20th-century work moved to machine-made cotton fabric, still favouring bright red backgrounds.