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A Carpet Ride to Khiva - Chris Aslan

Name: A Carpet Ride to Khiva - Chris Aslan
Start: 2025-08-14T20:00:00+11:00
End: 2025-08-14T20:00:00+11:00
Location: Lido Cinemas - Cinema 1

About

In this lecture, Chris Aslan tells his own story of working with UNESCO to establish a silk carpet workshop in the desert oasis of Khiva, Uzbekistan - the most homogenous example of Islamic architecture in the world. His work took him to the bazaars of Afghanistan to purchase natural dyes, and to the great libraries and museums of Europe to track down 15th century manuscripts to revive carpet designs from their illuminations. He also saw the lives of women transformed and became the largest private employer in town.

Chris Aslan grew up in Turkey and in war-torn Beirut. He lived in Kiva until being required to leave as part of an anti-Western purge and subsequently wrote A Carpet Ride to Khiva and more recently Unravelling the Silk Road. In the Pamirs mountains of Tajikistan he trained yak herders to comb their yaks for their cashmere-like down and in Kyrgyzstan established a wood carving workshop.