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 CULTURE

Intercultural Dialogue in Central Asia

The Project aims to promote cultural pluralism and intercultural dialogue, including interreligious dialogue in Central Asia. It also seeks to encourage intercultural cooperation among especially those countries which are in a period of transition or post-conflict situation with a view to strengthening social cohesion, solidarity and peace in the region.

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© Unesco

Focusing on Central Asia where reciprocal influences have played an important role, the project brings to light elements which illustrate the concept of "common heritage and plural identity" that emerged during the UNESCO former project "Integral Study of the Silk Roads: Roads of Dialogue"(1988-1997). In this regard, some of the Silk Roads activities that have long-term implications and could have produce multiplier effects have been extended in the present project.

  • Interreligious Dialogue


  • intercultural dialogue
    Central Asia


    Documents

    Documents Literatures of Central Asia
    This issue of World Literature today gathers essays, poems, short stories and plays from the Central Asian republics of Azerbaijan, Kazakstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. Each republic is presented separately with an introduction brushing a picture of its cultural heritage, the types of works produced during the Soviet era, and the consequences of glasnost and perestroika on literary creation. Besides highlighting the contributions of major literary figures from Central Asia, this review's most recent pieces provide a rare insight into the anxieties and concerns of a younger generation of writers.
    Documents Central Asian Earth - Ayaz Kala, Uzbekistan
    Practical training workshop on conservation of earthen structures in Central Asia and Afghanistan. Preventive conservation work.
    Documents UNESCO Sources - Silk Roads: A Dialogue Renewed
    Documents Integral Study of the Silk Roads: Roads of Dialogue

    The stimulating concept of 'routes' or 'roads' as vectors of culture constitutes the basis of several study projects undertaken by the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The first, launched in 1988 under the title 'Integral Study of the Silk Roads: Roads of Dialogue', was a bold and ambitious venture that set to reopen doors to the past, thus shedding new light on the present. Through a vast programme of research that has mobilized scientists, academics and media worldwide, and that has included five expeditions mapping out again both land roads and sea routes.


    Documents Newsletters - Integral Study of the Silk Roads : Roads of Dialogue
    Documents Proceedings of the UNESCO Central Asian Round Table
    The Proceedings of the UNESCO Central Asian Round Table on "The Exchange of good practices in Intercultural Dialogue and the promotion of the UNESCO’s Declaration on Cultural Diversity" has been published by the Kazakh Institute of Oriental Studies, one of the main partner of the UNESCO meetings, organized in Almaty (Kazakhstan) from 4 to 7 June 2007.

    This publication includes papers, speeches and presentations of Central Asian and foreign participants, reflecting on past and on-going projects conducive to intercultural dialogue, pluralism and mutual comprehension as well as reports of the Central Asian UNESCO Chairs presented during the Workshop with the UNESCO Chairs on Interreligious Dialogue for Intercultural Understanding.


    Documents Silk, Scents and Spice (DVD)
    Tracing the world's great trade routes throughout history and around the globe.

    DVD for use with TV and computer, interactive menus, animated maps.


    Documents The Silk Roads - Highways of Culture and Commerce
    Towards the middle of the 20th century, scholarly research revealed that the fabled Silk Roads, far from being mere trade routes, were cultural highways that played a pivotal role in linking East and West, intermittently bringing together nomads and city dwellers, pastoral peoples and farmers, merchants and monks, and soldiers and pilgrims. The notion of movement is therefore central to an understanding of the relations between peoples; it is also the factor of which specialists have, for various reasons, not taken sufficient account.

    It is in this context that the Silk Roads Project, initiated by UNESCO, assumes its significance. It has proved very fruitful and led to a large variety of projects of which this volume presents a selection. Although the papers collected here are wide ranging, they reveal the emergence of the concept of a common heritage and plural identity. The studies carried out under the Project have shown that identity, seen from a long-term perspective, cannot be viewed as a ghetto or an enclosure, but as the result of whole process of synthesis and encounter between peoples and cultures.


    Documents The Silk and Spice Routes - Cultures and Civilizations
    The history of humankind, its cultures and civilizations, is inextricably linked with the development of trade. Cities grew up around the markets and empires were built on the wealth that trade created. Across Asia, the paths of the Silk and Spice Routes brought together many different peoples, fostering the exchange of ideas, lifestyles, arts and goods. This book explores exciting aspects of intercultural relations brought about by the thriving trade along the Silk and Spice Routes.


    Documents The Silk and Spice Routes - Exploration by Land
    A fascinating account of the life and adventures, the discoveries and explorations of travellers along the Silk Routes, stretching over 8,000 kilometres through the heart of Asia, from the Mediterranean to the China Sea. They crossed some of the most spectacular and dangerous places on Earth: the Pamir Mountains, the Hindu Kush and the notorius Taklamakan desert whose shifting sands have been known to swallow up great cities.
    Documents The Silk and Spice Routes - Exploration by Sea
    An exciting description of the adventures and discoveries of travellers along the Spice Routes, which stretched for over 15,000 kilometres around Asia, from China's seas, across the Indian Ocean up the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf and overland to the Mediterranean. A dangerous route, full of treacherous coral reefs, violent storms and unexpected pirate attack, which nevertheless tempted many sailors and adventurers seeking trade or treasure over the ages.
    Documents The Silk and Spice Routes - Inventions and Trade
    Over the centuries, the exchange of technologies -from the horse's bit and the wheel to the microchip and the computer- hasinspired new developments and improvements. It is through trade that much of this exchange has taken place. This book explains how the Silk and Spice Routes across Asia played an important role in bringing together different peoples and ideas that favoured new technologies and inventions in many fields: health and medicine, alchemy and chemistry, astronomy, mathematics, spinning and weaving. glass and ceramics, metalwork and agriculture, to mention just a few.


    Documents Mosaic of cultures - Kazakhstan
    The UNESCO ASPnet school “Best” in Almaty, Kazakhstan published an educational material for children and youth in Russian Mosaic of Cultures


    Documents Publications on the Silk Roads
    The UNESCO project has fired the imagination of writers and publishers and a large number of books are now available. In addition, UNESCO has published on its own or jointly various works intended essentially for the academic community, or for children.
    Documents Kaleidoscope of Cultures - Tajikistan
    The National Commission of the Republic of Tajikistan for UNESCO in co-operation with the UNESCO Chair on Intercultural Dialogue in the Modern World at the Tajik-Russian (Slavonic) University prepared an educational publication in Russian for children and youth Kaleidoscope of Cultures.
    Documents Festival on Cultural Diversity and Dialogue in Central Asia
    The Festival revealed the cultural pluralism that makes up the richness and the dynamism of this region through exhibitions of arts and crafts, concerts, films, fashion shows, round table and other events. It also provided an opportunity for dialogue with various cultural actors from Central Asia, the heirs and interpreters of a tradition of encounters and exchanges in continual evolution all along the main transcontinental routes.

     

    Webpage of the Festival


    Documents History of Civilizations of Central Asia
    Readers will discover through this six-volume work cultures that flourished and vanished from the dawn of civilization to the present time and how the history of the ancient and medieval world was shaped by the movements of peoples in this heartland of Eurasia, stretching from the Caspian Sea to the borders of China.

    Based on a wealth of archeological materials and written by a distinguised team of specialist, Volume I studies the origin of humankind and culture in Central Asia, from the Palaeolithic beginnings to circa 700 B.C., when foundations were laid for the constitution of the great Archaemenid Empire.The Bronze Age wirtnesses the first process of urbanization from the Indus to the Oxus, as well as intensive trading between the different areas. No less important are the nomadic pastoral tribes, such as the Aryans, whose history can, for the first time, be seen in true perspective in the light of recent archaeological research.

     

    History of Civilizations of Central Asia I, II , III, IV (part 1 , part 2), V, VI



    © 2008 - UNESCO