The Fifth Congress of the World Society for the Study, Preservation and Popularization of the Cultural Legacy of Uzbekistan and the Cultural Heritage Week

More than 250 scholars from more than 40 countries of the world took part in the work of the Fifth International Congress in September 2021. Also, scholars of the World Society took part in the sectional meetings of the International Forum and the Cultural Heritage Week in Khiva and Nukus. They were devoted to both the work done and the outlined plans of the World Society for the future.

On September 13-17, 2021, within the framework of the international cultural forum "Central Asia at the Crossroads of World Civilizations", held at the initiative of the President of Uzbekistan with the support of UNESCO, Uzbekistan hosted the Cultural Heritage Week and the Fifth Anniversary Congress of the World Society "The Cultural Legacy of Uzbekistan as the Foundation of a New Renaissance". The events were held in three cities such as Tashkent, Khiva and Nukus.

A unique achievement of the project for the Fifth Congress was the completion of work on the preparation of a volume dedicated to the decipherment and reading of epigraphic inscriptions on the architectural monuments of Baburid India. This volume became a continuation of the Architectural Epigraphy of Uzbekistan series, which symbolizes the beginning of research work not only with the monuments of Uzbekistan, but also abroad.

In addition, six more gift albums were published. Among them are colorful books with many illustrations: four volumes are devoted to the masterpieces of the art of Uzbekistan, one illustrated volume is devoted to the ceramics of Rishtan and one album is to the miniatures of Kamal ad-Din Behzad.

On September 14, a sensational event of the Congress was the presentation of a facsimile edition - The Book of Fixed Stars, created by order of the great ruler Mirzo Ulugh Beg. The unique facsimile was printed by the Austrian publishing house Mueller&Shindler together with the World Society for the Study, Preservation and Popularization of the Cultural Legacy of Uzbekistan. This manuscript is in the collection of the National Library of France. This is the seventh facsimile edition of the greatest ancient manuscripts.

About ten unique exhibitions were prepared for the Congress, each of which was organized as part of the presentation of new 40 book-albums from the Cultural Legacy of Uzbekistan in the World Collections series.

The first is an exhibition of paintings and a multimedia project by Zh. Usmanov “Metaphysics of contemplation. Based on the poetry by Alisher Navoi”. The exhibition is timed to coincide with the completion of work on a book dedicated to the collection of the Alisher Navoi Library in Tashkent.

The second event is the photo exhibition "Miniatures of Behzad" and the presentation of the gift edition "Kamal ad-Din Behzad: a Man Who Shamed Mani."

The third event is a photo exhibition of the archaeologist, researcher of the culture of Central Asia, Leon Semyonovich Barszczewski. No less interesting was the photo exhibition “The History of Uzbekistan in Photographs”, which demonstrated rare archival photographs of Uzbekistan from the period when the art of photography was born in our territory and up to the late 19th century.

The exhibition “100 Outstanding Manuscripts of Uzbekistan” and the presentation of the pilot issue of the facsimile introduced the audience to the unique manuscripts of Uzbekistan and Central Asia.

Project "3D Technologies in Modern Science". A virtual tour of the monuments of Shakhrisabz and Samarkand presented models of architectural monuments - Bibi-Khanym, Registan, Gur-i Amir, Shahi-Zinda, the Mir-i Arab Madrasah and others, made on a 3D printer. Also, visitors were able to make a virtual journey through the architectural monuments of two ancient cities of Uzbekistan.

The exhibition of Rishtan ceramics became colorful and spectacular. Within the framework of the exhibition, a presentation of an exclusive book-album from the Cultural Legacy of Uzbekistan in the World Collections series on Rishtan ceramics was also held.

Nukus also hosted an international conference "Archaeology and Tourism: Identification of Potential and Heritage Management" under the auspices of UNESCO. The participants discussed issues of archaeological heritage management and geocultural branding, archaeological heritage in fundamental and applied science, and other topical issues.