Group celebrates traditions, fine arts of Central Asian countries
The Bloomington-based Silk Road Ensemble presented its 14th annual Silk Road Festival Sunday afternoon at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater. The event began in the theater lobby with exhibits from a dozen countries of the Silk Road region, the historical route that connected the East and West from Turkey to China. The event was manned largely by students studying these languages in the IU Summer Workshop in Slavic, East European and Central Asian Languages. Graduate student Eric Schluessel explained the displays of clothing and weapons of the Uighurs, an ethnically Turkic Muslim people of western China. Holding up a small knife he said, "A Uighur man gives this to his wife when he goes away on a trip so she can protect herself in his absence." Other exhibits also included weaponry as well as popular music and art, clothing and jewelry.
