Trips

We visited the famous Dushanbe Tea House thinking we would get a tea/coffee break. Instead, we found a huge, ornate building that has several very large rooms and several small ones with absolutely magnificent decor. We were told the building is privately owned by the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), a multinational organization that includes: Russia, China, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan. (Read about it, if you aren't already familiar.) (The information on the internet says that the president of Tajikistan, as part of his megalomaniacal building program of the past several years, had it built - you can look all that up, if you are interested.) Whatever, the place will blow you away with its tile and marble and wood and precious gems, etc. We were shown at least three (or four) huge meeting rooms - round tables, translation facilities, etc. and some smaller richly appointed meeting rooms. For a poor, struggling economy, it was just over the top - obscene, is the word that comes to mind. Besides the ornate meeting rooms, the building has a bowling alley, a room with 20 pool tables, a movie theater, and a cafe that actually serves tea! The pictures will give you a small idea of the place.

Dome over the outside entry	Entry stairs
Sculpture at the top of the stairs	Ballroom decoration
Ballroom decoration	Ballroom decoration
Ballroom decoration	Ballroom decoration
Meeting room	Meeting room ceiling
Wall panel	Chandelier
Wall panel	Carved Pillars
White marble hall	Wood floors are breathtaking
	Mirrored meeting room
This room is all cedar
	Glass with the flags of the SCO member countries
Pool hall	We were glad to leave the Tea House and move on to visit an Artisan Center to meet the man who makes many of the stone mosaic panels for the Tea House. He showed us how he was making the five foot panels of the national flower of each of the SCO nations for the Garden of Flowers Room. It was amazingly fine work.     (Some of you may know of the Dushanbe Tea Room in Boulder, Colorado. This is a link to that site.)
Dushanbe’s Central Cathedral Mosque, now under construction - it will be Central Asia's largest Mosque	Grinding glass to fit
Finished picture	Tiny pieces
Very precise work	Finished picture
Original art work in background, glass piece in front	Original picture - If you have tried to work with stained glass, you will appreciate the extreme difficulty in rendering a picture like this into glass!
Glass work in progress
Details	Details
The picture	Finished glass
Soviet era apartments	Interesting bridge structure
Our last stop was at the Gurminj Museum of Musical Instruments. Most of the instruments were variations of the stringed ones we saw in Uzbekistan. Then three men played, sang, and danced using some of the displayed instruments. A display on the wall had pieces of shepherds’ pipes.
Flutes and other wind instruments
How would you like to tune this one?	Rubab
	Dinner

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