.....and so my wanderings brought me here, an unexpected joy, a massive ancient Jewish graveyard. So if you enjoy ramdom memorials and historical witterings then come join me as we walk amongst the dead.
The Bukharan jews, were said to have arrived in Central Asia sometime before the birth of the common era, a school of thought says they were one of the twelve lost tribes.
They spread across Central Asia, Bukhara though, was the main centre for their population. In the 1970's it was estimated that 23,000 resided in Bukhara alone. Numbers dwindled significantly at the break up of the USSR, seeing a mass migration across the world, though strangely the majority sought their future based in Queens, NYC. and now it is estimated that there are only 100-200 remaining in Bukhara.
The Jewish Cemetery, which has been here for over 1,200 years holds as many as 10,000 graves from the once thriving Jewish community that inhabited the region.
WWII, at a time when more than 10% of the Bukharian population were Jews.
The graveyard is a walled shadeless expanse, a mixture of time worn plain tombs and the more elaborate personalised headstones. Restoration has taken place over the last few years following a local government grant of £125k. Day to day costs of looking after the graves comes from donations....sent from any surviving family that may be in Queens or elsewhere.
A lot of the women dressed in traditional costume, their jewellery of baubles bangles and beads, many seen in happy smiling dance poses.
Graves with traditional menorah candelabra and the Star of David were prominent throughout
An unusual headstone, of a potential petrolhead.
One of the many poignant headstones , this one of three generations, grandson to grandfather
A local barber no doubt
A face frozen, in a moment in time tragically in permanent youth, I wonder who thinks about her now?
Some of the saddest graves have double portraits on them, an elderly man or woman who died in old age, below them a young man in army uniform, who never returned from the Great Patriotic war fought, many many miles to the west.
A mother and her son, Boris, sent to war who died storming Berlin in the dying embers of the war, a hero of the Great Patriotic War
Brothers reunited in death, the first to die, Ismail, in Voronezh, 1942, a massive defensive battle against the invading German army, a prelude to the seige of Stalingrad.
A lady proudly displaying a Soviet medal for "Educational Excellence"
Interlude for an amazing fact:
The Jewish school in Bukhara, is the only such school in the world where the majority of students are Muslim. 70% of the students are Muslims, with only 80 actual Jewish children attending.
The world is just a great big onion
Ashford and Simpson
A musician, composer and folk singer of the USSR
Bye, thank you for visiting
As long as we are remembered, we are alive
Thanks for visiting my page, I am pleased to make your acquaintance. this is Stephen aka, 
