Bukhara
More actions
| Bukhara | |
|---|---|
| Buxoro | |
| ActiveRecorded as grown here since 2000 | |
| Hierarchy | |
| Growing Region | Zarafshan Valley |
| Geography | |
| Country | Uzbekistan |
| Province/State | Bukhara Region |
| Coordinates | 39.82, 64.26 |
| Landscape | |
| Area | 3,600 km² |
| Terrain | Irrigated oasis of the lower Zarafshan round the city of Bukhara; approximately the irrigated land of Bukhara Region |
| Growing history | |
| Earlier names | Bokhara |
| Dated news reports | 2026 |
| Documentation | |
| Appellations | 0 |
| Accessions | 0 |
| Conservation | |
| Populations | none documented yet |
Bukhara is a cannabis growing area in Uzbekistan, on the irrigated oasis of the lower Zarafshan round the city of Bukhara, in Bukhara Region. It lies in the Zarafshan Valley growing region. Travellers who visited the Bukhara khanate in 1832 and 1899 described hemp grown there for the oil of its seeds, for the drug bang, and for rope, mats and cloth.[1][2]: 496 In 2026 the police reported cannabis grown on house plots in Jondor and Bukhara districts.[3][4]
Geography
The oasis lies on the last stretch of the Zarafshan. In the account of the Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopaedic Dictionary of 1894, the river passes north of Bukhara, which draws its water through canals from it, among them the Shahrud, which carried water to the city and its surroundings. Near Karakul the river is a shallow stream, and it ends in the sands without reaching the Amu Darya. In the Bukharan part of the valley the dictionary counted 43 main canals and 939 lesser ones, watering 3,750 square versts.[5]
History
Alexander Burnes, who reached the city on 27 June 1832, wrote of the whole kingdom of Bokhara that hemp was reared there but that its people did not know its use in manufactures. They pressed oil from the seeds, extracted the intoxicating drug bang from the plant and gave the stalks to their cattle.[1] The Brockhaus and Efron entry on the khanate, of 1891, puts hemp among the crops of its irrigated fields, with wheat, rice, cotton, tobacco and poppy.[6]
The Danish explorer Ole Olufsen, who stayed in Bukhara in 1899, wrote that hemp, kendir, was grown everywhere in the country and grew taller than a man. It was made into ropes, mats and a cloth that was rubbed with a glass ball until it looked like silk, and was used for skullcaps because it was very strong.[2]: 496–497 People who could not afford silk caftans wore caftans of this glazed hemp cloth.[2]: 470
Trade and use
Not all the charas sold in India under the name of Bokhara came from Bukhara. In a letter printed in the official correspondence of 1881, the British Joint Commissioner in Ladakh wrote that the charas of Bokhara was carried through Kabul to Peshawar and, in ordinary times, through Kandahar to Shikarpur in Sind, and that it was thought better than the charas of Eastern Turkestan, from Yarkand, Kashgar and other towns. Charas from Yengi Hissar, the best of the Eastern Turkestan kinds, was often sent through Kokand to Bokhara and sold under its name.[7] In August 1888 the Joint Commissioner, then Captain Ramsay, reported that charas was produced chiefly near Yarkand and that "it grows at Bokhara and other places in Turkestan", but that he had been told the Russians had prohibited its cultivation in their dominions; the finest charas, he added, "does not find its way into Ladakh, but is exported to Bokhara and other places". The Indian Hemp Drugs Commission cited both reports in 1894.[8]
Olufsen wrote that an intoxicating liquor called beng, which he said was made of flax, was rare in Bukhara but common in Khiva, from where it came.[2]: 465
Cultivation since 2000
On 21 May 2026 the police searched the house and plot of a resident of a mahalla in Jondor district and found more than 600 plants of cannabis and opium poppy, 50 to 70 centimetres tall and weighing over 9 kilograms together. A criminal case was opened for cultivating prohibited crops.[3] In the second phase of the interior ministry's Qoradori-2026 operation, reported in September, a married couple in Bukhara district were found to have grown 46 cannabis plants in the yard of their home, and another household in the district 53 plants on 42 square metres.[4]
Accessions
No accessions documented yet.
Recent news
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Burnes, A. (1834). Travels into Bokhara. Vol. 2. London: John Murray. pp. 166–167 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Olufsen, O. (1911). The Emir of Bokhara and his country: journeys and studies in Bokhara (with a chapter on my voyage on the Amu Darya to Khiva). Copenhagen: Gyldendal, Nordisk Forlag – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 "В Бухаре изъяли сотни кустов каннабиса и мака. Видео". Podrobno.uz (in русский). 30 May 2026. Retrieved 19 October 2026.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 "Control through helicopters: 70 kg of narcotic plants destroyed". Zamon.uz. 16 September 2026. Retrieved 13 October 2026.
- ↑ "Зеравшан". Энциклопедический словарь Брокгауза и Ефрона (in русский). Vol. XIIa. St Petersburg: Brockhaus–Efron. 1894. pp. 554–556 – via Wikisource.
- ↑ "Бухара, ханство". Энциклопедический словарь Брокгауза и Ефрона (in русский). Vol. V. St Petersburg: Brockhaus–Efron. 1891. pp. 97–108 – via Wikisource.
- ↑ Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1893–94, Vol. I: Report. Simla: Government Central Printing Office. ch. VII, para. 293, p. 111 – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ Indian Hemp Drugs Commission (1894). Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1893–94, Vol. I: Report. Simla: Government Central Printing Office. ch. VII, pp. 113–114 – via Internet Archive.