Ecotourism as a natural source of inspiration for art and creativity

Аннотация

The opening anecdote of my
dissertation proposal was the story
of how the famous pop band Yalla’s
song «Uchkuduk» was written – about
how when in 1981, the legendary
group drove through the small
uranium-mining town, songwriter
Yurii Entin allegedly wrote the song
within 40 minutes. I won’t bore you
with that story here – everyone
already knows it. But what you
might now know is that everyone
who read my dissertation proposal
began to hum the song. The entire
History Department at Harvard had
heard it by late January 2024, and
my father – who is from Canada
– now regularly listens to it on its
own. I recently created two different
playlists of Central Asian music for my
students and my colleagues, including
an overwhelming number of songs
from Uzbekistan, to great success.
At work, my colleagues office love
to comment that I’ve «created a
monster.» No one can stop listening
to Uzbek music. Indeed, it seems
like Uzbekistan has created this
most beautiful of monsters. Its many
peoples – Uzbeks, Karakalpaks,