Tash Rabat, Kyrgyzstan
Deep in Kyrgyzstan’s Tien Shian mountains, near the country’s south-eastern border with China, stands an old stone caravanserai called Tash Rabat. While caravanserais can still be found along the many threads of the Silk Road – from China as far as the Mediterranean coast – what makes Tash Rabat unusual is its isolated location and mysterious origins.
No one quite knows when, or by whom, Tash Rabat was built. Some say it’s a 15th century caravanserai built to provide shelter for passing caravans. Others say its origins are much older. In 1888, Russian academic and traveller Nicolay Lvovich Zeland suggested it was originally a Nestorian or Buddhist monastery. This was backed up by research undertaken at in the late 1970s by the Institute of History of the Kyrgyz Academy of Sciences, who concluded that Tash Rabat was originally built as a Nestorian monastery in the 10th century, although no Christian artifacts were found during excavations.
Others believe Tash Rabat to be a fortress of a Kyrgyz hero.
‘“This Tash Rabat is not a caravanserai at all.” She gazed at me with her grave innocence. “It is the fortress of King Rabat, a hero older than Manas even. My grandfather told me. This was his house. He knew.” She nodded to one wall, where his photograph hung: a whimsical ancient covered in Soviet medals and crowned by a Kyrgyz hat. His words had descended to her in a garbled scripture. She believed in a secret passage and dungeons under the caravanserai, where the forty warriors of Manas – Kyrgyz national hero – had been buried in some legendary time; and she had named her favourite dog Kumayik after the champion’s hunting hound. “And even before King Rabat, there was a prince who was building this place for his old father, until he was lured away by a beautiful demon…” She frowned. “But that may not be true.”’
Extract from Colin Thubron’s Shadow of the Silk Road.
To add to the mystery, legend has it that if you try and count the rooms inside the allegedly haunted caravanserai, the number is different every time.
Whatever the truth, there’s no doubting the beauty and majesty of this imposing building. Hunkered in a remote valley at 3200 metres above sea level, there are few places where the stars shine so bright, or which so powerfully evoke the history of this once mighty trade route. Sleeping in a yurt camp here, cloaked in the silence of the mountains, is an experience you’ll never forget.
Visit Tash Rabat on our ‘In the Footsteps of Joanna Lumley’ luxury small-group tour, or on a tailor-made Silk Road adventure.
