Registan Ensemble

The western wall

Now we turn to the western wall, which is opposite the entrance. At the top on the left, where the picture preserved, we can see a man in white clothes and at the bottom there is 16 lines in Sogdian alphabet (Sogdian language belongs to Eastern Iranian language family, which was widely spoken in Sogd untill the Arabian conquest. The Sogdian alphabet is derived from Aramaic alphabet). The lines describe the process of receiving ambassadors by the king Varkhuman, a descendant of Unash. Chinese historians mentioned only one king Varkhuman; in 655 A.D. king Varkhuman sent ambassadors on civic issues to the Tan country. It turns out to be the actions against the dangers of Arabs after the war with Iran. At the bottom of the western wall walking ceremonies of ambassodor with present to the king Varkhuman correspondes to the writing of the lines. The scene describes the open place, where we can see the spears on the hooks and the right there are shields decorated with the masks. In the second row there are people with long hair sitting with their backs to the viewer, who seems to be Turks, the private guard of the governor. Between 550-630 A.D. The Sogdian khanats were dependent on the first big state in the Central Asia “Western Turks”empire (Western Turkic Khaganate) and after the destruction of the Khaganate, they built(created) several military parts. Now we shall discuss three people, in front of the writings. They are armed with swords and knives, and their clothes are decorated with the pictures of different animals. They are dressed in a style of that period extendedn from Sosonian Iran to China. One of them carries jewelleris and the others carry rolls of silk. People in white and black colour come in turn, which shows that there were people of two colours in Sogd. As mentioned in the writings, the dark central personage, seems to be the head of the devonkhona of the governor of Shosh (the ancient name of Tashkent). On the right thre are people in ordinary clothes physically resembling to the Mongolians. One of them (on the right of the demaged wall) is standing behind his neighbour, touching the scarf of his neighbour, hanging from his waist (this painting was discovered while restavrashion of French specialist Aliks Barbe). In the middle of the wall two simmetric group of people are walking to the ceremony. On the right Chenese ambassodors are wakling, wearing black hats and carrying fruits and silk wares (goods). Other picture of Chinese, marked with red edge can also be seen(noticed) here. According to one of the researches, changes were carried out, while working on the pictures. On the right of the characters, turks with long hair are walking. This time the are described as foreign ambassadors. Further we are paying attention to the events a bit on the right.

Three people are described here, who are wearing outer coats with hoods sewed together on their collar, on their feet they have long (high) boots. This people seem to be the ambassadors from mountaneous regions (now these paintings can be barely seen). Behind them, two people with feathers on their hair are standing. This hat belongs to Koreans from the kingdom Koguryo, which was jointed to the Chenese Tan Empire.

The higher part of the wall was destroyed and nowadays it isn’t known what was described there.