Working Life

For centuries, the Silk Roads were the commercial artery linking east and west. They took their name from the silk carried west from China, but they also moved horses, ceramics and metalwork, and supplied the bazaars that grew up along the way. Alongside the caravans, nomads kept their herds on the move, trading horses and livestock into the same markets. Many still do.

Much of that work goes on. In the Fergana Valley we watched silk dyed and woven on wooden looms, and bowls painted by hand. In the old cities, coppersmiths, woodcarvers and bakers worked in full view of anyone who stopped to look. In the Kyrgyz highlands, herders moved their flocks and took down their yurts.

Some of this work now serves visitors, and some of it never has.

And at the World Nomad Games, the photographer Jimmy Nelson was at work too, photographing nomads in their finest dress for his iconic portraits.