There is an ancient tradition in the East: searching for happiness or trying to solve some problems, people tie knots with ribbons on trees and fences near famous “holy” places. Recently, such knots tied with napkins, candy wrappers, masks, and plastic bags are gradually becoming an environmental problem in public recreation places in Uzbekistan.
More on this tradition – in our photo report.
The Botanical Garden named after Academician F. N. Rusanov in Tashkent is an oasis among concrete buildings and traffic. However, gradually and deliberately, people fill it with trash without even thinking about it. At the entrance to the garden and the top of the hill you can find trees and bushes with knots tied around branches and trunks made from a various material: medical face masks, wet wipes, candy wrappers, plastic bags, and others.
Tying a knot at the highest point of the Botanical Garden became a popular tradition among city residents and tourists. According to superstition, such knots on famous sights bring happiness in the future to the person who tied them.
The Head of the Department of Preservations of the Institute of Botany of the Academy of Sciences of Uzbekistan, dendrologist Atyrgul Khamirzoeva told CABAR.asia that the tradition has been observed in the Garden for more than 30 years. The visitors believe that the knot will grant any wish to the one who tied it.
Atyrgul Khamirzoeva said that people began tying knots on branches in the Garden back in Soviet times when one of the employees began conducting study tours for those interested.
“To attract more attention to the Institute and the Garden, she told people myths and made-up stories. She told the guests of the Botanical Garden that a UFO had landed in the Garden and that a knot tied with a banknote on a tree would make any dream come true. This is how this tradition spread. When the management found out about this, they fired her. However, the flow of people wanting to hang ribbons on the Garden’s trees does not decrease,” she recalls.
According to Khamirzoeva, at the beginning of the 2000s, there was much more trash from this tradition in the Garden. The employees of the Institute of Botany had to clean trees and bushes every six months or annually. The specialist could not recall the last time the ribbons were taken out but she noted that the area should be cleaned again soon since there is a lot of trash around some bushes again.
Atyrgul Khamirzoeva also notes it is difficult to monitor the territory of 65.4 hectares due to a lack of personnel.
It should be noted that employees of the Institute of Botany warn visitors, there are signs at the ticket office and in the Garden asking not to pollute nature but the visitors who want to have a picnic or make a wish on a hill ignore the requests. As a result, the Tashkent Botanical Garden is now at risk of large-scale pollution.
People’s interpretations of this tradition vary in different regions. Some people tie the knot “for good luck” and others – “for memories” to return to that place again in the future. The history of the origin of tying knots varies greatly.
As time passes, people follow the tradition, and the number of locations for its observance increases. The tradition of tying a knot “for good luck” or “for memories” today can be seen in the parks of Tashkent, in the Zaamin National Park, in Boʻstonliq district of Tashkent region, on mountain ridges, in resort areas, and other regions of Uzbekistan.
Environmental researchers believe that this tradition turns beautiful places into landfills full of polyethylene, candy wrappers, and other trash, which destroys natural ecosystems.
“These knots cause plant branches to dry out. Tight loops block the growth and development of branches. Besides this, I have never seen bird nests on trees with ribbons. The movement of various ribbons in the wind simply scares the birds away; they do not even sit on such trees. Many years ago, I participated in a trip with zoologists who said that such a tradition can repel certain types of insects,” says Nargis Kosimova, head of the public environmental association “Ecologist” and editor-in-chief of the Ekolog.uz website.
People also started tying knots and ribbons on one of the peaks of the Chatkal mountain range (a mountain range in the Western Tien Shan bordering the Ferghana Valley from the northwest, located in the territory between Jalal-Abad region of Kyrgyzstan and Tashkent region of Uzbekistan), which can be reached by the Chimgan cableway.
Beautiful nature from a bird’s eye view is interrupted by a view of a rusty fence full of knots. Cableway staff and photographers work here, hundreds of tourists come up here, and skiers and snowboarders slide down from the top. Day after day, the fence is filled with new ribbons, bags, medical face masks, etc. No one is responsible for this trash; no one seems to clean it up.
“Previously, there was a tree with a huge number of knots in the Sukok Nature Reserve in Tashkent region near a spring. One day, my friend Sardor came there and took off all the ribbons, and, by the way, since then, people stopped hanging anything on this tree,” says a guide and mountain instructor Mikhail Burlutski.
Sardor’s example shows the importance of social responsibility. If two people hang ribbons on an empty tree, then a third person will do the same, and after that, dozens of others. Awareness of personal actions and concern for the environment are an investment in a better future for us and future generations, according to Burlutski.