Turkmenistan is a country in Central Asia, on the eastern shore of the Caspian Sea, most of it covered by the vast Karakum Desert. A land of ancient Silk Road cities and proud nomadic traditions, it sits atop some of the largest natural gas reserves in the world. Since independence it has been one of the most closed and tightly controlled countries on Earth, ruled by leaders who built elaborate cults of personality, and remains little known to outsiders.
The land was home to ancient civilisations and to the great Silk Road city of Merv, once among the largest cities in the world, a centre of trade and learning before it was destroyed by the Mongols. The Turkmen, a Turkic nomadic people, gave the country its name. The region was absorbed by the Russian Empire in the nineteenth century and then became a Soviet republic, gaining independence in 1991, after which it was ruled for years by an idiosyncratic and authoritarian leadership.
Turkmenistan is dominated by the Karakum, or Black Sand, Desert, which covers around four-fifths of the country, a vast and largely empty expanse of sand and dry plains. Mountains rise along the southern border, and the Caspian Sea forms the western edge. Almost all settlement and farming depend on irrigation, much of it carried far across the desert by canal, drawn from the rivers that skirt the country. In the desert burns the famous Darvaza gas crater, a fiery pit ignited decades ago.
The flag of Turkmenistan is green, bearing a white crescent moon and five white stars, with a vertical red stripe near the hoist containing five elaborate carpet designs. The green and the crescent reflect the country's Islamic heritage, and the five stars and five carpet patterns represent its five regions and the great tribes of the Turkmen people. The inclusion of carpet motifs, unique among national flags, honours the Turkmen's world-famous tradition of carpet weaving.
The great majority of Turkmen are Sunni Muslims, a faith that has been part of the region for over a thousand years, though, as among other Central Asian peoples, it is often blended with older customs and a strong sense of tribal and ancestral tradition. Decades of Soviet rule left a secular state, and the government keeps religious life under firm control. Islam remains an important element of Turkmen identity, woven into the rhythm of family life and festivals.
Turkmen cuisine is Central Asian in character, centred on meat, especially mutton, bread, and dairy, reflecting the nomadic and pastoral heritage of the people. The rice dish plov, cooked with meat and vegetables, is a centrepiece of celebrations, and grilled meat, soups, and dumplings are common. Flatbread baked in clay ovens accompanies meals, and green tea is the customary drink, central to the hospitality for which the culture is known.
Agriculture in Turkmenistan depends almost entirely on irrigation in this overwhelmingly desert land, much of it drawn from a great canal carrying river water across the Karakum. Cotton is the dominant crop, a legacy of the Soviet drive for cotton production that contributed to the drying of the Aral Sea, along with wheat for bread. The Turkmen are also famous for breeding the elegant Akhal-Teke horse. The economy, however, rests far more on the country's enormous reserves of natural gas.
The ancient city of Merv, a jewel of the Silk Road, and the Turkmen tradition of carpet weaving and horse breeding are sources of national pride. After independence in 1991, Turkmenistan became internationally notable for the eccentric and absolute rule of its first president, who built a sweeping cult of personality, renamed the months of the year, and erected golden statues of himself, while keeping the country one of the most isolated and secretive in the world.
Turkmenistan has a population of around 6 million people, the great majority ethnic Turkmen, a Turkic people organised historically into tribes, with Uzbek and Russian minorities. The population is concentrated in the irrigated oases and along the rivers and canals at the edges of the desert, above all in the capital, Ashgabat, a city rebuilt in lavish white marble. The country is one of the most closed in the world, with strict limits on movement, media, and contact with outsiders.
