In the summer of 2023, I brought two of American friends back to Uzbekistan to show them where I grew up. Not the tourist version—the real country. We spent three weeks traveling from the Fergana Valley in the east to ancient Khiva in the west, through seven cities, across mountain passes, along routes that traders had walked for millennia.

In Rishtan, we stopped at a ceramic workshop. The afternoon light was golden, dust hanging in the air. The usta—the master—was painting a plate with a brush so fine it was almost invisible. Turquoise glaze caught the sun.

My friend's grandfather, who had been quiet the whole trip, stepped closer. He stood there watching for what felt like hours.

"I've never seen anything like this," he finally said. "Not in galleries. Not in museums. How does the world not know about this?"

That question stayed with me long after I returned home.