Navruz Palace

In 2002, Tajikistan’s president proposed a tea house. Something the city could be proud of. The brief, apparently, was interpreted loosely.

Thirteen years and 4,000 craftsmen later, Dushanbe unveiled Navruz Palace: 40,000 square meters of ceremonial ambition named for the Persian New Year, the spring festival celebrated across Central Asia for more than three millennia. One hall was finished in 94 types of wood. Another lined with 29 varieties of semi-precious Tajik stone. There is also a man-made lake, a bowling alley, and a go-kart track, because a tea house requires options.

The Guinness record for world’s largest tea house now belongs to a building that seats heads of state. When the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit convened here in 2019, Putin, Xi Jinping, and the leaders of six other nations gathered beneath those hand-carved ceilings to discuss regional security. Whether anyone bowled afterward has not been confirmed by official sources.