Longtime Turkmenistan dictator Saparmurat Niyazov -- the eccentric, self-styled Turkmenbashi, or father of all the Turkmens -- checked out about a year ago.

Now, energy-rich Turkmenistan is still largely a dictatorship, but a normal one -- one where people look down on Uzbekistan.

From the BBC's Natalia Antelava:

Tatyana, an attractive, 36-year-old single woman, told me why she would never want to leave the country.

"Look at our neighbours - in Afghanistan, there is chaos and bloodshed. Iran can get bombed any minute. Uzbekistan is so poor, people are fleeing the country.

"Here we have peace, we have stability and we know what will happen tomorrow." ...

A year since Niyazov's death, Turkmenistan is a brighter place. The change brought by the new President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov has been slow but steady.

It is now easier to travel, the internet is no longer banned, schools teach foreign languages, and the government is talking about opening up the country's enormous natural gas reserves to foreign investors.

The new president has reopened rural libraries, which were banned in Niyazov's time - people in the villages, the late leader used to say, did not read books anyway.

'Revolutionary change'

Niyazov also reduced the number of years children went to school, which meant their qualifications were not enough to allow them to enter foreign universities.

But in 2007, not a single student in Turkmenistan graduated from high school - instead each was required to do an extra year which has been put back on the curriculum.

Perhaps an autocracy that works is better than democracy that doesn't Turkmen journalist

"For Turkmenistan, these are revolutionary changes," said a senior Western diplomat in the capital Ashgabat.

But none of it means that this country is about to embrace Western-style democracy.

Mr Berdymukhamedov has promised to preserve Mr Niyazov's Soviet-style autocracy intact. And it seems that is exactly what many people want.