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Tajikistan - 2017

 

My first full day in Tajikistan has been spectacular.  We found out yesterday that there was a large Navruz (Persian new year) celebration at a small village north of Dushanbe named Chorbogh.  Apparently some official seating had been arranged for our group, so it was important we arrive punctually.  To that end, we had an early breakfast and set off at 8:30am.

Chorbogh is a village in the hills with a population estimated at somewhere around 12,000 to 15,000 people.  The Chorbogh event is the largest of four or five Navruz celebrations that are held around Dushanbe each year.

And what a celebration it was!  The celebrations are free for everyone, and when we arrived at a little before 9:00am, there were already several thousand people present on the village’s football field.  It was immediately apparent that this was going to be a special experience.  Girls in brightly coloured traditional dresses were already dancing in small groups, while along the perimeter of the field, several families had arranged exquisite displays of their produce.  In the morning sunshine, the colour and the activity were dazzling.

At about 9:30am, we were ushered to join the VIP group in the stands overlooking the field, and soon afterwards the dance performances began.  Dancing groups came and went for about an hour and a half, with the performances culminating in an impressive show of patriotism with a group of young men forming a human pyramid with the man at the summit waving a Tajik flag proudly.

Following the organised performances, the field was thrown open to anyone who wanted to dance.  Overwhelmingly, the dancers were girls, with a handful of women joining in.  The only men dancing were members of our group who joined in enthusiastically, plus one elderly local man wearing a light coloured suit bedecked with an impressive array of Soviet-era medals across his chest, covering both sides of his coat.

At a little after midday, we were about to head into Dushanbe for lunch, but we received an alternative offer that would have been very impolite to refuse.  One of the key organisers of the event, a resident of Chorbogh who serves as Deputy Minister of Central Heating in Tajikistan, invited us to join him for lunch at his home, located about 100 metres down the hill from the football field.

What he termed as a light meal was in fact a feast, liberally lubricated for those who wished by Russian vodka, poured into glasses that were refilled almost as soon as a sip had been taken.  His generosity was amazing, and it was lovely for us to experience the hospitality for which Tajikistan is famous.

After lunch, we returned to the football field tio find the demographics had changed radically.  Other than one female in our group, every single person present was male, a couple of thousand of them – all looking forward to the wrestling.  We asked why no women were present, and were told that women are not interested in wrestling – even those whose five and six year old sons were competing it seems. 

After Friday prayers had finished at about 1:10pm, we were again ushered to seats in the stands, and the wrestling soon began.  The wrestling started with young boys, and became progressively more active and stylish as the age range rose.  Although called wrestling, I thought the activity resembled judo more than anything else.  Each competition lasted until one competitor had been thrown to the ground, which in some cases took about two or three seconds after the competition began.

Eventually, as the clouds become heavier, it was time to head off and return into Dushanbe to begin our city tour.  Our first step was a very impressive building, colloquially known as the world’s largest teahouse, but officially named the Nabruz Palace.  Originally built as a teahouse – and a huge one – the building has now been divided into a range of facilities including a concert hall, conference centre, bowling centre, meeting rooms and various recreational facilities.  Unfortunately the women who was supposed to show us through had grown tired of waiting for us (as our arrival had been delayed because of the unexpected lunch invitation), so had gone home.  Without her, we were not allowed inside.

After a short stop to allow several people who needed caffeine fix to buy a cup of coffee at Republic Coffee, we stopped at Shahidan Square opposite the Majils, or Parliament House, to begin a walk through Central Park.  We were greeted by a somewhat ostentatious statue of Ismoli Somoni, an emir who lived around 900AD and is regarded by many in post-Soviet Tajikistan as the founder of the Tajik nation.  His statue, framed by a golden arch, replaced an earlier, smaller and unarched statue of Vladimir Lenin in 1999.  Until that time, Lenin’s statue had overlooked what had been Lenin Prospekt during Soviet times.

A short walk past the huge National Library building brought us to another arched statue, this time of the Persian poet Rudaki.  Standing under an arch of tiled mosaics, this statue was probably more tasteful and less brash than that of Somani.  Further walking took us past the world’s highest flagpole.  With a height of 165 metres, it had been erected in 2011 to commemorate the 20th anniversary of Tajikistan’s independence.

A little beyond the flagpole was the National Museum of Tajikistan, a huge and impressively designed building featuring a huge Tajik crest on its roof.  It was a little after 4:00 when we arrived, and as the museum closed at 5:00pm, our visit had to be fairly brief.  Fortunately, that allowed plenty of time to see the museum’s pride and joy, a 16-metre long replica of a 2500 year old sleeping Buddha that was discovered during Soviet excavations of a Zoroastrian complex in Ajina Tepe, about 120 kilometres south of Dushanbe.

The other area I was interested to see was the section dealing with Soviet Tajikistan, including World War II.  It didn’t take me long to view the dozen or so banknotes featuring Lenin’s portrait that comprised the sum total of
the exhibit showing Tajikistan’s entire history as part of the USSR.  The exhibit covering post-Soviet Tajikistan was far more complete, even though it consisted almost entirely of photographs of the President visiting farms and factories, together with photographs of books said to be written by him.  Power in Tajikistan seems to be fairly focussed, given that every single Minister comes from the President’s home province; the remaining 26 provinces have no senior representation at that level.

Our final stop for the day was at the Victory Monument, located in a large traffic island called Aini Square.  This Soviet-era monument to the Great Patriotic War (1941-1945) featured some interesting friezes and a beautifully preserved World War II Soviet T-34 tank.

Although it was only 6:00 pm, the heavy clouds already made the lighting quite dark.  From a photographic as well as a fatigue viewpoint, it was a good time to head back to our hotel for the evening.


 

Day 2 - Dushanbe and Chorbogh

Friday 24 March 2017