2019 Tajikistan (July 8 – 14)

As I began preparing my 9-month tour of Asia and the Middle East, I decided to work in a second visit to Tajikistan and Uzbekistan to see the cities I missed in 2017 along the Old Silk Road.  Since Hussain had been so much help to me during my border problems in 2017, I contacted him and asked if he could put together a schedule including Dushanbe, Samarkand, Bukhara, and Khiva. 

This blog will cover the Tajikistan portion of this year’s trip.  We began our tour with a fantastic cultural experience and dinner after my arrival on the 8th.  The dinner of grilled lamb kababs, rice, and grilled vegetables was fantastic and the show of traditional dances was entertaining.  Even more entertaining though was the other diners dancing to the traditional music – each in their own style.  Even Hussain joined the crowd for a few spins around the dance floor.  (photos attached)

Day 2 in Dushanbe

Next morning, we began a day long tour of the city of Dushanbe.  The tour included the Tajik National Antiquities Museum, a Statue of the Sleeping Buddha, Monument to Ismoili Somoni the 9th century ruler and father of a consolidated Tajikistan, Park and statue of Abu Abd Allah Ja’far Rudaki the 9th century father of classical Persian/Tajiki poetry, the Tajiki White House, Tajik Parliament, Navrous Palace, Central Mosque, and the Mehrgon Market. 

Unfortunately, Dushanbe was neither a Silk Road City or even an old city.  Up until 1924, modern-day Dushanbe was a small village of about 500 people that held their village market on Mondays.  In fact, the word Dushanbe is Tajiki for Monday.  And that was how the city was named – after its Monday Market.  Once the city became the capital for the new Country and later Soviet Republic it began to grow rapidly until today the city has 1.3 million residents.

So, all the sites in the city are less than 100 years old and many are younger than me!  I found the architecture boring and the statues of Somoni – the Father of Tajikistan and Rudaki – the famous Persian/Tajiki poet were just quick fillers. Hussain was proud to point out that the giant flag pole was the tallest in the world in 2010 (165 meters) until neighboring Uzbekistan built one taller.  I’m not sure why having the tallest pole is so important to these countries of small men.  First the pole size contest between North and South Korea and now Tajikistan and Uzbekistan – I just don’t see the point!

My favorite part of the day was the visit to the Mehrgon Market.  I have yet to visit a city market that I have not enjoyed.  The combination of sites, smells, sounds, and tastes create such an overload of the senses.  Piles of spices, row after row of fresh fruits and vegetables, freshly butchered sheep, goats, cows and horses hanging from hooks in the fronts of stalls, stainless steel milk containers filled to the lip with fresh mountain honey, screens of sticky honeycombs, table after table of fresh wheels of bread, baskets of seeds and nuts of every variety, cheese balls and yogurt – in fact, anything you could possibly think you might want to put in your mouth you will find in these markets.

Interesting Custom 1: As we were passing tables stacked high with 18 inches across bread wheels, Hussain explained that when a boy’s family wanted to make a marriage proposal to a girl’s family they would send an ambassador with 20 wheels of bread and 5 kilos of chocolate to the prospective bride’s family.  If they accepted the bread and chocolate the wedding was on.  If they sent the bread and chocolate back no wedding.

And yes, the parents still select future husbands and wives for their children in Central Asia.  And matrimonial unions are based upon wealth, status, public image for the family.  I was surprised when Hussain told me that if it turned out that the prospective bride was no longer a virgin the groom’s family had the right to call off the wedding and send the poor girl back to her family in shame.  Apparently, there are women in Central Asia that make quite a good living just checking prospective brides’ virginity on the eve of their weddings.

When I asked Hussain if he was a virgin before he married last November he laughed and said of course not!  Men are expected to be experienced before marriage.  I asked him how that worked since in the West it takes two to tango and if he ever worried that he was potentially destroying a poor girl’s life.  He told me that the Tajiki men only messed with divorced women or disco girls (whatever the hell they are).

I asked Hussain how he knew if a woman had been married and he explained that you look at the eyebrows.  A married woman is allowed to pluck and style her eyebrows into a thin line.  Unmarried girls must not touch their eye bush.  So, to the Tajiki man, any woman with a manicured eyebrow is fair game. 

Interesting Custom 2: Another interesting couple of customs from the way back past before the Arab invasion forced Islam on the local population at the point of a sword relates to the Zoroastrian religion.  The Zoroastrians worshiped the four elements of fire(sun), air, water, and earth.  And even though everyone converted to Islam rather than be put to death they still follow the old customs like during the wedding ceremony the bride and groom walk around a fire three times.  And for 40 days after a wedding, birth or death the family leaves the lights on in the house throughout the night.

Interesting Custom 3: One final custom that I enjoyed involved the serving of tea.  The host will pour the first cup of tea then pour it back into the teapot.  He repeats this procedure three times before he pours tea for first the guests then himself.  And it is considered impolite to pour more than half a cup of tea for the guest. The half-cup is a show of respect.  In fact, a full cup of tea is the host’s polite way of saying you have worn out your welcome and it is time to go home!  You might want to keep that in mind the next time your host is serving tea.

Day 3: 16th Century Fortress and Citadel of Hissar Complex

Next day we ventured a little out of town to tour the 16th Century Fortress and Citadel of Hissar Complex.  The Complex includes the reconstructed fortress and ark, Registran that once served as the Silk Road Open Air Market, Caravanserai (the Motel 8 of its time where they left the light on for caravan traders passing thru), Men’s Madrassah, Women’s Madrassah, Mosque, and Mausoleum of Mahdumi Abzam.

The Men’s Madrassa has been turned into a history museum containing 3200 exhibits.  I have attached photographs of all the structures as well as many of the exhibits that chronicled Madrassah life for the boys in the 16th thru 18th century.  The madrassah is a Muslim religious school that teaches both spiritual and secular subjects.  The classrooms are small and accommodate 5 students and a teacher.  And boys and girls are always educated in separate Madrassahs.

Our lunch this day was Plav – a traditional Tajiki meal of rice, carrots, onions, lamb, spices raisins, chickpeas cooked by frying, then boiling, then steaming.  All washed down by beer.  One good thing the Soviets did during the 70plus years of atheist rule was crush all vestiges of the Muslim religion out of these Central Asian Countries.  The Central Asian Muslim population are culturally Muslim but are not hardcore believers.  These people like to drink vodka and beer, love to dance, most of the younger ones dress in western clothes and the older folks dress is more culturally inspired clothing than outfits based upon religion.

Day 4: Lake Iskandar (Tajik for Alexander)

Next day I checked out of my hotel early to drive to Lake Iskandar (Tajik for Alexander).  I left my large bag in storage at the hotel expecting to return for one final night after my week in Uzbekistan and then fly to Istanbul from Dushanbe. (Big Mistake)!

The half-day drive to the lake took us thru first the Hissir Mountains then the Fan Mountains.  On the way, we stopped at the smoking mountain that Marco Polo spoke about in his travelogue “The Travels of Marco Polo” as told to Rustichello da Pisa while imprisoned together in Genoa.  (photo attached)

The last hour of our drive we covered only 24 kilometers (15 miles) on a washed-out track up the mountain to the hanging lake.  But when we reached the lake the drive was definitely worth every bump in the road.  Lake Iskandar is 6k long, 3k wide, 80 meters deep and sits at 2,200 meters elevation.  The lake is fed by 5 springs that jet out of the mountain rock all with in 20 feet of each other.

Just above Lake Iskander is a Snake Lake that can be reached by a short steep hike and a little further down the trail is a dramatic waterfall.  We spent a great dinner and evening at the lake’s edge before heading for Istaravshan the next morning.

Day 5 in Istaravshan

In route to Istaravshan, we stopped for visits the local open-air market, the Madrasa Kuk-Gumbaz, the blue-domed Mosque of Shohi Zinda, and the abomination of a fantasy version of Mugh Fortress.  The market was interesting and fun.  I had the opportunity to watch blacksmiths, silversmiths, and bakers hard at work producing their products for sale right on site as well as the usual sights and sounds of a busy market day.  The 16th-century mosque and madrassa, and markets were interesting but the Mugh Fortress was absolutely the most atrocious and criminally inspired disaster I have seen in all my years of travel across 5 continents

Panjakent traditional market

Blue-domed Mosque of Shohi Zinda

The original Mugh Fortress stood for over 2500 years and withstood the ravages of earthquakes and sieges by Alexander the Great, the Persians, the Arabs, and the Mongols.  But the magnificent ancient walls could not withstand the greed and corruption of greedy developers and crooked politicians and bureaucrats. 

Some sleazy developer talked the local antiquities officials into bulldozing the entire fortress and razing it to the ground destroying the structure and all its relics to build a fantasy version of a fortress.  The replacement bore absolutely no resemblance to the original structure.  The idiot architect added a Roman-style amphitheater (Romans never came within 2000 kilometers or 500 years of the Central Asian Fortress) and European styles that would not be seen for a thousand years after the fortress was originally constructed.

To add insult to the fatal injury the workmanship was so shoddy that the damn thing is already falling apart before your eyes.  The roof is leaking and falling in at multiple places, the walls have huge structural cracks throughout the replica, huge sections of plaster, tile, and bricks are crumbling and falling in heaps from both interior and exterior walls, entire walls are covered in black mold and the floor tiles and paving stones are cracked and crumbling.

Someone was obviously paid off to approve the destruction of the original historic structure and replace it with this imposter.  The Tajiki government funds and any international aid funds were clearly siphoned from the construction budget for bribes, payoffs, and profits at the expense of historical accuracy, quality materials, and craftsmanship.

In a perfect world – everyone involved in this project should be hanged by their necks from the fortress walls in pig carcasses for 40 days as a message to future greedy builders, politicians, and bureaucrats. 

And on that happy note – on to old PanjakentPanjakent (five villages in Tajiki) was founded by the Sughdian people in the 5th century.  They were Zoroastrians worshiping the four elements.  As the Islamic Crusaders rampaged thru Central Asia they came across this city of 5000 and burned it to the ground because the old religion was an affront to Islam.

As the Arabs attacked, burned, raped and murdered thousands some escaped into the surrounding mountains.  Today there is still one village of 500 Sughdians living in the ancient ways, speaking the old language, and still worshiping of the sun and fire on top of a remote mountain near Panjakent. Photos of the old Sughdian ruins are attached.

Mugh Fortress is falling apart

On the way into the new city, we stumbled on a wedding procession.  And that is when I learned, my guide Hussain, has a wedding fetish.  He insisted we crash a pre-wedding ritual and then hang around to crash the wedding reception and dance.  I felt kind of out of place in cargo shorts and sandals but nothing seemed to faze Hussain and the wedding party was very gracious and welcoming.

A Tajiki wedding is quite entertaining.  It begins with a musical group consisting of a drummer, bongo type drummer, a guy playing a clarinet type thing and four guys playing six-foot-long horns called Krnays playing this weird music inviting everyone to come to the wedding activities.  The men all meet for a stag banquet without the bride and then later the real banquet with mostly women, children and close friends of the groom in attendance(and of course wedding crashers in cargo pants and sandals).  I have included several photos and videos of the band, happy couple and banquet scenes. 

My next visit was to see the ancient ruins of Sarazm – a 5,500-year-old Bronze era settlement discovered in 1970 by a shepherd stumbling upon a bronze axe head.  Quite a bit of the sun-worshiping Mitra community has been unearthed and it is believed that 10,000 people lived in the city.  The excavations have uncovered Mitra alters, ovens for baking bread, grain storage areas, homes and most interesting the grave and skeleton of a young woman found in a fetal position surrounded by semi-precious stones. (Photos attached)

For our final excursion, Hussain and Bobo took me up into the mountains to a chain of seven Marguzor Lakes.  These lakes were formed when a powerful earthquake created massive mudslides back in the 19th century blocking the Shing river in seven places.  Our original plan was to hike from the 5th lake to the 7th passing thru some very old traditional villages that are still living in the 17th century.

But plans are made to be screwed up.  In this instance, it was the warm weather that fouled us up.  It has been so warm that the snow and glacier ice melt has raised the water level in the lakes to the point that the road is 6 feet underwater at lake number 4.  So, our lake adventure ended there and we returned back to lake number 3 for a nice picnic lunch and ice-cold beer. Followed by a long slow drive back out of the mountains to Panjakent.

One interesting moment as we passed thru one of the villages was when our SUV was passing a woman in traditional clothing.  As the car approached her and as soon as she saw me thru the car window she immediately turned her back to me so that I could not see her face.  Hussain said that the many older women in the mountains still practice the old ways of Islam and believe that it is forbidden for a man other than her husband to look upon her face.  I managed to get a photo as she was halfway thru her turn away from me and it along with other village life photos are attached.

The next morning, we were on our way to the Uzbeki border but that is an ordeal I will cover in my next blog.

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