Pamirs, Badakshan, Wakhan area adapt to life

Ismaili monuments, places to visit etc..
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Ramble While You Ramble

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A Week in the Pamirs: Part Two, Murgab to Langar

http://ramblewhileyouramble.wordpress.c ... to-langar/
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My Journey to the Roof of the World

http://nadimnasser.blogspot.ca/2012/11/ ... folks.html
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Pamir Mountains and the Wakhan Corridor June-July 2012 w/ Wild Frontiers

http://jos-travel-blog.blogspot.ca/2012 ... ridor.html
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Pamir Mulberry
Tajikistan


There still exist pristine places without industry and pollution where people live in harmony with their environment. One of them is the autonomous province of Gorno-Badakhshan in Tajikistan. Though its area (about 65,000 sq km) extends over half the country, only 3% is habitable. Gorno-Badakhshan is located among the Pamir Mountains or “Roof of the World”. The few villages are situated in valleys beside rivers and the population cultivates every patch of available land.
Introduced from China via the Silk Route, the mulberry is perfectly adapted to the difficult mountain environment, where it grows between 1100 and 2400 meters above sea level, replacing crops such as wheat and barley, which cannot grow at these altitudes. An important food resource particularly during times of crisis, the bushes are cultivated on small plots of land and the elderly producers say that some are over a hundred years old.
There are more than 60 varieties of mulberry in the Pamir region, the result of centuries of natural selection and adaptation. They can be eaten raw or transformed into jams and syrups; the berries can also be eaten dried, whole or ground, and made into pikht, which is generally mixed with other seeds and cereals to make a traditional sweet food. Pikht is used as a sweetener in tea, fermented milk or sour cream or alternatively mixed with ricotta cheese as an ingredient in cake fillings.
Mulberries are mainly harvested for family consumption: In summer families put as many as 20-30 sacks of dried mulberry aside as a reserve for the winter.
In the local culture the mulberry tree and fruit are associated with beauty: Berries were traditionally given to a couple to make their life sweeter, and before starting to build a new house, a mulberry tree would be planted.
During the Second World War and the extended civil war which afflicted the country until 1997, mulberry played a crucial role in providing the main source of nutrition for the local population.
Presidium
Producers
Info & contacts


The community of Khorog mulberry producers which formed the Presidium has been part of the Terra Madre network since 2004.
The Presidium—created in collaboration with Bioversity International—currently comprises 23 producers from four districts in the autonomous province of Gorno-Badakhshan, organized into groups of 5 or 6 people.
Its main objective is to defend the Pamir tradition of eating mulberry, which has significantly decreased in recent years with the spread of industrial products. Shoista Mubalieva, a mulberry expert from the Pamir Biological Institute of the Tajikistan Academy of Sciences, is carrying out work to classify and catalog local varieties, and is selecting those most suitable for promotion.
The Presidium will provide the producers with the equipment required to gather, dry and preserve the berries.

Production Area
Districts of Shugnan, Rushan, Yazgulyam and Vanch, Autonomous Province of Gorno-Badakhshan

http://www.slowfoodfoundation.com/pagin ... o?-id=2437

Technical Partners
Bioversity International
Pamir Biological Institute, GBAO, Tajikistan
Mamadiyev Khudonazar, Navruzmamadova Noziya,
Barushan village, Rushan region

Chuponova Gulbakht, Burbonmamadova Maysara, Dovutova Sakina, Ruzadorova Sabdavlat, Shakarmamadova Tamara, Barosebova Xayotbegim, Arabmoyeva Zukhal,
Dehrushan village, Rushan region

Ismatulloyev Avsotorbek, Rustamova Gulbakhor, Gulova Gulchezra, Nurova Mukaddas, Murodova Parinamo, Orzuyeva Tozagul
Motravn village, Vanch region

Erkos Daler, Khuronova Farida, Davlatova Gulbakhar, Iskandarova Nargiye, Khuronova Shabnam
Markazi village, Vanch region

Kodirova Usnoro
Porshinev village, Shugnan region
Coordinator
Mohira Rahimjonova
Tel. +992 93 503 27 99, +992 35 22 24161
mohira_64@yahoo.com

Coordinator
Shoista Mubalieva
Tel. +992935229542 +992352228009
shoistam@mail.ru
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Prayer Houses of Badakhshan, Tajikistan, Through the Lens of Muslim Harji

http://simergphotos.com/2015/08/29/pray ... lim-harji/
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Review Essays

Journal of Persianate Studies


Symposium: Shrine Traditions, Human Ecology and Identity in the Pamir
Jo-Ann Gross, Introduction


Karim-Aly S. Kassam, Umed Bulbulshoev, Morgan Ruelle, Ecology of Time: Calendar of the Human Body in the Pamir Mountains

Villagers in the Pamir Mountains of Afghanistan and Tajikistan integrated the human body into the seasons and rhythms of their ecological relations to generate “calendars of the human body.” These calendars illustrate that culture does not exist outside of its ecological foundation (i.e. nature), but is firmly situated within it. Farmers undertook agro-pastoral and hunting activities using their own bodies not only for labor, but as a measure of the changing tempo of the seasons. Their bodies both interacted with life on the land and acted as organic clocks to mark the passage of time. While these calendars are no longer widely used, memory of their usage survives, and words from the calendars marking specific ecological events in local languages are still in use. This paper (1) investigates the historical presence and human ecological significance of a calendar of the human body; (2) illustrates the diversity of these calendars based on the specific context of their use from valley to valley in the region; (3) demonstrates the complex connectivity of the users (agro-pastoralists) within their habitat; and, (4) explores the efficacy of this calendar in developing anticipatory capacity among villagers in order to reduce anxiety associated with climate change. The calendar of the human body not only measures time, but gives it meaning.

*****

John Mock, Shrine Traditions of Wakhan Afghanistan

This study, based on field work from 2004 to 2010, describes the religious, social and historical context of shrines in Wakhan District of Badakhshan Province, Afghanistan. Scholarly analysis of the significance of the shrines is balanced with the perspective of the people of Wakhan for whom the shrine traditions are part of a living landscape. Translated excerpts from interviews conducted in the Wakhi language at the shrines bring the Wakhi voice to the study, which focuses on one shrine (the shrine of the miracle of Nāser Khosrow in Yimit village) as an exemplar of shrine traditions. The study draws comparisons between documented shrine traditions in adjacent Wakhan Tajikistan and in Hunza-Gojal of Pakistan, locates the traditions within Pamir Ismaʿilism, and suggests outlines of a broader Pamir interpretive community.

******
Till Mostowlansky, Paving the Way: Ismaʿili Genealogy and Mobility along Tajikistan’s Pamir Highway

This article is an ethnographic study of Ismaʿili communities along the Pamir Highway. “The road,” as it is referred to locally, links Southern Kyrgyzstan with settlements in the eastern part of Tajikistan; its construction traces back to Soviet modernization policy. However, the highway’s construction in the course of the twentieth century led not only to a physical, but also a social transformation of the region. Labor migration of Ismaʿili Tajiks to various settlements along the road resulted in ethnically and confessionally mixed communities. Thus, the Pamir Highway as an ethnographic point of reference provides an entry to discussion of topics such as genealogy, identity, diaspora, and the notion of an Ismaʿili heartland.

http://www.brill.com/sites/default/file ... ochure.pdf
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Tajikistan: Highlights of Pamir & Wakhan – Bibi Fatima Springs, Ishkashim and more

Travelling the Wakhan Valley in Tajikistan
BY EUGENE ANGJAN 20, 2016

Tajikistan is known for its rugged landscape and majestic mountains, which will be especially evident if you pay a visit to its most famous mountain range, the Pamirs. Dramatic snow-capped peaks, breathtaking views of its valleys, as well as sparsely-inhabited towns and villages are all part of what you can see there.

Yamchun Fortress. (Photo credit: Daisuke Ikei)

Located in a region called Kohistani Badakhshan, though most people still refer to it by its Soviet-era abbreviation, GBAO (Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Oblast), the Pamirs lie in the most remote area of what is already a very remote country.

In this article, I will briefly describe some of the highlights of my journey through the Tajik side of the Wakhan Valley, which I undertook in July 2015.

Ishkashim

If you are travelling to the Wakhan Valley from Khorog, Ishkashim will be the first town you will encounter. Do spend some time wandering around this small town, for the local children are very friendly. I spent quite a while with a group of boys who were perpetually screaming for me to take their photos!

The Pamiris are renowned for their hospitality and it is normal for travelers to be invited for tea and snacks. Even though there will most certainly a language barrier if you don’t speak Russian or Tajik, the experience will still be very enriching. I am always heartened to observe how people can be so warm and hospitable to total strangers, even when they themselves do not have much.

From the left: Inside a traditional Pamiri house with its distinctive skylight; Enthusiastic boys wanting their photos taken; Mountains in Afghanistan as seen from Ishkashim. (Photo credit: Daisuke Ikei)

You can get some good glimpses of the mountains on the Afghan side of the Wakhan Valley too if you venture out of Ishkashim, which is really easy since the town is really quite small. That said, the area near the Panj River, which demarcates the Tajik-Afghan border, is forbidden to foreigners.

Bibi Fatima Springs

About 1km further uphill from the Yamchun Fortress are the Bibi Fatima Springs. Named after the daughter of the Prophet Muhammad, the waters of the springs are believed to increase a woman’s fertility. As a result, the hot springs are a popular destination for Tajik women. There are two different rooms in the compound of the hot springs—men and women alternate between them at regular intervals.
The Bibi Fatima hot springs are the vermilion-coloured buildings (right). (Photo credit: Daisuke Ikei)
Thanks to renovation works by the Aga Khan Foundation, the Bibi Fatima Springs are said to be the most nicely-furnished in the region. There are three guesthouses near the hot springs and I chose to stay in the one closest to the entrance of the springs. Although there are no showers in the guesthouse I stayed in, the hot springs definitely more than made up for it!

Langar

Langar is located near where the Pamir and Wakhan Rivers converge to form the Panj River, which demarcates virtually the entirety of the Tajik-Afghan border westwards of the town. The children of the town are also very friendly. Somehow, they all seem to know at least two English words: “photo” and “homestay.”

While wandering around the town, two boys also brought it upon themselves to lead us to a peaceful and beautiful shrine-garden. It commemorates the man said to have introduced Ismailism (a branch of Shia Islam) to Langar, at least according to Lonely Planet.
Langar: View from the petroglyphs. (Photo credit: Daisuke Ikei)
In any case, the short five days I spent in the Wakhan Valley itself has not only been a feast for the eyes, but a banquet for the soul. After all, the Pamirs is not a place where one can make firm plans well in advance; neither is it a place packed with the conveniences of a well-established tourism infrastructure. As such, travelling the Pamirs demands a certain mindset: a submission, a letting-go.

But in return, it guarantees a definite experience: a harkening to a lost pureness, perhaps, or even more evocatively, a transcendence of time and space. It is certainly a place where you have to surrender yourself to the imperceptible passage of the days and the unbounded vastness of its lands—and therein lies its sheer beauty.

Source: Go Beyond | Travelling Wakhan Valley Tajikistan

https://ismailimail.wordpress.com/2016/ ... -and-more/
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Andrew Quilty: Down the Wakhan Corridor

Viewed on a map, the Wakhan Corridor seems a peculiar territory, a narrow strip of northeast Afghanistan that stretches between Pakistan to the south and Tajikistan to the north and ends on the Chinese border. Politically, it is an invention of the Great Game, a buffer zone between old empires, but there is a geographic reality to it. The Corridor is exactly that, a long and nearly impenetrable valley flanked by some of the tallest peaks of the Pamirs (including Afghanistan’s highest—Noshaq at 24,580 feet). To this day, it remains one of the few regions of the country that the Taliban have failed to step foot in.

In Afghanistan, security is a rare luxury. With everything else that the Wakhan has to offer to travelers, its tranquility is still one of its most appealing traits. It was certainly an added bonus when I was asked by the Aga Khan Foundation, which conducts development programs in the Wakhan and throughout the north of the country, to accompany a small team into the Corridor. Not having to watch my back was a relief that is rarely afforded in the parts of Afghanistan my work usually takes me to.

https://ismailimail.wordpress.com/2016/ ... -corridor/
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Afghanistan’s enigmatic food secret

At the centre of one of the Earth’s harshest environments, on the border of Afghanistan and Tajikistan, two cookbook authors have found “a profoundly human place”.

By Rowena Henley
29 July 2016

In May 2016, a cookbook on one of the most remote and enigmatic cultures in the world won the title of Best Cookbook Of The Year at the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards.

This surprising accolade paid tribute to the Pamir region on the border of Afghanistan and Tajikistan, an ominous environment of steep cliffs, deep valleys, remote villages and harsh weather. It seems an unlikely place to source award-winning recipes – but With Our Own Hands is far more than just a recipe book.

100 recipes are explored through the eyes of the Pamiri people and the history of their homeland (Credit: Jamila Haider)

The ambitious project began in 2009, when PhD student Jamila Haider and her co-author, Dutch ethno-botanist Fredrik van Oudenhoven, met while working in Tajikistan. They instantly discovered a mutual love for the Pamir region and a mutual anxiety for its future. While working on development projects, both scientists had seen the erosion of Pamiri traditions firsthand, with foreign food being favoured over ancestral recipes and young people leaving the mountains without plans to return.

The day after their first meeting, the two scientists came across an elderly grandmother while exploring the village of Mun in the Ghund Valley of the Tajik Pamirs. The woman recounted the recipes of her childhood and explained the importance they held for her and the Pamiri people. These recipes had only ever been passed down orally from generation to generation.

The cookbook is full of vibrant photography and local legends (Credit: Jamila Haider)

“The woman asked us to write down her recipes. That way, she said, she could leave them for her children and grandchildren,” Haider said. “The real need for the book became very clear.”

Each of the book’s 100 recipes is explored through the eyes of the Pamiri people and the history of their homeland, with spellbinding stories of local legends, opium addiction and Soviet influence. Readers will learn that time can be recorded without a clock and that “enough” can be a form of measurement. They will pick up practical tips: how to store meat without a refrigerator, for example, or how to turn plants into medicine.

The Pamir region is full of cultural riches and one of a kind recipes (Credit: Frederik Van Oudenhoven)

Special care is taken to explain the relationship between the land and what it produces, and how this remote, hostile landscape is unpredictably perfect for delicious, unique ingredients to grow. Rush-kakht, for example, a type of red wheat used to make Baht (a thick porridge) for Baht Ayom, the Persian New Year, only grows in very specific microclimates in the upper reaches of the Bartang Valley.

“It has a very high sugar content,” Haider explained, “and releases its sweetness slowly, creating a distinct, rich and much beloved taste.”

The book itself is as vibrant as the people and recipes it describes, with exquisite, intimate photography decorating almost every page. The text is presented in three languages, with Dari (in Arabic script) and Tajik (in Cyrillic) sitting alongside the English. Although the translation process was tough (with Haider's translator having to recruit a “small army” of students to help), the authors knew just how essential it was for the Pamiri people to see their recipes written in their mother tongues.

The cookbook came full circle when the authors returned to the village to distribute copies (Credit: Fredrik van Oudenhoven)

Five years after meeting the grandmother, Haider and Oudenhoven returned to the region with 1,700 books to distribute to the local people – and finally saw their hard work pay off.

“At first, people liked looking through the photographs, and finding people and landscapes that they knew,” Haider said. “But when they started reading it, and realising that these were the names of local dishes and crops, which they had never seen in print before, some of them started to laugh in disbelief! One man told us, ‘you have captured our knowledge that before only existed in our hands.’”

Haider recounted how one woman believed the book was so precious that she sewed a bag to protect it in, and keeps it next to her Quran.

"This remote, hostile landscape is unpredictably perfect for delicious, unique ingredients to grow" (Credit: Jamila Haider)

“When we hear of Afghanistan or see images of it in the news, we see bombs, and barren deserts with tanks and Talib fighters, or we hear stories of female oppression and inequality,” Haider said.

She hopes that this book will help change perceptions of the villages, towns and cities of Tajikistan and Afghanistan, focussing instead on the many cultural riches – and delicious dishes – to be found.

If you liked this story, sign up for the weekly bbc.com features newsletter, called “If You Only Read 6 Things This Week”. A handpicked selection of stories from BBC Future, Earth, Culture, Capital, Travel and Autos, delivered to your inbox every Friday.

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Peace but extreme poverty in isolated region of Afghanistan

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http://wivb.com/2016/09/07/peace-but-ex ... ghanistan/

Peace but extreme poverty in isolated region of Afghanistan

The Associated Press Published: September 7, 2016, 2:04 pm

WAKHAN, Afghanistan (AP) — Saeed Beg and his family live in a two-room mud house with no electricity or running water, no bathroom, no kitchen and no furniture apart from a few threadbare rugs and a couple of thin mattresses.

With his mother, wife and five children aged from 8 months to 14 years sitting alongside, he describes life in the Sarkand valley of Afghanistan’s far northeastern Wakhan corridor as “very difficult.” As he talks, the face of a child laying kindling on the roof to dry appears in the pentagonal hole in the ceiling — typical of the homes of Ismaili Muslims, supported by five pillars. The hole lets in the fading evening light, and when Beg’s wife Azalma sets a fire, the smoke curls up toward the velvety-blue, starlit sky.

Beg describes how he exchanges his sheep and goats for food — rice, cooking oil, salt — in the barter system that is the main form of financial transaction here in the shadow of the Hindu Kush.

“We do it because there is no money,” he says. “We don’t have any income, and if we don’t do it, my kids will go hungry. We’ll all be hungry all the time.”

He looks at his boys, snotty-nosed but healthy, their clothes dirty but enough to keep them warm as they tend the livestock after school. Beg wants them to grow up to work for the government “so then they can feed me.”

The Wakhan corridor, which has been named Afghanistan’s second national park, is the country’s most — perhaps only — peaceful region. But it is so poor, even for Afghanistan, that people get food on credit or barter for it, and children go barefoot during the long, harsh winters. The Ismaili Shiite Muslim community here also fears being targeted by the nearby Sunni Taliban — so much that many women in Iskashim, the town at the mouth of the valley, have started to wear the all-covering burqa.

Wakhan, in Badakhshan province, is an aberration of 19th century geopolitics, split east to west in 1873 to create a buffer between the Russian and British empires. Afghanistan confirmed the new border 20 years later, and Wakhan has been mostly forgotten ever since. Ask any Afghan where it is, and they make a fist with their thumb protruding like a hitchhiker; the thumb represents a landlocked peninsula that ends at a 76-km (47-mile) closed border with China, sandwiched between Tajikistan to the north and Pakistan to the south.

An unmade road cuts along the southern bank of the Amu Darya river that divides Afghanistan from Tajikistan. The valley is overlooked by perpetually snow-capped peaks that ensure punishing winds and night-time temperatures close to zero even during the short summer.

On the Tajik side, the road is sealed, and electricity lines feed villages with bright yellow satellite dishes on the rooftops. On the Afghan side, the region is home to around 17,000 Ismailis, followers of the Aga Khan, one of the world’s wealthiest men and their hereditary spiritual leader for 49 generations. For the past century, the Aga Khans have been better known in the West for their glamorous lifestyles, including a penchant for marrying models and movie stars, a love of horse racing, and a custom of receiving their body weight in gold as annual tribute from their impoverished followers.

Here in Wakhan — where the largely Tajik people are known as Wakhis and speak a Pamiri dialect called Wakhi — paper money is almost useless. Villagers measure their wealth in livestock, and grow wheat for bread and oats for their animals. This year a blight has turned the wheat ears red and the bread black, forcing people to use more livestock to barter for food. It’s a long and arduous drive for truckers bringing in rice, so the price is triple that in the capital, Kabul, almost 400 kilometers (250 miles) southwest.

The main street of Wakhan’s administrative center of Khandood is lined with shops — wooden shacks on stilts, most padlocked shut. A few young men, most wearing salwar khameez and plastic shoes, hang around, as there’s not much else to do. Some ride by on donkeys.

Mohammad Ayub took over his shop from his father; it’s been in the family for 50 years, he says. He sells biscuits, cigarettes, brake fluid, 50-kilogram sacks of rice from Kazakhstan, and locally-grown red onions — or he would if he had any customers.

Even people who have jobs are not paid regularly, he says. So he gives them what they need on credit — which means he has to shop on credit too.

“No one has any money,” he says. “Everyone here owes everyone else. Sometimes I’ll accept produce, like sheep, rice, flour, tea, sugar, whatever people have.”

Fatima Roshan is conducting a basic necessities survey in 18 of the 42 villages in the Wakhan corridor for the World Conservation Society. She’s been into the homes of people who never eat meat, don’t know what clean water is and go months without washing.

Many men in the corridor marry, she says, “three, four, five times, one woman after another because their wives die in childbirth.” For their part, the women fear pregnancy, thinking they will die during or after giving birth.

While the level of poverty here is breathtaking, things have improved in recent years. Foreign governments and organizations have funded bridges, irrigation channels, reforestation projects, schools and a clinic. The list of donors only emphasizes the Wakhan’s almost complete reliance on the largesse of the outside world.

For lack of any other opportunities, many young Wakhi men join the armed forces, according to Shah Ismail, whose ancestors have represented the Aga Khan for hundreds of years.

“The people here feel ignored, isolated and hopeless,” he says. “There are no human rights, equality or justice for the people of the Wakhan.”

The local authorities are trying to change things. Two years ago, the Kabul government named the Wakhan a national park. According to district governor Nasratullah Nayel, many locals were concerned the declaration meant their land would be taken away. So this month officials are travelling through the valley to convince people that the national park will attract tourists and create jobs.

Nayel concedes that with only 100 tourists a year, it will be a long time before any economic benefits start to flow.

In the meantime, he says, his administration is dealing with other consequences of poverty, including rising opium addiction. Opium production, worth up to $3 billion a year, helps fund the Taliban insurgency. As opium gradually makes its way into the Wakhan, the number of addicts is growing, Nayel said.

He is hoping the Taliban-led insurgency that has reached Badakhshan does not come to the valley too. Just 30 kilometers (18 miles) from Ishkashim, the town at the entrance to the valley, the Taliban and other criminal groups control the world’s oldest lapis lazuli mines, in Warduj district. According to mining officials, the Taliban make millions of dollars each year in protection money paid by the gangs who smuggle the rare blue stone to Pakistan.

The presence of the Taliban so nearby has further isolated the valley by making the road between Ishkashim and the rest of the country impassable. It has also instilled a fear that insurgents may target villagers simply because they are followers of the Ismaili branch of Shiite Islam, widely considered a cult by other Muslims.

Shah Langar, uncle of Shah Ismail, says an influx of foreign tourists may attract the Taliban’s attention. Sipping salted tea in his wooden house in Qazideh village, he says the Tajik government closed the border bazaars, where traders from both countries could meet for business, more than 10 months ago amid security concerns.

“It generally hasn’t had a huge effect on us because the people here don’t have anything anyway, we often go without tea, rice, sugar,” he said. “The government never does anything for us. We are in a forgotten corner of Afghanistan.”
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An ancient route through the clouds

By Pascal Mannaerts3 October 2016

Once part of the legendary Silk Road, Central Asia’s Pamir Mountains might be the world’s last true adventure.

Photo Gallery:

http://www.bbc.com/travel/gallery/20160 ... he-clouds-

Highlight:

A distinct heritage

Since the area is so isolated, the Pamiri people have a strong cultural identity that is markedly different from the rest of Tajikistan. The Pamiris are mostly Ismaili and thus belong to the Shia branch of Islam, while most Tajiks are Sunni Muslims. They also have their own languages as well handicrafts, jewellery and distinctive music and dancing traditions.

Every July, the capital town of Khorog hosts the Roof of the World Festival, where dancers and artisans from across the Pamir region – as well as other mountain communities along the historical Silk Road – come together. The festival has not only become a platform for cultural integration, but ensures the protection of the area’s unique heritage
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This Remote Pakistani Village Is Nothing Like You’d Expect

Over the years, a mountainous region in Pakistan has become my second home. I’ve seen firsthand how global events have hurt locals’ livelihoods and how technology has challenged the meaning of tradition.


Above the village of Passu, a teenager checks his Facebook. Many residents here are Ismaili, followers of a moderate branch of Islam. A sign on the mountain slope commemorates the time in 1987, when the Ismaili imam, the Aga Khan, visited the remote region.


PASSU, Pakistan—Sajid Alvi is excited. He just got a grant to study in Sweden.


“My Ph.D. is about friction in turbo jet engines,” Alvi says. “I will work on developing new aerospace materials—real geeky stuff!”


Alvi’s relatives have come to bid him farewell as he prepares to leave his mountain village and study in a new country, some 3,000 miles away.


“We will see you again,” one of them says as they hang out in the potato field in front of Alvi’s house. “You know you won’t get far with a long beard like that. You look like Taliban!”


Alvi, dressed in low-hanging shorts and a Yankees cap, is far from a fundamentalist: He’s Wakhi, part of an ethnic group with Persian origins. And like everyone else here, he is Ismaili—a follower of a moderate branch of Islam whose imam is the Aga Khan, currently residing in France. There are 15 million Ismailis around the world, and 20,000 live here in the Gojal region of northern Pakistan.


Nice photographs at:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016 ... tan-islam/
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French Article

http://www.ara.cat/suplements/diumenge/ ... 30502.html

Per les muntanyes del Tadjikistan

És un dels països més misteriosos i poc coneguts de l’Àsia central, amb una història que remet a les gestes d’Alexandre el Gran, dels grans poetes sufís i, fa menys, del comunisme soviètic

Text i fotografies: XAVIER MORET Actualitzada el 27/11/2016 00:00

Google translate:

The mountains of Tajikistan

It is one of the most mysterious and little known in Central Asia, with a story that refers to the exploits of Alexander the Great, the great Sufi poets and less, of Soviet communism
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A LIFE OF FREEDOM
Inside the remote regions of Afghanistan where vicious Taliban thugs have NEVER been able to impose their brutal rule


The Afghan Pamir is a region of delicate peace located in the stunning but harsh mountains and valleys of northeastern Afghanistan

These stunning pictures reveal the region and its inhabitants in all their glory as they work land comprising beautiful rolling valleys and mountains.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/2341701/i ... utal-rule/
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Tajikistan: with Yak and bag in the Pamirs

Tajikistan is wild and wonderful, a blank spot on the tourist map. A team from Globetrotter went on a tour to the Pamir Mountains and returned delighted. In 2017, the Globetrotter Academy will organise another trip – and four GM readers can take part for free.

“A terrific, almost pristine landscape and friendly, welcoming people – that is how I experienced Tajikistan”, explains Globetrotter manager Andreas Bartmann. Last summer, he travelled through the Central Asian mountain region with his friends Kay Rittmeister, Holger Moths and Thomas Lipke. Usually, they work together: Kay has supported Globetrotter for many years as a lawyer, Holger as an architect and Thomas was the CEO until recently. Every couple of years the old mates plan a special tour, and after a canoe trip through Canada and a dog sled expedition on Spitzbergen, they then wanted to go on a “journey into the unknown”. Leave the comfort zone, discover something new, broaden the horizon.

More...
http://globetrotter-magazin.de/magazina ... bag-pamirs
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Wisdom of the Mountains


The Pamiri people of Afghanistan and Tajikistan are among the most isolated communities in the world. They live according to centuries-old traditions. Slowly but surely Western influences enter this remote mountain region.
In this documentary film we travel through the Pamir Mountains with Frederik van Oudenhoven. He is the author of ‘With our own hands’, a book about the traditional dishes and the food and farming culture of the Pamiri people. It is the first written source about their culture that is accessible in their own language. Frederik brings his book back to its source. He speaks with farmers about the struggles they are facing: can the Pamiri people stay true to their old traditions while adapting to a new world?


11 April 2017: Frederik van Oudenhoven presents the documentary film Wisdom of the Mountains in Leiden University

VIDEO and more at:

http://mongolschinaandthesilkroad.blogs ... tains.html
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How a music school in Gilgit is keeping indigenous traditions alive

GILGIT: Impeccably dressed in crisp white garb, black waistcoats and neatly-polished black shoes, the students of the indigenous music school Bulbulik in Gojal Valley, Gilgit is making efforts to revive musical traditions that are on the verge of extinction.

There may be little support but that has not discouraged the institution from doing what it loves: playing freestyle/Pamiri music with conventional instruments like Ghazxek, Surnaye, Tutek, Gabi and Sitar. The musicians feel happy when onlookers cheer for them; when they play their soothing lullabies, the native Parmiri find a voice.

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https://tribune.com.pk/story/1406074/mu ... ons-alive/
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Pamir: exploring the ‘roof of the world’ in remote Tajikistan

The Pamir — a range of mountains and high-altitude plateaus that stretches through Tajikistan to Kyrgyzstan and Afghanistan — offers visitors uncompromising terrain, stunning views, unmatched hospitality and distinctive religious traditions. Find out how to get around the New East’s most remote outposts

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http://www.calvertjournal.com/articles/ ... tajikistan
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http://menafn.com/1096717927/14000-tour ... -last-year

14,000 tourists visited Badakhshan last year



Date
4/10/2018 4:44:26 PM

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(MENAFN - Pajhwok Afghan News) FAIZABAD (Pajhwok): At least 14,000 domestic and foreign tourists visited verdant landscapes of northeastern Badakhshan province last year, say government officials. The number of tourists is on the increase

Information and Culture Director Naqibullah Saqib told Pajhwok Afghan News around 136 foreign tourists from the US, Italy and Germany visited different areas of Badakhshan in the solar year 1396.

Dr. Shams Ali Shams, director of the Aga Khan Foundation in Badakhshan, said under an agreement with the Ministry of Information, tourist spots in Wakhan, which were neglected during the war, had been rehabilitated.

The Wakhan areas had been rehabilitated to promote tourism in the province, he said, adding guesthouses and modern bathrooms had been established in different parts of the district.

He added: €œThe Aga Khan Foundation has successfully projected the historical importance of Pamir to the world. Jointly with the Ministry of Culture, we are making efforts to promote tourism in the province.€�

Siddiqui Lalzad, director of information and culture, told Pajhwok the people of Wakhan and Ishkashim districts had earned about $200,000 last year, a crucial step toward the growth of the region€™s economy.

Faiz Mohammad, a resident of Wakhan, said the number of tourists to Pamir had increased. €œThe services we have provided to them have led to a remarkable income.
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A year in the Pamirs - A traveller's tale

I’ve been in these mountains for nearly a year! That was not something I had planned on.

I first arrived in the Pamirs in August of last year in a 4×4 Jeep bumping along the Pamir Highway from Osh to Dushanbe. And here I am still, nestled in the Pamir mountains of my beloved Badakhshan. During the COVID-19 global pandemic, the Pamirs Eco-Cultural Tourism Association (PECTA) office, the office of the Gorno Badakhshan Autonomous Oblast (GBAO) governor Mr. Yodgor, and Mr. Jobiri and his team at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs have provided invaluable support to me.


The ruins of the legendary Yamchun fortress
Last summer I set out with my bicycle to travel from Moscow to Beijing on the alternative Trans Siberian Express, unfolding my bicycle to explore along the way. My journey was meant to be only three months, but at some point I decided to stop along my route for the winter, intending to continue to Beijing the next spring.

I volunteered as an English teacher in Khorog staying in Tajikistan on a six week tourist visa and leaving the country to explore neighbouring countries at each six week interval in order to re-enter Tajikistan on a new tourist visa. (Make sure to put Afghan Badakhshan— a literal stone’s throw away—on your travel list!).

In my capacity as a volunteer teacher for the Life Skills Program of the Ismaili Jammat Council, I traveled to all of the Districts of GBAO to provide trainings to English teachers in their villages. I’ve come to love the Pamirs and its people.

As fall turned to winter and winter turned to spring, the cherry tree outside the window of my host family’s home beckoned. As I savoured the last jars of cherry jam in the family’s pantry, I didn’t think I would still be here when the cherries ripened, but then COVID-19 become a global pandemic and here I am eating fresh cherries— and apricots, mulberries, and apples— directly from the trees of the garden.

“As I savoured the last jars of cherry jam in the family’s pantry, I didn’t think I would still be here when the cherries ripened, but then COVID-19 become a global pandemic and here I am eating fresh cherries”
From the moment I first stepped into the PECTA office last fall, the staff have been extremely supportive, going out of their way to help me— at times literally, physically accompanying me to government buildings for this registration or that registration and other times picking up my worried phone call at an odd hour. My assistance from the office of the GBAO governor Mr. Yodgor and Mr. Jobiri and his team at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs would not have been possible without the support of the PECTA team.


PECTA information centre in Khorog
At the height of the quarantine, after the airport and all borders had been closed, the office of the GBAO governor Mr. Yodgor granted me permission to stay in Khorog with my expired tourist visa instead of traveling to the capital to try and resolve the situation at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Travel from Khorog – the capital of the GBAO – and Dushanbe is treacherous on a good day, with road closures and landslides always an ever real possibility on the 15-20 hour car ride with seven other passengers (and no seat belts) on mostly unsaved roads. During a global pandemic, where all but essential travel is unadvisable, the journey becomes even more perilous. Being in my host family’s home, surrounded by our garden, during the nearly two month lockdown in the fresh air of the mountains was a gift.


Roads in the Pamirs
Mr. Jobiri and his team at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs did eventually announce a reprieve on all expired visas during the lockdown. When the time came for me to travel to Dushanbe this month to get my visa into order, the entire process – typically two weeks – only took one day thanks to the assistance of Mr. Jobiri. The expedited process allowed me to swiftly return back to my home in the Pamirs.


Wool spinners in the Pamirs
The airport is slowly re-opening and it will be time for me to leave the Pamirs soon. These mountains have become home to see so it wont be goodbye, but see you soon because I know I’ll be back before I know it. Have you been to the Pamirs before? Maybe you’re dreaming of your first trip or maybe just longing to return. Your first stop should be the PECTA office. As the Pamirs have grown in popularity, there are many blogs sharing personal travel accounts. These blogs can be great starting points, but the PECTA office can provide up-to-date information and in the ever changing landscape of these mountains the most up-to-date information is the most important.

“Travel blogs can be great starting points, but the PECTA office can provide up-to-date information and in the ever changing landscape of these mountains the most up-to-date information is the most important.”
Perhaps what I appreciate most about the staff at the PECTA office is that they’ve encouraged me. The PECTA office is staffed by people who love their home and want to share the Pamirs with you. The Pamir Eco-Cultural Tourism Association encourages you to explore both the nature and culture of the Pamirs because they are inseparable here in these mountains. So before you rush through Khorog – as I did on my first 4×4 Jeep tour of the Pamir Highway – spend a day or two in Khorog and linger in the Khorog City park where the PECTA office is located. Sit on a park bench snacking on fresh apricots and admire the beauty of the Jammat Khana Ismaili Center as you people watch. Or better yet, take public transportation from Dushanbe (or Osh!) to Khorog and figure out your plan once you’re here. Because these mountains are inspiring and the PECTA office is here to help.


Blog author Jennifer Charlotta Suzdak in the Pamirs


The Pamir Eco-Cultural Tourism Association (PECTA) was established in 2008 with the support of the Aga Khan Foundation. Its overall objective is to help alleviate poverty in the Pamir region in Tajikistan through tourism focused activities. It does so by promoting the region as a tourism destination and by supporting local people in the remote mountain villages of Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Oblast (GBAO) to develop skill sets that build the tourism sector. Currently, PECTA has 22 members: 14 tour operators and 8 service providers. Additionally, PECTA is working with other tour operators, service providers, home-stays owners, drivers, guides, porters and other relevant sectors in GBAO. PECTA closely supports the home stays in the region with organising trainings and capacity building events. Currently PECTA cooperates with more than 173 home stays all around GBAO and 90% of the owners are women which is a great support for women as business people.

In addition to destination marketing and product development, PECTA works on preserving the historical heritage of the Pamirs, including protection of natural resources: support of the Tajik National Park – a UNESCO nature heritage site – is among its protection of natural resources initiatives.

Since 2018, in cooperation with Aga Khan Foundation Afghanistan and University of Central Asia (UCA), PECTA began promoting tourism in the northern parts of Badakhshan province in Afghanistan and to develop cross-border tourism. Since the start of this collaboration, PECTA began printing a brochure about cross-border tourism opportunities and produced promotional videos.

By Jennifer Charlotta Suzdak
3 September 2020

Photos at:

https://www.akf.org.uk/a-year-in-the-pa ... 25c8c5fc8d
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Ismaili Islam in Shugnan

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https://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2021/0 ... fghanistan

June 01, 2021

Ishmaeli Islam, is it Better For Women in Shughnan, Afghanistan?

In Shughnan, rural Afganistan, inhabitants have a different style of traditional life as they follow Ishmaeli Islam. Women are frequently seen without the Burka and socializing with male friends.

Johanna HiggsMay 29, 2021 3:54 p.m.

Rabat - “In general life in Afghanistan is very hard for women,” said a young English teacher in the small town of Shughnan, Afghanistan, famous for its religious identity of Ishmaeli Islam.

We were sat in a small English school, nestled on the banks of a shallow river that marked the border between Afghanistan and Tajikistan. Enormous majestic mountains rose above an emerald-colored river that snaked through the towering mountains.

I was in Afghanistan as part of my work on raising awareness about violence and discrimination against women and girls around the world. A mission that has taken me to many corners of the earth to speak with men and women about this problem.

This time I had decided to visit Afghanistan, which has long been considered one of the most dangerous countries in the world for women.

Dangerous because of the deeply patriarchal and aggressive cultural values that deem women to have less value than men and permit men to engage in violence without repercussions. It is a country where women live in a context of extreme inequality, underdevelopment, and high levels of illiteracy.

According to Human Rights Watch, women and girls face numerous forms of discrimination, including authorities denying women the right to be recognized on their children’s identification and making children exclusively the property of the father.

Barriers to education and employment also remain a significant problem, especially for women living in rural areas of the country. According to UNICEF, 3.7 million Afghan girls still do not attend school.

Violence from families is a tremendous issue and a significant number of women across Afghanistan believe that it is acceptable for their husbands to abuse them. Discriminatory laws fail to protect women and girls from violence and give perpetrators free rein.

“But in Shughnan it is different,” explains one of the English teachers. “Here we’re are allowed to do what we want, we are allowed to study, we are allowed to go abroad, we are allowed to wear different clothes. In other parts of Afghanistan women can’t travel, they can’t study, they have to wear the Burka, it is forced on them.”

He attributed the better situation for women in Shughnan, to their more liberal interpretation of Islam called Ismalilism.

What is Ismaili Islam?

The Shia Ismaili Muslims live in more than 25 countries around the world. Their leader is Prince Karim Aga Khan, known by the Ismailis as Mawlana Hazar Imam, and is commonly referred to as the Aga Khan. Followers consider him to be the 49th hereditary Imam or spiritual leader, and the direct descendant of the Prophet Muhammad.

According to Ismaili Islam, women are not required to wear the hijab and covering the head or face is discouraged. The Aga Khan has publicly stated that the hijab and the veil has nothing to do with Islam and that they are only cultural practices.

“The veil for women is a tradition which precedes Islam and was introduced as a sign of respect of women and not of submission for example, against the concept that woman is an object of the society of men,” he said.

Life in Shughnan

When walking around the small town of Shughnan, at least on appearance, women do seem to have more freedom. Women are more visible on the streets and while they are wearing scarves over their hair, they are not wearing the Burka.

A 19-year-old high school student also agreed that the situation for women and girls was better in Shughnan than other parts of Afghanistan. We sat in the small classroom alone together and while she had covered her hair and wore long clothing, she was not required to cover her face.

“Shughnan is the best place for women. They don’t pressure women and they can do everything that they want. Girls and boys can study together and girls can participate in all the parties and festivals and no one is wearing the Burka.

“They can study and do the same thing as men, they can work in offices, they are school leaders, they are teachers and they are working in foundations. They can dance with boys in parties. The families let them do everything.” she explained.

“Last night we had a party and men and women danced together.”

However, while the situation may be better for women and girls in Shughnan, the situation is far from perfect. The student continued:

“When I say free, women are more free than other provinces. But not as free as in other places because we are backwards and we are always in war. We are stuck like Taliban, ISIS and Al-Qaeda and there are other groups who don’t let women be free.

“In the bazar for example, it’s shameful for women to take off the scarf. Because there are some strange people from other parts of Afghanistan so they can’t take off their scarfs.”

Another 17-year-old student from the same school also said:

“In Shughnan it’s good for women because they can study and they have permission to go to other areas and other countries. But in other areas of Afghanistan, they can’t travel or go places,” she explained. “In some places women are not allowed to use phones or watch TV.

“I can use my phone and Facebook but some other families say that if she has a phone then maybe she has a boyfriend and so she’s not allowed to have one. She’s not allowed to be in love,” she added.

A male teacher at the local English schools said, “there is a big difference between different places in Afghanistan. The majority of the people here are literate.

“We can separate the good from the bad. But when you go to other provinces then there is a big difference. They say that they are following Islamic rules but these are not Islamic rules.”

He points to a picture of a woman with her nose cut off that he has brought to show me from another part of Afghanistan.

“They say that this is Islam,” he says. “But it’s not. We are more open minded and free here. There might be some people who will come here from Kandahar and they will see men and women walking together and they will say because of this we are not Islamic, but we are.”

The words of the Aga Khan portray the desire for freedom, in particular women’s freedom.

“I appeal to you not to plunge people into whimsical matters, denying women human values.... From now on, do not hide and cover women; educate them, do not pressure them and do not marry except one wife, the same as I only have one,” said Aga Khan.

“I have always sought to encourage the emancipation and education of women. In my grandfather’s and my father’s time the Ismailis were far ahead of any other Muslim sect in the matter of the abolition of the strict veil even in extremely conservative countries,” Expanding on this, Aga Khan said.

“I have absolutely abolished it, nowdays you will never find an Ismaili woman wearing the veil. Everywhere I have always encouraged girl’s schools, even in regions where otherwise they were completely unknown. I say with pride that my Ismaili followers are, in this matter of social welfare, far in advance of any other Muslim sect.”

In addition, the Aga Khan said that if a family is having economic problems and they have to choose between supporting the girl or the boy, then they should support the girl.

People can learn much from the Ishameli version of Islam and the Aga Khan’s promotion of women’s rights. It is a lesson to teach us that regardless of where we are in the world be it Africa, Asia, or the Middle East, that the very blatant forms of violence and discrimination against women and girls should never be excused by culture and religion.

Perhaps there is much to be learned by all around the world, that we can always make choices about what we find acceptable and what we do not. We can also always choose what we will accept in our lives and what we will not.

© Morocco World News. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, rewritten or redistributed without permission
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Photo story: local life on a journey through Tajikistan's Pamir Mountains

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In the heart of Central Asia lie the dramatic Pamir Mountains; while the topography of this lofty region poses unique challenges to daily life, new initiatives have helped to bring fresh opportunities to some of Tajikistan’s remotest communities.
BY CHRISTOPHER WILTON-STEER
PHOTOGRAPHS BY CHRISTOPHER WILTON-STEER
PUBLISHED 3 APR 2022, 06:07 BST

Image

At over 11,800ft above sea level, very little grows in the Pamir Mountains, in the easternmost reaches of Tajikistan. The landscape of this Central Asian country is almost lunar in its vast emptiness — the mountains glowing a faint pink and blue in the bright, high-altitude sun.

PHOTOGRAPH BY CHRISTOPHER WILTON-STEER

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Few people live in this remote region, which borders Kyrgyzstan, China and Afghanistan. But that’s not to say travellers won’t encounter warm hospitality; along this stretch of the M41 road — known as the Pamir Highway — some locals will offer those passing through a hot meal and place to spend the night.

PHOTOGRAPH BY CHRISTOPHER WILTON-STEER

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The skulls of Marco Polo sheep stacked on a stone wall. The robust breed is named after the 13th-century Venetian explorer, who came through these parts on his route to China and chronicled the sheep in his writings.

PHOTOGRAPH BY CHRISTOPHER WILTON-STEER

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A semi-nomadic Kyrgyz man in the town of Murghab, Tajikistan’s most easterly and remote outpost. He’s identifiable as Kyrgyz from the distinctive kalpak hat, commonly worn by Tajikistan’s northerly citizens.

PHOTOGRAPH BY CHRISTOPHER WILTON-STEER

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In the town of Murghab, a woman works on a loom to produce handicrafts that are sold to passing travellers with the support of the not-for-profit Aga Khan Foundation (valuable income in a region with limited economic opportunities and challenging geography).

PHOTOGRAPH BY CHRISTOPHER WILTON-STEER

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A yak stands in a pasture near the village of Bulunkul. With their long shaggy hair, yaks are a stolid symbol of Central Asia; hardy beasts that can endure temperatures as low as -40C during the winter months.

PHOTOGRAPH BY CHRISTOPHER WILTON-STEER

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In the stark, yawning landscapes of the country’s far east, the Aksu River has become a reservoir. The waterway is used to power a hydroelectric station, which lies just out of shot, in the furrows of a valley. Nearby Murghab was without electricity until the station opened in 2018, and the township now runs on a reliably clean and affordable source of energy.

PHOTOGRAPH BY CHRISTOPHER WILTON-STEER

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To make a living in the Pamir Mountains, many women harvest Cashgora wool from local breeds of goat. It’s then gathered into yarns and exported, or used locally in the production of fabrics and handicrafts.

PHOTOGRAPH BY CHRISTOPHER WILTON-STEER

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The dusty Pamir Highway twists through rugged terrain and is one of the world’s highest, wildest and remotest roads. It’s not advised to travel in anything other than a four-wheel-drive vehicle.

PHOTOGRAPH BY CHRISTOPHER WILTON-STEER

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Traditional Tajik clothing offers a splash of colour in a landscape of muted browns and greys, and many locals don their finest garb for special occasions — in this case, the opening of a new tourism centre in Bulunkul. Here, travellers can arrange tours and guides for hiking, mountaineering or mountain biking.

PHOTOGRAPH BY CHRISTOPHER WILTON-STEER

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One of the main towns in eastern Tajikistan, Khorugh is home to the Ismaili Jamatkhana and Centre, a place of worship and social gathering for the predominantly Ismaili Muslim population.

PHOTOGRAPH BY CHRISTOPHER WILTON-STEER

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Also in Khorugh is the University of Central Asia, co-established by the governments of Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan in 2017 to provide an education to the region’s remote mountainous communities.

PHOTOGRAPH BY CHRISTOPHER WILTON-STEER

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Strictly speaking, the term ‘pamir’ refers to the region’s high grasslands, although the landscape is dominated by deep river valleys and rocky peaks, most of which were formed hundreds of millions of years ago. The highest summits in the region are found in the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Province, to the country’s east.

PHOTOGRAPH BY CHRISTOPHER WILTON-STEER

https://www.nationalgeographic.co.uk/ph ... jikistanhr
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