Population Tajikistan: 8 million. Average number of people per square km – 48 (India – 380, China – 150, New Zealand – 15).
Tajikistan is covered mostly by mountains, and therefore the main interests are remote and unspoilt villages and interesting mountain roads. The remote Wakhan valley, which is formed by a finger of Afghanistan, separates Tajikistan and Pakistan, and adds further interest for the intrepid traveller. The northern part of Tajikistan has the wide Syr Darya valley, which was one of the main Silk Route passages and therefore has a long visible history.
We crossed into Tajikistan from Uzbekistan at the border post near Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan. It was a slow process, especially since the border officials take one hour lunch break and we unfortunately arrived as they put away their pens and rubber stamps.
Our first impression was that the Tajiks were nowhere near as friendly as the Uzbeks, however we were to be proved wrong. The attitude of the police especially was a welcome change. They were very friendly towards us. We were pulled over many times and in most cases they simply waved us on as soon as they saw we were foreigners. On one occasion in Dushanbe, we noticed a police car behind us, which had put on his flashing blue lights. He pulled up alongside of us and said something to us in a language we did not understand. We gave our standard answer….. “Novaya Zelandiya” (Russian translation for New Zealand) at which he gave us the thumbs-up and drove away. On two occasions we were caught speeding and on both occasions we were sent off with a smile and a friendly… ”Good bye”. Admittedly we did frustrate them by answering either “Novaya Zelandiya” or the name of the next town no matter what they said to us in Russian. The response he got from us when he pointed to our speed on his radar gun was…you guessed it… Novaya Zelandiya.
Dushanbe has very little for the tourist in our view. We however spent many days in Dushanbe trying to secure a visa for Pakistan. This visa is extremely difficult to get, especially if you wish to travel overland as was our intension. The Pakistanis unfortunately follow the old British ways of sticking to rules and not thinking that rules can often be bent, and in this case it is that you have to apply for visas from your home country. This of course is not practical or doable because of our extended travelling. This proved very hard for a bureaucratic official to understand. There was however a glimmer of hope for us. Through good fortune I got talking to a guy at the car wash, who spoke good English, and mentioned that if we needed anything, we can contact him at the Pakistan Bank…did you say Pakistan Bank?..yes we do need help. He knew the right people at the Pakistan Embassy and in no time we were in the Consul’s office. The Consul got on very well with Barbara and soon he said the magic words, no problem, he will issue a visa. Hours later however, our elation turned to disappointment when the Consul, very apologetically, informed us that the Ministry in Islamabad had to approve our visa. The ministry of course wanted to see the application arrive from New Zealand. The Deputy Ambassador invited us to his office for proper Pakistan tea, as he called it, and biscuits. He and the ambassador tried everything to secure our visas, including phoning the Ministry in Islamabad, however it all came to nothing. We left embassy offices very disappointed because we were very keen to travel along the famous Karakorum mountain pass. The problem of not being able to traverse Pakistan meant that we could not travel in India in our own vehicle and escape the cold northern winter. We soon however got over our disappointment because there are a vast number of equally exciting places to visit in other parts of the world.
We had days to spare, whilst waiting for the outcome of our visa application, and decided to visit some of the northern parts of Tajikistan. This included two ancient areas of Penjikent and Khojand. The trip included crossing huge mountains following winding mountain passes. It was snowing when we travelled and this had the nasty effect of dislodging hundreds of rocks and boulders and sent them tumbling down onto the road. One tennis ball size rock hit the side of our vehicle. Such a rock could cause very serious harm if it went through the windscreen. We tried to drive on the outside lane away from the rock face wherever traffic allowed it. We were so amazed that we did not come across any vehicles badly damaged by rock falls along the about 60km of mountain road. The trick is to stay off the roads when the weather closes in.
Penjikent was founded in the 5th century and abandoned 300 years later. The city was a rich trade centre because of its location on the Silk Route and is not located far from the great ancient cities of Samarkand and Bukhara in Uzbekistan. There is basically nothing left of the ancient city, apart from small traces of the ruins. It is hardly worth a quick look around.
Far more interesting in the area, are the seven alpine lakes in the Marguzor valley. The valley was rocked by a powerful earth quake possibly thousands of years ago. This caused at least seven very large rock falls, which formed natural dams, some more than 50m high. Beautiful clear turquoise coloured lakes have formed behind the rock fall dams. We enjoyed a slow 60km drive up the valley. Life in the valley has remained unchanged for many generations, and people, especially women, are very conservative. They hid their faces as soon as we approached and they seemed to be dead against us photographing them. One exception was when we stopped to have a look at a water driven grain mill. Half a dozen women and children gathered to engage with Barbara and soon she had won them over. They were laughing and joking with Barbara, using hand signals, and they wanted me to photograph them with Barbara. Pity we don’t have any means of printing a photo for them.
Khojand is a city with a fascinating history. All the usual suspects had been there including Alexander the Great, who founded the city as his easternmost outpost, the Arabs in the 700’s, Genghis Khan in the 1200’s, Timur in the 1400’s and then more recently, the King of Samarkand, the Russian Tsars and finally, the Soviet Russians. The oldest remains of the city are parts of the 10th century walls of the citadel. There is an excellent museum adjacent to the ancient city wall. Much like the other museums, this one also has displays depicting the full history of the region. One very impressive display is a collection of about ten 2m x 3m (or possibly bigger) murals, each depicting a particular part of Alexander’s life. The murals are made of a mosaic of different sizes and colours of polished marble, which collectively make up the image.
The trip along the Pamir Highway through the Wakhan valley, was one of our most enjoyable journeys. It had all the elements that combined to make it an unforgettable experience – remote valleys, big mountains, interesting and diverse people and the added intrigue of travelling within a stone’s throw of Afghanistan. The Pamir mountain range has three of the four highest mountain peaks in the former Soviet Union. For the first time in our travels, we set off without a plan in terms of where we would likely spend the night. We simply drifted from one day to the next, soaking up the experience. Autumn is a great time to visit the region because of the magnificent golden and red colour of the leaves, combined with the beautiful mountain scenery.
The people of the Pamir region speak a language different from Tajikistan and other areas. Each area within Pamir also speaks a different dialect. Very impressive are especially the children, who speak three or four languages fluently. The children learn Tajik, the national language for national communication, Russian for inter-country (former Soviet states) communication, English because they see it as the key to business and job opportunities, and to allow further study overseas. The parents, or sometimes the local schools, teach the children the local dialect or local language for communication in the home, village and immediate region. We are so amazed that young kids about 10 years and older engaged with us, eager to practice their English and many of them can hold a conversation in English, whilst being fluent in two or three other languages.
The Pyanj River, is one of the main rivers draining the Pamir, and flows into the fabled Amu Darya, which was known as the Oxus in Greek times. This river also forms the border between Tajikistan and Afghanistan. It has cut spectacular gorges flanked by snow capped mountain peaks.
The regional religion is also very different from most of Central Asia, and called Ismailism, a breakaway sect of Shiite Islam, mixed in with Zoroastrian (ancient religion from Persia). The homes reflect some of their beliefs in that the main living space has its roof supported by five columns (five pillars of Islam) and the only ventilation and light is an opening in the roof. The skylight is made of four concentric squares, which represent earth, fire, air and water (Zoroastrian sacred elements). The spiritual leader of this sect is the Aga Khan. He is the 49th in a long line of spiritual leaders and has spent a lifetime using his great wealth to assist development in far off places including spending several hundred million dollars in the Wakhan valley on education. He must be an amazing person and has made a huge difference to people in many parts of the world, including the Pamir. Khan means ruler and that explains why the rulers in this part of the world all seem to have the “surname” khan.
The Pamir Highway (M41) stretches from Termez (Afghanistan/ Uzbekistan border) via Dushanbe (Tajikistan) to Osh (Kyrgyzstan) and measures about 1,600km and was constructed by the Russians in the late 1800’s and the Soviets in the 1930’s as a military access road. Highway is an overstatement, and is in many areas only a rough narrow un-surfaced road. Sections have been improved. We covered the first 500km between Dushanbe and Khorog in two days, with the only real interest being our first views of Afghanistan on the opposite side of the narrow gorge formed by the Pyanj River.
Khorog is a small town, albeit the capital of the Pamir region. We had suffered damage to the underbody of our vehicle on the terrible roads, and amazingly, the university in the town, established and funded by the Aga Khan, has a fully equipped high-tech German designed vehicle workshop. Students are trained here as motor mechanics. Although speed and urgency were traits lacking in the workshop, German precision prevailed, and they did an excellent job of repairing our vehicle. Spares are easy to obtain because the Land Cruiser is the vehicle of choice for the local taxi owners. Having said that, the innovative and resilient Tajiks can find any spare in double quick time. German travellers, whom we had met several times during the past six weeks, required urgent repairs to their VW, a vehicle unknown in Tajikistan. The spares were flown from Moscow to Dushanbe, and from there a taxi carried the spares, which were ultimately delivered in Khorog in the space of a few days.
Khorog also stages an interesting Saturday Afghan market. Afghans cross the bridge from Afghanistan into no-man’s land, and locals, including the odd tourist as ourselves, may enter no-man’s land to browse and do shopping. We enjoyed mingling with the crowd and seeing Pamir Afghans in their peculiar dress, at close quarters. There were numerous Afghan and Tajik soldiers in the crowd keeping everybody safe. We each bought ourselves a sheepskin coat for $10 each. We went through the motions of several hand signals because the price seemed unrealistically cheap. The coats are great and have been put to the test several times because of the bitter cold in the high Pamir mountains.
Lapis Lazuli is a deep blue rock prized as a semi-precious stone and used to adorn part of Tutankhamen’s death mask. This stone has been mined in the Pamir mountains of Afghanistan for thousands of years and can apparently still be found in the area. We were keen to obtain some of it and a thorough search only resulted in us finding a lesser quality light blue necklace. Still, it is better than nothing.
There are numerous hot water springs along the way, of which we used the one at Garam Chashma, some 50km south of Khorog. Men and women have separate pools, or at other hotwater springs, swimming times alternate for men and women. We did however stumble upon a small private more upmarket pool, and strangely the charge is the same $2 fee as for the public pool. There is a beautiful carbonate terrace at the springs.
The people in the remote valleys seem to be carrying on as they have been doing for many generations. They were harvesting potatoes and carrots, which we bought and cooked up for a couple of dinners. The farmer and his relatives digging up the potatoes refused to accept any payment from us. The people of the valley were exceptionally generous. Numerous people, several per day, invited us to their homes and we did accept a few offers, as we were keen to learn more about these people. They were delighted that they could practice their English on us. The homes were all very similar in design having one large living room, with the roof supported by the five columns and the four square concentric skylight. The living room has a wide, about 2.5m, raised platform on three sides. The whole extended family sleeps on this platform. During the day, all the bedding is put away and the platform is used to sit on cross legged, and also serves as the dining area. The dining table has very short legs to suit the cross legged sitting position. There is a steel dung burning stove in the middle of the room for cooking and heating…..so cosy. Adjacent to the living room, is a pantry that was jam packed with everything the family would require to get through the bitter cold winter…pumpkins, potatoes, onions, bottled fruit and vegetables, nuts, dried fruit and lots more.
We thoroughly enjoyed seeing wheat processing from trashing to ultimately seeing bread taken from a clay oven. Many people were thrashing wheat using the centuries old method of having cattle or donkeys walk repeatedly over the wheat. The whole family was required to winnow the wheat by flicking it into the wind and having the grain fall to the ground and the chaff blow away. The wheat is then milled in a water driven mill in the village. Of course, many farmers still use wooden ploughs to plough the fields. This all seems such a tough and tedious way of doing things, however cost is probably the determining factor.
We drove several hundred kilometres along the banks of the Pyanj River, which forms the border between Tajikistan and Afghanistan. The gorge is very narrow and in most areas, the villages in Afghanistan are only a couple of hundred metres away. We enjoyed seeing what their villages look like and how live. The Afghan and Tajik peoples on either side of the river are essentially from the Wakhi population group. The split came when the border was drawn by the Russian and British empires as part of the “Great Game” stand-off. This divide has deepened over the decades and the Tajiks strongly patrol the border and numerous military patrols were seen along the border. The Afghans were busy improving their border road, which in places has to be hewn from the vertical cliffs of the gorge.
The finger of Afghanistan along the Wakhan valley is only 20km wide, and separates Pakistan from Tajikistan. The high Hindu Kush mountain range, with many peaks higher than 6,000m forms the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan. Whilst travelling along the Wakhan valley, one can see the high snow capped mountain peaks of the Hindu Kush mountains.
Early one morning, whilst camping along the Pyanj River, we had the great good fortune to see, not one, but two Afghan nomad family groups passing by with all their goods stacked on camels, horses, yaks and donkeys. This window into centuries old customs and habits, was so exciting to see. The camel caravans of the old Silk Route, passed through this valley and Marco Polo was one of the famous travelers. The women were all dressed in bright colours and had such a regal look about them. The caravans are normally seen in autumn when the nomads move from the high mountain areas with their cattle, goats and sheep to grazing in the valleys. The journey is reversed in early spring when they move to grazing up in the high mountain areas. As soon as they had passed, we drove down river to another good view point to see them again. They must have thought we are nuts.
The eastern part of the Pamir is mainly a cold uninviting desert looking plateau at an elevation of about 3,500m. Not the kind of place where we want to linger, still, many people have made it their home. We spent the night with a family in a small village who moved there as a teacher in Soviet times, and still calls it home. Her husband goes off every morning to herd their stock. The people are of Kyrgyz decent, rather than Tajik. They tell us that up to 40% of people move to lower elevation and warmer villages and towns in nearby Kyrgyzstan.
We only stayed long enough to try and see the very elusive Marco Polo sheep (wild sheep) and Ibex mountain goats. The wild sheep were seen and recorded by Marco Polo when he travelled through the Pamirs in the 1200’s. We had kept an eye out for them in all the mountain areas we had travelled through in Central Asia, without any success. We bumped into a game ranger that said he could take us to some remote valleys where we are sure to find these animals. Sure enough, he delivered and we came to understand why we never found these animals on our own. One needs to know the habitat that the animals frequent. Also required is a powerful pair of binoculars and you need to know what to look for way in the distance.
The last part of our journey skirted along the China-Tajikistan border. This was apparently a disputed area only a few years ago. The Chinese built a double security fence all along the border, however in a few short years, this seems to have collapsed in numerous places due to rock slides and flooding. We noticed several two wheel tracks cutting through gaps in the fence, which may well be nomads still bent on using grazing areas as they had done for decades.
We headed out of Tajikistan and on to Bishkek in Kyrgyzstan via Osh on our way westwards towards the Caspian sea, and the interesting countries in westernmost Asia. We had to run the gauntlet of the nasty and corrupt officials at the Tajikistan border control point. It took only two corrupt officials to empty our wallet of any Tajik currency. This was the most pathetic and filthiest border control point we have passed through to date.
