Spring Finally Arrives, (Limping and Screaming)

Spring is limping in, bedraggled, wounded, and resistant.

As I sit here with frozen fingers, barely able to type, staring at half-meter icicles hanging from my roof, I ponder exactly how much I can take of this cold before I lose my mind. It's March 20th and yesterday was the snowstorm from hell.  On top of the meter-plus snow still lying on the ground came winds blowing at Mach speed, sticking snow to my windows and blowing it through the cracks in the panes. And a fire that refused to light because of the gale, despite our desperate and dogmatic persistence.  The smoke we generated left my house looking, from the outside, like it was on fire. But I can fully attest, where there is smoke, there is NOT always fire.  This morning I scrubbed all the soot from my blackened face and hands, disappointed that it was not, as I had first thought, some lucky stroke of a winter tan, even though I haven't ventured out for days.

The lack of electricity has only exacerbated the drama and feels deeply like the insult added to injury - the bashing of the wound that never heals. {Please stand by while I throw some coal dust on the fire that is cooperating today}.

This week our forecast is "massive avalanches".  Speaking of dramatic! Those are two words one never hopes to witness in action, but the reality is, it's entirely imaginable, possible, and probable. Sticking close to home - as cold as home is - is infinitely more attractive.

That said, it is the spring equinox, which is celebrated as Navruz in Tajikistan - literally meaning New Day, or the New Year according to the Persian calendar. Major festivities are held in each county - or Jamoat - drawing out the multitudes sporting their new spring fashions and magnificent traditional clothing.  This year we hope to be soaking up the rays of a cooperative sun and will be looking for promises of a quickly arriving planting season.  At this time last year, potatoes had already been planted in many areas. This year we'll be lucky to get our potatoes in by May. It has been a helluva winter!

Expedition with the Herdsmen and Women of Tajikistan

A View into the Life of

Semi-nomadic Herdsman of TAJIKISTAN

Project executed by	Janice Setser with the assistance of guides, translators, horses and a driver
Timeframe	45 days total: 20 days in spring / 20 days in summer + 5 days of preparation
Location specifics	Tajikistan ·      Spring migration from Khatlon to Rasht Valley (RRS region of Gharm – see map below) ·      Summer shepherding in Gharm and Jirgatol Districts of the Rasht Valley of RRS
Definitions
Podabon Molbon Dahmarda Galabon Ailoq/Jailoo	Those who watch after cows Those who watch after sheep and goats Can refer to anyone watching out for cows, sheep or goats Those who watch over herds of horses Pasture in Tajik and Uzbek / Kyrgyz respectively

  

Project Description

Semi-nomadic pasture people of Tajikistan:

This is a journey of many steps. To be precise, the first portion alone will be nearly 416,460 steps – or 350 kilometers (208 miles), starting in the dry southern region of this little-explored territory of Central Asia, known as Tajikistan, and walking to higher, greener pastures in the northeast of the country, the Rasht Valley. In what is tellingly called the Region of Republican Subordination (RRS), live hundreds of podabon, molbon, and galabon, with their enormous flocks and herds, for between three to five months, depending on the elevation, weather, and food available to the livestock.  Fixed territories are assigned by the Governors of each district in the Valley, and these herders - both men and women, depending on which ethnic group they are from - endure the elements and sometimes battle wild animals such as bears and wolves, among other hardships not yet identified. Their lives are austere, the elements harsh and unforgiving, and there is no rest.  Little is understood about their journeys, about their lives for that period of shepherding, the impact of their absence on their households, nor what it is they do for the rest of the year.

This expedition will touch upon the shepherd’s lives away from the pastures and while herding; on their struggles in and out of the pastures, their daily schedule, their impressions of the changes in landscape, nature, and the climate, the politics of herding and obtaining land, ownership issues, compensation, and for how long they have been herding.  It will also look at land management issues and consider herding as a livelihood in general.  It will include as well a look at the issues that are pertinent and relevant to them that may be undefined prior to setting out. 

This expedition is intended to raise awareness about this vast unknown sub-culture of Tajikistan. Presentations of the journey and discoveries made will be made after the trip, and a book containing photos and the stories of the Uzbek, Tajik, and Kyrgyz herders throughout the Rasht Valley will be published as a cultural and historical memoir. 

Background

The Uzbeks

Each spring thousands of sheep and goats travel 250 to 300 miles by foot, under the careful watch of semi-nomadic herders.  These predominantly Uzbek shepherds are moving from the south of Tajikistan, where pastures are sparse and finished early, to the high mountainous regions of the Rasht Valley where they spend four to five months away from their homes to pasture and care for the animals.  They live in simple tents and on scarce resources.  The majority of the livestock under their care largely belongs to others, and, in at least some of the cases, they are government owned.  The herdsmen are assigned territories throughout the Rasht Valley each year.  How those territories are defined and assigned and paid for remains to be determined. During the spring, a car trip to the capital city of Dushanbe can be prolonged by an hour or more if one encounters eight or nine such mol-trains (herds) on the narrow, two-lane road that is on one side, mountainous and on the other, dangerous cliffs that give way to the red river, sometimes hundreds of meters below.

The Tajiks

In Rasht District, a collection – usually of four men from each village - will set up tents or other makeshift types of lodging in their allocated territories and will care for the cows, or goats, and sheep of their village. The shepherds take turns, working two-by-two, anywhere from five to ten days on, followed by five to ten days off.  The length of time will depend on the distance from their village.

In addition, these shepherds are often the responsible person in their household for harvesting hay in the late summer months, which puts an additionally heavy burden of labor on them, in particular when the harvest falls during Ramazan – the Muslim period of fasting.

The Kyrgyz

The primary inhabitant of the jailoo in the Jirgatol district of Tajikistan is the woman.  While young men and boys may accompany them as the shepherds, walking the sheep and goats out to pastures daily, it is the women who are the mainstays of the pastureland and care for the bovine members of their herds, milking and processing up to 80 liters of milk daily (18 gallons).  The primary lodging in this area is the yurt – a rounded (although some are rectangular) felt tent-like structure that is highly decorated on the inside and contains a small stove for heating and cooking.  In areas where avalanches are not a threat, more permanent structures have been built – single-room mud huts.  In Jirgatol, there are road systems to most of the jailoos, in contrast to many of the pastures in the Gharm region, which are only accessible by horse, foot, or donkey.

About the author

Janice Setser has lived in Tajikistan for a total of seven years.  She spent two years living and working in five different districts of Khatlon, and the other five living in Garm and working in three districts of the Rasht Valley.  The contrast in her experiences has fascinated her, and while the Rasht Valley is well known to be more conservative and religious, it is here that she has found an unusual freedom, a home, and a belonging. After four years of managing large health and agriculture projects and acting as head of base for a large non-governmental organization, she ventured to remain in the remote valley, pursuing some of the other opportunities that called to her passions.  Among the many things attracting her attention is a focus on development of youth, business, tourism, the honey sector, and her own spiritual growth and personal development, including studying photography and writing.  The cultures and landscapes of Tajikistan provide a rich weave in which to practice and work.  It is her wish to honorably give a voice to the voiceless.

Addendum: Be looking for an opportunity to fund this project on www.indiegogo.com soon.  More information will be available here shortly.