Happy (Persian) New Year

Stephanie and I really made the most of our Navruz holiday. Monday was a gorgeous day, Dushanbe held a big celebration by closing the highway along the river. On the way, we enjoyed some beautiful views in Rudaki park. Unfortunately, it took awhile to find the actual festival because the police had closed off the back way, but weren't bothering to tell anyone until they had walked all the way there.

At the celebration, there were stalls set up everywhere and people from all over the country came in their traditional garb and there was a great festive atmosphere.

With all of the different types of food on display, we were sorry that we even bothered to eat breakfast.

Since we weren't really hungry, we were able to stock up on interesting items and taking them home with us. There were also some items that even I wasn't too keen to eat (I think the cow's head was for display anyway).

On the other hand, the little lamb-loaves were very cute.

Even Father Spring made an appearance, although my Russian teacher laughed when she saw the picture and said there was no such thing as Father Spring and someone just made it up.

We made our way down to the Hippodrome, where the main events were scheduled to take place, but they weren't letting people in. We waited for awhile because we were told that President Rahmon would be arriving shortly and thought maybe they'd let more people in after he arrived. There was a large crowd lining the road with us.

All of a sudden, the police started herding people down further. Everyone was cooperating but all of a sudden, the police were shouting and beating people with their night sticks. There was a group of teenage boys standing on a bulwark by the river and a cop took a running lunge and started knocking them off with his baton. These weren't love taps.

It was such a large crowd that it was difficult to move very fast, but luckily we were far enough in not to come too close to the cops. Nonetheless, it was appalling to see that sort of behavior in a peaceful and celebratory atmosphere.

I don't know what the police were all riled up about, because the president didn't show up for another half hour. During that time, we were trapped on the wrong side of the cleared area, where there was no food or interesting things to look at.

Finally, Mr. Rahmon showed up, waved, and went inside the Hippodrome. Once the police let people move, there was a huge crowd that went running over towards the Hippodrome, but I don't know why because no one was let in. Apparently there was an impressive performance for the select few who were allowed in. We were a bit disappointed to miss it, but I didn't feel so bad once I learned that there was a brawl, which involved people from two different parts of the country. Apparently the police decided to start beating everyone to try to get them to stop fighting, and a couple of young men were trampled to death in the process. Such a shame on such an otherwise nice day.

Once we were released from our captivity, we went back through the way we came in. Many of the stands were already shutting down. Still, we bought some more food to take home, shared a plate of free plov,

and enjoyed some of the groups that were playing music and dancing.

I even got a little video to share:

On Tuesday, we had another beautiful day for being out and enjoying the celebrations. One of my staff tipped me off to a Buzkashi match not too far from our house (about 6 km), so we decided to make a hiking trip out of it. Even though we didn't go that far, the change in scenery made it feel like we covered a lot of distance. On the way, we took in quaint houses and blossoming fruit trees.

I even snapped a couple of good pictures of a hawk soaring overhead.

When we arrived at the village for the match, I could immediately see why they chose that particular spot. The field was a plateau at the bottom of a huge hill, which served as a natural stadium. With the clear weather and the grass just starting to come up, it was really a breathtaking setting.

There were more horses than I expected. I counted over 100 on the field before the match even started and there were many more wandering the hillside. In fact, I was almost trampled by a guy who was riding his horse while texting on his cell phone. I think that would be a new statistic.

The match didn't start right away, so I snapped some shots of some of the riders beforehand, especially the ones in more traditional dress.

From the hillside, we had a spectacular birds-eye view of the match, and even from far away you could hear the thunder of the horses hooves. Buzkashi is somewhat like American Football in that there can be long periods of time where nothing much happens and then someone breaks away, creating a few minutes of incredible excitement.

Of course, in football, they're just carrying a ball. In Buzkashi, they're carrying a beheaded goat stuffed with sand. Small difference. Between my camera's zoom and some daring trips closer to the game, I was able to get some great pictures.

Some of these came at the price of almost getting trampled. Buzkashi doesn't really observe any boundaries.

Twice, I found myself staring at this huge herd of stampeding horses coming straight at me and had to literally sprint to get out of the way, along with the rest of the crowd. It was particularly scary when the horses turned up above us because we were inside the herd and didn't know where it would come down, but it was also exhilarating. Even Stephanie, who as at the top of the hill, had to move a couple of times. But still, great pictures.

I even got some of other parts of the crowd being invaded by the players. It was a lot more entertaining to watch someone else run away.

I guess in that sense, you can't completely call Buzkashi a spectator sport. Fans can be, and often get hurt. I know at least a couple of people at the match didn't get out of the way fast enough. I saw one boy get tossed pretty far, but he seemed ok.

Still, some parts of Buzkashi are a mystery to me. It seems that a number of the men on the field aren't actually playing. Maybe being on horseback is just a safer way to watch. Also, I saw one guy run out from the spectators and hit one of the horses with a crop.

I'm not sure what that was about. A lot of the game also involved the players getting into a big clump and beating each other with their riding crops, which get's old after awhile. But I do know that they win when they run the goat down to one end of the field and then back through a set of goal posts. Everytime someone had the goat and made a break for the goal the crowd went wild.

The game goes on until they run out of prizes, which can include items like refridgerators and cars. We left a little early to avoid the crowds leaving and had a nice walk home. I did get some video of the Buzkashi and am working on putting together a little montage. I'll post it when I get the chance. For now, enjoy the rest of the pictures!

Navruz 2011 JPGS