IT IS THE TAJIK WAY, TO WELCOME YOU INTO OUR HOMES AND HOST YOU. IT IS NOT FOR YOU TO ASK, BUT FOR TAJIK TO OFFER.
TOURISM IN TAJIKISTAN
T
ourism to the rural villages of North Tajikistan remains a novelty but has been recognised as a potential economic benefit. With the help of funding from foreign groups such as USAID, there has been a massive push to improve awareness for Western visitors navigating the complex logistics of a central Asian country that is predominantly mountainous. Without a local fixer, grasping the scale of a country that is over 93% rugged peaks is hard to comprehend, many roads require advanced driving skills, and nearly all information is written in Tajik Cyrillic script with little English translation. What’s more, the cultural richness is even more astounding considering Tajikistan is one of the oldest civilisation sites in the world. Even if you’re not an archaeologist, learning about the huge amounts of preserved settlements, that includes the little- known Sogdian empire, is fascinating. After the post-Soviet rule, civil wars in the nineties and, more recently, Covid, Tajikistan is keen to put itself back on the map; welcoming foreign visitors to enjoy a vast range of supported trekking itineraries with a range of guides and teams that help with translation, campcraft, donkey management, route planning, and general travel logistics.
Tajikistan is a country that relies heavily on roads. Road improvements, funded mainly by external partners, has upgraded many slow traditional gravel roads into slick tarmac mountain passes and the Fann Mountains are now an accessible four hours away from the welcoming capital city of Dushanbe. The nearest town to the Fann Mountains, Panjakent, was roughly the size of a prominent Yorkshire market town, less than 45 minutes away from the Uzbekistan border and an hour to the Fann mountain villages. It has historically been one of the gateways to the mountains in the Soviet era and has several businesses offering tourists the opportunity to sample a Tajik way of life in a rural idyll. There’s still steps to take in many of the places we visited, such as the camp spots around the various lakes, which required proper sanitation to minimise sickness. Boiling water, filtering and treating with chlorine dioxide, was our norm, but at times it felt difficult to manage hygiene when leave no trace principles were still relatively unknown. As a visitor, it’s advisable to visit Tajikistan with an awareness of doing your best to carry out your own rubbish, burying waste, and wash hands with soap and warm water to avoid water contamination.
enough food and supplies to last through winter – from the villagers we met, who were generally hand-harvesting crops using scythes and primitive technology. Topics of conversation as we travelled centred around Tajik pride and self-sufficiency,
favourite topics
included what people planned to have for dinner and whether our guide was related to the hosts; whole villages tended to have some form of familial interrelated connection and thus working this out was a source of constant entertainment. A long way from convenience shops with air conditioning units and modern modes of transport, we were delighted when we came across a tiny village shop selling ice creams for five somoni (equivalent to 30p). As the donkeys trot up the well-made paths to our camping spots,
the pace of our walk slowed by the pack animals eagerly making a bee line for the tasty ‘Hjaa hor’, a thistle like plant chomped by our four-legged friends with fervent eagerness like tourists on a packet of salty crisps. Each camp was awash with a variety of colours and textures from the ‘ghura’ (purple orchids), the yellow blurs of the ‘chil rosa’ (poppy) and the ‘safed pushtak’ (white back flower), attracting butterflies that flit across whilst the curled flanks of the juniper trees gave welcome shade from the strong sunshine. It was one of the most idyllic valleys, a spectacle that formed just one of many stunning alpine postcards that made up hiking in the Fann Mountains, the visceral colours of the earth contrasting in the changing light against the bright blue river Sarymat. Trekking over a total of 11 days under a mixture of guesthouse, tent, and homestays, forced us to reset to a more natural rhythm, and due to the southerly latitude of the country, the sun would set extremely quickly into night. No dusky blue hour for us, but a purely evocative dark night sky with brilliant stars and the Milky Way brightly aglow in a way that can only be seen without light pollution. One of the things that surprised me most about visiting Tajikistan was the familiarity of the landscape and what felt like a slower, a sweeter pace of life. It was indeed a walk on the Tajik way of life – and one I’d happily return to again.
Words and photos: Jessie Leong Jessie is a photographer, filmmaker, writer, presenter, and climber whose work takes her exploring some of the world's most rugged crags & mountains on foot.
42 | CLIMB. WALK. JOIN.
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