(19) Village life in Bartang Valley

After classes ended and the valley snow melted, we took a trip through the next major valley north of Khorog, called Bartang Valley. The landscape was spectacular, as always, but the memorable part of this trip turned out to be living amongst the Pamiri people. As we relaxed in homestays and wandered amongst the villagers, we could see the everyday routine of working the fields, tending the animals, and relaxing when possible.

This area is remote even for the Pamirs and given the challenging terrain and climate, we wondered why the villages were established in the first place. The answer seems to be two-fold: persecution and natural disasters. In ancient times, Ismaiili people were periodically threatened across the Persian empire and so they retreated to the high Pamirs for safety. And once established, some villages would be occasionally destroyed by earthquakes or flash floods causing them to shift sideways to a safer spot.

Overall this was a completely different lifestyle than we see in Khorog and, in fact, we suffered culture shock upon returning to UCA - too modern, too crowded, too frenetic.

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The Bartang River is a braided plain in some places, whitewater in others. This is the lowest flow of the year.

The Bartang road is mostly one-lane and constantly under repair. Here we only waited a short while before the dozer plowed a by-pass and let us pass.

Vegetation and houses highlight the stark contrast between dormant and active sides of an alluvial fan

Looking across Yapshorv village at the Bartang river and Rushan Range

Roshorv village is perched a few hundred meters above the Bartang river. Our homestay was hosted by the (retired) high school English teacher, who happened to have taught the current UCA history professor Dr. Sultonbek Aksakolov

Roshorv village has an extensive irrigation system which is fed all summer by glacial meltwater

Waiting at the end of the day for their goats to come home from pasture

Forming a bucket brigade to help make a roof on a Pamiri home in Barsid. UCA math professor Dr. Kholiknazar Kuchakshoev grew up in this village

A classic sight across the Pamirs (perhaps everywhere?): one worker, four "advisors"

Moments before this, the arrow was pointed at me

Hiking up a side canyon from Barsid village. 5 km further is another village with 50+ people including several kids who walk to Barsid for school

These kids stopped to talk with us after taking lunch to some nearby goat-herders

Making perfectly straight furrows is a dusty and monotonous job

With only a few cars in the village, donkeys do all the heavy lifting

After a week of hard work and school, volleyball takes center stage on a Saturday afternoon