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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