Tajikistan

‘Tajik’ was the word traditionally used to describe the Persian-speaking people of Central Asia. They were the original inhabitants of the region, and founded many of its cities (including Samarkand and Bukhara) but now are largely found in the mountainous areas of Tajikistan, as well as in Afghanistan and Pakistan with smaller numbers in Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and China.

Although parts of Tajikistan share characteristics with lowland areas, including the great bazaar town of Khojand in the Fergana Valley and the capital, Dushanbe (meaning ‘Monday’, after the main market day) its main lure for travellers are its mountains, in particular the beautiful Pamir mountain range.

Known locally as the ‘Roof of the World’, this tangled nest of mountains and valleys also contains large valleys or pastures, known as Pamirs, from which the region gets its name. The Eastern part of the province, which borders China, is dominated by these high, arid plateaus largely populated by Kyrgyz herders and isolated communities living in dramatic landscapes under never-ending skies.

More dramatic still is the Wakhan Corridor, a deep valley shared with Afghanistan that served as a ‘buffer’ between the expanding Russian Empire to the North and British India to the South. The valley has long been a trade route and ancient forts, fire temples and petroglyphs from the bronze age can be found there with a population that claim descent from Alexander the Great but in fact their Mediterranean features (and in many cases red hair) go back even further.

We visited the West of the region, Tajik Badakhshan, during a time of festivals – both traditional in the form of the Imamat Anniversary and the more modern ‘Festival on the Roof of the World’, where artists from the region and overseas, as far as afield as Germany and the US came to perform. Although seemingly idyllic, fighting erupted while we were there and we were evacuated in a UN convoy.

These photographs were taken in May and June 2006 and in July 2012.