How do Tajiks live in their homeland? (32 photos). For children about the friendship of the peoples of the Samara region The main thing is that the child stays with his mother

Families in Tajikistan, unlike European families, are usually very large. Several generations of relatives live under one roof, observing a strict hierarchy among themselves. Relationships are built primarily on unquestioning obedience to the owner of the house and respect for elders.

A woman in the Tajik family has a special role. On the one hand, the mother is the mistress of the house and the wife of the head of the family, but on the other hand, she unquestioningly fulfills any will of her husband and his parents. Despite such an unacceptable attitude for European women, it still cannot be called discrimination.

After all, these relationships have evolved over the centuries. And having gone through many trials, sometimes in difficult local conditions, the understanding of the correctness of such relations has only strengthened. The age for marriage of girls is considered to be 13-14 years. And, despite the law, according to which girls must wait until they come of age, behind the scenes marriages are still concluded.

Marriage bonds are fixed by the Imam, not by the registry office. The life of Tajiks is determined by Islam. Religion is felt in everything: in everyday life, in traditions, in relationships, in art and in raising children. Ceremonies play a special role, especially weddings. The registry office is visited only at will, but the Nikah ceremony, which is performed by the local mullah, is mandatory.

Without this, the marriage will not be considered a marriage, and the children will be illegitimately born. The bride wears seven scarves on her head. Mula speaks water, and the bride must drink it. Forty days after the wedding, the young wife walks in a national costume.

Everyone is invited to the wedding: relatives, friends, colleagues and even just acquaintances. The wedding takes place in several stages: at the beginning of the bride's house, then in the groom's house, then a general wedding and a walk for friends and colleagues. The most modest weddings are attended by 500 people.

Circumcisions, the birth of a child and many other memorable events are also magnificently celebrated. For Tajiks, it is very important that the tables are filled, and there is not a single empty seat. And it doesn’t matter that the food remains, it is important that it be in abundance. Everything is led by the elders, and the young only perform.

Traditionally, it should be a bride price (bride price). There is a certain list of what newlyweds should take from their parents. Most often, “dowry” begins to be collected from the birth of a child. In general, young people are completely dependent on their parents.

After all, getting married very early, they really still do not understand much. And even if the young suddenly do not like something, they will remain silent. The older ones are wiser and know what is right. This is how children are raised.

Polygamy is not uncommon in Tajikistan. Officially, of course, polygamy is prohibited, but in practice it is not at all uncommon. Of course, there is no registration, but still the first, and the second, and maybe the third are called the wife.

In rural areas, girls do not complete more than eight grades. After all, according to tradition, a woman does not need to be educated at all. Her destiny is to be a wife and mother.

For Tajik girls, it is very scary and shameful to be a "peregrine". Not getting married on time is worse than the worst nightmare. A Tajik woman must always be silent. Without the permission of her husband or mother-in-law, she has no right to go outside.

Only women are engaged in housekeeping. It is shameful for a man to do such work. According to tradition, for the first six months, a young wife cannot leave her husband's house, and in no case should she visit her parents.

A lot of business affairs are assigned to her at once. She is completely subordinate in everything to her mother-in-law and to all other older relatives, but first of all to her husband.

According to the wedding tradition, the bride should cry. This is how it is with all weddings.

Tajiks themselves are very beautiful. They have beautiful dark eyes of an unusual shape. National clothes: a dress and trousers under this dress are made of beautiful fabric.

Tajik families are filled with children. There are as many as God gives. From an early age, babies are very active and independent. They are friends with large companies, and most importantly, they are brought up in traditions from childhood.

The older guys take care of the younger ones, the younger ones obey the elders and go everywhere together. Big children carry small ones, middle ones themselves run after the older ones.

By themselves, children are very sociable and active. From a very young age, they help their family. Quickly and willingly carry out any instructions of adults. Easily cope with livestock and numerous household chores.

Children do not live separately, they fully participate in family life. Tajiks do not put children to sleep, do not force them to eat, do not hide adult affairs from them. Children live the same way as adults: they obey their elders, work like adults and are responsible for their actions.

Tajiks are very hospitable people. A guest is always a great joy for them. Any owner considers it his duty to treat the guest deliciously. Each house has a large room called "Mehmonhona", designed specifically for receiving guests. It always has a special place of honor for the main guest.

Tajiks sit on the floor, covered with beautiful carpets and mattresses stuffed with cotton or cotton, which are called kurpaches. According to their rules, you can not sit with your legs extended forward or to the side. Lying down is also indecent.

A tablecloth called “dostarkhan” is laid on the floor. Before and after the feast, prayer, thanksgiving and praise to the Almighty are obligatory. Tajiks have their own ritual, different from other Muslims.

Tea plays a big role in feasts. The youngest man pours it. They drink, as is customary, from a bowl, which must be taken only with the right hand, and the left hand should be kept on the right side of the chest. Tajiks can also afford alcohol.

An interesting fact is that the pourer pours the first bowl of any drink not to someone, but to himself. All this is just a custom, so that others are convinced that there is no poison in the drink. For the invited guest, Tajiks will definitely cook pilaf. In ordinary everyday life, the eldest of the family takes food first, but when there is a guest in the house, this honor is given to the guest.

Women eat separately at the other end of the house. They are not allowed to enter the premises during the feast of men. Any stranger who wants to communicate with a woman must definitely ask permission from her husband or the owner of the house. Tajik men never walk around the house in night clothes or bare-chested.

If the owner is not at home, but a guest has arrived, the wife is obliged to invite him to the house. But a man should not go there. It is forbidden for strangers to communicate with a woman in the absence of her husband, father, or other male relative.

Tajiks are very fond of giving gifts. They will never come to visit without gifts. In general, Tajik men are very generous. They are breadwinners for their family and it is important for them that there is enough for everyone in the house. But the most important thing for them is the opinion of neighbors, friends and relatives. They strive to maintain excellent relationships and a good opinion of themselves.

For Tajiks, the family is the basis of their life. They work for the family, they boast of the family. Everything described above is an image of a traditional Tajik family. In the modern world, many began to build their lives in the image of the West. However, there are still many families who value their traditions.

Self-name - Tojik, the main population of Tajikistan, the second largest people in Afghanistan. The number in Tajikistan is 7 million people, in Afghanistan - 8 million people. They also live in Uzbekistan (1.2 million people) and other countries of Central Asia. 200 thousand Tajiks live in the Russian Federation, of which 7,195 people live in the Samara region.

The total number is about 20 million people. They speak the Tajik language of the Western Iranian group of the Indo-European family. Writing based on Arabic and Russian graphics.

Believing Tajiks are mostly Sunni Muslims. Pamir Tajiks profess Ismailism.

The beginning of the formation of the Tajik people dates back to the end of the 2nd - the beginning of the 1st millennium BC, when Central Asia and the steppes of Eurasia were inhabited by tribes of the Indo-Iranian community, from which Iranian-speaking tribes subsequently emerged, mixed with the local tribes of the Bronze Age. Eastern Iranian languages ​​spread among the main population of the Central Asian oases, valleys and steppes. The direct ancestors of the Tajiks were: the Bactrians in the basin of the upper Amu Darya, the Sogdians in the basins of the Zeravshan and Kashkadarya, the Parthians in Khorasan, the Margians in the Merv oasis, the Khorezmians in the lower reaches of the Amu Darya, the Parkans in the Ferghana Valley and the Sako-Massaget tribes of the Pamir-Tien Shan mountains and the Aral Sea. Caspian steppes. All these peoples and tribes were engaged in agriculture in the oases and valleys on the basis of mainly artificial irrigation, in the mountainous and steppe regions - cattle breeding and a variety of handicrafts.

By the time of the Arab conquest (VIII century), 3 main ethnic regions emerged in Central Asia: Sogdian in the north, Ferghana in the northeast and Tokhara in the south, the population of which retained some of its cultural and everyday features.

With the formation of the Samanid state in the IX-X centuries. the process of the formation of the ethnic core of the Tajiks was also completed, which was closely connected with the spread of the common Farsi-Dari-Tajik language, which became dominant in the era of the Samanids. The culture and science of the Iranian peoples (Tajiks and Persians) developed in this language, their rich literature was created (the first written monuments - the 9th century). The time of the appearance of the ethnonym "Tajiks" was recorded in writing in the 11th century, but in fact it refers to an earlier era. Since the 10th century, the centuries-old process of assimilation of East Iranian peoples by language by Tajiks began. East Iranian elements are traced in the dialects of the modern Tajik language (Darvaz, Karategin, Badakhshan, etc.).

The Tajik people and their culture formed and developed in close ethno-cultural connection with the Turkic peoples of Central Asia, especially the Uzbeks.

Since 1991, the Republic of Tajikistan has been proclaimed.

The original occupation of the Tajiks was arable farming combined with cattle breeding. Artificial irrigation was used in the plains, mountainous and high-mountain (Western Pamir) regions. Growing mainly cereals (cereals and legumes), horticultural crops, cotton (on the plain), on the lands located above - millet, barley, garden and melon crops, fruit. In agriculture, ketmeni and plowing implements such as rals were used, and a pair of oxen served as draft power.

Cattle breeding in the agriculture of the lowland regions played an auxiliary role (cattle, in a small number of horses, donkeys, sheep and goats). For mountain Tajiks, cattle breeding was a more significant branch of the economy. It was based on vertical nomadism. In summer, cattle were driven to mountain meadows and part of the inhabitants moved there for grazing, but the main population remained in the village. At summer camps in the mountains, peculiar women's partnerships for draining milk were common: women who united in such an artel received in turn the entire milk yield of the entire herd for the future use of butter, cheese, etc.

Plain Tajiks have long developed various crafts - the manufacture of cotton, silk, woolen and cloth fabrics (weaving men), jewelry, pottery, etc.; many of the crafts had ancient traditions (wood and ganch carving, decorative embroidery, etc.). Among the mountain Tajiks, the production of woolen fabrics (men), knitting and embroidery (women) gained commercial importance.

Traditional villages are compact, closely built-up, with a labyrinth of crooked streets and dead ends, with blank walls of houses and duval fences opening into them. The houses are mostly adobe (in mountainous areas and stone buildings), with a flat roof, sometimes with a terrace (aivan). The dwelling was divided into male and female halves: outsiders were not allowed into the female - the inner part of the house. A special room for guests (mehmonkhona) is characteristic: the floor in it is covered with felt mats, cotton and woolen rugs, carpets, on which long narrow quilted blankets for sitting (kurpacha) are laid out around the perimeter of the room, in the center - a tablecloth (dastarkhan). The walls are decorated with embroidery (suzani) and carpets. In lowland Tajiks, wall niches traditionally often serve as cabinets.

The traditional clothes of the Tajiks had their own characteristics in each of the ethno-cultural regions, but they also had common features. For men - a tunic-shaped shirt, trousers with a wide step, a swinging robe, a scarf belt, a skullcap, a turban and leather boots with soft soles, leather galoshes with a pointed nose (they were worn separately, sometimes worn on boots), in mountainous areas - shoes type of clog with three spikes on the sole for the convenience of walking along mountain paths.

Women wear tunic-shaped dresses, in rural areas - from smooth fabrics, in mountainous southern regions - embroidered, especially in Darval and Kulyab (examples of folk decorative art). Wide harem pants had a slouch at the ankle. Headwear - scarves, skullcaps (for Hissar Tajiks). Townswomen and lowland Tajik women wore a swing robe and local shoes. The mountain women did not have bathrobes.

Modern Tajik clothing combines traditional elements - an overcoat, a skullcap with urban clothing. Tajik women retain more traditional elements of clothing. Girls and young women mostly wear a yoke dress, which is widespread in Central Asia (except for Turkmenistan). Bloomers are sewn even, in young women, much higher than the ankle. Traditional jewelry is combined with modern: necklaces, pendants, earrings, rings.

The basis of nutrition in the mountainous regions was bread (in the form of flat cakes) and dairy products, including ghee, dry cheese (kurut) and cottage cheese (panir), noodles, various cereals; in the plains - flat cakes. Rice dishes, noodles, manti (large dumplings), vegetable oil (including cottonseed), vegetables and fruits. Cakes are baked in special clay ovens (tanur). Meat is eaten with lamb and beef, often stewed with noodles or less often with potatoes. Festive traditional treat among lowland Tajiks is plov, among mountainous Tajiks - lamb soup (shurbo). Traditional sweets: halva, crystalline sugar (nabot), nishallo (creamy mass of sugar, beaten egg whites and soap root), sweets (parvarda), etc. Tea is preferably drunk green, black - usually in the cold season.

Tajik folklore is rich and varied; labor, ritual-calendar, ritual-holiday and mourning folk songs (surud), quatrains (rubai) are popular, but fairy tales and satirical tales are most interesting, humorous anecdotes (latifs) are widespread, for example, about Khoja Nasreddin.

Tajik music is built on a diatonic scale, vocal music is monophonic. Musical instruments are diverse: string instruments - dutor, rubab, tanbur, etc.; bowed - gidzhak, violin; wind - nay, kvrnay, surnay; cymbals - chang; percussion - tablak (clay timpani), doira (tambourine), kayrok (stone castanets). Folk dances are colorful (including comic and reproducing labor processes). Favorite folk spectacles - performances of tightrope walkers, magicians, puppet theater. National literature, science, professional arts, including music and ballet, are successfully developing.

As in many other cultures, the birth of a child in a Tajik family is the most joyful event and a child, as a continuation of the family, is considered the meaning of life. All family traditions associated with the upbringing of the child were aimed at his upbringing: spiritual, physical and cultural. That is why family members try in all cases and situations to protect a pregnant woman so that she gives birth to a healthy child. She must eat the best food, a man, a future father, tries to fulfill any whim of his wife, she is protected from doing hard work around the house and in general, she is instructed to always be in a good mood, not to leave the house unaccompanied. Both future parents try to do only good deeds.

Newborn and mother protection

Despite the emergence of new modern views and traditions, Tajiks still adhere to the traditions, customs and beliefs of their ancestors in different parts of the country. Tajiks believe that in the first year of life, the child should be protected, especially at first, therefore, special periods and ways to protect the child from everything are distinguished:

forty days; the first forty days after birth, the newborn and his mother are considered vulnerable: they are not left alone, they try to let fewer people in so that they are not exposed to the evil eye or simply to the influence of negative energy.

amulets; amulets that protect, according to beliefs, a child can be amulets, with special duas written, which are given by a priest, a rag amulet inside which are 15 pieces of gray or blue needles from the evil eye, sharp objects under the pillow, pods of hot red pepper, garlic tied to the cradle to protect the child from the influence of evil forces

the use of two names for the child; in order to hide the child from evil spirits, in a family where children were often lost, at first they call the child by a different name so that the “evil spirit” does not guess about the birth of the child, this can be the name of a fruit, household item or natural phenomenon, and upon reaching a certain age the child receives a normal name.

Important events for the newborn and family
Tajik families are happy to celebrate events that happen for the first time in a child's life with rituals.

Baby's first bed in the cradle

On a certain auspicious day, the child is placed in the cradle by the eldest woman in the family. After that, this event is celebrated together with relatives, friends and neighbors at the dastarkhan, and the ceremony is called "gahvorabandon" - laying in the cradle.

First shirt

In many regions, the first shirt is put on only three days after the birth of a child; the shirt is taken from an old person so that the child's life is also long. Sometimes a knife with a wooden handle is passed through a shirt before dressing, wishing the child to grow up strong and healthy.

First haircut

Muysargiron is a ceremony of cutting a child's hair for the first time, upon reaching one year. Festivities and rituals are held only for boys, for this a clergyman or an elderly man is invited, who is the first to cut the child's hair so that he has a long life.

09:59:00 Children of Tajikistan

If anyone, by the title of the topic, has already imagined that we will talk about hard workers, immigrants from Tajikistan who work for pennies throughout the CIS and especially in Moscow, who have already become a kind of symbol of unskilled labor, then I hasten to disappoint you - we will talk about the most ordinary children, what we were many years ago, but which, in the vast majority, have much less than we once had.
Tajikistan is one of the poorest countries not only on the entire Eurasian continent, but also in the world, and I had the opportunity to be convinced of this during last year's summer cycling trip around the country for a month. However, with my post, I do not want to touch on the topic of the troubles and wanderings of the Tajik people, the monstrous deprivation of their children, and so on, because in my opinion these people do not live as badly as we all think. Do not believe?! And you try to understand this not by comparing Tajikistan with other countries, but plunge into the atmosphere of this semi-wild mountainous country, its traditions and way of life. But alas, for this you need to go there and see it all.


There are a lot of children in Tajikistan! This is amazing, but during its independence, the number of inhabitants has increased one and a half times, and the average age of the population was 23-25 ​​years, and this is if we take into account the civil war of the 90s and mass emigration.
Large families (up to 10 or even more people) in Tajikistan will not surprise anyone, just as you will not surprise anyone with mass, by our standards, child mortality: almost a hundred children out of a thousand do not live to be 5 years old.
Also early children start to work. According to the stories of the head of the family of one of the high-mountain villages, the child is involved in domestic work from the time he "begins to eat a cake." It is common to meet a boy of 7 years old, herding a small herd of goats, or picking apricots.
So let's move on to the kids.

These three were so surprised by my stop that instead of fleeing into the yard, they froze in place against the backdrop of a textured barn.

These two shots are a vivid confirmation of how difficult it is sometimes to photograph children over 10-12 years old.
This is especially true for girls and girls: before you even blink an eye, they will turn their backs on you, cover their faces with their hands (with a handkerchief), or even run away. The shot, where three girls are strolling along a mountain valley, was given to me only at a distance, when they forgot to even think about me.

And this lively guy almost hit me on the hump with his stick because I did not understand in time that his mother was not at all delighted with my shooting. (Usually I ask permission to take pictures, but this time I just didn't recognize the polite "no").

Girls fetching water from a well
(After this shot, I had to pick up the bucket and load the donkey to the fullest. There was a slight embarrassment when I, inexperienced, first filled one can, and the poor animal began to roll heavily and fall on its side ...)

Bandit girl (do you really have the same associations too?!).
By the way, impressions are impressions, and our leader, who was sick with a stomach, crawling to the pass and pulling a loaded bicycle with a trunk, lost his map and personal hygiene first aid kit from the top valve on his backpack.

Little Tajik

A jigit on horseback looks great even as a minor, but when he voluntarily helps, taking half the load, when you try to conquer a 4-kilometer pass on a bicycle, you simply start to admire the jigit passionately! Thank you Gulmahmad!

Mom and daughters

I really hope that these (and some more) photos reached this wonderful family from the village of Khayrabot, whom we, exhausted, met on the descent from the most difficult pass of the hike, who fed and gave us a wonderful drug to drink, the origin of which we still do not know .

Two sisters if I'm not mistaken

and three more grimy sisters

We met these lovely guys when leaving the mountainous and wild Tajikistan. All their relatives lived at their summer cottage in the mountains (about twenty children of all ages and two adults

Do not be rude, do not allow yourself too much and be faithful to the end - these are the pillars on which the majority of Tajik families rest. Thanks to the preserved traditions, house building still reigns in Tajikistan with rather strict rules, which in many respects are similar to the traditions in other countries of Central Asia.

In honor of the International Day of the Family, which is celebrated today, May 15, our partner Open Asia Online talks about the main rules of behavior in Tajik families.

RESPECT FOR ELDERS

This is the basis of the foundations of all Tajik families, on which everything else is built. Any act or intention must be agreed with the head of the family. The choice of a profession, a long trip and especially the creation of a family are possible only after the approval of the father.

The situation in which a 40-year-old son is not allowed to go to work abroad, and he refuses to travel, is completely standard in Tajik society. And it does not matter at all whether this family lives in a city or a village.

SEARCH FOR THE BRIDE

Even the most advanced young Tajiks, when the time comes, turn to their parents with a request to pick up a bride. Moreover, in the north of Tajikistan, the guys do not dare to directly ask their parents about finding a bride, and in order to demonstrate their readiness for the wedding, they throw carrots in their parents' shoes.

Situations when a man finds his wife on his own, now, of course, also occur, but most often the choice of a future daughter-in-law falls on the parents. And they are looking: they ask acquaintances, consult with relatives. Often, the betrothed is among the closest relatives: for example, she may even be the groom's cousin. Although they are trying to fight this tradition in Tajikistan.

As for the choice of a groom for a girl, it is still more difficult here: matchmakers can be refused, no matter what, and an obedient daughter must agree with the family's decision.

PARENT CARE

In Tajikistan, there are practically no examples of an elderly mother and father left alone. Parents are not abandoned here, moreover, they are not taken care of at a distance - the children are always nearby.

For example, according to tradition, the youngest son stays in his father's house, brings his wife there and looks after his parents. Therefore, when all the children still live together, the elders take care of the youngest son very reverently, because it is he who will subsequently be responsible for caring for the parents. However, this does not mean that other children will not take care.

FAMILY LOYALTY

Second cousins ​​or sisters, and even fourth cousins ​​- in Tajik families not only know about their existence, but also try to keep in touch. Relatives are sacred, no matter if they are distant or close.

For example, several people can come to relatives from a village to the city and settle in their apartment for a couple of weeks, or even months. And no one will dare to say, they say, it's time and honor to know: they will feed, drink and endure - these are relatives.

MAN'S RESPONSIBILITY

A lot falls on the shoulders of a Tajik man, even going to grocery markets. Ask any Tajik about the cost of food, and he will give you an alignment no worse than a professional statistician. Naturally, to go to the markets, you need to earn.

This is the direct duty of the Tajik man, and women here very rarely earn more or even on an equal footing with their husbands. And even more often they do not earn at all, because they sit at home and do housework. But only for those domestic issues that are within the boundaries of the house, the husband is responsible for everything else. And after all this, how not to refer to him exclusively as “you”?

Of course, all these rules are far from the know-how of Tajiks. But it is in this republic that they are still obeyed as laws, and perhaps that is why there is an average of only one divorce per thousand marriages in the country.

Photo: Nozim Kalandarov, Evgenia Kutkova