Ismaili

Garis Batas 12: Eid Mubarak

Di dalam Rumah Pamiri (AGUSTINUS WIBOWO) Perjalanan dua jam dengan angkutan umum membawa saya ke desa Tughoz, tak jauh dari Ishkashim. Perjalanan ini menyusuri tepian Sungai Amu, perbatasan dengan Afghanistan. Seiris Afghanistan yang berada di seberang sana adalah Lembah Wakhan yang damai dan tenang. Pedesaan yang tidak pernah tersentuh hingar bingarnya perang dan pertumpahan darah di seluruh negeri. Gunung-gunung berbungkus salju seakan tidak berhenti sambung-menyambung. Desa-desa hijau di kaki gunung berhadap-hadapan dengan desa-desanya Tajikistan seperti bayangan cermin. Tetapi refleksi kehidupan yang di seberang sana, hidup dalam zamannya sendiri. Jalan beraspal dari Ishkashim memang sangat nyaman dilewati dengan mobil. Saya teringat, tiga bulan yang lalu ketika saya berada di seberang sungai sana, di Afghanistan, perjalanan dengan jarak seperti ini harus ditempuh sehari penuh. Berkali-kali mobil yang saya tumpangi tersangkut aliran sungai, karena jalan berdebu tak beraspal seringkali diterjang banjir lelehan salju di puncak gunung. Naik mobil di sana hanya satu setrip saja lebih cepat daripada naik keledai. Di Tajikistan sini, orang tidak perlu bersusah payah naik keledai untuk menempuh perjalanan seperti ini. Mobil tersedia. Yang tidak ada cuma uang dan bensin. Tuloyev Aliboy Jumakhanovich, 33 tahun, misalnya. Dia dulunya adalah supir, tetapi sekarang jadi penumpang yang duduk di samping saya. Dia [...]

June 6, 2013 // 0 Comments

U-Mag (2008): Hunza – Firdaus di Atap Dunia

U-Mag Magazine (March 2008) Hunza Firdaus di Atap Dunia Nun jauh di balik lekuk-lekuk pegunungan Himalaya, Karakoram, dan Pamir, tersembunyilah Lembah Hunza. Di bawah bayangan puncak-puncak salju menggapai langit, lembah yang mistis penuh rahasia ini membentangkan keelokan sebuah surga di atap dunia … Nyanyian Bisu Di bawah gunung bertudung salju setinggi 7.790 meter tingginya, desa Karimabad diam dalam keheningan. Di sini waktu mengalir lambat-lambat, ditelan keagungan puncak-puncak raksasa. Di bawah sana terhampar Lembah Hunza – terletak di utara Pakistan, diapit tiga gunung besar: Himalaya, Karakoram, dan Pamir. Jalan raya Karakoram Highway berkelok di pinggang gunung, menghubungkan Islamabad – ibu kota Pakistan – dengan kota kuno Kashgar di negeri Tiongkok. Saya duduk di depan kamar, di penginapan kakek tua Haider. Salju turun deras beberapa hari lalu. Jalanan desa yang naik turun makin berbahaya dengan lapisan es selicin cermin. Tak ada pilihan. Saya hanya bisa menghabiskan hari dengan selimut dan jaket tebal, membaca buku, dan menyeruput teh hijau hangat dari teko Kakek Haider. “Aap kaise hai? Bagaimana keadaanmu?” Kakek itu menyapa saya. Kerut-merut tajam menghias sudut matanya. Tubuhya berbalut selimut tebal, topi pakkol coklat menutup kepalanya, menyembunyikan rambut yang memutih. Kakek Haider menatap bola mata saya dalam-dalam. Sudah tiga hari saya [...]

March 3, 2008 // 1 Comment

Murghab – Life in Murghab

A morning greetings from Murghab Murgab (Murghab) was promising when it was built. It was a new Russian settlement built as frontier city of Pamir. The highway connecting the isolated mountains to the lowland towns was supposed to bring wealth to the nomadic community. Life had changed ever since. A town was built on the top of mountains. People were educated. Frontier military checkpoints were enforced. But how is life now, after Tajikistan gained independence from the USSR and civil war took place in the new country? The hope of the future had turned to be a bad fate. I had got a chance to know Gulnara, a 54 year old woman working as a primary school teacher in Murgab. Gulnara is the younger sister of Khalifa Yodgor from Langar. But the last time she saw him was 2 years ago. “It is too expensive to go there,” said her. Langar is not too far from Murgab. It is around 250 km only, but the public transport there is very rare and expensive. At present, Murghab-Langar cost 50 Somoni/pax. Gulnara’s salary is only 80 Somoni per month. She hardly manages to feed her family with that money, needless to say [...]

October 31, 2006 // 0 Comments

Murgab – 100 Questions and Answers about Tajik Presidential Election

Browsing through the list of candidates A friend of mine, Rosalina Tobing, works in social political section of the Embassy of Republic of Indonesia in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. She often gets assignments to make reports about political moments in Central Asia. These days, the thing which people in Tajikistan like to talk about was the presidential election which is going to happen on November 6, 2006. Besides of this, people in GBAO also like to know more about the spiritual leader Aga Khan who visit the area together with the president. Rosalina asked me to get a book for our embassy’s reference, entitled ‘100 Questions and Answers about Tajikistan Presidential Election”. The book is as mythical as the 1001 Nights. I couldn’t find anywhere in Tajikistan (maybe because I always bumped into wrong places all time) but in election booths in the villages in GBAO. First I saw the book in the community hall , which was magically turned to be an election booth, in Vrang. I tried to ask permission to photocopy it, but the chief of election committee said there was no photocopy machine at all in the village. When I started to take photos of the book with [...]

October 30, 2006 // 0 Comments

Alichur – Kyrgyz Community

The steppe of Alichur Actually I planned to stay for some more days in Langar, but I have heard that the transport onward to Murghab would be very difficult to get. This was caused by the high oil price, so people couldnt afford anymore to travel, and instead of going to smaller and hopeless Murghab they opted to bigger Khorog. Suddenly, even when I was not prepared yet, there was a passenger jeep going to Murghab on 27th. The khalifa told me if I didnt take this car, the next transport might be a month after. I had no choice but to leave Langar. The road continued to east along the river bordering Afghanistan. Afghanistan on that side of the river had no more motorable road as it already entered the Big Pamir area. Sometimes caravans of Bactrian camels were visible along the dirt road on that side of the river, while we were travelling in a russian jeep. World differed more than a century in the two sides of the river, which was very shallow and narrow in winter. It should be very easy to cross the border illegally here. The camel caravan must be the Afghan (Pashtun) traders [...]

October 28, 2006 // 0 Comments

Vrang – Life in Vrang

Green, peaceful, and lazy … Vrang Travelling in Tajikistan side of the Wakhan Corridor was as difficult as in Afghanistan side. Public transport was rare, the oil price got higher as the altitude got higher. It was 3.50 Somoni per liter of petrol here. No one was sure when the coming transport would come. And even when it came, it was often full, no space to share. It was indeed luck to be able to travel according to what one has planned. I was patient enough even though I worried about my short visa. Dr Akhmed was a doctor in Tughoz. I was waiting for transport to Vrang, 5 km away from tughoz, in his hospital. As the main doctor in this village, he earned only 50 Somoni per month. You would go nowhere with that amount of money in Tajikistan. But everybody was optimistic with his life. Working with little income was still better rather than begging on the streets. I have heard beggars in Jakarta could earn at least 60 dollars per month, about 280 Somoni, or 4 times higher than Dr Akhmed’s income. You need a lot of money and bunch of patience to travel in Tajikistan. [...]

October 25, 2006 // 0 Comments

Tughoz – Aliboy Family Aliboy family

The Aliboy family His name is Tuloev Aliboy Jumakhanovich, an unemployed man who sometimes work as driver, 33 years old. He greeted me, “We, Ismailis, dont go for hajj in Mecca. We dont waste our money for hajj. But our leader says, providing shelter and food for poor traveller, the mosafers, that is our hajj pilgrimage.” That is the reason of the hospitality of the Ismailis. No matter that there is no even wheat to make bread, being hospitable to a guest is compulsory. Aliboy sheltered me in his traditional house. There were his old father, Jumakhan, 72 years old, the old mother, sisters, cousins, and children in his little house. People of the Pamir are said to have long ages, like Jumakhan’s grand father who lived until 120 years old of age. Maybe it was because of the pure water. Aliboy had no job, even though he had a car. Here we could observe how live reduced dramatically to its modest form since the breakaway of the USSR. From a car owner to be an unemployed whou couldnt sustain sufficient income for basic needs, life have never been easy afterwards. The situation in Tajikistan was much worsened by the [...]

October 24, 2006 // 0 Comments

Ishkashim – Bodurbekov Family

Alisher (a.k.a Muhammad Bodurbekov) with his cousin “Now you are not guest anymore. You are part of our family. Welcome!” – Muhammad Bodurbekov Since the first minute I arrived in Ishkashim, I was impressed by the hospitality of the people in the Wakhan Valley. I was invited by Muhammad Bodurbekov, 29, to his house in the village. Muhammad, alias Alisher, worked in Dushanbe in Aga Khan’s NGO, MSDSP. He had classes in Khorog and he then had chance to see his family in Ishkashim. He spent a month in the UK for his higher education, and he still maintained his British accent. Alisher was an educated professional and he had so many things to discuss. So before starting, let’s sit on the ‘kurpacha’, the guest welcome matress, which Alisher laid between the pillars of Ali and Muhammad. Sitting on the kurpacha symbolized the acceptance of the welcome gesture from the host. In this house there were Alisher’s father, mother, sister, and some nephews and nieces. Alisher sister was married already but she was staying in her parents’ house. She was married to a man from Shegnon and according to the Shegnon tradition, the first child should be born in the [...]

October 22, 2006 // 0 Comments

Ishkashim – Peeping into Afghanistan

Afghanistan, seen from Tajikistan It is just separated by a river. But the live over there is a world away. Khorog and Ishkashim are connected by a stretch of a 106 km long asphalted road. It is a 3 hour journey with public jeep, but cost as much as 20 Somoni ($6). Despite of lack of money that people earn, everything in Tajikistan is very expensive as the country produces almost nothing remarkable but water and electricity. The road to Ishkashim as along the Panj river, with Afghanistan Badakhshan province at the other side. The river itself had not strong stream (as the temperature is already quite low at this moment) and was not wide at all. Afghanistan is just less than 20 m from here, but the life there is a world away. While we are traversing smooth road of Tajikistan with a jeep, the road over there is complete dirt road and you may observe Afghan travellers wandering the world on donkeys. When women passengers in our jeep in Tajikistan side sit aside the other male passengers, talk and sing freely during the journey, an Afghan woman completely covered by blue veil, wears long loose trousers, and passes [...]

October 20, 2006 // 1 Comment

Khorog – The Capital of GBAO

Driver is a respected job in Tajikistan, especially in GBAO where most people still struggle of unemployment “Thanks to God, thanks to Aga Khan, for their kindness to us” – Mamadrayonova Khurseda The provincial capital of GBAO, Khorog, is a little town set in a valley surrounded by vertical cliffs of high mountains. It is cool and lazy, and despite of its proximity with Afghanistan, it is quite laid back. The appearance of military still can be felt intensively in the town, thanks to the neighbouring Afghanistan, which is just across the river and notorious for opium export and illegal border crossing. Young soldiers have to patrol every morning along the misty and freezing river. The 1300 km long border with Afghanistan gives much headache to Tajikistan, and its patron – Russia. Russian guards were playing a big role in ‘saving’ the war torn Tajikistan from further deterioration. But as the situation of the country had been stabilized for almost ten years now, the existence of Russian and CIS troops had been much reduced since the previous two years. If you walk along the main street of Khorog, except for the numerous militsia, police, and KGB agents, you will feel [...]

October 19, 2006 // 0 Comments

Khorog – The Journey to GBAO

One of the two brothers, fellow passengers on the journey to Khorog, GBAO, Tajikistan GBAO, the Gorno Badakhshanskaya Avtonomnaya Oblast (Gorno Badakhshan Autonomous Oblast) is my main reason to come to Tajikistan. It is dominated by the minority Ismaili Badakhshani Tajiks and Sunni Kyrgyz. It has majestic mountain architectures. But the main reason I want to go to this restricted area was its history. The province was supporting rebel side in the civil war of Tajikistan. The province suffered a lot from the blockade of the central government. Going to Tajikistan is already something strange for my Indonesian friends in Kabul. “Why going to Tajikistan? It is a poor country.” Going to GBAO is another thing to be objected by my Tajik friends in Dushanbe. “Why going to GBAO? It is so far and poor…” Even the Tajik diplomat in Kabul raised his eyebrows when my embassy staff insisted to get a Tajik visa together with GBAO permit. “Is he really a tourist???” For the ‘GBAO’ four letters to be added on my visa I had to pay a painful 100 dollar fee. It is a bureaucratic country, and my embassy told me to follow the rules, as for this [...]

October 18, 2006 // 0 Comments

Krat – The Wakhi People of Krat

Wakhan Corridor is always far and mysterious “Zdravstvui tovarech” – a villager from Krat Freedom is what the Wakhi people are longing for. I never expected my visit to Chapursan, the Wakhi Tajik valley in northern Pakistan, brought me to learn deeper about the life of the same ethnic in Afghanistan side of the valley. In Chapursan, 7 months ago, I stayed in house of Noorkhan, a Wakhi Tajiki from Kil village, where sun doesn’t come at all in winter for 3 months. Who expected, deep in restricted area of Wakhan Corridor, I met friends and relatives of Noorkhan. Faizal-u-Rahman, 29 years old, is a cousin of Alam Jan Dario, a famous man from Zod Khon village in Chapursan, who pioneered tourism in the valley. I met Faizal in in Khandud. He was offering me a hitch on tractor to the village of Krat in Wakhan Valley of Afghanistan. He, together with other people from Chapursan are working for an American NGO, Central Asian Institute, and this moment they are building a school in the village. Chapursan is an area dominated by Wakhi Tajik people, same as in Wakhan Valley, and the Wakhi people follow Ismaili sect of Islam. Only [...]

August 3, 2006 // 2 Comments

Karimabad – Wedding

Prepared to bring the bride home Being delayed is not always bad. The road to Pindi has been blocked for more than a week now, and I am still in Karimabad. I have heard the rumours that Mr. Karim’s brother was going to marry. So 2 days ago I visited him. Mr Karim was busy, preparing for the feasts and everything. He offered me sharbat (the traditional food for 2 days before marriage, made from flour) but I felt he tried to send me home politely as he couldnt entertain me due to his business. From him, I learnt about the tradition of the wedding in Hunza. The ‘nikah’ will be held in bride’s side, in the nearest jamaat khana from the bride’s house. For this, the bride side invited 40 people from the groom side. These 40 people, mostly relatives, were carefully selected and counted. As we might know, the families in Pakistan are all big, that 40 is a very limited number. It seems that the culture is quite closed for outsiders, that I probably might not be able to join the whole procession. As he was busy in this sunny bright day, I went together with him [...]

January 21, 2006 // 1 Comment

Karimabad – Another Night Talk

Tourism also brings cultural impact to far flung places January 17, 2005 At last the guys from the restaurant successfully moved the TV and VCD to my room. They played hide and seek with the old man, the owner, and it was indeed funny to see the games. The sound was mixed with other movie, Bunty and Babli, to distract the attention of the old man. And they successfully made the old man sleep earlier. One accident happened when they moved the TV, the man woke up. Haroun (not real name) told the old man that the Indonesian guy (me) need the TV and VCD to do his homework. Damn! The 2 CDs, both were painfully obtained, were all damaged. One of it, the funniest porn CD I have ever watched, from South India. The actresses were all old, grey haired, bathing in the river. Then came the raper, old, fat, black, ape-faced man. The open sex happened openly in the river side, but it was too ugly, and the Pakistani guys also thought so. Talking about the open sex, I mean sex in open field, Haroun told me a story of a European couple having sex in a park [...]

January 17, 2006 // 0 Comments

Karimabad – Trapped

A journey to no-men peaks January 16, 2006 Planned to leave Karimabad already, awaiting for the coming jeep from Sust which I can hitch for free, but the friend who is going to go together delayed his journey for unlimited time. Meanwhile the bus ticket from Karimabad to Rawalpindi arouse to 821 Rupees, too expensive for me. And another bad news, there was road block somewhere between Gilgit and Pindi, so all buses will not operating for these 2-3 days. What a luck. Again, I am trapped in Karimabad. Yesterday, to pass the time, I decided to join some local guys climbing up to the Eagle’s Nest. From here we can see the whole valley. I have been there two years ago, and it was a terrible walk in summer. Now in super cold winter, nobody is up there. All hotels and houses are empty, and the road was slippery of ice and glacier. Luckily I was not alone, so there was someone (Mr Karim) who held my hand along the way…. Totally deserted in winter The snow was thick up there, and it was land of nobody, with empty houses and buildings, left-away agricultural fields, resembled a ghost town. [...]

January 16, 2006 // 1 Comment

Chapursan – The Land without Sunshine

The difficult journey to the land without sunshine January 4-7, 2006 Have you heard about the land without sunshine? It was a cloudy morning when someone in Sust bazaar – just one step more to China – told me. “You should go to Chapursan, over there, there is no sunshine for 2.5 months!” Chapursan is up north from Sust, going parallel with the Afghan border. And for harsh winter like this, nobody goes there due to the low temperature, harsh wind, and of course no sunshine. The last part of the challenges really made me decided to depart. There are several cars departing from Sust bazaar. There is no exact departure time, all departures are depended on passengers. Noor Khan – a Chapursan native who have been living in Karachi since student time, and Aziz – a teacher, Noor’s relative, also have been living in Karachi, are my fellow passengers. They told me many things about the culture of Wakhan Tajik – the native of the valley, about the land without sunshine – incidentally the exact valley without sunshine is about the breathing distance from their houses, about interesting event that I can catch the day later – a traditional [...]

January 7, 2006 // 1 Comment

Karimabad – The Land of Heaven

Haider Inn 75Rs Hunza in winter This is my second time coming to Hunza valley. The first time was in summer 2003. I arrived here 2 years ago, and amazed by the development projects carried out throughout the valley. The colour of winter is sad, yellow and grey. But the sadness colour doesnt make the mountains and valley mute, it’s still singing, beautifully. As I remember from my last visit, due to failure of the generator in the valley, I didnt have electricity at all during my 3 day stay here. But now it’s different. The electricity, even though that is still unreliable, works for most of the time. 2 days with electricity and 1 day off. Not bad. And it even has an internet cafe with affordable price. 40 Rs/hour, which is not bad considering the terrain of the area. The Internet cafe is run by KADO, with a partnership with an NGO from Western country. The connection was run by a sattelite, as the Internet administrator told me yesterday, and it cost 2000$/mo for this. The connection is very slow during the day because of the weather, but is bearable in the evening. The organization itself doesnt get [...]

December 23, 2005 // 2 Comments

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