With hindsight, it was surprising that we had no plans for Dušanbe; it was meant to be the last leg of our journey, a simple stop-gap, an interlude between the last leg of the Highway and the flight home. In a tightly-packed schedule, Dušanbe stood out with a simple question mark. Not knowing what to do, we began by walking the city.
It was only fitting that a strange nation had a strange capital. From an architectural point of view, Dušanbe was a confused melange of styles, a hosh-posh of half-hearted Soviet cityscaping – the usual wide boulevards and stuccoed buildings – combined with Tajik profligacy under the form of one-storey compounds only minimally more florid than those of Murghab. Here and there this texture was peppered with examples of a new style that I’d christened “New Tajik Stalinism”, the country’s approach to the sort of megalomania that seemed all the rage throughout the region as newly-independent nations tried, with various degrees of success, to build their own national identity.
It so happened that a stroll in Dušanbe would begin under the shades of a tree-lined alley, where buildings like TSUM Magazin and the Opera stood sentry, dusty relics of a long-gone colonial past. It would continue past neat rows of houses, each with their own bread kiln, pergola and veggie patch. A quick traverse of the bazaar would ensue, where the stench of over-ripe meat soon gave way to glorious mounds of fruit and bread, and where storytellers patrolled the stalls, playing the komuz and picking raspberries for bulging buckets. It would then end in a downtown park, contoured by official buildings looking like a cheaper, hurried version of the White House, under the watchful eye of a colossal statue of Ismail Somoni, in the shadow of the world’s largest flag, obviously hanging from the world’s tallest flagpole.
Click on any photo to start the slideshow.
It felt all but genuine and all but open. A cloud of circumspection hung above the city, something we hadn’t seen elsewhere in the country, not even where the Afghan border was a handful of meters away, and the Taliban rumoured not to be too far behind.
Our cameras drew a lot of attention. Security guards stopped us in the bazaar, struggled with our GoPros and then kicked us out. Cops chased us away from monuments, or waved us closer if they caught us approaching something even remotely official-looking. All was done with indolence and half-heartedly, as if they had a job to do but, really, couldn’t be arsed to perform it.
It felt a greater deal more serious for the locals. Conversations with the throngs of youths who loitered about the hostel proved that the longa manu of the law weighted a great deal more on them than on foreigners. I sported a long, ruffled beard, fruit of weeks without so much of a razor. This, they told me, wasn’t allowed for them, who were required – by law – to shave, lest a goatee led automatically to Salafism. For similar reasons, youngsters under the age of 18 weren’t allowed to attend the mosque, or even pray. Hajj, or the pilgrimage to Mecca, was allowed only for pensioners. Tajikistan preached atheism to teenagers and, if the reverse psychology that works so well for all schoolkids was to be followed, was succeeding in being the only country making religion cool to the eyes of millenials.
Fantastic pictures of this unusual place. I love the Bazaar pictures!
Thanks a lot for your comment! The Dušanbe bazaar was indeed a beauty, with the possible exception of the meat counters, but still.
I noticed the effects of fabricated heritage in Moldova. How terrible to have political borders, but no national identity! I
‘Ve wondered how I can score a job as a heritage fabricator. I bet it pays well. Great photos as usual, Fabrizio. I’m glad you were able to take some, given the paranoia.
Oops…”I’ve”
Hi Julie! It’s indeed quite interesting to see how these countries are trying to build something in terms of national identity. Some (I’d say Kazakhstan, and I suspect Uzbekistan even though I haven’t been there yet) have been more successful than others, and Tajikistan – I think – is really the bottom of the scale. Using Somoni – who mostly lived in Bukhara, which sits in another country! – as your father, name of your currency and highest peak’s name smacks of desperation… As for the photos, they were from the first of four day. After the encounters on that day (and after running out of printouts of the whereabouts of the Italian embassy) I decided to leave the camera home…
How bizarre. It sounds more oppressive than an overtly oppressive place. And sad. I’ve never really thought about the need to fabricate a national identity although I did just read a rather humorous (and semi-serious) piece about Slovenia and Slovakia trying to distinguish themselves in the eyes of the world since apparently many people mix them up!
Indeed the perception of oppression was, I suppose, more threatening than the overt display of oppression. I suppose it’s all by design, they’ve got quite a lot of know-how there after all.
Designing a national identity is an interesting concept for me, and being from Italy – which didn’t really have one – I also have quite a tangible, albeit half-arsed, example. I’m sure Bucharest and Budapest are sharing the same Slo-venia/vakia pain!
Great reading. I always enjoy your “frontier tales”. Chapeau.
Thanks, glad you liked it!!
How funny that I gave Dushanbe a mention in my post, and there you are, living it! I was trying to remember one of the more obscure locations old clients would travel to, and the Tajikistan Consulate in DC is a great example of what I wrote about. Anyway – fascinating that you find yourself there! What an interesting post, love the description of the market. As well, I appreciate the concept of “fabricated heritage,” though at the end of the day, most national-historical narratives are deeply embellished or, shall we say, heavily edited, hehe. But certainly the aggression among police and the anecdotes from youth belie something a bit creepier! Nevertheless, seems like a wonderful travel destination. And even if you can’t take photos, I hope that’ll only encourage your expression through writing! Great post!
Hi Erin, Dušanbe is indeed a bit out of the way, as far as places go. Speaking about the US consulate (which I didn’t know existed when I was in town), I read it was evacuated with assistance from the Russians when civil war broke out in the early 1990s, probably the only case of US-Russia joint work until that particularly dreadful film, Pacific Rim, of a couple of years ago.
I’ve really liked Tajikistan, both on its mountainous side (which I’ve covered quite extensively I suppose) and its more Tuscan-side, which instead I mentioned only fleetingly. It’s an interesting country and hosts an interesting population, which makes Dušanbe’s police and idiotic rules increasingly out of place if I’ve to be honest. Thanks for reading! 🙂