....read about Meymand's Cave Dwellers.....
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Tiles, Masjid Jameh, Yazd
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| Our route from Yazd down to Bandar Abbas and then Bushehr |
The bus from Kerman
to Yazd was very typical for Iran, in that it was overheated to the
point of suffocation, no toilet stops, a snack pack of a drink and cake, and
water available onboard during the journey.
We were very interested to see Yazd, as most travellers we met who had visited Iran had said it was their favourite
place in the country. For us, it would have to be pretty incredible to beat
what we had already seen and experienced.
The first thing we noticed was the huge number of tourists-
the majority elderly and in huge tour buses. The hotels in the old part of town
were very plush to cater for this lot, and we found it hard to find a
reasonably priced place. We had decided to have a break from Couchsurfing, as
we had heard how lovely it was to stay in a historic building in Yazd.
It would give us a chance to catch up on time together and follow our
own timetable for a few days.
We eventually found a newly opened small traditional hotel,
and were very happy indeed to settle into our lovely room with beds (a novelty
here!), spotless bathroom, air-con and a fridge (which we quickly filled with
delicious Iranian supplies).
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| Our lovely Yazd hotel room |
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| Courtyard Yazd hotel |
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| Rich enjoying tea at hotel |
Yazd is
apparently one of the oldest cities of the world, being a major stop on the
Silk Route. It has been continuously inhabited for 7000 years! The light brown
colour of the ancient buildings, along with the simple design and high walls in
the streets gave a quiet and minimalist atmosphere. While we could appreciate
the clear-cut lines, it’s not our favourite type of architecture. It was nice
to see what the old mansions would have looked like years ago, by looking at
the renovated buildings that had been turned into hotels, restaurants and
museums.
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| Old pot, Yazd museum |
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| Beautiful window, Yazd museum |
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| Dusty old lamps, Yazd museum |
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| Ornate roof, Yazd |
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| "Topoli" (fat shop), Yazd |
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| A glimpse into a courtyard, Yazd |
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| Yazd street |
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| Roof badgirs, Yazd |
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| Zoroastrian tiles, Yazd |
The Jameh Mosque was our favourite sight in town, covered in
thousands of beautiful blue/green tiles from the floor to the towering bulbous
ceiling.
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| Dolat Abad, Yazd |
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| Dolat Abad, Yazd |
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| Fooling around with coloured glass, Yazd |
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| Gorgeous roof, Yazd |
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| Masjid Jameh, Yazd |
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| Colour co-ordinated, Masjid Jameh, Yazd |
The “untouristy” part of the old
bazaar was also great, and
although there were no souvenir shops or teahouses, we found the industrious
craftsmen in their workshops interesting, and the atmosphere more authentic.
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| Head on the footpath, Yazd |
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| Workshop, old bazar, Yazd |
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| Workshop, old bazar, Yazd |
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| A man and his legs, Yazd |
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| Camel carcass, Yazd |
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| Busy in the workshop, old bazar, Yazd |
We hated to see the women in Yazd almost exclusively in black chadors and black clothes, looking like flocks of penguins
shuffling along the streets. The chador
really is the most ridiculously designed piece of clothing, requiring the woman
wearing it to hold it closed with her hands continuously, leaving it very
difficult to do anything else at the same time.
Zoroastrianism is the oldest monotheist religion in the
world, and around 5,500 of the 150,000 world wide followers live here in Yazd. We were familiar with Zoroastrianism
from India where many of the
devotees live, especially in Mumbai (they
are called Parsi there), and are most famous for their burial ritual. They
believe the dead should not pollute the earth, and huge towers have been built
for the bodies to be laid out for the vultures to pick at. This custom is no
longer in practice in Iran, with
Zoroastrians here being buried in concrete to avoid pollution. We leant that
much of the funding for Iranian Zoroastrians comes from their wealthy brothers
and sisters in India.
Apart from this, and the fact that fire is very important to
these people, we didn’t know much about them at all, and were lucky enough to
be invited to go to Chak Chak, the most important Zoroastrianism
pilgrimage place in Iran. The story
is when the Arabs invaded (“they ruined everything” said one local man), a Yazd princess ran away to hide in this
remote desert location. It was a good spot for concealment, hidden away in the
middle of no-where, 72 kms from Yazd.
We were fortunate to see a Zoroastrian family there with the men all in white,
and the women in colour with no chador, praying in the cave temple.
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| Zoroastrian cave temple door, Chak Chak |
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| Chak Chak Zoroastrian fire temple |
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| View from the fire temple hill |
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| Zoroastrian man praying, Chak Chak |
An interesting aside is that the Zoroastrian symbol of a
winged old man seen in all pre-Arab sites has now somehow been adopted as a
national symbol of Persia, with many
business and signs displaying the icon. This stuck us as being ironic in a
country where the Government is trying to portray such a strict Islamic image.
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| Zoroastrian symbol |
We had a radical change of plans at the last minute on our
last day in Yazd, and decided to
head south to Bandar Abbas to get back to the untouristy
area we had enjoyed at the start of our Iran
trip, meet up with friends, and take an alternate route to Shiraz, via Bushehr.
This new idea would also allow us to embark on a train trip- our first in Iran.
We were curious to compare the trains here with the dozens
we have taken in India. Of course,
in Iran, things are more organized,
run more or less on time, there’s more security, cleaner carriages (brand new
sheets were distributed when we boarded, along with a snack pack of cake, nuts
and drinks) and more comfortable. But they are actually quite cramped inside the
carriages, and we were happy we were only sharing with one other person. Of
course, the temperature was way too hot when we left, but this changed to
freezing overnight. One other awkward thing was the locking of the toilets at
station stops. Although this would have kept the stations from smelling like India, it was very painful when the
stop was a long one!
The scenery coming into Bandar
Abbas was stunning (once again!),
and Richard enjoyed watching the final part of the train trip, while Sal slept
on.
It was terrific to see our first Couchsurfing host again,
plus some other friends we had made during our first time in Bandar Abbas, and we had a couple of days catching up on writing and
photos, as well as attending a party, where typically for Bandar Abbas, there was
warm welcomes, great food, Bandari music, and lots of dancing in the Bandari
style (a lot of shaking in the upper body!)
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| A good time dancing Bandari style |
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| The twins dancing up a storm, Bandar Abbas |
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| Our host- an expert Bandari dancer! |
Totally delightful to move through the geometric color mosaics, that you artfully captured through giving an elemental feel of perspective with the the outside structural forms. Social realism through the workshops cluttered with exited still life of pots and vase, along with animated tailors and merchants, and the almost surreal depiction of animal body parts strewn on street. Thank you for giving me a vicarious life.
ReplyDeleteYou mention that the chador is an incredibly impractical garment. I agree entirely. When I was teaching at the University of Esfahan (1974-75), I had a woman student in one of my classes who had obtained special permission to come to class wearing a chador (regular drill was for women to take theirs off when passing through the gate onto the campus). As all students had to do, she would take her turn to read aloud in class. To hold the book properly she had to use both hands. Then to take care of her chador she had to put a fold of it in her mouth. This made her reading quite muffled, but at least she was following religious etiquette!
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