Notes on Tajikistan

An amazing place. I visited twice about 15 years ago and have many fond memories of it, but mostly when I think about it I'm filled with sadness, because the people there deserve so much better. They're constantly knee-deep in corruption, both street level and just the very blatant kleptocratic presidential family. There's a lot of ethnic Russians, both expat workers and ones that didn't manage to leave after the collapse of the Soviet Union, that are very openly racist towards ethnic Tajiks but were usually allowed to run free. The people were hospitable and open and very happy to have guests in their country, but it also seemed like a very bleak place, with few good prospects for the future.

> The government and locals don’t like when you bring up Borat

Depends on which locals. Younger generations never really cared about this. All my friends have always found the movies hilarious, especially the first one.

When the sequel was released, the government finally started acting like adults: https://youtu.be/eRGXq4t9wY4

I'm pretty sure this is also caused by generational change in the government.

I'm regularly going to Tajikistan for hiking trips to help map out the Pamir Trail, a 1200km long hiking trail across the mountains of Tajikistan.

https://www.pamirtrail.org

It's a beautiful country if you love hiking or mountaineering, though certainly has a lot of practical challenges. The article did a very good job of explaining the local situation in Tajikistan and giving you a bit of a feeling of what it's like to be there.

The whole thing is great and worth reading, but I wanted to highlight this anecdote:

> I asked about the criminal justice system and I was told there wasn’t much of a formal one. My companion explained that most matters were handled internally by families. For instance, if a 20-something got in a fight with another 20-something and the cops got involved, the police would most likely contact the families and let the parents and brothers sort that shit out with a warning not to cause trouble again. The families would enforce order through shaming, threats of social ostracization, and possibly physical violence.

Not so new fact that many here may already know: The (in?)famous -stan suffix, coming originally from Persian, is an etymological cousin of State, Street, Statistics, Strategy and Stadt.

In Iran, provinces are called Ostan and some Ostans' names end with -stan (e.g. Ostan of Kurdistan).

By the way, since it's not clear from their names, it may be worth noting that Tajiki and Persian are two dialects of the same language.

I listened to https://www.theredlinepodcast.com/post/tajikistan-and-region... yesterday. It's an extremely interesting discussion on the geopolitical factors both internal and external that shape Tajikistan's security sitation, and who's interests Tajikistan's security dysfunction serves.

i had the opportunity to travel to central asia last summer for a couple weeks (both uzbekistan and tajikistan, briefly). was really a fascinating trip to a part of the world that i barely knew anything about!

for those who are curious about traveling in central asia in general, there is a great travel blog of sorts called caravanistan -> https://caravanistan.com/forum/

the main website is useful for travel logistics but i find myself returning to the forum pretty often to see travel updates from people on the ground in those places. really interesting to me to read about various border crossings between countries, what to expect when traveling around/between countries, etc

The Beatles haircut is also common in Dagestan in Russia, being source of jokes (e.g. https://imgur.com/a/eiGyw7E)

So snow at 13,000 feet in the summer, deep inland. How has there not been attempts to develop this for alpine sports? The quality of the snowfall plus the terrain seems made for it.

Be sure to check out his Notes on the Gambia, which for some reason is the world's premier destination for female sex tourism:

https://mattlakeman.org/2023/07/10/notes-on-the-gambia/

> all rolled into one beautiful, weird, dysfunctional country, and I couldn’t get enough of it.

I do not see dysfunctional countries as beautiful. I prefer well functioning countries where things get done and people understand each other.

I guess the author likes to see people suffer?

I spent a fortnight with a small group of friends motorcycling along the Pamir highway back in 2022, then another week or so over in Kazakhstan (off the bikes this time).

Fascinating pair of countries, and highly recommended to go travel and get off the beaten track.

Great article, always happy to see my home country featured abroad.

Just to nitpick, however:

> Got independence from the USSR in 1991 and had some power struggles until a Soviet guy took over in 1994 and then won a brutal civil war against a coalition of Islamic extremists and has been running the country ever since

Calling it Islamic extremists is a bit reductive. The coalition (United Tajik Opposition) was with the Islamic Renaissance Party, a couple of pro-democracy parties which were supported by the majority of the intelligentsia, and also included a party for Pamiri Autonomy. The most common thing among them is they were all united against the Communists.

Source: I am Tajik and was born around the Soviet Union collapsed. Also studied the history of the civil war

I visited Tajikistan last summer and spent about three weeks in the country. One week in Khujand (I crossed the border from Uzbekistan) and Dushanbe, and two weeks in the Pamirs.

Just like the author I (from India) travelled with a couple of Europeans, a German girl and a French guy. I very much enjoyed my time there, especially in the Pamirs. I stayed with a local family who hosted me in Khorog. I went hiking, watched Afghan villages from across the border, and also worked remotely.

I did some work in Tajikistan a while back. Really good fun with some great people.

It was also the most vertically integrated place I've ever encountered. I've worked in a lot of places outside of EU/US and it's the only one where I've felt you could stick most people on the country on an organigram.

I wanted to go once but heard that either the taliban or al queda were in the area, which is unideal as an American citizen. Is that not the case anymore?

Article claims Tajikistan is shaped like nonsense when it's clearly a snorkeling mask.

Tajikistan looks to be an interesting case of Islam being kept in check without resorting to either extremism or terrorism. But this is neither free nor assured, and it probably requires constant wilful effort.

In the long term, I can see it bleeding more territory to China due to the significant difference in military power and aggression. This is so long as there isn't a NATO-like structure to keep Chinese aggression in check, constituted of its neighbors.

And there it is again that cultural inability to build institutions beyond "family". How is that culture compatibel with complex states and compamies in east and west? With longterm development in general? Then again it has thriving families, compared to the west and east, whos societies dissolve once the rewards of modernity appear. The ideal would be a cycling hybrid i guess.

Inb4 those weirdos who go all in on nurture, but then refuse to discuss nurture, leaving the terrain to conspiracies and racists.

Also the hospitality is pretty legendary.

Yeah, as someone who grew up in Tajikistan myself - can confirm most of the observations (like 99% is very accurate). I never noticed any special love for Americans tbh, probably the dude just didn't know anything about European countries your friends were from. Mostly people love any tourists (for different reasons, but never sincerely :) )

I love this style of writing and how it introduces a place I almost never thought about before. I didn't know anything about Tajikstan except its name so this was all new information. Thank you!

> Sadly, the Dushanbe flagpole lost its status as the world’s tallest in 2014, only three years after its construction, to the Jeddah Flagpole in Saudi Arabia, which I have already seen without knowing its illustrious status in the world flagpole standings:

> I have to admit that I find it kind of funny that Tajikistan spent $3.5 million to win an extremely petty international prestige project contest, and then it lost a few years later to a country with 30X the GDP per capita and 100X the GDP. Saudi Arabia’s lead lasted for seven years until Egypt took the top spot and Russia slid into second place

Quite amusing to see how a man writes about -stan and Saudi Arabia but his mind is firmly not on these countries.

> On this particular point and some others, I wondered whether my companion had an overly rosy and maybe sanitized view of Tajik culture, which isn’t uncommon for immigrants to have toward their homeland.

Or maybe he didn't want to speak freely with some foreign rando. Especially some foreign rando from America. Cue in the next three paragraphs.

> due to an apparent combination of local fashion sensibilities and I guess fabulous Persian hair

That's a funny observation but this is how you instantly recognize Tajik from any other guy from Central Asia.

> How can two countries have so many military fights that result in direct casualties, including straight-up artillery barrages over the border, and not actually declare war on one another?

> I have no idea.

I have no idea how some country can travel to literally the other side of the planet and yet not actually declare war on the country it is invading. *shrug_emoji*

> And of the better armed one-third, I swear, most didn’t have clips in their AKs. Meaning, they either carried no ammo or only a single round in the chamber.

Or they are required not to have a loaded magazine[0] in the firearm because they aren't in the constant direct threat and don't have a need to respond instantly.

I know, it's hard to comprehend to someone from "I bring a loaded AR in Taco Bell (along with two Glocks and assortments of EDC tactical knifes) else I'm feel like naked" nation, but no magazine in a firearm doesn't mean there is no magazines at all.

> Claim 2: The “Taj” in “Taj Mahal” refers to the Tajik people.

After the turmoils of 1990s many ex-USSR countries tried to invent their ancient connections, so if you hear something along that - keep a salt shaker nearby.

> Buzkashi

Oh, yes, a lot of this types of.. activities in the Central Asia. The included video is hilarious for the reaction of the announcer and the comments[1]

Overall this article is.. obviously biased by the US-tinted glasses. I found myself reading it for the author perspective, less for the actual content.

[0] Yes, it's a magazine:

> Clip (firearms)

> Not to be confused with Magazine (firearms).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clip_(firearms)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magazine_(firearms)

[1] It's in the article but if you are lost: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JUn8MsEyPs