Tajikistan Vacation

Qurghonteppa or Kurganteppa (Tajik: Қурғонтеппа; formerly known as Курган-Тюбе Kurgan-Tyube, Persian: قرغان‌تپه, Turkish: Kurgantepe) is a city in southwestern Tajikistan. It is the capital of the Khatlon region and it is located 100 km from Dushanbe. It is estimated that the population of the city is close to 85,000 (est. 2006) people, making it the third-largest city in the country. The population fluctuates depending on season (due to Tajik immigrant workers in Russia). The political opposition in Tajikistan primarily comes from Qurghonteppa.

The Tajik Soviet Socialist Republic (Tajik: Республикаи Советии Социалистии Тоҷикистон Respublikai Sovetii Sotsialistii Tojikiston; Russian: Таджикская Советская Социалистическая Республика Tadzhikskaya Sovetskaya Sotsialisticheskaya Respublika), also known as the Tajik SSR for short, was one of the 15 republics that made up the Soviet Union. Located in Central Asia, Tajik SSR was created on 5 December 1929 as a national entity for the Tajik people within the Soviet Union. It succeeded the Tajik Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (Tajik ASSR), which had been created on 14 October 1924 as a part of the predominantly Turkic Uzbek SSR in the process of national delimitation in Soviet Central Asia. On 9 September 1991, Tajik SSR declared independence from the Soviet Union and was renamed the Republic of Tajikistan.

Tajikistan has a population of 7,215,700 (January 2008 est.). Tajiks who speak the Tajik language (a variety of Persian) are the main ethnic group, although there is a sizable minority of Uzbeks and a small population of Russians, whose numbers are declining due to emigration. Pamiris of Badakhshan are considered to belong to larger group of Tajiks. Likewise, the official language of Tajikistan is the Tajik language, while Russian is largely spoken in business and for government purposes. Despite its poverty, Tajikistan has a high rate of literacy with an estimated 98 % of the population having the ability to read and write. Most of the population follows Sunni Islam, although a sizable number of Ismailis are present as well. Bukharian Jews had lived in Tajikistan since the 2nd century BC, but today almost none are left. There is also a small population of Yaghnobi people who have lived in the mountainous district of Sughd Viloyat for many centuries.

The official language is Tajik, an ancient Persian language to the group of Iranian languages heard. In the Pamir mountain range, there are at least five different languages, all with Altiranisch are related. Russian is also spoken a lot, and discrimination against Russian-speaking population is legally prohibited. In the tourism sector is also frequently spoken English

In the 19th century, the Russian Empire began to spread into Central Asia during the Great Game, and it took control of Tajikistan. After the overthrow of Imperial Russia in 1917, guerrillas throughout Central Asia, known as basmachi waged a war against Bolshevik armies in a futile attempt to maintain independence. The Bolsheviks prevailed after a four-year war, in which mosques and villages were burned down and the population heavily suppressed.

Soviet authorities started a campaign of secularization, practicing Muslims, Jews, and Christians were persecuted,and mosques, churches, and synagogues were closed. The Jews of Tajikistan are known as Bukharian Jews. In the 1970s to 1990s there was a huge emigration of Bukharians to the United States of America. Today, there are flourishing Bukharian communities in New York City, United States and in many other east coast cities of the U.S.

Tajikistan means the “Land of the Tajiks” in Persian. Some believe the name Tajik is a geographic reference to the crown (Taj) of the Pamir Knot, but this is a folk etymology. The word “Tajik” was used to differentiate Iranians from Turks in Central Asia, starting as early as the 10th century. The addition of ‘k’ might have been for the purpose of euphony in the set phrase “Turk-o Tajik” (“Turks and Tajiks”) which in Persian-language histories is found as an idiomatic expression meaning “everyone.” According to some other sources, the name Tajik (also spelled Tadjik, Tadzhik) refers to a group of people who are believed to be one of the pure and close descendents of the ancient Aryans. Their country was called Aryana Vajeh and the name “Taa-jyaan” from which came the word Tajik is mentioned in The Avesta. The Zoroaster’s Gathas were also directed to an Aryan audience and there are several references to this community as being situated in the “home” of the Aryans.

Tajikistan frequently appeared as Tadjikistan or Tadzhikistan in English. This former transliteration of Tadjikistan or Tadzhikistan is from the Russian Таджикистан. (In Russian there is no single letter j to represent the phoneme /ʤ/ and дж, or dzh, is used.) Tadzhikistan is the most common alternate spelling and is widely used in English literature derived from Russian sources. Tadjikistan is the spelling in French and can occasionally be found in English language texts. In the Perso-Arabic script, “Tajikistan” is written تاجیکستان.

Controversy surrounds the correct term used to identify people from Tajikistan. The word Tajik has been the traditional term used to describe people from Tajikistan and appears widely in literature. But the ethnic politics of Central Asia have made the word Tajik a controversial word, as it implies that Tajikistan is only a nation for ethnic Tajiks and not ethnic Uzbeks, Russians, etc. Likewise, ethnic Tajiks live in other countries, such as China, making the term ambiguous. In addition, the Pamiri population in Gorno-Badakhshan also have sought to create an ethnic identity separate from that of the Tajiks.

As summers are ferociously hot and winters bitterly cold, spring (April to June) and autumn (September to November) are the best seasons to visit. March is also a good time, as you’ll experience the Navrus festival. Up in the Pamirs, July to September is the only practical time to travel. The Anzob and Shakhristan passes between Khojand and Dushanbe are generally closed from late November to late May.

Dushanbe (Tajik: Душанбе, Dushanbe; formerly Dyushambe or Stalinabad), population 661,100 people (2006 census), is the capital and largest city of Tajikistan. The name is derived from the Persian word for “Monday” (du two + shamba or shanbe day, lit. “day two”) and refers to the fact that it was a popular Monday marketplace.

Tajikistan (pronounced /təˈdʒɪkɨstæn/ or /təˈdʒiːkɨstæn/; Tajik: Тоҷикистон, pronounced [tɔʤikɪsˈtɔn] or [tɒːʤikɪsˈtɒn]), officially the Republic of Tajikistan (Tajik: Ҷумҳурии Тоҷикистон) is a mountainous landlocked country in Central Asia. Afghanistan borders to the south, Uzbekistan to the west, Kyrgyzstan to the north, and People’s Republic of China to the east. Most of Tajikistan’s population belongs to the Tajik ethnic group, who share culture and history with the Persian peoples and speak the Tajik language. Once the location of the Samanid Empire, Tajikistan became a constituent republic of the Soviet Union in the 20th century, known as the Tajik Soviet Socialist Republic.

After independence, Tajikistan suffered from a devastating civil war which lasted from 1992 to 1997. Since the end of the war, newly-established political stability and foreign aid have allowed the country’s economy to grow. Its natural resources such as cotton and aluminium have contributed greatly to this steady improvement, although observers have characterized the country as having few natural resources besides hydroelectric power and its strategic location