Suzani (textile)

Bukhara suzani with pomegranate design.

Suzani is a type of embroidered and decorative tribal textile made in Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and other Central Asiancountries. Suzani is from the Persian سوزن Suzan which means needle. The art of making such textiles in Iran is called سوزن‌دوزیSuzandozi (needlework).

Suzanis usually have a cotton (sometimes silk) fabric base, which is embroidered in silk or cotton thread. Chain, satin, and buttonhole stitches are the primary stitches used. There is also extensive use of couching, in which decorative thread laid on the fabric as a raised line is stitched in place with a second thread. Suzanis are often made in two or more pieces, that are then stitched together

Popular design motifs include sun and moon disks, flowers (especially tulips, carnations, and irises), leaves and vines, fruits (especiallypomegranates), and occasional fish and birds.

The oldest surviving suzanis are from the late 18th and early 19th centuries, but it seems likely that they were in use long before that. In the early 15th century, Ruy Gonzáles de Clavijo, the Castilian ambassador to the court of Timur (Tamerlane), left detailed descriptions of embroideries that were probably forerunners of the suzani. 

Suzanis were traditionally made by Central Asian brides as part of their dowry, and were presented to the groom on the wedding day.These hand-embroidered vintage suzanis are infused with the character that only comes from everyday use. Perhaps created by a bride-to-be to show her devotion to her betrothed and then in lean times bartered away to a traveling Gypsy for money or household necessities pulled from the depths of his donkey cart. The story of each of these suzanis is as rich as their colors, as intricate as the designs that cover their surfaces.

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Atlas-popular Tajik material

Atlas – more than Chakan young and too fashionable material for sewing dresses for girls in Tajikistan. The Atlas of the bride and groom dress up the girl and almost all women except for the elderly in the holidays.

Atlas Price ranges from 15 to 200 US dollars for one dress. Atlas appeared in Tajikistan in Soviet times and has gained popularity since 1970-1980 years.To sew a satin require from 1 to 5 days and satin material compared Chakan less strong and therefore protect it from dirt. Atlas is a silky material and it is distinguished by its vividly colorful beauty that is peculiar to the liking of Tajik girls.

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Chackan - traditional dress of Tajik women

Female decorated dress of Chakan is one kind of Tajik people's embroidery chain stitches seamstresses'. As a matter of fact Tajik dressmakers stitch this sort of female decorated dress on the white colored silk with specific red, green and yellow paints. The word "Chakan" is dated back to ancient centuries. At first, pictures of floral ornaments, different designs of flowers, leaves, Sun, Moon and Stars were engraved on wood, iron ore, leather, invaluable stones and earthenware dishes since ancient days. Even you can meet the "Chakan" terms in the Slavonic language with the structure of "chekanka and chekanit", which means to design the floral ornaments on wood and cloth. 
In the old days the stitching of chakan was used from karabos, "the handicraft cotton cloth". During architectural research, the body of a seven years old girl was discovered from a grave in the Southern part of Tajikistan, where she had on a chakan dress with pictures of Lifetree, and branches in pair with two nightingales in the 70 years of last century.

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Chayhana Rohat

     Chayhana Rohat is constructed in the time of Soviet Union in 1958. The hand of great Tajik masters is seen in construction of this chayhana, used the forces and knowledge in a national art version - Chayhana consists of two floors and simultaneously can serve upto 80 persons.

It is necessary to note that chayhana «Rohat» is on prospectus Rudaki and is one of a favourite corner of inhabitants of Dushanbe.

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Pamiri Girl

Pamiri Girl from Yazgulom, Tajikisthan. Pamiri is the name of an Indo-Iranian group in the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Province of Tajikistan and Badakhshan Province of Afghanistan. The Pamiris are composed of people who speak the Pamiri languages, the indigenous language in the Gorno-Badakhshan autonomous province, and adhere to the Ismaili sect of Shia Islam.

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Education in Tajikistan

Tajik National University in Dushanbe.

 Public education in Tajikistan consists of 11 years of primary and secondary education but the government has plans to implement a 12-year system in 2016. There is a relatively large number of tertiary education institutions including Khujand State University which has 76 departments in 15 faculties, Tajikistan State University of Law, Business, & Politics, Khorugh State University, Agricultural University of Tajikistan, Tajik National University, and several other institutions. Most, but not all, universities were established during the Soviet Era. As of 2008 tertiary education enrollment was 17%, significantly below the sub-regional average of 37%. Many Tajiks left the education system due to low demand in the labor market for people with extensive educational training or professional skills.

Public spending on education was relatively constant between 2005–2012 and fluctuated from 3.5% to 4.1% of GDPsignificantly below the OECD average of 6%.^[112] The United Nations reported that the level of spending was "severely inadequate to meet the requirements of the country’s high-needs education system."

According to a UNICEF-supported survey, about 25 percent of girls in Tajikistan fail to complete compulsory primary education because of poverty and gender bias, although literacy is generally high in Tajikistan. Estimates of out of school children range from 4.6% to 19.4% with the vast majority being girls.

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History of Tajikistan

The Samanid ruler Mansur I (961–976).

Cultures in the region have been dated back to at least the 4th millennium BCE, including the Bronze Age Bactria–Margiana Archaeological Complex, the Andronovo cultures and the pro-urban site of Sarazm, a UNESCO World Heritage site.^[11]

The earliest recorded history of the region dates back to about 500 BCE when much, if not all, of modern Tajikistan was part of the Achaemenid Empire.^[10] Some authors have also suggested that in the 7th and 6th century BCE parts of modern Tajikistan, including territories in the Zeravshan valley, formed part of Kambojas before it became part of the Achaemenid Empire.After the region's conquest by Alexander the Great it became part of the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom, a successor state of Alexander's empire. Northern Tajikistan (the cities of Khujand andPanjakent) was part of Sogdia, a collection of city-states which was overrun by Scythians and Yuezhi nomadic tribes around 150 BCE. The Silk Road passed through the region and following the expedition of Chinese explorer Zhang Qian during the reign of Wudi (141–87 BCE) commercial relations between Han China and Sogdiana flourished.Sogdians played a major role in facilitating trade and also worked in other capacities, as farmers, carpetweavers, glassmakers, and woodcarvers.

The Kushan Empire, a collection of Yuezhi tribes, took control of the region in the first century CE and ruled until the 4th century CE during which time Buddhism,Nestorian Christianity, Zoroastrianism, and Manichaeism were all practiced in the region. Later the Hephthalite Empire, a collection of nomadic tribes, moved into the region and Arabs brought Islam in the early eighth century. Central Asia continued in its role as a commercial crossroads, linking China, the steppes to the north, and the Islamic heartland.It was temporarily under the control of the Tibetan empire and Chinese from 650–680 and then under the control of the Umayyads in 710. The Samanid Empire, 819 to 999, restored Persian control of the region and enlarged the cities of Samarkand andBukhara (both cities are today part of Uzbekistan) which became the cultural centers ofIran and the region was known as Khorasan. The Kara-Khanid Khanate conqueredTransoxania (which corresponds approximately with modern-day Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, southern Kyrgyzstan and southwest Kazakhstan) and ruled between 999–1211. Their arrival in Transoxania signaled a definitive shift from Iranian to Turkic predominance in Central Asia, but gradually the Kara-khanids became assimilated into the Perso-Arab Muslim culture of the region.

During Genghis Khan's invasion of Khwarezmia in the early 13th century the Mongol Empire took control over nearly all of Central Asia. In less than a century theMongol Empire broke up and modern Tajikistan came under the rule of the Chagatai Khanate. Tamerlane created the Timurid dynasty and took control of the region in the 14th century.

19th-century painting of lake Zorkuland a local Tajik inhabitant.

Modern Tajikistan fell under the rule of the Khanate of Bukhara during the 16th century and with the empire's collapse in the 18th century it came under the rule of both the Emirate of Bukhara and Khanate of Kokand. The Emirate of Bukhara remained intact until the 20th century but during the 19th century, for the second time in world history, a European power (the Russian Empire) began to conquer parts of the region.

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