Tajikistan Village Life Video (points of interest)

The two most likely geological sequences for the creation of these narrow, fertile valleys in this mountainous region are landslides damming up the river and the resulting lake filling up with sediment and glaciers gouging out "U" shaped valleys. Note to readers, running water usually creates "V" shaped valleys while ice cuts "U" shaped valleys.

Some of these narrow pockets of fertile land are tiny.

2:40 Cutting apples for drying. The seed cavity shows signs of mold. Maybe Coddling Moth damage?

This small, sheet-steel, out-door stove has seen better days. It is somewhat like a "Rocket stove".

9:00 Cutting honeysuckle brush for firewood. Nothing goes to waste. Apple trees in the background. He is wearing slippers or loafers while cutting wood.

Burros are the beast-of-burden of choice. They don't eat much and they walk faster than cattle. Equipment is sized to match.

"Bolleana" like, fastigate forms of Populus alba are widely grown. They are very thirsty trees but are a quick way to grow a stick of structural timber and can be shoe-horned into narrow spaces.

Two-burner, LP stove

20:36 An interesting way to seal jars.

Apples, apricots, poplar. Home gardens, potatoes and maybe some alfalfa. Climate is arid but water from snow-melt is abundant. Days are short, even in summer due to shadows.

Animals include burros, fat-tailed sheep, some cattle, chickens, dogs and cats.

Video switches to a larger settlement at the 24:13 mark. Approximate location. Approximate elevation of 7,500 feet or 2350 meters and the same latitude as Denver, Colorado.

There is a greater diversity of crops and tree species. In the first couple of minutes I saw maize and "pumpkins" in fields. I saw no evidence of grape vines at either location.

A crew of boys gathering "weeds".

The youngest boy looks like he is 10. The dried weeds might be used for fodder, fuel or for bedding.

Diagonal striping is not for ornamentation. Probably follows contour to reduce erosion.

A willow tree. Probably pollard for "tree hay" of fuel.

31:34 A crew of boys making dried-mud bricks. I didn't see them adding any straw or manure to reduce cracking due to shrinkage while drying. One of the trees that was shading them looked like a mulberry tree.

The diagonal stick rides on the top of the mill-stone. As the stone turns, the stick vibrates and "shakes" grains of wheat out of the feed tub into the hole in the center of the millstone.

 

Burning the branches pruned from an apricot tree

Hard-core Muslims do not allow "graven images". Nor would they be putting images of their wife and daughters on the internet.

While Tajikistan is an Islamic country, they seem less rigid in their practice than some other places.

 

Because of their (literally) narrow resource footprint and the capricious weather, depopulation events are always a threat. Furthermore, there is no place to bug-out to when Tamerlane or his modern equivalent comes up the valley. The best you can hope for is a "hanging valley" that doesn't have an obvious outlet to the river valley.

 

Possibilities

Since there is an abundance of water but very limited flat land, I wonder if hydraulic-ram technology and poly pipe could be used to water some of the lower slopes. I suspect tree-crops would be the order of the day since evenly distributing the water would be challenging.

 

Hydraulic-rams are vulnerable to flooding, so they would have to be movable. Maybe solar would be a power option.