To children about the friendship of the peoples of the Samara region. How do Tajiks live in their homeland? (32 photos) Russian Tajik children

As in many other cultures, the birth of a child in a Tajik family is the most joyful event and a child as a continuation of the family is considered the meaning of life. All family traditions associated with the upbringing of a child were aimed at his upbringing: spiritual, physical and cultural. Therefore, family members try to protect a pregnant woman in all cases and situations so that she gives birth to a healthy child. She should eat the best food, a man, a future father tries to fulfill any whim of his wife, she is protected from doing hard work around the house and in general, she is instructed to always be in a good mood, not to leave the house unaccompanied. Both parents-to-be try to do only good deeds.

Protection of the newborn and mother

Despite the emergence of new modern views and traditions, Tajiks still adhere to the traditions, customs and beliefs of their ancestors in different parts of the country. Tajiks believe that in the first year of life, the child should be protected, especially at first, therefore, there are special periods and ways to protect the child from everything:

forty days; the first forty days after birth, the newborn and his mother are considered vulnerable: they are not left alone, they try to let fewer people in to them so that they are not exposed to the evil eye or simply to the influence of negative energy.

amulets; charms that protect, according to legends, a child can be amulets, with written special duas given by a priest, a rag amulet inside which there are 15 pieces of gray or blue needles from the evil eye, sharp objects under a pillow, pods of hot red pepper, garlic, tied to the cradle, so that save a child from the influence of evil forces

the use of two names for the child; in order to hide the child from evil spirits, in a family where children are often lost, at first they call the child by a different name, so that the “evil spirit” does not guess about the birth of a child, it can be the name of a fruit, a household item or a natural phenomenon, and upon reaching a certain age, the child receives a normal name.

Events that are important for the newborn and the family
In Tajik families, they celebrate with joy the events that take place for the first time in a child's life with rituals.

Putting the baby in the cradle for the first time

On a certain auspicious day, the child is laid in the cradle by the eldest woman in the family. After that, this event is celebrated with relatives, friends and neighbors at the dastarkhan, and the ceremony is called "gakhvorabandon" - laying in the cradle.

First shirt

In many regions, the first shirt is put on only three days after the birth of the child, the shirt is taken from an old person so that the child's life is also long. Sometimes a knife with a wooden handle is passed through the shirt before putting it on, wishing the child to grow strong and healthy.

First hair cut

Muisargiron is a ceremony of cutting a child's hair for the first time, upon reaching one year of age. Celebrations and rituals are held only for boys, for this a clergyman or an elderly man is invited to cut the child's hair first so that he has a long life.

Let's fast forward to distant, hot Tajikistan and see how the family of the most ordinary guest worker Davladbek lives, who works as a welder at a construction site in Yekaterinburg for nine months a year and sends money to his homeland to support his family.

If you forget for a moment about the images of Ravshan and Dzhamshut, firmly entrenched in the Russian mass consciousness, and think about the question "Who are they, these Tajiks?", Then the majority of Russians will have approximately the same answer. I'll try to guess. Tajiks are immigrants from Tajikistan who work in Russia as guest workers at construction sites, traders in stalls, posting ads, car mechanics in garages, janitors and minibus drivers. Tajiks live in decrepit hostels, in basements, in cramped rented apartments for a hundred people, or even worse - in abandoned houses ...

All of this may be true. Today I wanted to talk about something else.

(It is worth clarifying here that the case took place in October 2014, when the ruble was already depreciating, but not so rapidly.)

1. We were running out of water supplies. Nearby, the Pyanj River was noisy and seething, but its waters were too muddy. And besides, we were told that it is better not to approach the river - after all, the border with Afghanistan.

2. In a small village, we stopped at an inconspicuous and only store in the hope of finding at least some water on sale. But the store sold everything wrong - carpets, mattresses and kurpachi. They also sold washing powder and toothpaste, but there was no water. Behind the counter stood and was embarrassed, lowering her black eyes, a girl of about thirteen, who spoke very bad Russian.

We had something like the following dialogue:

Where can you buy drinking water in your village?

Water is possible, a stream - and the girl pointed with her hand somewhere to the northeast.

It is quite logical. Water is not for sale because there are mountain streams. What did we not guess right away?

Do you have a cafeteria or cafe where you can eat?

Eat? Can! Dad will come to eat you can!

3. The girl confidently took me outside the gate into the yard. She walked and looked around all the time, smiled shyly and seemed afraid that I would stop following. We passed some vegetable gardens, a field of potatoes, a large parking lot with a ditch and an old UAZ car under a tree. At the end of a large plot, which was larger than a standard football field, was a white one-story building.

4. The girl entered the house and called the father of the family - Davladbek Bayrambekov. Davladbek spoke Russian well, so our conversation began traditionally:

Where are you from Moscow, what area? I went to Red Square, I remember it was cold.

It is worth noting here that all adult Tajik men with whom we talked anywhere - all of them have been to Moscow at least once and everyone has worked somewhere. Everything! The statistics are one hundred percent. That is, they were our guests, even if we are not famous for their hospitality. And they don't have us.

We got to know each other, began to talk about our trip, and about the fact that we were looking for water in the store in the village. Davladbek laughed, invited us into the house for tea and explained that we no longer needed to go on that day, because his wife was already preparing dinner, and after lunch the weather would turn bad and it would rain. And that sleeping in tents in the rain is a dubious pleasure.

We, of course, agreed to tea, but we politely refused to stay overnight, citing a strong delay in the travel schedule.

5. After our trip, I can responsibly declare that Tajiks are very hospitable people. In Russia they are completely different from at home. In Moscow, these quiet and sometimes downtrodden guys behave quieter than water, lower than grass, but at home everything is different - a guest for them is always a great joy. Any owner of the house considers it his duty to accept and treat a guest deliciously.

Each house has a large room called "Mehmonhona" specially designed for receiving guests. Family parties and weddings are also celebrated here.

6. A tablecloth called "dostarkhan" is laid on the floor. Tea plays an important role in feasts. The youngest man pours it. They drink, as is customary, from a bowl, which you need to take only with your right hand, and hold your left on the right side of your chest.

An interesting fact - the first bowl of any drink is poured not to someone, but to himself. All this is just a custom, so that others are convinced that there is no poison in the drink. In ordinary everyday life, the eldest of the family is the first to take food, but when there is a guest in the house, this honor is given to the guest.

7. Tajiks sit on the floor covered with beautiful carpets and mattresses stuffed with cotton or cotton, which are called kurpachi. According to their rules, you cannot sit with your legs extended forward or to the side. Lying is also indecent.

8. Portrait of a young Davladbek during his service in the Soviet army.

9. The main forming cell of a person is the family. Tajiks have large families, on average five to six or more people. Children develop unquestioning obedience and respect for their elders and parents.

In rural areas, girls do not complete more than eight grades. Indeed, according to tradition, a woman does not need to be educated at all. Her destiny is to be a wife and a mother. For Tajik girls, it is very scary and shameful to be "overseat". Not getting married on time is worse than the worst nightmare.

Only women are engaged in housekeeping. It is shameful for a man to do this kind of work. According to the established tradition, for the first six months, a young wife cannot leave her husband's house, and cannot visit her parents.

We got into conversation over tea. Davladbek said that Tajiks love Russians, and Russians also treat them well. Then we asked about work. It turns out that in the mountainous villages of Tajikistan there is no work at all for money. Well, except for doctors and teachers, although their salaries are ridiculous. Each doctor and teacher has his own vegetable garden and keeps livestock to feed his family - there is no other way. In order to somehow live, all adult men go to work on the "mainland".

So we smoothly moved on to the mechanism of delivering guest workers to Russia. After all, the entire male population of a sunny country cannot take and go to work for us when they do not even have money for a ticket ...

Davladbek told us about the "company". Representatives of large "companies" (which we did not understand) regularly come to all villages, even the most distant ones, who recruit representatives of various professions to work in Russia. Each candidate signs a contract. Then these same “companies” send Tajiks to Russia for their money and arrange them to work. But at the same time, for the first month, each guest worker does not receive any money - he gives the entire salary to the very “company” for his journey to Russia.

Tajiks spend their wages for the last month of their work on a ticket home to their families. Because of this, it turns out that it makes no sense to travel for less than a year.

Davladbek is a professional welder. He officially works at a construction site in Yekaterinburg, has all the necessary documents, registration, permits and certificates. In 2014, his salary was 25,000 rubles, of which about 19,000 were spent on housing, food and travel. Davladbek sent about $ 200 a month to his family in Tajikistan, and this was enough for his family to buy everything they need that is not possible to produce on their own in the village.

10. After enjoying tea and refreshments, we were about to go further, but Davladbek offered to go to the water mill, which he built himself. It became interesting to us, and we went somewhere up the mountain stream.

The metal structure in the photo is part of an irrigation ditch that encircles the hills and goes through the villages downstream of the Pyanj. A fragment of a huge irrigation system, built during the Soviet Union and still working today. Excess water from the ditch system is discharged into mountain streams using manual metal gates.

11. And here is the mill. It may not be as beautiful as we imagined, but it is a real museum of technology. The design of the mill is the same as it was a thousand years ago!

12. Water from a mountain stream enters the mill through a wooden channel.

13. Water transfers hydropower to the water wheel and spins it. Thus, a large round stone is unwound, into the center of which grain is fed through a mechanical separator. The grain falls under the stone and is ground, and the centrifugal force pushes the finished product to the consumer - flour.

14. Inhabitants from neighboring villages come to the mill of Davladbek. They bring their own grain and also make flour from which they then bake bread. Davladbek does not take money for this. Residents themselves, as they see fit, leave a small amount of flour in gratitude. The door to the mill is always open.

15. Here it is, an ingenious hydraulic structure of the XXI century!

Davladbek was right. Heavy, gray clouds loomed from the gorge, and soon we were driven away by the gathering rain. The fog fell almost as far as the village itself, it became chilly and chilly. The thought of spending the night in a tent set off a chain reaction of pimples all over my body.

Don't stop, go through the house. My wife is ready for dinner, - said Davladbek - spend the night at home today. Get some sleep. Tomorrow morning with sun, you will go well.

16. Davladbek was right again. We stayed overnight. I would like to say a huge thank you to Davladbek and all his family for giving us shelter! It froze well in the morning, and until the sun rose, it was completely chilly. I was able to feel it well, running in a T-shirt to the toilet, which was in the far corner of a huge area.

18. We had breakfast. Davladbek's children said goodbye to us and ran away to school. The school was in a neighboring village.

20. Upstream of the river, fifteen kilometers from Ishkoshim, there were the ruins of an old fortress dating back to the 3rd century. Until recently, there was a border guard in the ruins of an old fortress.

21. Davladbek showed us the way to the fortress and arranged a small excursion there. Panorama of Afghanistan.

24. On the left, behind a narrow river gorge, you can see Afghan houses and fields.

25. Outwardly, the life of Afghans is no different from the Tajik side. Unless there are no paved roads. Previously, these lands belonged to one people.

28. Do not assume that all Tajiks live like the heroes of our reportage. We lived in the house of the Pamirs, a hundred meters from the border, far from the big cities. In the modern world, the inhabitants of Tajikistan began to build their lives in the image of the West. However, there are still many families that value their traditions.

29. Recently I called Davladbek, wished him a Happy New Year. I asked him how his health and family were, when he was going to visit us in Russia in Yekaterinburg again. I thought to visit him there, bring photographs from the Pamirs, see how he lives with us in Russia, compare. Davladbek said that now the visa to Russia has become even more expensive, and the work has become cheaper, and so far he cannot say when he will come again. But he promised that he will definitely return)

30. Tajiks come to us not from a good life. It seems to me that no Pamirian would ever trade their mountains for dusty Moscow. Going to work, they do not see their relatives, their children for months and sometimes years.

Now I often pay attention to Tajiks in Moscow. I immediately remember Davladbek, his house, his family, his hospitality and his mill. I talk to my janitors and shop assistants in the tent. At first, they look away incredulously, as they are used to the fact that only the police pays attention to them, but then they are very happy when they find out that I have been to their homeland, that I really liked it there. And then it’s my turn to ask:

Where are you from, what area?

31. Thank you for your attention!

09:59:00 Children of Tajikistan

If someone by the title of the topic has already imagined that it will be about hard workers, immigrants from Tajikistan who work for a pittance throughout the CIS and especially in Moscow, who have already become a kind of symbol of unskilled labor, then I hasten to disappoint you - we will talk about the most ordinary children, what many years ago you and I were, but which, in the overwhelming majority, have much less than we once had.
Tajikistan is one of the poorest countries not only on the entire Eurasian continent, but also in the world, and I had the opportunity to make sure of this during last year's summer bike trip around the country for a month. However, with my post I do not want to touch upon the topic of the troubles and wanderings of the Tajik people, the monstrous deprivation of their children, and so on, because in my opinion these people do not live as badly as we all think. Don't believe me ?! And you try to understand this not by comparing Tajikistan with other countries, but plunge into the atmosphere of this semi-wild mountainous country, its traditions and way of life. But alas, for this you need to go there and see all this.


There are a lot of children in Tajikistan! It is amazing, but during its independence the number of residents has increased by one and a half times, and the average age of the population was 23-25 ​​years old, and this is taking into account the civil war of the 90s and mass emigration.
You will not surprise anyone with large families (up to 10 or even more people) in Tajikistan, just as you will not surprise anyone with the mass, by our standards, infant mortality: almost a hundred children out of a thousand do not live to be 5 years old.
Children also start working early. According to the stories of the head of the family of one of the high-mountainous kishlaks, the child is attracted to domestic work since he "begins to eat a cake." It is a common thing to meet a boy of about 7 years old, herding a small herd of goats, or collecting apricots.
So, let's move on, in fact, to the kids ..

These three were so surprised by my stop that, instead of running into the yard, they froze in place against the background of a textured barn.

These two shots are a vivid confirmation of how difficult it is sometimes to photograph children over 10-12 years old ..
This is especially true for girls and girls: before you have time to blink an eye, they will turn their backs on you, cover their faces with their hands (a handkerchief), or even run away. The shot, where three girls are walking along a mountain valley, was given to me only at a distance, when they forgot about me.

And this lively boy almost hit me on the hump with his stick for not realizing in time that his mother was not at all in awe of my shooting. (I usually ask permission to photograph, but this time I simply did not recognize the polite "no").

Girls taking water from the well
(after this shot I had to pick up the bucket and load the donkey in full. there was a slight embarrassment when I, inexperienced, first filled one can, and the poor animal began to roll heavily and fall on its side ...)

Girl-bandit (do you really have the same associations ?!).
Incidentally, impressions are impressions, and our leader with a stomach ache, crawling to the pass and pulling a loaded bicycle with a bag, lost his map and personal hygiene kit from the top valve on his backpack.

Little Tajik

A horseman on a horse looks great even to a minor, but when he volunteers to help, taking half the load, when you try to conquer a 4-kilometer pass on a bicycle, you just start to admire the horseman frantically! Thank you Gulmahmad!

Mom and daughters

I really hope that these (and some more) photos reached this wonderful family from the village of Hayrabot, which we, exhausted, met on the descent from the most difficult pass of the hike, which fed and gave us a wonderful potion, the origin of which we still do not know ...

Two sisters, if I'm not mistaken

and three more dirty sisters

We met these lovely guys when leaving the mountainous and wild Tajikistan. They all their relatives lived in their summer cottage in the mountains (about twenty children of all ages and two adults

13:02 22.03.2017

Every year Russian orphanages are replenished with children abandoned by their parents. In recent years, children of labor migrants have been added to them. Read about their future fate and who helps in solving this problem in the material.

A few years ago, it was believed that if a child in a Russian orphanage has a non-Slavic appearance, then his chances of adoption are not very great. However, the situation is changing, people are beginning to be more tolerant of migrants.

“I see less and less requests on the Internet for a“ blonde girl from a professor and a ballerina ”and more and more people who want or at least do not exclude the possibility of adopting a child of a different nationality,” says Elena Evina from Moscow.

Almost four years ago, she herself took from the orphanage a girl abandoned by her parents - migrants from Kyrgyzstan.

“I like people with an oriental appearance: they are beautiful, bright, and attract attention. Therefore, my daughter and I found each other. Although I didn’t purposefully look for an oriental child, in the search criteria I indicated “the color of the eyes and hair doesn’t matter,” she says.

© From personal archive

At first, those close to her reacted to her decision with surprise, but gradually they accepted Nadine - that is the name of the girl - as her own. According to Elena, there are no problems because of her daughter's nationality in everyday life: “I used to be very often asked the question“ Why is the girl different from you? ”, But he usually had curiosity rather than hostility. And recently they stopped asking - apparently, Nadinka and I have become alike. "

“My circle of acquaintances began to expand and replenish with other foster parents, and half of them also raise children of oriental appearance,” says Elena. "The world seems to be becoming more tolerant."

"Ethnic" kids

Every year, Russian orphanages are replenished with children abandoned in the country by their parents - migrants from other countries. At the same time, it is practically impossible to establish for certain their number today. Researchers and experts, officials and public figures operate on a variety of numbers - from isolated cases to hundreds every year.

According to some data, in Moscow alone in 2011 more than 300 children were left in maternity hospitals, more than 30% of whom were children of labor migrants. And in the Moscow databank of children left without care, there are at least 200 orphans annually, whose parents have citizenship of one of the CIS countries. Other sources speak not of hundreds, but of dozens of such children.

However, there are no clear statistics on this score, and there are several reasons for this. In addition to the gaps in interagency cooperation, there is a problem with the status of refuseniks, because women who find themselves in maternity hospitals without documents do not always report their citizenship.

According to Russian law, a child whose parents abandoned him or did not present any documents becomes a citizen of the Russian Federation by birth.

In addition, not all of the "ethnic" children who end up in Russian orphanages are children of foreign citizens - many are abandoned by their parents from the regions of Russia, and separate statistics are not kept, so there is no need to talk about thousands of children abandoned by migrants. Nevertheless, the presence of a problem is indicated by the participation in its solution of both official departments, and public organizations, and caring Russian citizens.

The main thing is that the child stays with his mother.

The main difficulties that force migrant women to leave their children in maternity hospitals are the same as those of Russian women: lack of work, housing, inability to feed a child. For foreign women who are not properly registered, this is overlaid with a problem with access to medical care - all pregnancy management services are paid for them.

Among immigrants from eastern countries, the peculiarities of mentality play an important role - the fear of returning home without a husband, but with children. “In Central Asia, there is a widespread perception of unwanted children as dirty,” says the head of the “Find Me, Mom” charity fund, actor and stunt performer Memonsho Memonsoev. "But we convince women that there are no dirty children."

The activities of this fund are precisely aimed at supporting mothers with children in difficult living conditions.

“Our main goal is for the child to stay with his own, blood mother,” he says, “and we help women who find themselves in crisis situations in life, regardless of their nationality, religion or registration.”

Women from Russia and foreign countries turn to the fund for help, but mainly from Central Asia - Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. “We are better able to help them, probably because we are more familiar with their mentality,” admits Memonsoev.

The organization provides women with temporary housing, provides supervision of children by a pediatrician, trains young mothers in caring for a newborn and involves psychologists who take into account the Central Asian mentality and customs. The fund also helps with the search for relatives and the preparation of documents for the return of the mother and child to their homeland.

“They already know us in Moscow, they call us from hospitals. There are other foundations with which we cooperate. Lawyers are calling from maternity hospitals, calls from the migration service and representative offices of other countries. We cooperate with maternity hospitals, they show our films “Don't Leave Me, Mom,” “Find Me, Mom,” and many mothers, watching the films, abandon their thoughts of parting with their child, ”says Memonsoev.

According to him, the fund is also actively supported by the diaspora and embassies, in particular the embassy of Tajikistan, which assists in the return to their homeland of both mothers with children and refuseniks.

Homecoming

The repatriation of children left behind in Russia is also carried out in other Central Asian states, in particular in Kyrgyzstan. In 2011, the Ministry of Social Development of Kyrgyzstan launched a program to return home orphans abandoned by migrants in Russia.

The number of such cases is still in the dozens, but work is ongoing. In 2011, two children returned home, in 2012 - just over ten. According to the staff of the Kyrgyz Embassy in Moscow, 12 more children were repatriated last year, and a new visit of representatives of the ministry is planned for the near future - funding for the program for 2017 has already been opened.

At the same time, the embassy only helps with the preparation of the necessary documents - all the rest of the work is taken over by the Ministry of Social Development, which has agreements with orphanages both in Russia and in Kyrgyzstan.

The same applies to the adoption of children who have not yet received Russian citizenship. If the citizens of Kyrgyzstan leave their children here, then they receive documents and permits for adoption only in Kyrgyzstan, at the Ministry of Social Development. “People often turn to us for help, but we do not have such powers, we can only give the necessary phones,” the embassy noted.

Self-name - Tojik, the main population of Tajikistan, the second largest people in Afghanistan. The number in Tajikistan is 7 million people, in Afghanistan - 8 million people. They also live in Uzbekistan (1.2 million people) and other countries of Central Asia. There are 200,000 Tajiks living in the Russian Federation, of which 7,195 are in the Samara region.

The total number is about 20 million people. They speak the Tajik language of the Western Iranian group of the Indo-European family. Writing based on Arabic and Russian graphics.

Believers Tajiks are mostly Sunni Muslims. Pamir Tajiks practice Ismailism.

The beginning of the formation of the Tajik people goes back to the end of the 2nd - the beginning of the 1st millennium BC, when Central Asia and the steppes of Eurasia were inhabited by the tribes of the Indo-Iranian community, from which the Iranian-speaking tribes subsequently emerged, mixed with the local tribes of the Bronze Age. The Eastern Iranian languages ​​spread among the main population of Central Asian oases, valleys and steppes. The direct ancestors of the Tajiks were: Bactrians in the basin of the upper reaches of the Amu Darya, Sogdians in the basins of the Zeravshan and Kashkadarya, Parthians in Khorasan, Margians in the Merv oasis, Khorezmians in the lower reaches of the Amu Darya, Parkans in the Fergana Valley and the Sako-Massan Tribes Caspian steppes. All these nationalities and tribes were engaged in agriculture in oases and valleys based mainly on artificial irrigation, in mountainous and steppe regions - in cattle breeding and various handicraft production.

By the time of the Arab conquest (VIII century), 3 main ethnic regions had emerged on the territory of Central Asia: Sogdian in the north, Fergana in the northeast and Tocharian in the south, whose population further retained some of its cultural and everyday characteristics.

With the formation of the Samanid state in the IX-X centuries. the process of the formation of the ethnic core of the Tajiks was also completed, which was closely related to the spread of the common Farsi-Dari-Tajik language, which became dominant in the era of the Samanids. The culture and science of the Iranian peoples (Tajiks and Persians) developed in this language, their rich literature was created (the first written monuments were in the 9th century). The written time of the appearance of the ethnonym "Tajiks" is the 11th century, but in fact it refers to an earlier era. Since the 10th century, the centuries-old process of assimilation by the Tajiks of the peoples of the East Iranian language began. Eastern Iranian elements are traced in the dialects of the modern Tajik language (Darvaz, Karategin, Badakhshan, etc.).

The Tajik people and their culture took shape and developed in close ethnocultural ties with the Turkic peoples of Central Asia, especially the Uzbeks.

Since 1991, the Republic of Tajikistan has been proclaimed.

The original occupation of the Tajiks was arable farming combined with cattle breeding. Artificial irrigation was used in the lowland, mountainous and high-mountainous (Western Pamir) regions. Mainly cultivated were cereals (cereals and legumes), horticultural crops, cotton (on the plain), on the lands located above - millet, barley, garden and melon crops, fruit. In agriculture, ketmen and arable implements of the ral type were used, a pair of oxen served as a draft force.

Cattle breeding in agriculture of the lowland areas played a supporting role (cattle, in a small number of horses, donkeys, sheep and goats). For mountain Tajiks, cattle breeding was a more significant branch of the economy. It was based on vertical roaming. In the summer, cattle were driven to mountain meadows and part of the inhabitants moved there to graze, but the main population remained in the village. At summer camps in the mountains, peculiar female partnerships for the discharge of milk were common: women united in such an artel one by one received the entire milk yield of the entire herd for the preparation of butter, cheese, etc.

Plain Tajiks have long developed various crafts - the manufacture of cotton, silk, woolen and woolen fabrics (weaved by men), jewelry, pottery, etc .; many of the crafts had ancient traditions (wood and ganch carving, decorative embroidery, etc.). Among the mountain Tajiks, the production of woolen fabrics (men), knitting and embroidery (women) gained commercial value.

Traditional villages are compact, closely built up, with a labyrinth of crooked streets and dead ends, with blank walls of houses and duval fences going out into them. Houses are mostly adobe (in mountainous areas and stone buildings), with a flat roof, sometimes with a terrace (iwan). The dwelling was divided into male and female parts: in the female - the inner part of the house - outsiders were not allowed. A special room for guests (mehmonkhona) is characteristic: the floor in it is covered with felts, cotton and woolen rugs, carpets on which long narrow quilts for sitting (kurpacha) are laid out around the perimeter of the room, and a tablecloth (dastarkhan) in the center. The walls are decorated with embroidery (suzani) and carpets. Among the flat Tajiks, wall niches, by tradition, often serve as wardrobes.

Traditional clothing of Tajiks had its own characteristics in each of the ethnocultural regions, but also had common features. For men - a tunic-like shirt, wide-step pants, a swinging robe, a scarf, a skullcap, a turban and leather boots with soft soles, leather galoshes with a pointed toe (they were worn separately, sometimes worn on boots), in mountainous areas - shoes clog type with three spikes on the sole for easy walking on mountain trails.

Women wear tunic-like dresses, in rural areas they are made of smooth fabrics, in mountainous southern regions they are embroidered, especially in Darval and Kulyab (examples of folk decorative art). Wide trousers had a slouch at the ankle. Headwear - scarves, skullcaps (for Hissar Tajik women). Townspeople and lowland Tajik women wore a swinging robe and local footwear. The mountain women did not have robes.

The modern clothes of Tajiks combine traditional elements - an outer robe, a skullcap with city clothes. Tajik women keep more traditional elements of clothing. Girls and young women mostly wear a dress with a yoke, which is widespread in Central Asia (except for Turkmenistan). Wide trousers are sewn ezhe, in young women it is much higher than the ankle. Traditional jewelry is combined with modern: necklaces, pendants, earrings, rings.

Bread (in the form of cakes) and dairy products, including ghee, dry cheese (kurut) and cottage cheese (paneer), noodles, and various cereals, were the basis of food in the mountainous regions; in the plains - cakes. Rice dishes, noodles, manti (large dumplings), vegetable oil (including cottonseed oil), vegetables and fruits. The flatbread is baked in special clay ovens (tanur). Meat of lamb and beef is eaten, often stewed with noodles or less often with potatoes. A festive traditional treat for the lowland Tajiks is pilaf, for the mountain people - lamb soup (shurbo). Traditional sweets: halva, crystalline sugar (nabot), nishallo (creamy mass of sugar, whipped egg whites and soap root), sweets (parvarda), etc. Tea is drunk preferably green, black - usually in the cold season.

Folklore of Tajiks is rich and varied; labor, ritual-calendar, ritual-festive and mourning folk songs (surud), quatrains (rubai) are popular, but the most interesting are fairy tales - magic and satirical, humorous stories-anecdotes (latifa), for example, about Khoja Nasreddin, are widespread.

Tajik music is built on a diatonic scale, vocal - monophonic. Musical instruments are varied: strings - dutor, rubab, tanbur, etc .; bowed - gidzhak, violin; wind instruments - nai, kvrnay, surnay; cymbal - chang; percussion - tablak (clay timpani), doira (tambourine), kairok (stone castanets). Folk dances (including comic and reproducing labor processes) are colorful. Favorite folk shows - performances of tightrope walkers, magicians, puppet theater. National literature, science, professional arts, including music, ballet are developing successfully.