Иттиҳодияи ҷамъиятии Кӯҳҳои Помир

Tajikistan

Contact: +992 93 500 45 96; +992 00 001 45 97
Postal address: 31/1, Shotemurov street, apt # 50 A 736000 Khorog Gorno Badakhshan Autonomous Oblast
Geographic Coverage of NGO’s expertise:

Year of creation: 2014

Safeguarding measures:

- preservation, protection
- revitalization

Main areas of work related to the Convention:

Public Association "Kuhhoi Pomir" contributes to the preservation and revival of the cultural and spiritual-historical heritage of the mountaineers and the creation in the society of an atmosphere of respect for traditional spiritual and moral values, the protection of the material and non-material culture of mountaineers and participation in the transfer of traditional knowledge to the new generation. "Kuhhoi Pomir" participates in the protection of civil, national, cultural, historical and property rights and other public interests of the population of the Pamir mountain regions and conducts activities in the field of education, science, culture, art, education, environmental education, biodiversity protection, spiritual development of the individual, as well as in the protection of the environment, which has historical, cult, cultural and natural monuments. To help preserve and revive the cultural, spiritual and historical heritage of the mountaineers and create an atmosphere of respect for traditional spiritual and moral values in the society, protect cultural, historical literary and natural monuments of the region, transfer it to a new generation, carried out several projects that are somehow connected with the protection of material and non-material culture of the Pamir mountaineers. Leading field research in the Pamir regions and carrying out various activities among the population, educates the national self-identity in the young generation, will continue the process of restoring the national traditions of the mountain population to singing, music, cooking, house-building and architecture, national ceremonies, holidays, handicrafts, agriculture, livestock, Gardening, processing of trees, hunting, folk medicine, weaving, folk craft and creativity, culture of life. The project of the public organization "Kuhhoi Pomir" for studying, researching, reviving and transferring traditional knowledge on hunting wild animals in the territory of the Republic of Tajikistan was carried out for the first time. On the territory of the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Oblast (GBAO) or the Pamir, certain knowledge, practices, customs and rituals associated with the traditional hunting of local indigenous people - the Shugnan, the Vakhans, the Ishkashim, the Rushans and the Kyrgyz, were distinguished and documented according to the linguistic, cultural and biological Diversity. Respondents were old-timers and traditional culture bearers. Experts gathered for the collection of the material, for which a special seminar was held and a special questionnaire was compiled. All collected information was collected, processed and qualified in content and subject matter. Attention was paid to identifying petroglyphs depicting hunting scenes and proving the antiquity and indigenous identity of the Pamir peoples to their present places of penetration and to collecting oral materials about holy places associated with wild hoofed animals, folkloric works about the sacredness of the Pamir Nakhchira (goat) and arhar ( Ram) and a Snow leopard. The collected traditional knowledge of Pamirians in hunting was released in the form of a separate book entitled "The Cult and the Culture of Hunting in the Pamirs". The book includes about 60 rare photographs associated with the conduct of civilized hunting. The book was distributed free of charge to members of traditional hunting clubs in the Murghab, Ishkashim, Roshtkala, Rushan districts, jamoat leaders, libraries, the Khorog University, the Museum, the Pamir Biological Institute and the Institute of Humanitarian Sciences of the Academy of Sciences, scientists, specialists, researchers. Public Association "Kuhhoi Pomir" worked in collection and documentation of the national holiday Navruz in the provinces of Vakhan, Shugnan, Zebak of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. Specialists of our organization were sent to the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan to study the rituals of Navruz in some mountain provinces of this country. The collected information was published as a book in Tajik, Dari and English. Public organization "Kuhhoi Pomir" by the decision of the National Commission of the Republic of Tajikistan for UNESCO in Dushanbe on July 27, 2015 for active participation in the implementation of social, civil, educational, legal, spiritual, cultural, ecological, economic and other charitable purposes in the territory of Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region of the Republic of Tajikistan, was admitted to the membership of UNESCO Clubs. The main goal of the UNESCO Clubs movement, which first emerged in the Republic of Tajikistan in 2011, is the dissemination of UNESCO values and ideals around the world, the promotion of international understanding, cooperation and global peace.

Objectives

Pursuing socio-civic, educational, legal, spiritual, cultural, environmental, economic and charitable purposes, the Association has been actively involved in the democratic social reform, in strengthening the principles of democracy, in supporting civic initiatives to maintain and enhance the spiritual and cultural values of the mountains, the identity of its population, the resolution of various conflicts, natural risks and disasters, economic and political issues that hinder sustainable ( balanced ) development of mountainous Pamir, combining local intellectual potential, material and financial resources, organizational capacity. Association for the protection of biodiversity and bio culture of local ecosystems, conservation and restoration of nature, cultural and historical heritage of mountain communities, public physical and spiritual health, sustainable use of local resources, environmental and biological safety, struggles with comparative inequalities that exist in the mountain communities and mountain families, represents the interests of mountain communities of GBAO in public, government, international organizations and institutions of the Republic of Tajikistan and world, encourages preservation and revitalization of cultural and spiritual heritage of mountainous population, creation of feeling of respect toward traditional spiritual and moral values, protection of tangible and intangible culture of mountainous population, participate in the transfer of the national traditional knowledge to the new generation. Within these objectives Association performs the following tasks: - helps government and local authorities in decision-making in the manner prescribed by law, represents and defends its rights and legitimate interests, as well as other citizens in government, local authorities and public associations, covers the activities of the Association in the media. - establishes effective and useful contacts on Scientific, research, training and agitation works with Tajik National Park "Pamir Mountains", reserve Zorkul and other protected areas of Pamirs, with state and non- state institutions in the region and beyond it, nature-oriented organizations, and public organizations involved in the protection of biodiversity, bio culture of environment and traditional culture of the people and other organizations, agencies which deal with issues of nature protection, culture, history, social and economic life of Pamirs, participates in achievement of joint projects with them, lighting historical, economic and cultural role of Pamirs in the Silk Road.

Cooperation

The organization works with four pilot remote areas. With the aim of establishing more effective cooperation with cultural practices, traditional knowledge holders, with communities living in remote places, it created folk wildlife clubs in GBAO villages, namely, in the Barvoz village of Roshtkala, Siponj of Rushan, Zong of Ishkashim and Rangkul of Murgab districts. There is no analogue of such a club in the republic yet. The clubs were created on the basis of the collection of voluntary members from among local experts in traditional knowledge. The main goal of the clubs is to revive, preserve and spread the biocultural heritage, traditional knowledge of the environment, and promote the preservation of the heritage of intangible culture. A unique wildlife festival in the Pamirs was organized by the clubs' strength, the first environmental education and cultural event dedicated to the protection of wildlife, which in Tajikistan was for the first time. Local people thanks to the festival had the opportunity to relax, enjoy songs, dance, talk about the beauty of nature, about music, literature, traditions, remember the ancestors and bless God for the rich nature. Within the framework of the project, visitors to the festival were offered free of charge several types of local traditional hunting dishes. The festival became a good occasion for the revival and transfer of hunting song and dance folklore. Revived and performed a huge number of songs, dances, dances, which were shown to the huge public of the festival. The folk singers who participated in the revival of these folk works have an idea to create a folklore group that performs exclusively hunting songs and dances. Within the framework of the project, about 25 songs and dances, dances related to hunting and hunting in the Pamirs were collected, processed, revived and performed for centuries among the Pamir peoples. In the collected folklore, a tone is sounded for protecting the environment, promoting people's careful attitude to living nature and using its resources. Through the festival, there were revived sets of folk games related to the attitude to nature. During the preparation for the festival it was found out that the ethnic Tajiks of the Pamirs have preserved a huge number of imitative, creative, imitative, story-role, mobile children's games coming from historical traditions. Many of these games are related to hunting, which bring up in children respect for the environment, animals, their protection and safety. Public Association "Kuhhoi Pomir" intends to further work on the collection, documentation and video filming of these games. All these works were conducted with the communities and the organization was able to attract a huge number of local residents to its high-quality execution.