a very full trip to Iraqi Kurdistan

Still feeling the costs of trying to squeeze in too much travel in a short time, as I finally get some free time to log in here ... aware that I've been to Kurdistan, Iraq, Kuwait, Ethiopia and Somaliland since I last posted.  More importantly, going straight from one trip to another does not allow that downtime to reflect on and process the trip you've completed nor to plan properly for the trip that's about to start.  I don't travel simply to observe, but also to learn, meaning that a trip to an interesting part of the world is enhanced by reading about its history/politics/culture/whatever else it is that makes it an interesting destination.  Which I didn't have time to do for any of the above...

I knew that Kurdistan covers parts of Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran, and that the Kurds suffered under Saddam Hussein, but little else.  I didn't know that as well as Muslims, it also hosts a population of Yazidis.

Researching it now on Wikipedia, I see that Yazidism emerged in the 12th century when Sheikh Adi established an order of his own called Adawiyya, settled in Lalish valley and introduced his doctrines to the local Kurds at the time practicing an old Iranic faith similar to Zoroastrianism. After his death, his disciples and successors blended his teachings with local and ancient Iranic traditions, with the result that Yazidi tradition uses many terms, images and symbols of Sufi or Islamic origin as well as preserving pre-Islamic mythology, symbols, rituals and festivals.  Whilst visiting Lalish (the spiritual heart of Yazidism) I did learn that the design of the Yazidi temple spires/domes (per my picture) represents the tracks of sunbeams, and that a peacock with a spread tail represents the active will of their god on earth ... hence the many peacock images around their temples.


We also visited Christian monasteries cut/built somehow into the side of mountains, various old caves, the remains of a Zoroastrian temple, a former Ba'ath party torture centre (Amna Suraka), the monument to the Barzani victims of genocide, the Halabja memorial to victims of a gas attack (wow, these people have suffered a lot over the years) - we even had breakfast in a restaurant commemorating peshmerga martyrs - but one of the high points for me was the interaction with the people.  They don't get many tourists and people were keen to talk to us, to get selfies with us ... this old guy in traditional dress was one of a group who invited my friend and I into a small cubicle in the market in Erbil to take tea with them.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

time out in Hanoi

Image
I've been in Hanoi nearly three weeks, trying to see the sights but also trying to get some 'down time' - what would be days at home just pottering about if I had a home.  Not always easy, as for example this morning I'd planned to do just that, but then before I'd finished my breakfast I got into conversation with a couple of other guests staying at my hostel, and suddenly it was 12:45 and time to go out and buy a bread roll for my lunch.  So right now I'm hiding behind the curtain that screens my bed from others in my dorm; I'd rather like a cup of tea, but that would involve locking my laptop away in the locker, going down four flights of stairs to the kitchen, and risking getting into another conversation.  Not that I'm complaining, as meeting other travellers can be as interesting as seeing the sights, but sometimes you do have to work at managing your time and personal space in this type of life. You also have to work at being 'present' in ...
Read more

central Vietnam

Image
I had heard how very touristy Hoi An is, so wasn't sure what I'd think of the place.  & it's true that there were thousands of tourists there, and the vast majority of the buildings in the UNESCO-listed old town are restaurants/bars/cafes/tourist shops - but it is still beautiful.  I happily wandered its streets for days, although helped I suppose by my staying in a hostel-homestay in what I can only describe as a "middle class suburb".  A twenty-minute walk out of town, it was so clean and quiet, probably one motorbike going past every ten minutes on otherwise empty roads. The town is crowded full of old houses, temples, community centres and museums, and there are also a few venues which put on cultural performances.  But walking the other way out of my hostel I could avoid all of the touristy sights and walk beside rice paddies and a nearly-deserted beach - so a nice mixture.  & nearby are towns with yet more temples (most of them seeming to contain a...
Read more

more cats

My time at the cat sanctuary passed quite quickly, particularly since the owner returned as she drove here from the UK with piles of provisions (mostly cat toys and blankets…), all of which has had to be unpacked, washed, sorted through, etc.   I managed to get talked into coming back here for nine days in August, when I should have been seeing as-yet-unvisited bits of Turkey, but I suppose it will save me a little cash again. I think the biggest down-side of being there was the inability to get any exercise.  Whilst I wasn’t doing anything measurable for much of the day (when not cleaning litter trays, watering the plants, etc), I had to either lock the little kitten and one of the disabled cats in a bedroom, or allow them to enjoy the garden but watch the kitten constantly, as it was small enough to escape between the gate bars into the big outdoors where there were feral dogs (as well as the sheep, goats, donkeys and bulls that wandered the area).  After seven weeks of...
Read more