Dushanbe-2

It has been another hectic day in Dushanbe. We did not have spare time to visit bazaars and places of interest: the main department store called Tsum in the city closes its business at 16:00 and the bazaars which open at 5:00 closes at around 14:00 or 15:00. Needless to say, we could not find any time to visit museum where we can see lying Buddha (replica of which was exhibited at Aichi Expo in 2005).

Just between the meetings we could manage to have some 15 minutes to visit a souvenior shop where I found a hat typically worn by assasinated General Masood Shah in Afghanistan: it fits me and it's with me now!

As can be seen from the map, Tajikistan, almost unknown country in Japan, is located just north to Afghanisatan and the General Masood (my new hat which appears to have been made in Pakistan says "In the memory of Afghan's Proud Millitant Ahmed Shah Massod Shaheed") was actually ethic Tajik born and educated in Afghanistan. Naturally, as land locked countries the ethic population and borders do not coincide. The map shows that Tajikistan has a long border with Afghanistan. The narrow strip between Tajikistan and Pakistan is called Wakhan Corridor. Back in the history, when British in India and Russians were playing so called the Great Game in Central Asia, Afganistan was kept (or left out) as a neutral or buffer land, and hence the Wakhan Corridor remained as frontline of the big powers' confrontation till date. A renewed Great Game of this centry is now being played in Tajikistan.

(I will write an additional article on this subject later.)