600-year-old Varf Chal Ritual

/in ,

Date: 7 June 2017

Every spring, people in Ab Ask, a village near the northern city of Amol, mark a 600-year-old ceremony called “Varf Chal”, which literally means “snow storing”.

During the event, no man, except elders is allowed to stay in the village. They leave the place to go to Varf Chal to carry pieces of frozen snow left from winter, and put them in a ten-meter-deep pit as they believe the snow could provide fresh water for animals and thirsty passersby after being melted in summer.

On this day women take over everything and choose guards among ourselves to prevent men entering the village. They prepare bread from flour offered and water fetched from nearby water springs from a few days before the ceremony.

The word ‘varf chat’ in Mazandarani dialect means a well dug by the villagers each year in May to fill it with snow, gathered from the mountains.

Ab Ask village is 90km away from Tehran on Haraz Road passing through Rineh, Abgarm and Lar region in the mountain range around Damavand Summit.

Source: Farairan from Tehran Times and Mehr

Exhibition of exquisite rugs, photos and precious scripts at G

/in ,

Date: 24 May 2017

An exhibition of exquisite rugs, precious scripts and patchworks and photos remaining from the Qajar reign is opening today 23 May 2017 at Golestan Palace Complex in Tehran.

The photos, to be showcased on the occasion of the national Cultural Heritage Week, will be exhibited at the palace Photo House. Among them is the first self-portrait taken by the art-enthusiastic Qajar king, Naser-al-din Shah 130 years ago.

The complex has made available a number of exotic rugs at its anthropology museum for the week. The 17 carpets belong to the Qajar (1785-1925) and Pahlavi (1925-1979) eras, ISNA quoted Nosrati as saying.

About the rugs, Nosrati said the silk and wool carpets were woven in the cities of Arak (Markazi Province), Tabriz (East Azarbaijan) and Sanandaj (Kurdistan Province). “Their makers, however, are not known.”

There are currently 350 rugs at the Golestan Palace treasury which are to be showcased on different occasions.

Nine copies of valuable manuscripts belonging to the complex are also to be displayed for the first time.

Source: Financial Tribune

Tehran exhibit features rarely-seen historical relics

/in ,

Date: 22 May 2017

The National Museum of Iran has put on show a rarely-seen collection of its treasure trove in a month-long exhibit that opened to the public on Wednesday 18 May 2017.

Some 80 percent of the total 252 exhibited objects have never been displayed before and the rest are rarely-seen.

The objects date from the Paleolithic era to the end of Qajar period (1789–1925).

The exhibit features prehistoric tools, pottery vessels, metal objects, textile remains, and some rare books and coins amongst others.

The event is devoted to mark the National Cultural Heritage Week, which has already commenced in the country and the International Museum Day that is celebrated on 18 May 2017

Source: Tehran Times

Kalpourgan pottery with 7000 years history

/in ,

Date: 20 May 2017

Kalpourgan pottery production dates back to 7,000 years and has been handed over through generations from mothers to daughters.

60 entrepreneurship houses have been established province-wide to promote the handicraft industry.

According to Delvari added that due to presence of ferrous oxide in the soil, Kalpourgan pottery becomes red after it is baked in furnace at temperatures ranging from 970°C to 1,200°C for 72 hours.

The designs on Kalpourgan potteries amounting to 30 geometric shapes are inspired by natural elements and imagination of local artisans.

In addition to Germany, Italy, France and Spain, three other countries are customers of Kalpourgan potteries.

Plans are at hand to renovate pottery kilns and develop Kalpourgan Region in the southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchestan.

Kalpourgan pottery is one of superior handicrafts of Iran, which is still made traditionally.

Pottery items produced at Kalpourgan bear great similarity to specimens unearthed during archeological excavations carried out in Sistan-Baluchestan, Kerman, Gilan as well as parts of Japan and India.

The village of Kalpourgan is located 25 kilometers east of Saravan.

Perhaps the most striking feature of the pottery of Kalpourgan is its manufacturing technique, which is based on ancient methods and styles. This type of pottery is produced by using the coil technique. Its products are unglazed and adorned with dark brown patterns.

The potters of Kalpourgan are all women who contribute to family income. They don’t use the wheel and shape their products by hand.

An aqueous mixture of tytok (a type of ferrous oxide) and a stone found on Mt. Birak, near the village, is applied using a match-sized stick of daz (wild date) wood.

The decoration consists entirely of abstract symbols and images passed from generation to generation, which reflect their religious beliefs or environmental features.

A majority of these symbols are similar to those found on potteries belonging to prehistoric and early historic periods.

The raw material used in the manufacture of Kalpourgan pottery consists of a particular type of clay. Villagers bring it in from a region known as Mashkotak, two kilometers northeast of Kalpourgan, and blend it with a slip-like mixture to prepare the clay, which they hand over to nimble-fingered women.

The pottery items produced in Kalpourgan include bowls, jugs, cups, pitchers, cooking vessels, etc. Most of these vessels feature a lid that can also be used as an independent vessel. Cup-shaped lids can also be used to cover large bowls.

Another interesting feature of the pottery of Kalpourgan is their handles. Unlike present-day pottery, these handles are even more resistant than the vessels themselves. Each handle is formed out of a thick coil of mud, which the artisan pastes to the moist body of the vessel and gives it the desired shape by means of different tools.

These handles are much better executed than those of the glazed pottery produced in the middle of the Islamic period.

Kalpourgan pottery is also known for its diversity, which manifests itself in the form of vessels shaped as animal heads, pomegranate-shaped incense burners (used to burn wild rue seeds and locally known as sokaky), vessels shaped as camels, etc.

The thickness of these varies between one and 5.5 centimeters. Their color is gray prior to firing and reddish brown after baking.

The pottery of Kalpourgan may also be subdivided into categories such as toys, water pipes, food and water containers, bowls, vessels, flat trays and jars for keeping dates, which again indicates the diversity of these items and their wide range of use.

In the early 1970s, a workshop was set up at Kalpourgan to coordinate the activities of the region’s potters.

Extending over an area of 3,800 square meters, this workshop has a built-up area of 386 square meters. Its architecture is well-adapted to the desert and is the meeting place for talented women craftsmen of the area.

Today, this workshop has been transformed into the Museum of Kalpourgan Pottery.

Source: Iran Daily

Sohrwardi & JondiShapour University awaiting registration on UNESCO list

/in ,

Date: 13 May 2017

Iran has submitted two new cases to UNESCO for registration on the World Heritage lists this year, said the head of Iranian National Commission for UNESCO.

Sadollah Nassiri-Qeydari said one of the cases is a request for the inclusion of the name of Sheikh Shahabuddin Sohrawardi on the list of world renowned personalities.

Sohrewardi was a Persian philosopher and founder of the Iranian school of Illuminationism, an important school in Islamic philosophy and mysticism that drew upon Zoroastrian and Platonic ideas.

The other case is to register Ahwaz Jondishapur University on the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

Dating back some 1,750 years ago, Jondishapour was the intellectual center of the Sassanid Empire and the home of the Academy of Jondishapour, founded by Sassanid king Shapour I.

Home to a teaching hospital and a library as well as a center for higher education, it has been identified with extensive ruins to the south of Shahabad, a village 14km southeast of Dezful in the present-day province of Khuzestan, southwest Iran.

“Given the fact that the cases meet the required criteria at UNESCO General Conference in 2017, they are expected to be inscribed on the world heritage list.”

He also noted that Jondishapour University in Ahwaz is far older than Bologna University in Italy or even University of Cambridge in England.

Thus far the names of 33 famous Iranian people and some 20 cultural heritage items, including historical buildings and cultural works as well as 10 intangible heritage items and nine written heritage cases, have been inscribed into the UNESCO list, the official elaborated.

Source: Iran Daily

Tandorostoon celebration in Kerman

/in ,

Date: 10 may 2017

Tandorostoon is the name of a celebration, which is traditionally held by people in Kerman, southeast of Iran, 40 days after the beginning of the Iranian New Year, Noruz, on 30 April 2017.

The history of the celebration, which literally means happiness and health, dates back to ancient times. Kermani families, especially grandmothers gather at the foot of Shivashgan and Ghaleh-Dokhtar mountains.

They cook Aash, an Iranian soup, and play music. The family also entertains with fortune telling and smoking Zaq, alum, to protect them from evil eye.

Various tribes and ethnic groups who live in different parts of Iran are just like colors, which make a great painting. Iran is home to about 20 ethnic groups who live in different regions of the country.

Source: Tehran Times

Soltaniyeh Dome: The World’s Largest Brick Dome

/in ,

Date: 9 May 2017

A UNESCO World Heritage site, the 14th-century Soltaniyeh Dome, also known as Mausoleum of Oljaytu is highly recognized as an architectural masterpiece particularly due to its innovative double-shelled dome and elaborate interior decoration.

The very imposing dome stands about 50 meters tall from its base. Covered with turquoise-blue faience tiles, the stunning structure dominates the skyline of Soltaniyeh, an ancient city in Zanjan province, north-western Iran.

The interior has long been under renovation, chockfull of scaffolding poles. However, its decoration is such impressive that scholars including A.U. Pope described it as ‘anticipating the Taj Mahal’. It is the earliest existing example of the double-shelled dome in Iran.

A great-grandson of Hulegu, founder of the Il-Khanid dynasty, Oljaytu was a Mongol ruler who, after dabbling in various religions, adopted the Shia name Mohammed Khodabandeh.

The city of Soltaniyeh was briefly the capital of Persia’s Ilkhanid dynasty (a branch of the Mongol dynasty) during the 14th century.

According to the UNESCO, the Mausoleum of Oljaytu is an essential link and key monument in the development of Islamic architecture in central and western Asia. Here, the Ilkhanids further developed ideas that had been advanced during the classical Seljuk phase (11th to early 13th centuries), during which the arts of Iran gained distinction in the Islamic world, thereby setting the stage for the Timurid period (late 14th to 15th centuries), one of the most brilliant periods in Iranian-Islamic art.

The very large dome is the earliest extant example of its type, and became an important reference for the later development of the Islamic dome. Similarly, the extremely rich interior of the mausoleum, which includes glazed tiles, brickwork, marquetry or designs in inlaid materials, stucco, and frescoes, illustrates an important movement towards more elaborate materials and themes.

Amazing architecture despite the scaffolding

The dome of Soltaniyeh displays amazing brick work architecture and blue mosaics. It has been undergoing major restoration since the 1970s which is still ongoing, so expect scaffolding. Despite this, the visit is memorable. (FrenchTraveler form Paris; visited Oct. 2016)

Unfortunately inside not nice

From outside the brick dome is impressive but inside it is still under renovation. The interior is full of scaffolds and there is nothing to see inside because of this. All in all it’s not worth going there in an extra trip. But it can be a nice stop on the way with the view from outside. (StefanBaW235 from Biberach (Riss), Germany; visited April 2017)

Great outside, dull inside

While this UNESCO listed dome shape mausoleum looks really impressive from outside, thanks to its shining blue color dome, its interior is really disappointing.

We saw a full view of construction structure that not only overshadow all delicate works of art but also the remaining ancient crafted works are all badly damaged and seems lack proper maintenance. (Suwatss from Bangkok; visited April 2017)

Plain is striking

Here’s another fantastic site that has been in a state of renovation for quite a long time, according to the site’s guide. The scaffolding covers almost everywhere inside, but looking up to the inside of the dome is worthwhile. Outside is beautiful, the unadorned pressed Adobe mud/brick compliments the bright blue turquoise dome. (Miriahm D. from Boulder, Colorado; visited May 2016)

Source: Tehran Times

Iran’s Qeshm Island becomes UNESCO Global Geopark

/in ,

Date: 7 May 2017

The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization has registered Iran’s southern Qeshm Island in the Persian Gulf on its Global Geoparks list.

“The Qeshm Island has been granted the designation of UNESCO Global Geopark for a four-year period from May 5, 2017 to May 4, 2021. And the first revalidation will take place in 2020,” the UNESCO official website announced on Friday.

The UNESCO Global Geoparks Council made an initially decision for the inscription last September. The verdict was finalized by an executive board of the UN agency during its 201st session in Paris on May 5.

During the session seven other sites received the label as well, amongst the entrees that demonstrate great diversity of geology are Arxan in China, Causses du Quercy in France, and Las Loras in Spain. With the eight new additions that celebrate, the world network adds up to 127 UNESCO Global Geoparks in 35 countries.

Qeshm Island embraces wide range of ecotourism attractions such as the Hara marine forests and about 60 villages dotted mostly across its rocky coastlines. The island has an abundance of wildlife, including birds, reptiles, dolphins and turtles as well.

PHOTO: An undated photo depicts a man snapping photos at the picturesque Chahkooh Canyon on Qeshm Island.

Source: Tehran Times

Abyaneh Village: An anthropological museum

/in ,

Date: 6 May 2017

Abyaneh is a beautiful historic village at the foot of Karkas Mountain and at a distance of 70km to the southeast of Iran’s central city of Kashan and 40km to Natanz in E(I)sfahan Province.

This is a village of living traditions, architectural styles (all in red clay), and probably the most interesting example of human adaptation to nature, wherein one can transcend the boundaries of time and space and experience the ancient civilization and culture of Iran.

The village is compact, with narrow and sloped lanes, and houses located on the slope as if placed on a stairway. Here, the roofs of some houses are used to serve as the courtyard for other houses higher up on the slope. The language spoken by the literate people of Abyaneh is Parthian Pahlavi. They are deeply committed to honoring their traditions.

No matter how well educated a person from Abyaneh might be, he or she puts on the traditional Abyaneh costume on coming back to the village from anywhere in Iran.

The women’s traditional costume ―consisting of a scarf with floral motifs and pleated pants ― is particularly attractive.

Even today their costume, way of life and ancient dialect are still practically unchanged and for many anthropologists a reason to travel to Iran.

The architectural facet in this village along with the rituals and apparel of its inhabitants is a sight to witness.

The Jame’ mosque of this vicinity with its historical wooden altar dating to 1355 CE, and its wooden pulpit dating to 1045 CE. And an inscription in the ‘Kofi’ script is greatly valued both as a historical and religious monument.

Abyaneh village was registered on the National Heritage list on 21 August 1975.

Source: Iran Daily

Comparative Chronology Table of Iran & the World

/in ,

Date: 1 May 2017

A comparative chronology table of Iran and the world will be unveiled during an academic conference which will be held at the Milad Tower in Tehran on 1 May 2017.

Titled “Comparative Chronology Table of Iran and the World from the Paleolithic Era to the End of the Iron Age”, the initiative has been organized by Iranology Foundation and developed by a cluster of Iranian experts to give a fresh look into the role and place of Iran in the progress of human societies.

The foundation’s director Ayatollah Seyyed Mohammad Khamenei along with several other scholars and archaeology professors will deliver lectures on the national project that encapsulates occurrences from the Paleolithic era to the late Iron Age.

One of the advantages of developing a reliable chronology is enhancing a more meticulous familiarity with the history, culture, politics, economy, sciences, and art of each society in comparison to other societies.

Undoubtedly, such a chronology provides plenty of data in different fields to interested parties. Presently, several chronologies which have been mainly developed by Western researchers are available. However, no noteworthy activity has been carried out in this regard in Iran, the foundation says.

Parts of an introduction to the chronology reads as follows:

“Given the historical negligence of eastern countries and Europeans’ innate megalomania, which began since the Renaissance and, particularly since the Industrial Revolution and the subsequent scientific advancements, the latter set out to write the history of the world from their own point of view. In doing so, either advertently or inadvertently, they failed to provide accurate accounts and interpretations of important aspects of human progress.

Hence, many of the world chronologies, when introducing Iran, rarely move beyond the Achaemenid era [c. 550–330 BC] and interpreted many of the later significant human achievements in a pre-historical context while focusing on the centrality of Mesopotamia. Clearly, several political thoughts and positions have promoted such an approach.”

Photo: The poster of the conference

Source: Tehran Times