You
have to love a holiday that honors a national leader who wrote poetry
rather than fought battles!
Magtymguly
Pyragy lived in the 1700s. Much of his life and even his poetry is
lost to us because there was violence and theft within his country
(Turkmenistan) and war and take-over from without, such as the
Russian takeover in the 1900s. We think that he had a very tough
life: he was forced to marry a woman he didn't love, rather than the
one he did; he was taken prisoner in Iran; his brothers disappeared;
and worst of all, his children died early.
And
so his poetry reflects struggle. It is very personal, but it's also
universal, dealing with the suffering of the common people caused by
selfish actions of those in power.
Explore
Turkmenistan
Most
of us don't know much about all the “-stan” nations, such as
Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, but these Asian nations were all part of
the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics for almost a century, and
they all have populations of people who worship Islam and speak
various Turkic languages.
Turkmenistan
cannot be an incredibly easy place to live. It is covered mostly by
black-sand deserts, and its major products, natural gas and cotton,
aren't enough to solve the unemployment crisis. (In 2004, the
unemployment rate was about 60%!!) Yet there are beauties there, and
glorious architecture. This tourism video says that Turkmenistan is
“the land of white buildings,” and this other video shows
beaches, mountains, rivers, and poppy fields as well as deserts.
Also
on this date:
