BOOK: Ethnography and Folklore of the Georgia-Chechnya Border. Images, Customs, Myths & Folk Tales of the Peripheries. By Shorena Kurtsikidze & Vakhtang Chikovani

The aim of this book is to acquaint a wide audience with the traditional culture of the Christian and Muslim highlanders who live on the border of Europe and Asia in the central part of the Caucasus Main Mountain Range. Under one cover, the publication features unique materials on visual anthropology, ethnography, mythology, and folklore of the region. The book portrays the mysterious subgroup of Georgian highlanders, the Khevsur, who are considered to be the champions of Georgian patriotism and at the same time, according to one popular theory, are believed to be direct descendants of the last Crusaders. Featuring 158 black and white original photographs and accompanying explanatory texts, the publication gives a detailed description of the exotic religious institutions and examples of material culture of this group of highlanders, illustrating the closeness of their lifestyle to the ways of the Frankish crusaders. The emphasis is on the spheres of folk culture that bear clear traces of centuries of confrontations between two ethnic groups: Christian Georgian highlanders and their neighbors, Muslim Vainakh or Chechen and Ingush. The authors attempt to show how the traditional mode of life of the highlanders affects the contemporary ethnic and political situation in the region. The publication includes original translations of Georgian folk tales and myths. The latter are narratives representing mythologized chronicles of “holy wars” of old times once carried out on the border of Europe and Asia by the ancestors of the Khevsurs. Shorena Kurtsikidze and Vakhtang Chikovani are cultural anthropologists and natives of Georgia. They have been teaching the Georgian language, culture, and folklore courses at the University of California, Berkeley. Both authors are affiliates of the Institute of Slavic, East European and Eurasian Studies at the same university and regularly give talks and public lectures about Georgia and the Caucasus.

Link: amazon.de

VIDEO: Trio Devlira, Chechen music from Pankisi.

Trio Devlira: Mariam and Markha from Pankisi and Yannick from France.

The Chechen and Tush moods of DEVLIRA are women's love songs for men, men for women, songs of mountain and animals, songs of Sufi trance.

The Chechen repertoire is a happy mix of oriental music, walks of the bards of the Caucasus, from the Slavic melancholy to the rhythm of the Mongolian rides!

The Tush repertoire come from this small isolated area of Georgia, in the heart of the great Caucasus, between Chechnya and Daghestan.

Mariam Machalikashvili: singing, Balalaïka
Malka Machalikashvili: singing, Garmon, Balalaïka
Yannick Loyer: singing, tambour







more Songs: sounddmafia.audio/play/devlira-shenma-survilma-damlia-georgian-song

PHOTOGRAPHY & VIDEO: Zikr in Pankisi Valley - Chechen enclave in northern Georgia. By Swiatoslaw Wojtkowiak

Sufi of Pankisi Valley. The women gather to sing, praise Allah and pray for peace. Their message is expressed in an explicit way by their charismatic leader and organizer, Badi : Make love not war.

You can see more here: www.pankisi.org

This is another face of islam in Caucasus, you dont see it too often , not so much as terrorist accusation by Russian regime, self fullfilling prophecy. Angry young men, their culture ridiculed, their freedom taken away, turn to fundametalism. Wahhabism is getting sponsored by Gulf countries, by Saudis, but these women, those religious communities refuse to believe wahhabist propaganda that their old traditions of Sufism are heresy. They preach peace.


Chechen sufi zikr from Swiatoslaw Wojtkowiak on Vimeo.

Zikr in Pankisi Valley - Chechen ladies from Pankisi Valley performing Sufi zikr ritual , singing message of love to God and other people, and asking for peace in Caucasus.