Other things to mention before I stumble up to bed....
We have spent much of our trip visiting historical sites - in additon to NGO's and other groups. We go to Persepolis and hear: 'this gate 20 meters tall, was guarded by two beautiful huge limestone bulls from the Assyrian tradition. The heads were removed in the 19 century and are now in Chicago'. We go to (forgive my spelling) parsegaad - paradise garden. The place the word paradise originated from and we hear 'there used to be an ancient wall around the site but when the French came the needed a building to store the treasures there were taking from here so they took apart the wall and built that little house over there to store things before taking them out of the country.' In Nantaz (again, forgive the spelling), at a beautiful 16th century mosque: the tiles and mihrab (the area in the mosque that is like the gateway to mecca) are now at the Louvre. This makes me really mad. These things should be here, in their historic homes. From a peace perspective , tourism can create direct and personal relationships between people of different countries, depending on how it's done. This connection can help form bonds and ultimately, limit misunderstanding. If people can see Iran's treasures in Berlin, why bother go to Iran? People here seem to want a stronger tourism industry. The people I have spoken to are proud of their country and their heritage and they want to share it.
We visited the tombs of Saadi and Hafez - two famous Iranian poets from the 13th and 14th century. These tombs aren't American tombs. They are huge, beautiful garden parks full of roses and orange trees. Each tomb is in a beautiful gazebo like building. Both are major destinations. Some families visit every week. From what I have seen, you cannot separate Iran from it's poets. Poetry seems to permeate every aspect of society very deeply. We hear poetry used when men do exercises, poetry is on t.v in the morning with beautiful pictures of gardens and butterflies, poetry is regularly quoted. People pride themselves for memorizing many of Hafez's works. Over half of the people I've spoken to here have spoken to me about poetry or quoted me poetry. One of our delegation members has a teeshirt with a Saadi stanza on it in Farsi and English. This stanza is carved over the main entrance door of the UN. People noticed and commented.
At the tomb of Hafez, the place was hopping. There were hundreds of people. Each one went up to his tomb, knelt, touched it and said some words. Many cried. People had small books of his poetry. Some use these books to divine future results (asking a question, closing your eyes, turning to a page and reading the answer). One young woman there had her Hafez book open and was weeping. A man came up to her (we all think he was a stranger), handed her his cell phone and said 'here, give him a call' (not Hafez, but the boy she was probably weeping about)
So much more....... tomorrow. Good night.
We have spent much of our trip visiting historical sites - in additon to NGO's and other groups. We go to Persepolis and hear: 'this gate 20 meters tall, was guarded by two beautiful huge limestone bulls from the Assyrian tradition. The heads were removed in the 19 century and are now in Chicago'. We go to (forgive my spelling) parsegaad - paradise garden. The place the word paradise originated from and we hear 'there used to be an ancient wall around the site but when the French came the needed a building to store the treasures there were taking from here so they took apart the wall and built that little house over there to store things before taking them out of the country.' In Nantaz (again, forgive the spelling), at a beautiful 16th century mosque: the tiles and mihrab (the area in the mosque that is like the gateway to mecca) are now at the Louvre. This makes me really mad. These things should be here, in their historic homes. From a peace perspective , tourism can create direct and personal relationships between people of different countries, depending on how it's done. This connection can help form bonds and ultimately, limit misunderstanding. If people can see Iran's treasures in Berlin, why bother go to Iran? People here seem to want a stronger tourism industry. The people I have spoken to are proud of their country and their heritage and they want to share it.
We visited the tombs of Saadi and Hafez - two famous Iranian poets from the 13th and 14th century. These tombs aren't American tombs. They are huge, beautiful garden parks full of roses and orange trees. Each tomb is in a beautiful gazebo like building. Both are major destinations. Some families visit every week. From what I have seen, you cannot separate Iran from it's poets. Poetry seems to permeate every aspect of society very deeply. We hear poetry used when men do exercises, poetry is on t.v in the morning with beautiful pictures of gardens and butterflies, poetry is regularly quoted. People pride themselves for memorizing many of Hafez's works. Over half of the people I've spoken to here have spoken to me about poetry or quoted me poetry. One of our delegation members has a teeshirt with a Saadi stanza on it in Farsi and English. This stanza is carved over the main entrance door of the UN. People noticed and commented.
At the tomb of Hafez, the place was hopping. There were hundreds of people. Each one went up to his tomb, knelt, touched it and said some words. Many cried. People had small books of his poetry. Some use these books to divine future results (asking a question, closing your eyes, turning to a page and reading the answer). One young woman there had her Hafez book open and was weeping. A man came up to her (we all think he was a stranger), handed her his cell phone and said 'here, give him a call' (not Hafez, but the boy she was probably weeping about)
So much more....... tomorrow. Good night.
posted by Melissa at 12:48 PM
1 Comments:
thanks for your writing on Iranians
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