Reminiscence from Anatolia- Part Nineteen: Ephemeral Humans and Long-lasting cultures
Momo is a staple diet in Tibetan culture… I love them… and so does my wife.
When I came to Afghanistan, I discovered something called Manto… which is more famous in Hazarajat (Bamiyan and adjoining areas) as well as the northern parts (among the Tajiks and Uzbeks)… it is less popular in Pashtoon areas, though. Manto is a close variant of Momo, served with minted Yoghurt and cream- it is delicious… it was a serendipity discovering a Momo’s variant in Afghanistan.
I argued that perhaps it’s a cross cultural thing… The Central Asian and Tibetan culture met at Kashgar in Xinjiang… and a lot of cross-cultural exchanges must have occurred over there… some of them must have entered Afghanistan from Kashgar. (A similar variant is found in Central Asia as Sambousek, and is a pre-cursor to North Indian fast-food known as Samosa… in fact the first time when I was introduced to Momo… I was told it is a Chicken Samosa)
When I landed at Kayseri… I found a shop selling a similar such thing in Turkey… called Manti… it was an amazing cross culture discovery… culture- in form of languages and food- has an amazing ability to diffuse… the study of cultures and their similarities can be a great source of learning about common human heritage…
A few days ago, I was talking to a senior diplomat, who had been in Brazil a few days ago… he told me that Brazilians call shirts as Qamees… and wondered how a far-off land could have a similar word for shirts as South Asia… I pointed out… he has missed a point… Cultural diffusion!!!
Qamees is an Arabic word… and Arabs ruled Andalusia for ages… Spanish developed as a bridge language between Arabs and Europe… and borrowed heavily from Arabic (at least the common nouns)… and then Spanish moved to South America… these words must have travelled with the Spanish to Brazil… like it did travel with Arabs to South Asia.
The bus journey from Kayseri to Kahta was eventless… I arrived at Kahta in the early morning. But I had to go even farther to Nemrut Dagi.
A day ago, I made a call to Karadut Pension in Karadut village … Kahta, Adiyaman, Karadut- all these places are in the vicinity of Nemrut Dagi… Karadut is the closest inhabitation that one can get to while approaching Nemrut… I told the Karadut person to pick me up from Kahta Bus Stand… and drive me to Nemrut… he offered me stay in his pension, drive up to Nemrut and some local sight-seeing for 100 dollars… he also offered me to drop at Euphrates crossing from where I can go to Diyarbakir. The offer sounded nice.
The Karadut person (let’s call him Aly, though I have forgotten his name) picked me up from Kahta Bus stand and drove me to his Pension… and served me some frugal breakfast… he asked me at what time I would like to go to Nemrut… I told him that I would prefer sunset… I was told that around sunset time… the Western ruins of Nemrut acquire an orange hue, which adds to their solitude and mystery.
I took a quick shower and went to sleep… and slept for few hours in order to recharge myself… the last night was sleepless… the bus started at 11:45 pm and landed me in Kahta at 5 am- not giving me any time for sound sleep. Moreover, I realized that the ticket that I had bought in Goreme was a wee bit expensive and I would have been better off if I would had traveled to Kayseri and then bought ticket directly from Kayseri Company…. That also hung heavy on my mind.
I was woken up by Aly at around 12 noon… he told me that its getting cloudy and therefore I may not be able to see the Sunset at Nemrut… he told me that I would be better off if I make it to Nemrut now… as it would give me some time to see other sites around the place. I looked out… the weather was ominous…I bought into his argument and nodded…
We set out for Nemrut right after… and reached there in about half an hour… in the mid-way, I saw a place called Cesme Pension… about 3 kilometers from Nemrut… I gathered that I could have reached even closer to Nemrut by staying at Cesme… and could have walked up to Nemrut Dagi from there… Karadut, incidentally, was about 6 kilometers away from Nemrut… as compared to Cesme’s 3 kilometers.
Dagi… literally means hill… and Nemrut Dagi is located no-where… amidst rolling hills standing majestic as the tallest peak in the vicinity… it wouldn’t have been any better than other hillocks in the vicinity but for its commanding position from where one can get panoramic views of the mighty Euphrates… and probably this is the reason why, almost 2000 years ago) the mighty Commagene king (landmass between the Caspian and Black Sea, between the Roman and Parthian empires) Antichous chose this site to construct his giant statues… one in the East terrace and other in the West (as a depiction that he oversaw the East and the West and therefore ruled the entire world)… Antichous constructed his giant statues among the statues of Hercules, Apollo, Zeus and Commagene Goddess… indicating that he, himself, was a God.
Antichous reign did not last very long… after 26 years, within a few years of his death the Commagene empire became a part of Roman empire… his mighty project- the Nemrut Dagi- which announced his stature as God… was forgotten… and then destroyed by an earthquake… the head of Antichous fell on earth… and the place became further oblivious due to frequent dust storms in the region… his mighty memorial got buried under the dust… only to be discovered in modern times… accidentally.
It was initially believed that the place was associated with the biblical king Nemrod who used to kill his enemies and turn their heads into stone and place them atop a mound as a warning to his enemies… thus the place started being called Nemrut Dagi….
The Nemrut statues, today stand enigmatically… perhaps depicting the ephemeral nature of humans… and their kings.
When I came to Afghanistan, I discovered something called Manto… which is more famous in Hazarajat (Bamiyan and adjoining areas) as well as the northern parts (among the Tajiks and Uzbeks)… it is less popular in Pashtoon areas, though. Manto is a close variant of Momo, served with minted Yoghurt and cream- it is delicious… it was a serendipity discovering a Momo’s variant in Afghanistan.
I argued that perhaps it’s a cross cultural thing… The Central Asian and Tibetan culture met at Kashgar in Xinjiang… and a lot of cross-cultural exchanges must have occurred over there… some of them must have entered Afghanistan from Kashgar. (A similar variant is found in Central Asia as Sambousek, and is a pre-cursor to North Indian fast-food known as Samosa… in fact the first time when I was introduced to Momo… I was told it is a Chicken Samosa)
When I landed at Kayseri… I found a shop selling a similar such thing in Turkey… called Manti… it was an amazing cross culture discovery… culture- in form of languages and food- has an amazing ability to diffuse… the study of cultures and their similarities can be a great source of learning about common human heritage…
A few days ago, I was talking to a senior diplomat, who had been in Brazil a few days ago… he told me that Brazilians call shirts as Qamees… and wondered how a far-off land could have a similar word for shirts as South Asia… I pointed out… he has missed a point… Cultural diffusion!!!
Qamees is an Arabic word… and Arabs ruled Andalusia for ages… Spanish developed as a bridge language between Arabs and Europe… and borrowed heavily from Arabic (at least the common nouns)… and then Spanish moved to South America… these words must have travelled with the Spanish to Brazil… like it did travel with Arabs to South Asia.
The bus journey from Kayseri to Kahta was eventless… I arrived at Kahta in the early morning. But I had to go even farther to Nemrut Dagi.
A day ago, I made a call to Karadut Pension in Karadut village … Kahta, Adiyaman, Karadut- all these places are in the vicinity of Nemrut Dagi… Karadut is the closest inhabitation that one can get to while approaching Nemrut… I told the Karadut person to pick me up from Kahta Bus Stand… and drive me to Nemrut… he offered me stay in his pension, drive up to Nemrut and some local sight-seeing for 100 dollars… he also offered me to drop at Euphrates crossing from where I can go to Diyarbakir. The offer sounded nice.
The Karadut person (let’s call him Aly, though I have forgotten his name) picked me up from Kahta Bus stand and drove me to his Pension… and served me some frugal breakfast… he asked me at what time I would like to go to Nemrut… I told him that I would prefer sunset… I was told that around sunset time… the Western ruins of Nemrut acquire an orange hue, which adds to their solitude and mystery.
I took a quick shower and went to sleep… and slept for few hours in order to recharge myself… the last night was sleepless… the bus started at 11:45 pm and landed me in Kahta at 5 am- not giving me any time for sound sleep. Moreover, I realized that the ticket that I had bought in Goreme was a wee bit expensive and I would have been better off if I would had traveled to Kayseri and then bought ticket directly from Kayseri Company…. That also hung heavy on my mind.
I was woken up by Aly at around 12 noon… he told me that its getting cloudy and therefore I may not be able to see the Sunset at Nemrut… he told me that I would be better off if I make it to Nemrut now… as it would give me some time to see other sites around the place. I looked out… the weather was ominous…I bought into his argument and nodded…
We set out for Nemrut right after… and reached there in about half an hour… in the mid-way, I saw a place called Cesme Pension… about 3 kilometers from Nemrut… I gathered that I could have reached even closer to Nemrut by staying at Cesme… and could have walked up to Nemrut Dagi from there… Karadut, incidentally, was about 6 kilometers away from Nemrut… as compared to Cesme’s 3 kilometers.
Dagi… literally means hill… and Nemrut Dagi is located no-where… amidst rolling hills standing majestic as the tallest peak in the vicinity… it wouldn’t have been any better than other hillocks in the vicinity but for its commanding position from where one can get panoramic views of the mighty Euphrates… and probably this is the reason why, almost 2000 years ago) the mighty Commagene king (landmass between the Caspian and Black Sea, between the Roman and Parthian empires) Antichous chose this site to construct his giant statues… one in the East terrace and other in the West (as a depiction that he oversaw the East and the West and therefore ruled the entire world)… Antichous constructed his giant statues among the statues of Hercules, Apollo, Zeus and Commagene Goddess… indicating that he, himself, was a God.
Antichous reign did not last very long… after 26 years, within a few years of his death the Commagene empire became a part of Roman empire… his mighty project- the Nemrut Dagi- which announced his stature as God… was forgotten… and then destroyed by an earthquake… the head of Antichous fell on earth… and the place became further oblivious due to frequent dust storms in the region… his mighty memorial got buried under the dust… only to be discovered in modern times… accidentally.
It was initially believed that the place was associated with the biblical king Nemrod who used to kill his enemies and turn their heads into stone and place them atop a mound as a warning to his enemies… thus the place started being called Nemrut Dagi….
The Nemrut statues, today stand enigmatically… perhaps depicting the ephemeral nature of humans… and their kings.
2 comments:
which language you normally used while traveling these places...english or arabic?
Mostly English! other languages very little and on a very sporadic basis...
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