Tajikistan Travel Words

The Warm Embrace of Tajik Hospitality

Real, honest, open hospitality is a truly amazing thing. This tradition runs deep through the cultures of most of Central Asia, but in my experiences nowhere near as much as Tajikistan.

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View from the front yard of a family in the Fan Mountains.

Though there are some really well-run and welcoming homestays in Tajikistan’s Fan Mountains, they don’t quite cover the whole region.

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6th Lake impromptu homestay family.

How fortunate, then, that one can roll into seemingly any village in the region and be reasonably sure of finding a dry warm place to spend a night!

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Marguzor village resident, and pretty funny dude.

The idea extends to far more than just a place to crash, though. Everywhere I spent any length of time I inevitably met someone interested in trying to chat, talk about life here or there, and share a pot of tea.

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Awesome family, and parents to the cutest child in all of Central Asia (not pictured).

It was, in fact, these experiences that convinced me to move to Bishkek for a while to study Russian. It finally became downright painful to meet so many people who wanted to communicate, and be unable to break past a certain point of vocabulary.

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A stop for tea on the roof of the world.

Thanks, again, to all the people who went out of their way to give me a place to sleep or chat over some tea and bread. This is part of what makes Tajikistan (and all of Central Asia) such an amazing place.

6 Comments

  1. I met the same amazing old man with a beard last year in Marguzor!! He took a liking for my Malaysian girlfriend, and took her around on her pony for a while… a totally rad dude, it’s amazing to see him up your blog too!! The world is indeed quite small…

  2. I’ve lived in a few countries, but when people ask which is my favourite, my year in Tajikistan was by far the best. I hitch hiked through the Pamirs and got fat on bread, as every village I passed would have numerous people inviting me in for chai. Their warmness and as you said ‘real, open, honest hospitality’ is truly memorable.

    • Agreed, the hospitality in the Pamirs especially was incredible. A year is along time, cool that you got to spend so long in the country!

  3. We felt the same way about Tajikistan, the hospitality was just unparalleled. Actually I think it spoiled us a little bit, and when we returned to Southeast Asia after 2 months in Central Asia, we suddenly realized the people weren’t as friendly as we remembered. I wonder if the standard of hospitality would remain in Central Asia if the number of tourists greatly increased?

    • You know, I’ve wondered the same thing recently in conversation with a friend. Kyrgyzstan especially I could see getting much more popular in a relatively short time, and I’m sort of ambivalent about it because while I understand the obvious economic benefits it would bring I also question whether it would lead to this eventual commodification of tourists that you see in places like Thailand and Cambodia.

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