Pamir, Winter 2011
237 images Created 10 Feb 2021
My second winter expedition in Afghanistan's Pamir mountains.
"For thousands of years, the Kyrgyz lived a nomadic life, wandering from Siberia and Mongolia to Kazakhstan and China into Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan and eventually — about 150 years ago — into the Wakhan.
The grass there was good. The Kyrgyz would spend their summers fattening up their animals and during the harsh winters would move into the lower valleys, which were then in Russia or, on the other side, China.
But the Russian Revolution in 1917 cut off part of that route, and when the Chinese closed their border after the revolution in 1949, some Kyrgyz were trapped in this desolate section of Afghanistan.
Cut off from their brethren on the other side of the borders, they had to adjust to the brutal winters."
See Interview here : https://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/04/a-hard-life-on-the-roof-of-the-world/
"For thousands of years, the Kyrgyz lived a nomadic life, wandering from Siberia and Mongolia to Kazakhstan and China into Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan and eventually — about 150 years ago — into the Wakhan.
The grass there was good. The Kyrgyz would spend their summers fattening up their animals and during the harsh winters would move into the lower valleys, which were then in Russia or, on the other side, China.
But the Russian Revolution in 1917 cut off part of that route, and when the Chinese closed their border after the revolution in 1949, some Kyrgyz were trapped in this desolate section of Afghanistan.
Cut off from their brethren on the other side of the borders, they had to adjust to the brutal winters."
See Interview here : https://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/04/a-hard-life-on-the-roof-of-the-world/
