On Tuesday morning we took a bus to Kashan, Iran's third largest city. We stayed in Ehsan House, a traditional Kashani house in that the courtyard and adjoining rooms are 5 metres or so below street level. This helps the residents to endure the extreme summer temperatures in relative comfort. Kashan is famous for these houses and there are several open for visiting. We visited Tabatabei House and it is truly beautiful. Clearly this was built by a wealthy owner because this could not possibly be the standard of living of normal people. There are entire wings separately devoted to summer and winter sections. The sunken courtyard has stairs descending into cellar-like rooms which offer additional comfort. These sub-terrainian rooms are further enhanced with adjoining tunnels, dug through the earth and extending 4 kilometres under the city and link up with other houses. These tunnels provide cool moist air as an additional reprieve from the summer heat. Also, ascending from that space is a badgir, a chimney-like structure with two or more individual chambers, half of which are lined with bricks and allow hot air to rise and half unlined so that the walls are mostly cooler and moister earth (remember, a good portion of this "chimney' is underground) and allow cooler air to sink to this space. Natural, zero-CO2 air conditioning.
While in Kashan we had our first meal seated at a takht which is like a kind of large day bed or platform with backrests. You sit on the platform, your meal is placed in the centre and you all eat from there. Looks great and atmospheric but it's not really much chop and a table and chairs make a lot more sense. Good for lounging in with a cup of tea though.
On our first day in Kashan we were accosted (in the gentlest way) by Hossein, a tour guide. This turned out to be a very happy circumstance, as Hossein had some great suggestions that led to us rearranging our whole stay in Iran. He accompanied us to an old hamamm (bathhouse) and had the caretaker unlock the access to the roof. This gave us an incredible perspective of the bathhouse itself and of the roofscape of the old part of Kashan. Back down into the bathhouse, and it was superb. Visiting the bathhouse used to be much more of a ritual and social occasion, and people would spend half a day there - scrubbing, soaking, socialising and very probably doing business as well.
The next morning, Hossein took us to a textile workshop. Kashan is famous for its silk and wool textiles, and in this workshop are weavers still practising their craft in the traditional way. It was fantastic to see, and these old men (yes, all of them men and all of them old) were so adept at moving the strings and levers and weights on the looms it was a joy to watch. The resulting fabric is beautiful but very expensive, so we remained observers rather than participants.
Our next stop was a potter, a friend of Hossein. This man's work was exquisite, and although he had very little English and we have no Farsi, so we were not really able to communicate, his nature just shone through and he seemed to be one of those beautiful people you encounter sometimes when you are lucky.
That evening we went to English classes. Hossein has a friend who is an English teacher, and he asked us, as a favour to him and his friend, if we would be prepared to spend a few hours engaging with the students in English conversation. This we were happy to do. We (David and Liz) both fronted a class of 14 to 17 year old girls for half an hour and then split up for another few classes each. Maybe it was youthful naivety, maybe it was the result of religious dogma swallowed hook, line and sinker, but when these girls were told of the Australian aborigines' spiritual and religious connections to land, jaws dropped from uncomprehending faces. Among the expected questions about why we were visiting Iran and what we liked best about it, were some curlier ones - did we think the media manipulated reports about Iran? why does our government pursue its current immigration policy? why do we drink alcohol? what is our view of the obligation to wear the hijab? and so on. Lively evening especially with David fomenting rebellion such as when receiving questions about alcohol, acknowledging and detailing some of the problems but then also returning with questions about liberty and freedom. Also, the positive role of alcoholic beverages, in moderation, especially the matching of a great wine with great food was utterly lost. Not surprising really, the sometimes great food here is debased with the consumption of Coke. Often as the only westerners, we were the only ones declining to complement our meals with this liquid sugar.
Joseph was invited to join a game of futsal while this was going on, which he really enjoyed. He did get to join a class later as well though. His was a group of young girls aged around 11 - 13 and their questions were more to that age, including whether he was single.
One student in particular I will remember. Her name is Sabha. She is 15 and a deep thinker - one of those who seem destined to greatness. She is enormously troubled about some of the things in Iranian life
No comments:
Post a Comment