Tajik belongs to the Indian Mediterranean type of Europa. Its national language is Tajik, including two dialects of Selekul and Wahan. It belongs to the Pamir branch of the Iranian language family of Indo-European language family.
The main body of Tajiks is in Central Asia, mainly distributed in Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and other countries and regions. The Tajiks in China mainly live in Tashkurgan Tajik Autonomous County in Xinjiang.
Name source
“Tajik” is the name of our nation. As for the meaning of the word “Tajik”, there are ancient Arab tribes “Tay”, “Dashi” and the appellation of Persian speaking “tat” people by Central Asian Turks in the 11th century.
However, it is generally believed that “Tajik” comes from the word “Tajik”, which means “crown” in the Tajik language.
Faith
In history, Tajiks once believed in Zoroastrianism, Buddhism, and other religions. These two kinds of religious culture remain in the Tajik people. Around the 10th century, the Tajiks began to believe in Islam. In the 11th century, under the persuasion of the famous Tajik poet and Ismail missionary Nasser hold, he began to obey Ismail, a branch of Shiite in Islam. There are few religious activities and mosques among the Tajiks. Some old people worship at home twice a day, while the general public only worships at festivals.
In Tajik village, there is “Gama ethane” (meeting place), whose structure and layout are not the same as those of the mosque. For example, there is no niche where Imam stands, but niches with Imam portraits hanging on two walls. When Gama ethane held religious activities, nonbelievers were not allowed to enter.
The main texts of Ismail are Yassen and Sur. In church, say “Muhammad, I miss you! Ali, I miss you!” 101 times, kowtow once and repeat five times. Devout believers use beads to count the number of times when chanting scriptures and cherish them very much.
The followers of Tajik belong to several Yichang. Yichang, appointed by Aga Khan, enjoys a special status among Tajik believers. According to Chan’s hereditary position, there is no diocese. Each of them has several Hai Hai Pai as their agents in various places. Huaihai sect presided over the religious ceremonies and other religious activities in the wedding and funeral ceremonies in the village where they lived.
The worship of Mazar is also an important religious activity of Ismail. Mazar is the tomb of the “holy descendants” of Ismail or the place where the “holy descendants” lived. Around Maza, there are many long wooden poles, huge wild sheep horns, and pebbles of various colors.
Festival
The Tajiks take the gallon Festival, the meat, and the Kizi Festival, and the holy day as the three major festivals. Also, there are distinctive festivals of Xiao Gong Bahar (Spring Festival), Piriki Festival (Lantern Festival), Zulu Festival (water diversion Festival), the Muzuvati Festival (sowing Festival), etc.
The annual festival of Shagongbahar in March is a festival to meet the beginning of the year, which is three days. At that time, every household cleaned the dust and sprinkled beautiful patterns with flour on the wall to show blessings. On this day, people are leading the “Xiao Gong” (leader of the festival) to congratulate all families and wish a good harvest for the next year. Then, we began to visit friends and relatives and celebrate each other. The women were dressed in beautiful and generous clothes, waiting in front of the door, sprinkled white flour on the left shoulder of the visitors to show their luck. During the festival, every family prepared rich food for visitors; young people sang and danced, and held horse racing, sheep holding, wrestling, and other activities. After the festival, people began to prepare for spring farming.
Parikh day is the first two days of August of the Islamic calendar every year. Before the festival, the family made a “Kawu day” straw torch (wrapped with cotton, and coated with butter); in the evening of the festival, each family lit two homemade small butter candles, prayed together before the candle, and prayed for heaven and fortune. Everyone on the roof inserted a long stick of fire stick, calling for good luck. On the festival night, from the mountain village to the ranch, the village torch is shining, and there are songs and laughs everywhere. People play all night. The next day, the families went to the tomb-sweeping.
The Muzu gas Festival means “sowing day”. At that time, each family went down to the field to do symbolic plowing and sowing, pouring water on each other to celebrate.
Clothes & Accessories
The clothing of the Tajik nationality is mainly cotton-padded clothes and sandwich clothes, and there is no obvious change of clothing in four seasons. Adult men usually wear black velvet round and high-profile “Tokamak” hats with several fine patterns and a lace embroidered on them. The inside of the hats is sewn with high-quality black lambskin. The bottom edge of the hats is rolled up to expose the fur. Teenagers wear the same white hats. It’s very suitable for plateau and mountainous areas. When the weather is warm, you can fold up the hat rim. When the weather is cold, you can put down the hat rim to protect your ears and cheeks. In summer, Tajik men wear a small round hat made of white cloth with embroidery. Men usually wear a pullover shirt with a black loop (a long coat with a pair of lapels) and an embroidered belt. In winter, they also wear a coat and a fur coat without a cloth cover.
Women usually wear dresses and trousers. In summer, they add a vest to the skirt and a cover in winter.
Cotton loop. Old women usually wear blue and green dresses, while young women and girls wear red and yellow dresses. For the sake of beauty and protection of skirts, married women often wear colorful aprons behind their waists. The “Kuleta” hat is an important feature and symbol of Tajik women to distinguish from other ethnic women. Almost every one of the Tajik women has one or more of these thick round hats with ear girth. The top and sides of the hat are made of white cloth and embroidered with Tajik women’s favorite patterns. The color is gorgeous and eye-catching. There is a thick curtain hanging at the back of the hat to cover the back of the head and ears. When going out, the hat is added with a square turban, which is generally white, while the bride is red Color, the little girl also uses yellow. Both men and women wear felt socks, wool socks, long tube sheepskin soft boots, and yak skin is used as the sole of the boots, which is soft and solid, suitable for climbing mountain roads. Tajik handicrafts attract people’s attention. In houses, skylights, pillars, Kang hangings, wall hangings, bedding, pillows, cloth bags containing food and clothing, all kinds of flowers and patterns with national characteristics are painted, carved, stabbed, and embroidered. Most women love decoration. When they are in full dress, they add a row of small silver chains (“salsa”) on the brim of their hats, wear large earrings and necklaces with several beads around their necks, and wear large round silver ornaments called “Aleka” on their chest.
Diet
The diet of Tajik herdsmen is mainly milk, meat, and pasta, while that of farmers is mainly pasta.
Herdsmen are good at making dairy products, such as butter, yogurt, milk lumps, milk skin, etc.
Most of the food is cooked, and “Zhuo Rou” (stewed mutton), “Xianer Kelunqi” (milk boiled rice), “Xianer Tailiti” (milk boiled pancake) are the best food. I love black tea. After the tea is boiled, milk is often added to make milk tea.