Hello, my name is 'International': Khorog States 20th anniversary and conference on the Pamir

Khorog feels like a sleepy mountain town right now. On Saturday the bazaar was busy, and at the taxi stand people manage to run into each other at low speeds while going to outlying villages or even Dushanbe. But otherwise there aren't many restaurants, specialized shops, or tourists. That is, except for people here for the 20th anniversary of Khorog State University. Through a bizarre series of contacts I was invited to speak at the 'International Conference: Problems, Solutions and Technology in the Pamir'. An excellent series of speeches was followed by an even better Tajik dance performance in the new (2009) city park.

Then came the surprises. Somehow the other internal participants, from Germany and China and a few other places, didn't show (Khorog takes 2 days to get to minimum from the nearest airport). So at the plenary address, I was first to speak and give a toast of friendship from the US to a university my same age. A scramble for a translator (very few Tajik academics speak English) brought the former director of the University Central Asia to the front, and I proceeded to speak about learning in the mountains and my research in the region. Plenty of questions followed, and after an hour speech about the difficulties the university was facing - no textbooks, only 2 doctorates among graduates, limited credit transfer, lack of students- everyone headed to dinner.

I decided to bike 5km to the botanical gardens, where after a bit of negotiating with the guards I got a tour of the 2nd highest botanical gardens in the world. The dinner was held at some sort of palace at the bottom, and the police did not want me inside with my bike (granted, my dress clothes were in my backpack). It took a few calls but I was eventually admitted, and promptly praised by several state officials and the head of the German department for making the conference international.

The big treat of the night, however, was the vodka, five course dinner, and old academics dancing their hearts out with no contact in traditional Tajik style. It was indeed a warm welcome to what my adviser calls 'scholar as celebrity'.


What's up next depends on weather, roads, and typhoid. But I promise there will be something awesome. I also still have some extra postcards if you want to email your address to benski123 gmail com.
Here's a few pix and videos of the festivities as well.