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Museums are usually, for the most part, not the first thing you want to see when you’re living in another country. I think many people will admit this. So when our final excursion for the semester was to a museum (or more aptly, to two museums), I was less than thrilled. After all, we’re in another country, and we’re…oh, looking at old rocks and bones. Fun?

Well yeah, actually, surprisingly interesting.

For you see, Tajikistan is old. This is a fact that has been stressed by literally EVERYONE here for as long as I can remember. And yeah, when you go to places to Hisor, with the fort that’s older than an Iran, or Istaravshan, the city of Alexander’s Roxana, you realize this place is old. But the National History Museum here in Dushanbe was actually able to drive home what this place was like. It wasn't some back corner of nowhere like it (unfortunately) has become, it was a cosmopolitan center of East Asian, Indian, Persian, and Greek cultures, which made something truly interesting and unique.

Seeing the old statues (like the Leaning Buddha) and the artwork makes you think of a place where the lingua franca is Persian with Greek letters, where Hindus, Buddhists, Zoroastrians, and Christians all mix and mingle in a shockingly tolerant environment. Where the artwork is bizarre and colorful and you feel like this is the center, the true center of Eurasia. Basically, something amazing.

You will note, of course, that this is no longer the case. This ancient past was destroyed by a force so destructive; no army has ever managed to replicate it: The Arab invasions. The Russians left the language, the Mongols left the religion, but the Arabs trounced everything. 

And that's the end of that.

As always: Ташаккуру худо ҳафез.