THE TUSHETI MOUNTAINS IN GEORGIA

THE TUSHETI REGION

The Tusheti region is located in the Great Caucasus mountains in Georgia. The only access leading to this area is a pathway which had been built by the Soviet after the 2nd WW and goes over a pass at almost 3000m high. The Tusheti is reachable by car from June to October that is the reason why it remains a very secluded mountainous region and the inhabitants, the Tushs, still live with their old manners and customs. Up to the construction of the pathway, most of the Tushs people were living there all the year around, isolated from the rest of the world. In the 17th century, in the kingdom of Kakheti which is located at the foot of the Caucasus mountains in Georgia was dramatically weakened by the permanent attacks from the Turks and Persian. The king Erekle 2 (1659) could not overcome the battles and even so the highlanders were considered as very dangerous but strong persons, he dared to ask them for some helps. The Tushs were living without king, prince or director but only with some heroes. One of the most famous heroes was Zezva Gaprindauli who gathered the Tushs and Xevsurs, a different ethnic group in the neighborhood of the Tushs and they all went down to fight again the Turk. As they liberated the village Bakhtrioni, the king wanted to reward them and asked Zezva what he would like to. Because they didn’t need gold neither money but some lands in the valley for my people to make their life smoother, Erekle proposed Zezva to take his horse and to gallop from the liberated village until the death of his horse. Since then and up to nowadays, all the territories between Bakhtrioni and the place where the horse died belong to the Tush. 3 villages were born: Qvemo Alvany, Zemo Alvany and a special one : Laliskhuri. From this period, little by little the Tushs left the highland to the valley. There are 2 migration waves: the first one took place in 1830 when the Tsova Tush left their valley after a landslide which devastated most of the villages. In the middle of the 20th century, the Chaghma Tush were forced to go down by the sovietization. At that time more than 50% of the Tush population were still living in the mountains. Nowadays some families still live there all the year without electricity and running water and have to be self sufficient more than 7 months. The Tushs are living from the cheese production and the cattle farming. A part of the population is still semi nomadic, the lasts of the Georgian Caucasus Mountains.

THE HORSES

We can easily say that a Tush was born on his horse. The horses are a work tool to gather the flock of sheep or used as pack horses to carry the cheese or some materials. As there is no road in Tusheti, the horse still remains the easiest, fastest and the most confortable way to travel from one point to another. The horses are also a finery which strengthens the image of a man! And finally they are implied in a lot of pagan rituals and have an important role into the pagan society.

ART OF LIVING AND OUR HERD OF HORSES

There is a different approach of time, money and art of living up there. And even if the environment roughness call us back to the reality, the magnificence of the landscapes, the simple way of life of the nomadic people, their deep traditions inspire a profound respect for the Tush people and the Tusheti region. And I have been living with them since 18 years, on the rhythm of the transhumance when we drive the flock of sheep and herd of horses up to the summer pasture in May and down to the wintering at the door of the semi desert ecosystem in October.