Tajikistan is a landlocked, mountainous country in Central Asia, where the towering Pamir mountains, sometimes called the Roof of the World, rise along its borders with China and Afghanistan. Unlike its Turkic-speaking neighbours, its people are Tajiks, a Persian people whose language and culture are closely related to those of Iran and Afghanistan. A land of high peaks, ancient Silk Road heritage, and recent hardship, it is the poorest of the former Soviet republics of Central Asia.
The lands of Tajikistan were part of the ancient Persian world and of the great Silk Road that crossed Central Asia, home to the historic regions of Bactria and Sogdiana. Their proudest era came under the Samanid Empire of the ninth and tenth centuries, a Persian-speaking state that fostered a golden age of Persian literature and learning. The region was later conquered by Turkic and Mongol powers and eventually absorbed by the Russian Empire and then the Soviet Union, gaining independence in 1991.
Tajikistan is overwhelmingly mountainous, with more than nine-tenths of its territory covered by ranges, and the great Pamir mountains in the east holding some of the highest peaks in the world. Deep valleys and gorges cut through the highlands, fed by glaciers and snowmelt that give rise to the rivers on which the region depends, and this water and elevation give the country enormous hydroelectric potential. The lower western valleys hold most of the population and farmland.
The flag of Tajikistan has three horizontal bands of red, white, and green, with a central white band wider than the others bearing a golden crown topped by an arc of seven stars. The red is associated with unity and the nation's history, the white with purity and the snow of the mountains and cotton of the fields, and the green with the valleys and the faith. The crown and the seven stars are traditional symbols said to represent the unity of the country's peoples.
The great majority of Tajiks are Sunni Muslims, and Islam is central to the country's culture and identity, having arrived more than a thousand years ago. In the remote Pamir mountains, many people follow the Ismaili branch of Shia Islam, giving the country some religious variety. Decades of Soviet atheism left a secular state and society, and the government keeps a careful watch over religious life, but faith has revived as an important part of personal and community identity since independence.
Tajik cuisine blends Persian and Central Asian traditions, and like much of the region it centres on the rice dish known as osh or plov, cooked with meat, carrots, and onions and served at gatherings and celebrations. Flatbread is sacred to the table, and dishes of meat, noodles, and dumplings are common, alongside fresh and dried fruit from the country's orchards. Green tea is the constant companion of meals and of a strong tradition of hospitality.
Agriculture is vital to Tajikistan, employing a large share of its people despite the mountainous terrain, with farming concentrated in the lower valleys. Cotton has long been the dominant cash crop, a legacy of the Soviet era, grown with irrigation, while wheat, vegetables, and the country's renowned fruits, including apricots and grapes, are also important. The high mountains give Tajikistan great potential for hydroelectric power, which it is developing as a key resource.
The Samanid Empire and the Silk Road heritage are central to Tajik pride, and the figure of the Persian poet associated with that era is celebrated as a national symbol. After gaining independence in 1991, Tajikistan was plunged almost immediately into a brutal civil war that lasted until 1997, causing great suffering and damage before a peace settlement. Since then the country has been led by a long-serving government and has remained one of the poorer states of the region.
Tajikistan has a population of around 10 million people, the great majority ethnic Tajiks, a Persian people whose language is a form of Persian, with Uzbek and other minorities. The population is young and fast-growing, and concentrated in the western valleys, above all in and around the capital, Dushanbe. Widespread poverty has driven a great many Tajiks to work abroad, especially in Russia, and the money they send home is a crucial support for the national economy.
