Join the Cattle Drive Tusheti Georgia 2006

Descending to Kakheti from Tusheti

In September 2006 we again go on the Cattle drive with Tushetian herders and their sheep, horses and dogs over the Greater Caucasus Range in Georgia. Join this outstanding adventure journey with Kaukasus-Reisen, further details here

Some facts on Tusheti

Some information on the location, the flora and fauna of Tusheti can be found at a site of the Georgian Parliament here.


On 2900 m in Tusheti

Tushetian Faces

Murtazi and his wife, Tchesho


4 Tushs and 1 German


Father and son, Hegho


Giorgi


Dog


Natia


Kamaz-Driver


Boy with his donkey, Girevi


Sasa


Dog


Grandmother, Zemo Alvani


Gogita


Maja with Reso


Kacha with horse near Omalo


Horse, Girevi


Boy, Girevi


Mother and son Dato, Zemo Alvani


Mother Nino and son

The Bats

Until the middle of the 19th century, the Bats lived in Tushetia, the mountain region of Northwest Georgia. The Tsova Gorge in Tushetia was inhabited by four Bats communities: the Sagirta, Otelta, Mozarta and Indurta. Later they settled on the Kakhetia Plain, in the village of Zemo-Alvani, where they still live. Administratively they are part of the Akhmeta district of Georgia. There are some families of Bats in Tbilisi and other bigger towns in Georgia.
Bats belongs to the Nakh family of Caucasian languages. Most speakers of Bats live in the village of Zemo-Alvani, on the Kakhetia Plain, in the Akhmeta district of Georgia. There are some families of Bats in Tbilisi and other bigger towns in Georgia.

Bats, or Batsi, Batsbi, Batsb, Batsaw, is the language of the Bats people, a Caucasian minority group, and is part of the Nakh family of Caucasian languages. It had 2,500 to 3,000 speakers in 1975. There is only one dialect. It exists only as a spoken language, as the Bats people use Georgian as their written language. The language is not mutually intelligible with either Chechen or Ingush, the other two members of the Nakh family.

See the whole Article at Wikipedia here

Pridon Beroshvilis Images from Tusheti

I am very proud to show some of Pridons impressive photographs from Tusheti, ununsual images from for me unknown Tushetian areas. Pridon lives in Tbilisi and is married to his wife from Tusheti. It seems, that we have some common friends from Gergeti and Tusheti. I am looking forward to a meeting with Pridon in Tbilisi in the following weeks.


Photo by Pridon Beroshvili, Tbilisi, Georgia



Photo by Pridon Beroshvili, Tbilisi, Georgia



Photo by Pridon Beroshvili, Tbilisi, Georgia



Photo by Pridon Beroshvili, Tbilisi, Georgia

Pridon, it would be very kind, if you could write a comment on those images.

Impressions from the Caucasus/ Tusheti

Yes, we came back, after 5 days heavy wodka-drinking in the Tushetian Mountains. And the hospitality of our hosts Gogita and Sopho in Cesho was great. We come back in the End of September for the Cattle Drive back from the Mountains. Here are some images:



A road



A landscape



Me at the pass



Mountainview



A village in Tusheti- Dartlo



A fisher- Bidsina Tsadsikidze



2 Brown trouts for dinner



A Georgian Picknik



A cleaning bath



Way home...


See more on the Caucasus at my Kaukasusblog

View on the Pirikitis Alazani, the Village far in the background must be Dano 

Location of the Tushetian Highland in Georgia 

We in Tusheti in 1998 

Tushetian shepherders I met, but this was in 1998 

Kallta, A Tushetian dog, age 1 year, female 

Tusheti- What is Tusheti ?

Tusheti
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.


Tusheti (sometimes spelled as Tushetia in Russian and European resources) is a small historic geographic area in Eastern Georgia. Located on the Northern slopes of the Greater Caucasus Mountains, it is bordered by the Russian republics of Chechnya and Dagestan to the north and east, respectively; and by the Georgian historic provinces Kakheti and Pshav-Khevsureti to the south and west, respectively. The population of the area is mainly ethnic Georgians called Tushs or Tushetians (Georgian: tushebi). Historically, Tusheti comprised 4 mountainous communities of the Alazani Valley. These are Tsova, Gometzari, Chaghma and the Piriq’iti Tusheti (formerly known as Pharsman's Tusheti). Included in the present day Akhmeta raioni, Kakheti region, Georgia, the area comprises ten villages with Omalo being the largest. The first who inhabited the province were the pagan Georgians from Pkhovi who took refuge in the uninhabited mountains during their rebellion against Christianization implemented by the Iberian king Mirian III in the 330s. Subsequently, they were forcibly converted to Christianity and subdued by the Georgian kings. After the collapse of the unified Georgian monarchy, Tusheti came under the rule of Kakhetian kings in the 15th century. In the 16th century, the North Caucasian Bats people (relatives of the Chechens and Ingushes) began settling in the Tsova Gorge of Tusheti. King Levan of Kakheti (1520-1574) granted them the lands in the Alvani Valley in exchange for their military service. Known to the local Georgians as the Tsova-Tushs, they have a high degree of assimilation and are typically bilingual using both Georgian and their own Bats languages. Nowadays, the latter is spoken only in a village Zemo Alvani. Traditionally, the Tushs are sheep herders. Tushetian Gouda cheese and high quality wool was famous and was exported to Europe and Russia. Even today sheep and cattle breeding is the leading branch of the economy of highland Tusheti. The local shepherds spend the summer months in the highland areas of Tusheti but live in the lowland villages of Zemo Alvani and Kvemo Alvani in wintertime. Their customs and traditions are similar to those of other eastern Georgian mountaineers (see Khevsureti). One of the most ecologically unspoiled regions in the Caucasus, Tusheti is a popular place of mountain trekking.