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