Countries Archives: Georgia

The Caucasus for Kids — Georgian Supra — All Around This World

Georgians gather at a feast called a Supra where they sit around a long, wooden table, eat voluminously, make toasts to long life and the Georgian nation, and sing sing sing.

There is traditionally a toastmaster and 2nd toaster who interplay throughout the meal, which might include khachapuri (cheese-filled bread), mtsvadi (grilled pork or veal on a stick), limonati (a lemon, pear or tarragon drink) and khinkali (meat dumplings). Georgia’s most distinct musical form is called the “table song,” a polyphonic/many-voiced form of music sung without instruments.

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Georgia–Music

Georgia‘s most distinct musical form is called the table song, a polyphonic/many-voiced form of music sung without instruments (and, most traditionally, without women). Georgian men, and nowadays, sometimes women, gather at a feast called a supra and sing sing sing, making toasts while sitting around a long, wooden table, to long life, to the Georgian nation, to God, to love…. Most table songs, especially those from the Kakheti region of Eastern Georgia, feature a simple “bass drone,” which is a single low note that sets the foundational tone for the piece that’s and at least two soloists singing intertwining melodies. (Watch to the Rustavi choir perform a Kakhetian table song, minus the table,
called “Chakrulo,” a piece of music NASA chose to accompany the journey of the Voyager space mission in 1977.) If you go to a supra you may also hear a popular traditional song like “Zamtari,” which celebrates both the winter and the ancestors, or a Christian hymn such as “Mravalzhamier.” Listen to this version if you want to hear actual Georgians
sing around an actual table. (In class we’re going to simulate a traditional Georgian supra.)

More ancient Georgian music:
Wikipedia on the music of Georgia | More about table songs and the Rustavi Choir | More men. Another table. | Even more men. Another table. This time, a guitar.

The Southern Caucasus–Music

The music of the Southern Caucasus has its roots in two thousand years of cultural, ethnic and religious struggle, its mere survival a testament to the persistence and communal strength of Georgian, Azeri and Armenian people. While contemporary musicians from the Caucasus readily embrace global genres, especially those who live in emigrant communities in America and Europe, artists who perform the region’s traditional music know that when they’re passing their ancient music to a new generation, they’re doing much more than just singing songs.

The Southern Caucasus–Language

One one hand, sharing a language can do more than almost anything else to unite a group of people. When you speak a certain language, those in your community not only understand your words, but in many cases you are able to share nuances of history and culture that exist, unspoken, beneath. On the other hand, those who don’t speak the same language…? You may be able to communicate through nods and smiles, but you’ll be much less inclined to break bread. Each of the three countries in the Southern Caucasus has its own language, a common tongue that allows members of the primary ethnic group that dominates the nation to understand one another and build between each other the strongest of bonds. At the same time, the language of each nation in the Caucasus is not a tongue that others in the region can understand. If you’re from Azerbaijan and speak Azeri, go too far along the winding mountain road and you’ll end
up in Georgia, where you may well have to get by on hand gestures and goodwill.

The Southern Caucasus–Travel

LonelyPlanet.com is pretty darned sure you’ll have an enriching travel experience in the Southern Caucasus. Stay away from the areas in active conflict, maintain a good sense of humor and an open mind, and each of the three nations in the Southern Caucases will offer different pleasures. In Azerbaijan you’ll no doubt visit Baku, an oil-rich, Western-paced boomtown layered upon “a picturesque Unesco-listed ancient core.” At the same time, while its rural “rest-zones” are mainly built to accommodate locals, a creative and persistent traveler who leaves Baku will find culturally satisfying fun. (If you want a real adventure, and there doesn’t happen to be an active war, venture to functionally inaccessible Nagorno-Karabakh.) Georgia is “outrageously beautiful” and charms a traveler with its ancient cathedrals and mountain views. If you want to go to Armenia–and if you’re in the neighborhood anyway, why not drop by?–and you can
shear yourself away from the overdeveloped tourist infrastructure that caters to diaspora Armenians on a visit to their homeland, you’ll find Armenians to be “gracious, humble and easygoing people,” who will invite you to dinner, then toast you, feed you and revel in your company until you emerge from the evening lifelong friends.

The Southern Caucasus–Images

Visitors to the Southern Caucasus who post their photos on flickr.com seem to love buildings. There are apparently buildings in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi, in the Azeri capital of Baku and even, if you can believe such a thing, in the Armenian city of Yerevan. Okay, on Flickr you’ll also find thousands upon thousands of exciting images of Azerbaijan, Georgia (search for “Tiblisi” so you don’t get pictures of the Real Housewives of Atlanta), and Armenia that turn the lens on everything from Azerbaijanis dancing the dilşadi to Armenians deep in prayer.

Still, if you want a local’s view of you may have take to the photoblogs. For example, David Chabashvili’s “LuxFabrica”, found in the Georgian section of CoolPhotoBlogs.com, will introduce you to a Georgia that’s nation full of both natural and manmade wonders. Tbilisi-based photoblogger Fiqros Furclebi’s work runs the gamut from colorful closeups of Georgian flowers to spare black and white images of rural life. Furclebi’s accompanying text is in Georgian, but when the photo is of a face like this, what else needs to be said? Want to see a photoblog that grants you a sneak peek into the daily life of Armenia? Photoblogs.am gives you 20 of them. Especially check out the work of Dr. Hovulik and Dr. Harout Tanielian, both of who take frequent breaks from doctoring to snap photos of both the Armenian landscape and the vibrant faces of its people.

Georgia

Unlike Azerbaijan, Georgia is a majority Christian nation and has been since the 4th Century. Georgians fought Mongols, Persians and Turks to keep their Georgian Kingdom independent for many centuries before succumbing to the Russians in the 1700s. Georgia was still under Russian rule when the Empire collapsed after World War I. Georgia joined and then left the Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic, fell beneath Soviet control until the USSR collapsed in 1991. Unfortunately, also like Azerbaijan, Georgia also stepped out of the USSR and into turmoil.

Georgia‘s post-independence turmoil took the form of a military coup and then a civil war. In 1995 former Georgian Communist leader Eduard Shevardnadze emerged as the elected president of the nation. At about the same time, two regions of Georgia, Abkhazia and South Ossetia, found Russian support for their declarations of independence. (The Abkhaz people are a non-Georgian ethnic group whose primary language is Abkhaz. The Ossetians are a non-Georgian ethnic group whose primary language is Ossetian.) During the subsequent many years of conflict Abkhazian and Ossetian separatists expelled hundreds of thousands of Georgians, while thousands of Abkhaz and Ossetian families also abandoned their lands and fled to Russia.

In 2003 Georgians deposed Eduard Shevardnadze in the completely non-violent “Rose Revolution,” replacing him with the generally pro-NATO, pro-USA Mikheil Saakashvili. (Observers both within and outside the region accuse the U.S. and Georgian non-governmental organizations with support from the West of orchestrating the Revolution.) Saakashvili’s government launched a series of reforms that strengthened the country’s economy and ushered in a period of stability and growth. Fortunately or not, by 2008 Georgia had enough confidence to battle the Russians again in Abkhazia and South Ossetia. (Which side started restarted the conflicts in 2008? It’s complicated.) After some harsh fighting the warring nations and ethnic groups signed a ceasefire, though, yet again, without finding a way to lasting peace. Today Russia recognizes Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent nations and keeps troops there; Georgia still officially considers Abkhazia and South Ossetia as part of Georgia. What will happen next…? No one knows. (Even The Economist asks, “Can’t We All Just Get Along?”)

The Southern Caucasus–History

The very first question we should ask ourselves before we consider the Southern Caucasus in our West Asia/Middle Eastern session is whether three countries really are part of Western Asia at all. As you’ll see from the several hundred comments on this About.com page in response to that question (most of which are respectful and able to be shared with kids, but be aware, some are not), there is certainly room for debate. Most often geographers cite the Caucasus as a boundary between Europe and Asia, with land north of the mountains being European and below it Asian. Azerbaijan, Georgia and Armenia are mainly in the mountains…but they’re on the southern side of the Caucasus, below the highest peaks. Which would mean they’re in Asia, right? Or is the Southern Caucasus still the Caucasus and therefore on the line…? The three countries in question
boast many cultural and religious ties to Europe–for example, Georgian and Armenian
citizens are primarily Christian–and there is much to the argument that primary elements of the nations’ economies are similar to those in place in Europe, not to mention the countries want to join the European Union…but does shared culture and even desire to be part of a continent make that inclusion so?

All Around This World doesn’t have any interest in taking sides. Still, for our purposes we’re including Azerbaijan, Georgia and Armenia in West Asia so we can focus on them a bit more than would have been been possible if we tried to lump them into our session on Eastern Europe. If you’re Azeri, Georgian or Armenian and you also you’re also firmly European…right on!

Now that we’ve made that call, let’s get on with it….

If you’re shopping for a place to locate your small country you may very well consider plunking it down in picturesque mountains, or next to a bountiful sea, or, if you have the chance, both. If you’re particularly crafty, you’ll also place your country above a massive pool of oil, or at least right in between oil fields and hundreds of millions of people who want to use it. Of course to keep your claim on such prime real estate you may have to face some challenges, perhaps deal with some raucous neighbors…but really, who doesn’t?

Azerbaijan, Georgia and Armenia are located in just that kind of neighborhood, way up in the Caucasus mountains between the Black and Caspian Seas. In many ways, that’s not a bad place to be. (Azerbaijan is the one with the oil. Lucky Azerbaijan…?) On the other hand, the “raucous neighbors” in question were historically three of the world’s most powerful (and most-prone-to-conquer) empires: the Persians, the Ottomans and the Russians. Each nation of the Caucasus has spent centuries under Persian, Ottoman and/or Russian rule. Even so, the countries of the South Caucasus are now independent and the Persian, Ottoman and, to a lesser extent, the Russian Empires are a thing of
the past. With the many difficult times these nations have faced because of their location, is holding on to one’s homeland worth the struggle? Read through the below and you’ can be the judge.

Each of the three nations of the Southern Caucasus has its own language, its own culture and its own history. Each also has its own long list of historic struggles, and each has had to face them and press ahead in its own unique way. The three have often had the inclination to unite–first in an unsuccessful attempt after World War I to form the Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic, then, within the USSR, as part of the Transcaucasian Federation, which disbanded in 1936–but unfortunately, as of late, each of these little countries has also had a hard time getting along with each other.