Dutar - Herat Afghanistan - 1975

Three string dutar played by Nawroz Ali in Herat Afghanistan, 1975 Entering Afghanistan from Iran at Islam Qala in the late afternoon, after having our passports stamped, our bus didn't stop at the border check post to smoke charras (hashish) with the border guards, but drove through the dusty desert the couple of hours to Herat. Arriving in Herat, the road lead through the minarets of the ruins of the Gawhar Shad Madrasa and Mausoleum (built in the 15th century). They were just dark shapes in the dusty dark. The bus stopped in the courtyard of a small hotel, the Fazal Hotel, and I walked down several steps into a dimly lit room, to sit on a red patterned carpet at a low table against the wall, leaning on a carpet covered round bolster, to fill out the hotel's registration book. A tea pot of black tea was brought for me, and two glasses, one filled half full with white sugar, and a small plate of sugared almonds. The dim light flickered up and down due to the fact that the electricity in Herat was supplied by a generator. In an alcove in the two foot thick wall was a long necked, three-stringed musical instrument... a dutar, similar to a Turkish saz. After doing the registration formalities, I left my bag in the "office" and went for a short walk down the street. It was early September and a warm sultry breeze was blowing off the desert, the bright twinkling stars of the Milky Way stretching from horizon to horizon. There were very few lights in Herat. When I returned to the hotel there was a tall Afghan man, with a billowy white turban with a long tail, drinking tea from a tea pot. He poured some sugar from a glass into an empty glass, filled it with black tea, and offered it to me. That was my first meeting with Nawroz Ali, with whom I could speak very little as of yet. His language was Farsi, and I had just picked up a month's worth in Iran. Over the ensuing months we became fast friends. He took the dutar down from the alcove and started to play. The music swelled up and down in resonating crescendos, which seemed to match the surges of the dim yellowish incandescent light, the sound echoing in the thick walled room, and the hypnotic rhythms clicked as the plectrum played across the sound board. Photos from Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, and more https://www.pbase.com/noorkhan

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