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The Silk Road
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TravelTranscript
00:02as a reporter I've traveled the Middle East for many years it's an area that
00:07has always fascinated me but in my work I've mainly covered its war zones its
00:11crises and its tragedies this journey which takes me down the Silk Road in the
00:15footsteps of Marco Polo gives me the opportunity of exploring the great
00:19historical and cultural significance of this part of the world it's ancient
00:23melting pot of peoples and civilizations that have contributed so much to our own
00:50my journey through Iran takes me next to Kazvin which was once a major stop on
00:55the caravan route a city of 400,000 inhabitants nestled in the foothills
00:59of the spectacular El Boz mountain range Kazvin marks the entrance to the lands
01:04historically associated with Persia in contrast to the Kurdish and Azeri regions
01:09to the west and north of present-day Iran
01:25the more you discover about this country the more you realize that there's an
01:28ongoing conversation between the Iran of today and the Persia of the past so much
01:33so that you sometimes get the feeling that you're actually treading in the footsteps of
01:36the merchants who traveled the Silk Road
01:41Kazvin was easier to defend than Tabriz and it became the capital of the Empire under the
01:45dynasty of the Safavid Shars in the 16th century this was the last century of prosperity for trade on the
01:51Silk Road
02:20before the maritime routes took over
02:22the hot air goes out while the cold air circulates at ground level
02:24in here the temperature is quite pleasant
02:30one of the things that strikes me the most about Iranians is that they have a
02:33deeply ingrained love of culture it's obvious that culture plays a very
02:37important role in their lives and not only among the elite anyone will be happy to
02:41tell you about the great events in Persian history the great poets the great
02:45builders and the journalists at if a Husseini is no exception to the rule she
02:49works for the local newspaper in Kazvin and certainly has a lot to say look out
02:56on the high was a caravanser I actually more like a hotel or a bazaar a group of
03:00shops and I got boutique had both of them together this place was on the Silk Road as
03:07you know and many people stopped here since they needed somewhere to stay there
03:12were places in which they could be housed something like today's hotel rooms but
03:16and at the same time it was useful for the people of Kazvin this place was like a
03:21bazaar like a market for them in other words they could come and sell their
03:25products to the people who are staying here and so it also had an economic
03:28function you're very passionate about the Silk Road but is it something that
03:33interests young Iranians nowadays at the beginning of the 21st century
03:38my interest in the Silk Road comes from my love of Iranian history of the past of
03:43the ancient culture of this country we can't say that all Iranians are
03:47knowledgeable about the history of their country but the number of people for
03:51whom it is important who do research and who have a lot of knowledge about our
03:54history is really quite high the truth is that in most cities in Iran history is
03:59alive and you can't say that those cities don't have any identity this caravanser
04:07eyes like a palace which tells us that Kazvin was once a major capital but now in
04:11comparison to other cities in Iran it's quite small with 500,000 inhabitants so
04:16other a lot of cultural activities for you to cover as a journalist here in this
04:22city there are a lot of people from different backgrounds so you have a whole
04:26variety of cultures here and that gives you a lot to write about that's one of
04:31my favorite subjects and I'd like to delve into it more later on to make social
04:35documentaries the last article I wrote was about women and the economic crisis it
04:40was called living on a mine it was about women who have to beg in the streets and
04:45how to find solutions to help them stop because if it's painful to beg it's even
04:49worse for women without doubt the history of their country matters a lot to
04:55Iranians and in particular the history of jadea abrisham the Silk Road a little
04:59further on as we meander through the bazaar I find out that the city of Kazvin has
05:04even created a special Silk Road office and appointed an international
05:08representative to handle the subject I'm very surprised to see that Iran has an
05:13office dedicated to the Silk Road when did you set it up and why about ten years ago an NGO
05:23called WCO the world citizens organization decided to start up a
05:28discussion in Korea between the mayors of cities located on the Silk Road their
05:36aim was to reconstruct the Silk Road not physically but as a functional and
05:41cultural entity if one considers its origins the Silk Road is a route one
05:48might say a space that connects different cultures and traditions
05:57the 11th summit was held from the 2nd to the 5th of September 2016 in the city of
06:02Kazvin it brought together the mayors of 200 cities in 67 countries around the
06:08world from Southeast Asia to Western Europe
06:11that's the embargo's over shape
06:14love you say that there are 67 countries on the Silk Road committee but what I
06:18don't understand is that from Turkey to China there aren't in fact 67 countries
06:22who are the members of your organization is you I'm all hope you're right there
06:28aren't 67 countries along the Silk Road and even all of the cities in our own
06:33country Iran are not actually on the Silk Road in reality it's become a pretext for
06:37creating a connection between different peoples and different cities and it's
06:41based on mutual respect between the peoples and traditions that exist in all of
06:45these countries
06:48in short this project launched by the WCO or world citizens organization is a
06:52little vague but what is interesting is how proud certain countries especially
06:56Iran and China have become of their historical ties to the Silk Road traveling from
07:01Kazvin one heads into the El Burz Mountains a vast chain of peaks rising to
07:05over 5,671 meters at Mount Damavand north of Tehran for a long time these
07:12mountains were a favorite hideout for bandits and caravan looters but they
07:15weren't the only ones here for several centuries these remote valleys also
07:19provided shelter for a sect known as the Nizaris who in the 10th century broke away
07:23from the Ismailis who themselves were an offshoot of Shia Islam as Muslims they
07:29were thus a minority within a minority a group that was often persecuted
07:57this is an amazing sight it's just spectacular we're over 2,000 meters above sea level it's like an eagle's
08:02nest
08:03this place is called Alamut it's the fortress of the old man on the mountain
08:07Hassan yes about the founder of this smiley sect known as the hashish in you
08:11they were called hashish in because they grew hashish which Hassan Isaba would give
08:16to his young recruits to smoke he'd have to spend a few days in a beautiful garden
08:21meet virgin girls etc yeah he made them believe they were in paradise then he take
08:26the hashish away the guys were in withdrawal they were junkies they need
08:30say go kill one of my enemies for me it might be a Muslim emir or one of the
08:35leaders of the Crusades after you murder him you'll go straight to heaven you'll be
08:39killed right away but you'll go and live in paradise and since the guys wanted to
08:44get their drugs back to return to that heavenly garden be with those girls again
08:47they would go and do it so that's how they got the name hashish in smoker of hashish
08:54which is the word assassin comes from basically Hassan Isaba invented suicide bombing
09:05a wonderful novel by Amin Malouf tells the story of the friendship between the old man on the mountain and
09:11many the prophet of Manichaean dualism and the great mystic poet Omar Khayyam it's
09:16called the gardens of light I read it as a teenager since then I've always
09:20dreamed of visiting Alamut or at least what is left of it
09:34the solitude of the Elburs mountains will soon give way to the noise and crowds
09:38of Tehran the Iranian capital with its skyscrapers and monstrous traffic jams
09:46Tehran is built on the southern slopes of the Elburs mountains at 1300 meters above sea level from the
09:52top of the city you can hop onto a chairlift that will take you straight up to the ski slopes
09:55this
09:57may be the only capital in the world that turns into a ski resort during the winter season Tehran is
10:03a city that has mushroomed in the last 25 years tripling in size to nearly 15 million
10:08people if you look behind me you'll see how spread out it is it's now 50 kilometers wide and 30
10:13kilometers
10:13long hardly the small provincial town that travelers used to come across on the old Silk Road
10:22this flourishing mega city also testifies to the extraordinary flair for business and trade that
10:26the Persians and then the Iranians have always had they dominated the Silk Road very early on and
10:31controlled the routes from India and China to present-day Turkey and Europe
10:38what is perhaps the most surprising thing about Tehran is the contrast between the two Irans
10:43one which is rather hidebound the Islamic Republic with its huge portraits of the Ayatollah Khomeini and its slogans
10:49against America the great Satan and the other a country of young people a capital in full economic boom
10:56impatiently waiting for the sanctions connected with the nuclear conflict to be lifted
11:07Iran is constantly navigating between these paradigms like these women who are playing sports in
11:12sweatsuits while also wearing the mandatory hijab or those couples who are flirting discreetly in spite of
11:20the ban imposed by the religious police this is Lali Park one of the big parks in Central Tehran a
11:27lush oasis in
11:28the midst of this gargantuan metropolis and a favorite hangout for the local chess players
11:47from what I can see they're very good players which is quite logical since this is in fact the
11:52homeland of chess the first historical reference to the game they call chat range which is an Arabic
11:57word I'm was in Iran or rather in Persia in 600 B.C.
12:07There are several theories about where the game comes from nowadays most people agree that it originated in India
12:14it was formalized and popularized in Iran then it was brought to Spain by the Arabs around the 10th century
12:19that's how Europeans were introduced to this game and they developed a passion for it during the Middle Ages
12:28according to the legend in the 6th century an Indian ambassador brought the game of four kings or
12:33chat range to the court of Koshro the first the emperor or Shah of Persia in order to test his
12:38intelligence
12:39in reality the game probably circulated among the nomadic peoples of Central Asia before it arrived in Persia via the
12:46trade routes and the same nomads would
12:48later bring it with them to the Arabian Peninsula in fact Ali was married to Fatima the prophet Mohammed's daughter
12:55was an avid chess player
12:58from Arabia the game traveled by the Arab conquest to Andalusia and from there it spread to the rest of
13:03Europe in the Middle Ages
13:07so the game they play here called chat range is basically the same as the chess that's played in Europe
13:13but the terms they use are either Indian or Iranian so the king is well the king the queen is
13:20not a lady in Iran but the vizier the minister
13:23and it's not the bishop here but rather the elephant beyond that however the way the pieces are moved is
13:29the same as in the western version
13:32in the Arab regions the game of chess was soon banned by purist muslim theologians based on the Quranic precept
13:38that the use of figurines representing the human form is impious the pieces thus took on a form that is
13:45usually abstract
13:46and identifiable via its designs in Persia on the other hand the pieces often kept their figurative shape
13:52such as for example the horse
14:03but my level is uh
14:07he's asking do you know the
14:09the
14:09the
14:09the
14:22the
14:23the
14:23the
14:23the
14:23the
14:29the
14:33Chess belongs to the traditional Indo-Oriental roots of Persia.
14:37But the Iran of today is not at all a monolithic block.
14:40There's an intermingling of influences from the East as well as from the West.
14:44The traditions of the past encounter the new trends embraced by the younger generation,
14:48which often yearns for a more modern, more open society.
14:51Slim jeans, bandanas, an electro-remix by Pink Floyd blasting in the background,
14:56Iranian youth are thoroughly imbued with American culture.
15:00In the end, the Silk Road was just as much about exchanges between cultures
15:04as it was between trade and commerce.
15:06And here in Tehran, we can see that those cultural exchanges are still going on today,
15:10although it's no longer on the backs of Bactrian camels, but on the back of the Internet.
15:15For example, around us in a skate park, we can see the influence of American culture.
15:19It may seem a little paradoxical, since America officially remains the great Satan
15:23in the eyes of the Shiite clerics who rule the country,
15:25but this skate park is perfectly legal.
15:29Hi, Mickey.
15:30So, how old are you and how long have you been skateboarding?
15:33I'm 19 years old and I'm skating for like six years, six years and a half.
15:39How long have people been skateboarding in Iran?
15:42Around 20 years, 15 years.
15:45You know, it's in progress.
15:47People are skating more than ever, you know.
15:50But when people began skating 20 years ago, that was when Iran was still very isolated
15:54and above all from the United States.
15:57Skateboarding is totally American, so how do you deal with that contradiction?
16:01You know, skateboarding is not, it's a way of life, you know.
16:05You know, we don't combine together, to combine them together, you know.
16:09When you skate, you know, when you skate with an American skater,
16:13you don't see, you know, things in between, you know.
16:17You just call that guy your brother.
16:29You know, people always ask us, you know, what's like that to be, you know, skating,
16:36you know, the American sport in Iran.
16:39I mean, actually, it's a fight between them, I don't know.
16:43But, you know, we call each other brothers, you know, and that's good.
16:48You know, we don't think where you're from, how you look, you know, we just escape.
16:55You say it's not the look that counts, but from what I can see,
16:57the look seems to be a big thing.
16:59Everyone's wearing slim jeans, bandanas on their heads, hip t-shirts.
17:02So what's going on?
17:03You know, it's because of what they listen to in music, you know.
17:07They listen to hip-hop, some of them listen to, like, metal or something like that.
17:14So, I know what you mean.
17:17But it's, you know, everybody's, everybody has a different, you know, style.
17:22But, you know, when we speak, we have the same thing to talk about.
17:27You know, people are more coming, you know, kids, you know, like, eight years old,
17:34nine years old, they are skating.
17:36You know, it's in progress.
17:38How much time do you spend skateboarding and what do you like about this sport?
17:41Why are you so hooked on it?
17:43I skate, like, four hours a day, you know, after work, you know, after university.
17:51And, you know, skateboarding is way different than what people think, you know.
17:57They think that it's just a hobby.
17:59But no, it's like, you know, it changes a lot of things in my life, you know.
18:04My behavior, you know, my attitude, and, you know, the way I dress, the way I, I mean, you know,
18:13clothes on.
18:14It's hard to explain, you know.
18:15It's like you are free when you skate.
18:18You don't have to think about tomorrow.
18:20You don't have to think about the past.
18:22You just skate and, you know, you are happy.
18:26You actually are happy, you know what I'm saying.
18:28And that's it.
18:29It's the best thing that ever happened.
18:33Motoristic get on.
18:39Right next to the skate park is the Tabiat Bridge, the nature bridge in Persian.
18:43The concept is more or less the same, a bold display of modernity with a stamp of approval from the
18:48Iranian authorities.
18:50This suspension bridge right in the heart of Tehran is quite astonishing,
18:53especially since it was designed by a young female architect.
18:56As you walk along this new bridge of size, you'll notice that here in the Iranian capital,
19:01the young women are extremely made up, often to the point of using plastic surgery.
19:06Moreover, they have a very minimalist approach to wearing the headscarf imposed by the regime.
19:10Circumventing social mores is a subtle art practiced by today's young couples,
19:14who indulge in the delights of flirting on this bridge.
19:18The Iranian name for polo is shogan, which means mallet.
19:23According to the legend, Alexander the Great received a ball and a mallet from Darius,
19:27the king of Persia, which basically meant,
19:30you're just a kid, keep playing.
19:34Alexander is said to have told him,
19:36you see this ball?
19:37Well, it's the earth, and this mallet is me.
19:41Which shows what he thought of himself.
19:43But in fact, as history would prove, he knew what he wanted and he went after it.
19:50Considered an aristocratic sport, polo was banned by the Ayatollah Khomeini after the 1979 revolution
19:55that brought about the fall of the Shah Reza Pallavi.
19:58Ten years later, however, polo was rehabilitated because of its significance for the country's cultural history.
20:07Amir Ali Zulfighari is a big fan of polo.
20:10How many horses are needed to play in a polo match?
20:12You need at least four, four ponies, four horses, polo ponies,
20:20because you're not supposed to repeat in a match more than twice,
20:25depending on the number of chakras or periods in a match.
20:29Normally, in the lower levels of polo, with four is enough.
20:34As you go to a higher level of matches, you might need up to ten, each player.
20:40Yeah, you need plenty.
20:47I'm not really going to play, huh?
20:49It's okay.
20:50So in fact, polo was invented by the Scythians,
20:53a nomadic people who roamed the northern part of Iran.
20:58The emperor of Persia made them his cavalry.
21:01And in fact, we can see why, because polo is actually an excellent way of training.
21:06It was adopted by the cavalry.
21:09It's like a way of training for the battle before the real match.
21:30The Chinese believed that these horses came from the Fagana Valley, which is now in Uzbekistan.
21:35In fact, the Persian dealers traded for them on farms throughout all of Central Asia and present-day Iran.
21:44The polo ponies nowadays is a mixed race, special race.
21:50In the higher level of polo, the thoroughbred, English thoroughbred race is used, the same as a racehorse.
21:55And we use the Turkmen horse mixed with the thoroughbred, the Turkmen horse mixed with the Arab or with the
22:02Kurdish horse as well.
22:04It's used a lot.
22:05And they do very well.
22:09The mare that I rode, Little Bird, is a good example of this.
22:12At the slightest pull on the reins, she twirls around and she can even stop in full gallop.
22:38Now it's time to leave Tehran, this time by train, to get to the city of Kashan.
22:43We'll be crossing a part of Dasht el-Kavir, the big salt desert.
23:17We'll be crossing a part of Dasht el-Kavir.
23:19We'll be crossing a part of Dasht el-Kavir.
23:35We'll be crossing a part of Dasht el-Kavir.
23:36We'll be crossing a part of Dasht el-Kavir.
23:37We'll be crossing a part of Dasht el-Kavir.
23:45We'll be crossing a part of Dasht el-Kavir.
23:58Dasht el-Kavir.
23:58We'll be crossing a part of Dasht el-Kavir.
24:02We'll be crossing a part of Dasht el-Kavir.
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