Western Pamir
More actions
| Western Pamir | |
|---|---|
| HistoricalGrown here in the past; no recent record either way | |
| Geography | |
| Country | Tajikistan |
| Province/State | Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region |
| Coordinates | 37.96, 71.90 |
| Landscape | |
| Area | 22,700 km² |
| Terrain | Valleys of the Panj and its right-bank tributaries the Vanj, Bartang, Gunt and Shakhdara; approximately Darvoz, Vanj, Rushon, Shughnon and Roshtqal'a districts |
| Climate | |
| Climate Type | Dry; fields irrigated from mountain streams |
| Growing history | |
| Grown | from 1916[1] |
| Earlier names | Darvaz, Rushan, Shugnan |
| Documentation | |
| Appellations | 0 |
| Accessions | 0 |
| Conservation | |
| Populations | none documented yet |
Western Pamir is a historical cannabis growing area in Tajikistan, in the valleys of the Panj and its right-bank tributaries in the west of Gorno-Badakhshan. Nikolai Vavilov, who travelled there in 1916, found hemp sown in some villages among the fields of cotton and along the fences to obtain hashish, in place of the opium poppy, which the Russian border guard had forbidden.[1]: 5, 7
Geography
Vavilov set the high plateau of the Pamirs, a desert-like mountain steppe with camps of nomadic Kyrgyz, apart from its western region, the valleys of the upper Panj and of the rivers flowing into it, the Gunt, Vanch, Bartang and Shakhdara, where farming people had found refuge since ancient times. In 1916 the area belonged to the Bukharan khanate and was divided into three rural districts, Darvaz, Rushan and Shugnan. Its valleys lay on average above 2,000 metres.[1]: 5 The villages stood on narrow terraces in small valleys and usually had four to seven houses. Their fields were often only a few square metres, walled with stones and watered through narrow ditches from mountain brooks.[1]: 11–12, 16 The people of Shugnan and Rushan differed in dialect from those of Darvaz, who spoke a purely Tajik language.[1]: 10
The area takes in the districts of Darvoz, Vanj, Rushon, Shughnon and Roshtqal'a, with the town of Khorog, about 22,700 km².
Farming
Vavilov grouped the crops of the valleys into three zones by altitude. Naked barley and peas reached highest, with spring wheat and rye. Millet and foxtail millet grew up to about 2,500 metres. The same zone held small plots of tobacco, which the people chewed, flax sown only for the oil of its seed, safflower for dye and oil, beans, vetchling and chickpeas. The lowest zone held much cotton, sesame for oil and many mulberry trees, whose dried fruit was eaten in place of bread; vines appeared from about 2,000 metres.[1]: 5–7
Hemp and opium
When the Danish explorer Ole Olufsen stayed at Kalai Vandsh, in Vanj, in early September 1896, poppies for opium grew in the gardens.[2]: 103–104 On his second expedition, in 1898–1899, he found opium smoked in the valleys from Vakhan to Shugnan: in Vakhan only by the poor, in Shugnan and Garan by all classes. Hemp was among the flowering plants generally found in the gardens; flowers, he wrote, served only to beautify the gardens.[3]: 120–121
Of the lowest zone Vavilov wrote:
In the Pamirs flax is not grown for the fibres, although there is no reason not to do so. There is also extremely little hemp. In some villages there are stands of hemp among the fields of cotton and along the fences. At first I thought that this hemp was used for twine. Later it became evident that the hemp was sown to obtain hashish, thus replacing here the cultivation of poppies, forbidden by the Russian border guard.— Nikolai Vavilov, Five Continents[1]: 7
Wild cannabis since 2000
Wild cannabis is found and destroyed in the Kuknor operations. In the 2014 operation officers of the Drug Control Agency found 3,123 wild plants in uncultivated fields at the village of Bun, in Shughnon district; experts classed them as Indian hemp.[4] In the same operation more than 14,000 wild plants were found and destroyed in Vanj district.[5] In the first stage of Kuknor-2021 wild cannabis was found on fallow land in Shughnon and Vanj districts.[6]: 32
Accessions
No accessions documented yet.
Recent news
No recent news items.
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 Vavilov, N. I. (1997). L. E. Rodin (ed.). Five Continents. Translated by Doris Löve; edited by Semyon Reznik and Paul Stapleton. Rome: International Plant Genetic Resources Institute. ISBN 92-9043-302-7 – via CGSpace.
- ↑ Olufsen, O. (1911). The Emir of Bokhara and his country: journeys and studies in Bokhara (with a chapter on my voyage on the Amu Darya to Khiva). Copenhagen: Gyldendal, Nordisk Forlag – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ Olufsen, O. (1904). Through the unknown Pamirs: the second Danish Pamir expedition, 1898–99. London: William Heinemann – via Internet Archive.
- ↑ Темурзода, М. (17 July 2014). "В Бадахшане уничтожено более 3-х тысяч кустов Индийской конопли". Ховар (in русский). Retrieved 20 October 2026.
- ↑ Темурзода, М. (8 August 2014). "В ГБАО проведены выездные заседания «Кукнор-2014»". Ховар (in русский). Retrieved 20 October 2026.
- ↑ Агентии назорати маводи нашъаовари назди Президенти Ҷумҳурии Тоҷикистон (2022). Шарҳи вазъи маводи нашъаовар дар Ҷумҳурии Тоҷикистон дар соли 2021 [Review of the drug situation in the Republic of Tajikistan in 2021] (PDF) (Report) (in тоҷикӣ and русский). Dushanbe. Retrieved 13 October 2026.