chapter IV. Cultures | Rena Effendi

chapter IV. Cultures

Women and men walking in circles on different layers of the mosque, praying around the shrine of holy man - Mir Movsum Aga. Mosque in Shuvelan. Azerbaijan 2006 From the Caspian all the way to the Mediterranean – the pipeline unites two seas passing through a multitude of cultures. Azerbaijanis, Georgians, Turks, Kurds, Alevi, Arabs, Armenians, Greeks, Christians, Shia and Sunni Muslims, fire worshippers, holidays of spring, days of sacrifice, calls for prayer and Easter offerings all fuse in a kaleidoscopic patchwork of ethnic, religious and cultural fabric of the region along the pipeline route.
Kurdish women at a Holiday of Spring celebration in Diyarbakir. Turkey. 2007
Sheep laid out for slaughter on Gurban Bayram (holy day of sacrifice) next to Mir Movsum Aga Mosque in Shuvelan. Azerbaijan 2006
Religious holiday service at the Sioni Cathedral Church. Tbilisi, Geogia. 2006
Service at the Jvari Monastery where two rivers – the Kura and the Aragvi meet. Mtskheta, the ancient capital of Georgia, located 25 km from Tbilisi, is the center of Georgia’s earliest Christian history. Here in the fourth century St. Nino, a female evangelist credited with converting the country to Christianity, erected a cross on Mtskheta’s highest peak. The Jvari Monastery was built on the same peak in 545 AD. Mtskheta. Georgia. 2006