The exposed Works

China. Eastern Turkestan. 1995 Near Karakul Lake, at over 11,800 ft, the summits of the Pamir, the "roof of the world", tower above the landscape with their 23,000 ft peaks. We are at the heart of the Tajik country, in the Province of Tashgurkan, accessible by only one road. Protected by their isolation, the Tajiks try to preserve their culture, their tradition and their language despite the Chinese invasion. The only native Persian-speaking people in Eastern Turkestan (Xinjiang in Chinese), the Tajiks are free to speak their language but elementary school students are required to learn Uigur, a language of Turkish origin. In Tashgurkan, I discovered the plain of Mazar, its village and its pastures. I met the intensity of her eyes. On the heights of the world, her ancestors built their den. On that land, they unrolled a similar parchment now in possession of their descendants, the parchment of life. With the passing of centuries, theirs bodies have blended with the earth they walked upon as they lived. On the heights of the world she was born, she grew up, loved, worked, gave birth, and was buried. As the evening settles by the wavering candlelight, the child gets near her, all so gently. He puts his little fingers on her face scouring the so beautiful furrows dug by her history.