Eggs Laid by Tigers

Tajiks make up 30% of Afghanistan's population, so their contribution to any possible settlement matters.

Here is a map of Tajikistan. It is no more oddly shaped than, say, Michigan, but it owes its shape in part to what the British, when they had an Empire, called The Great Game, about which more later. Note the narrow neck of Afghanistan that prevents Tajikistan from physical contact with Pakistan. A British creation, of course.

Uighur territory borders Tajikistan on the east. Chitral and Swat are in the Hindu Kush mountains just below the Afghan neck.

This is the decoration of a teahouse in Dushnbe, showing the county's Persian heritage.

The artist intended these two images to be viewed side by side, as one work, but I'm not clever enough to compel the computer to produce that result. Dada? In Tajikistan?

I'm told that the cities are clean and the teahouses excellent. Let's go!

This unprepossessing city is said to be chock full of universities and hospitals: sorta like St. Louis.