IRAN--Miniaturist Paintings

Iran is famous for its miniaturist paintings. All this began about 1000 years BC when small murals were painted in the palaces and special buildings. In the 13th century, when the Mongols began to arrive from the East, they brought paintings with them from China. These paintings highly influenced the Persia artists who enjoyed using the dragons, clothing styles and landscapes that they saw in the Chinese art.




The Persians did move on to techniques of layering the paint which developed a three dimensional affect that hadn’t been seen before.

By this time the main use of the miniaturist paintings was for illustrations in books. The paintings not only made the book more enjoyable but sometimes easier to understand.




One of the great miniaturist painters, Ferdowsi, who lived in the 10th century wrote a lengthy illustrated history book of Persia for the king. Instead of prose he used poetry. The book contains 55 illustrations and is the longest epic poem ever written by one person. And, it only took 33 years for him to tell the story from creation to when the Arabs conquest happened in the 7th century. Regretfully the king was not as impressed as later scholars and artists have been.




Today, not only are books illustrated, but many paintings are done on camel bone. These paintings lean heavily to landscapes but also include portraits, whimsical portrayals and calligraphy.




We had the pleasure to visit a miniaturist’s home/studio where he demonstrated his use of a cat hair brush to quickly do a small portrait. Later we went to his store and spent nearly an hour just enjoying his works. Did we buy one? Of course……..

Remember that you can click the picture to enlarge it.

* The illustrations were all taken at the miniaturist's home that we visited and only tie into the last two paragraphs.

IRAN--Bazaars

Although Iran has a fair amount of modern shopping centers in their larger cities, the bazaar seems to be where the real action is. Bazaars have been the center of commerce for as long as the Middle Eastern cities/towns/villages have been in existence. Some are in actual buildings while others are just spread out in an open space. Some are designated for special things….such as a spice market….but most will sell a very wide variety of items.



One thing that surprised us was the party dresses/fabric that were available. There must be a real market for them as there were many offerings of the bright, shiny, sequined dresses. The Iranian women, even though they must cover from head to toe in public, can wear anything they like in the privacy of their home. If you don’t see a dress that you like, then you have the option to get “measured up” and have one made to order.



Also, we saw at one hotel a wedding party going on in which the men were in one room upstairs and the women were downstairs in another. The women had all arrived covered up, but had “blossomed” once they reached their party room and could remove their chadors.



One advantage that a bazaar has over the mall is that there are hundreds of small businessmen and a few businesswomen. Each can sell what he\she is interested in and knowledgeable about. They don’t make large profits but enough to care for their family daily.



This man had a small forge set up and was making knives. We watched for a bit while he flattened the piece of metal, curved it and begin to sharpen the finished knife.



The hours are long and daily and may be a bit tiresome when business is slow.



Some are quite creative showing off their wares. One of the more popular spices is actually a 7 spice mixture that is used mostly for seasoning meat. I enjoyed seeing the many different ways that this spice was displayed.



One can buy many items, such as this natural and dyed wool, in which to create your own project…...probably a rug in this case. Or you can go to another part of the bazaar and buy a handsomely woven rug.



One of the things that fascinated us was a display of sugar. Not only did they have fine granulated, but larger granulated, blocks, chunks, and even formed shapes. We picked up the pointed cone and even though it was very inexpensive it was much too heavy to bring home.



There is always a place for refreshment. Tea is often offered and available almost instantly if you go into a small shop. It is a gesture of welcome. Foods of all types are available for carry out and often there is a restaurant as well.



Best of all, for the tourist, the bazaar is a wonderful place to people watch.

Iran--Salt Lake

One of the last things that we expected to see in Iran was a great salty lake. Lake Urmia is located in the northern part of Iran, near Turkey, and is the 3rd largest salt lake in the world. It has been on record for a long time as it was mentioned in Assyrian records way back in the 9th century BCE.

This lake is too salty to support any fish life. The only aquatic life is a brine shrimp which entices many migratory birds to make a stop over on one of the many islands. The flamingo, especially, enjoys the shrimp but so do the pelicans, storks and ibis.
On one of the 102 named islands one of the grandsons of Genghis Kahn is buried.

The lake is fed by several small mountain streams and underground springs. There is no outlet except by evaporation.
There is a controversial highway/bridge over the middle of the lake that was finished in 2007. It cuts the lake in two but was built in such a way that the lake can flow back and forth through the bridge part. However, the bridge is already starting to rust!! As we drove over it we discovered that it certainly wasn’t a super highway!!

We saw no resort developments along the lake. But several people were enjoying going in “swimming” and floating in the salty water. The people will suffer later, our guide said, since there is no fresh water available to wash the salt off. Perhaps they were there for the medical effects as the water is said to be a cure for rheumatism.


Interestingly, there are two great salt deserts in the eastern part of the country. As the water evaporates from the occasional cloudburst it leaves great patches of salt on the desert floor. We did not see these.

IRAN--Small Villages

While Iran’s population is over 75 million and it has numerous cities, it also has many small villages. The villages are scattered all around the countryside tending to the farming and livestock. As we drove nearly 3700 miles all over Iran, it became apparent that the villages are a very important part of Iran’s well being.


The villages often seemed stuck in the middle of nowhere. The small homes are usually made of sun dried bricks and the complex includes a large courtyard and storage buildings. All of this is surrounded by a fence made again of sun dried bricks. The courtyard offers protection to any livestock at night and a parking place for any farm equipment, plus a storage place for the winter hay. It seems that the rural people prefer to live in a central place and travel out to the farms…..unlike most of our rural farms in the USA.



The main livestock producers are the Bedouin people who do not move as often as they used too, but now move twice a year…to higher and lower pastures. The herds people can take the animals anywhere on any land as long as they do not graze a productive crop. Amazingly, it seems that the sheep and goats love the sides of hills as much as the flat already harvested fields.


The government of Iran realizes the importance of these rural people and has attempted to reverse the trend of having them move into the cities which was policy under the last Shah. Instead, they are taking the schools and medical facilities out to them. Often a capable person/s are giving basic medical education in the village to be a first responder. There is an ambulance available to rush more serious cases to the next level of care. The government even makes regular water deliveries to the villages when this is needed.


Depending on what part of the country you are in, you will see wheat, barley and rice fields, sugar beets, potatoes, tomatoes, beans, cabbage, corn, apples, oranges, apricots, walnuts, dates, melons, vineyards and even tea growing. Lots of potatoes were being dug and loaded into sacks in the fields while we were there.

Roadside stands were also selling mountains of apples and melons and cabbage by the truck load. In one area we saw various sized bottles of rosewater for sale. ETC, ETC.


A note about the vineyards…. Since the Moslems officially do not drink alcohol, the grapes from the vineyards are for eating!!! not drinking. Also, the Iranians have lots of beer…but it is the non alcoholic kind. Varieties include mango, lemon/lime, apple, regular beer flavored. Don tried it and said it was much like a carbonated fruit drink.


While we didn’t get to walk through a country cemetery we saw several as we were driving. The people are buried under ground in coffins under a slab within 24 hours of death. There are many rituals of washings, wrapping in cloth, oils, etc that the Moslems perform on the dead. There are no flowers and it seems nice to have a shade in this hot climate!!!

Remember that you can enlarge the picture by clicking on it.

IRAN--Clothing

Clothing standards are something that all residents of the country plus guests must abide by. For men it isn’t much of a problem. No shorts or tight jeans allowed! Long sleeves are preferred over short even in the hot weather and of course long pants. Most men look at least half way dressed up even when they are working outside or relaxing in the park. We did see some younger adults in jeans and a few short sleeves, but they were in the minority.

Now, the women’s restrictions are a different story. The law is this: in public…. hair and neck must be covered with a scarf or covering; no arms or legs may show; and blouses or tunics should almost reach the knees and be loose enough not to show any curves! Hands and even feet may show, but not the ankle!! The restrictions seemed to be adhered to more closely in the rural/small town areas and by the older female population....although we never saw a woman that wasn't abiding the rules pretty closely.


As I understand it, a woman/older girl may wear whatever she wishes when she is in the protection of her home but must cover when she goes out. A typical cover would be a close fitting skull cap covered with a scarf or other covering…then add a black cape like piece of fabric (locally called a chador) to cover the rest of the body down to the feet. Although it seems like a button would be a good thing, the cape seems to just be held with one hand or fastened with a pin.

Younger women/city dwellers are beginning to push the rule a bit by wearing a loose colored scarf, and colored….although still long… tunic. You see either loose long pants or skirts under the tunics often over very stylish high heels or sandals. There are evidently undercover patrols that watch out for inappropriate dress. Our guide said that his wife was picked up for having a tunic that was too thin, taken to jail, and not released until he brought her some more clothes.

Younger children can dress in regular western type clothes, but most wear a uniform to school. They are colorful and different schools choose different colors and styles. But, the girls always have a head scarf on!

Religious men always wear multiple layers of long robes. Most have a white turban wound around their heads. However, if you see a black turban,that denotes the Mullah is a direct descendant of Mohammad….which is very important to the Shiite Moslems.

We were told of these restrictions before we arrived, so were prepared (somewhat!!) for the dress code. I think that most of our tunics weren’t quite long enough and our scarves often loosened up, but no one was arrested.

We saw just a few women who had the full chador on….the one that just shows the eyes, but not the face. We were told that these were Arab women. The Persian (Iranian) women do not ever wear the full chador.

IRAN--Food

Many people have asked us about the food in Iran. It was great, healthy and plentiful. Our guide told us that Iran grows enough food to supply the needs of the Iranian people. All this in spite of not having an obvious supply of water. They have few rivers for a country of their size and must depend on other sources.

On our first day of touring we were visiting several smaller museums in a complex that used to be palaces. At lunch time we ate at an outdoor restaurant at the site where the lunch was served family style. I think our guide ordered food to help us make a transition from American cuisine as we had fried trout and French fries, yogurt sauce, fresh veggies and a large platter of rice trimmed with saffron rice and barberries.

At a later meal, we had a more traditional offering of kabobs, both fish and lamb, which had been cooked over charcoal, numerous fresh veggies including vine ripened tomatoes, and more rice. Dessert was often melon or ice cream. The lamb or beef was often minced (ground), flavored with herbs, and molded around a flat kabob skewer….very tasty.


When we were traveling from site to site (or city to city) we often stopped at a small roadside café for the locals. Our group included 18, counting the bus driver and guides, so the local owner often was scurrying around to get food ready for us. He was called a bit ahead to prepare, so when we arrived the meat was on the charcoal cooker and the rice was boiling. The food was tasty, and we never went hungry, even though I must admit some of the stops were interesting!!!




Often in the gathering spaces…parks, etc. there were snacks available . The roasting corn always looked and smelled good. We tried it once and it was good. The cooked fava beans were sold by the cupful and were enjoyed by young and old alike.

Iranians love their ice cream and we enjoyed it too!! They have the usual flavors: chocolate, strawberry, vanilla, and also rosewater and saffron. Since Iran produces a lot of saffron they use it freely to flavor rice, chicken, cookies and even ice cream. It has a light yellow color and very nice mellow taste, not like anything I’ve ever tasted.

However, the most different ice cream is what we called spaghetti ice cream. I think that the spaghetti was made from a cornstarch/sugar mixture that needed to be chewed but dissolved rather quickly. A portion of it was mixed into the white ice cream and you squeezed fresh lemon or lime juice over the whole thing. Excellent and addicting...



Bread is a staple for all three meals. We watched them bake a type of daily bread that was almost like a tortilla. From the dough, they stretched it out, threw it into a large tub like oven..where it stuck to the walls, let it cook about 30 seconds and then removed it. It is great especially right out of the oven.

They also had delicious specialty breads and cookies….especially filled ones. Our guide made sure we had a sampling of these as well.

Remember that you can click on the picture and enlarge it.