travel diaries: from bamyan to herat via the minaret of jam

Posted on January 15, 2024 by Rama Arya

Be still, dear wild dancing heart! I chide it that it’s being ridiculous. I am no novice traveller. I have travelled all my life, been to countless countries, places many have not even heard of.

“But this is the first time to the Minaret of Jam,” it whispers gleefully.

Yes, true. And I let it dance away, and smile at it fondly. If it were not for this crazy heart of mine, I would be leading a pretty dull life.

Dear reader, I am about to start a 7-day road trip across Afghanistan’s remote heartland to see its most glorious treasures, including the 12th Century Minaret of Jam. The latter, the very reason why I had travelled all the way to Afghanistan in the first place.

It will take me one-and-a-half days through nothingness to reach the minaret, and then another one-and-a-half days off-road driving to reach civilization, namely Herat.

Here’s to once-in-a-lifetime journeys! ❤ Continue reading →

persian herat and its hidden wonders

Posted on January 8, 2024 by Rama Arya

Right at the very end of the battered and bruised road, cutting across the country from east to west, is the Persian historical city of Herat. Not many travellers come this far. It is way too out, perched near Afghanistan’s western border with Iran. Yet, it has always been of great importance, as is revealed by its architectural and cultural treasures to those who take the trouble to reach it.

Herat’s been around for a long time; 6th Century BC records describe it as a Persian city which went by the name Aria. Yes, the same pronunciation as my surname. 🙂

Its strategic location on the Great Silk Road and the banks of the Hari River made it particularly appealing to conquerors and rulers. Alexander the Great defeated Herat’s Persian Achaemenids in 330 BC and put up a majestic citadel to celebrate his victory. He was followed by the Abbasid Caliphs in the 8th Century, Ghurids in 1175, the Mongol Genghis Khan who destroyed everything in 1221, the Kartids who then rebuilt it, and the Timurid Tamerlane who destroyed it once again in 1380.

When Tamerlane’s favourite son Shahrukh Mirza decided to move his capital from Samarkand to Herat, he was determined to make Herat the grandest city in the region. A vision shared by his wife Gawhar Shad and later descendent Husayn Bayqara.

The result was a city of much beauty and grace whose praise was extolled far and wide. Of its many buildings, 830 ‘cultural sites’ are still believed to survive today, warranting it a place in UNESCO’s tentative list in 2004.

It is a difficult combination. War and conservation. However, despite all the odds, both UNESCO and the Aga Khan Trust for Culture have consistently worked on Herat, ensuring its treasures, hidden from the world at large, manage to survive.

Come along with me on a virtual tour of Timurid Herat, the city on the Hari River, to see why it was called the ‘Pearl of the Khorasan’ for the longest time! Continue reading →

ghazni and its indomitable sultans

Posted on January 1, 2024 by Rama Arya

“The blood of the infidels flowed so copiously that the stream was discoloured, and people were unable to drink it.”

~ Al-Utbi, Tarikh Yamini [Mahmud of Ghazni’s court historian]

Al-Utbi’s lines describe the carnage Sultan Mahmud of Ghazni, a city in eastern Afghanistan, inflicted on the wealthy temple cities of medieval India. From 1001 to 1026, Mahmud attacked northwest India 17 times, revelling in the destruction of the Hindu idols, and stripping the cities of its gold, silver, and wealth.

Mahmud was not interested in permanently owning the sub-continent. The resistance by the likes of Rajput King Vidyadhara Chandela was at times way too stiff, so alliances were made instead when required. His strategy was simple: attack, loot, return. Every year. It was a vow he had made to himself.

Bereft of any other major source of income, the Indian booty helped finance Mahmud’s empire, its capital Ghazni, and army. Under Mahmud’s rule [998 – 1030], the Ghaznavid empire founded by his father, reached its zenith stretching from Iran to Punjab in northwest India. Continue reading →

a guide to solo travel in afghanistan for the indian traveller

Posted on December 25, 2023 by Rama Arya

At the Minaret of Jam with my driver Sher Aga and fixer-cum-translator Obaid.

“Why are you in this western tour group? Why are you with them?”

I faced this question at almost every checkpoint during the few days I travelled in Afghanistan as part of a group. A Taliban soldier on the 5th day was more explicit. “This is your country! You don’t need to be with them to see Afghanistan.”

– – –

This travel guide to Afghanistan is specifically meant for Indians. Like Indians in colour and passport. It does not, and cannot, apply to people of other colours and nations or an Indian with a western passport. 🙂

Let me put it in context first.

According to Indian textbooks, Afghanistan was once a part of India. According to Afghan textbooks, India was once a part of Afghanistan. Sorry, not India, but ‘Hindustan.’ Afghans, like the rest in Central Asia, still refer to India by its Silk Road-era name given to the sub-continent by the Persians.

Afghan fine-dining restaurant menus have Hyderabadi Biryani and Aloo Gobi listed under ‘Afghan Dishes,’ while Afghan women wear nose rings and bindis and are adamant it is an Afghan thing. We Indians, of course, believe it is all intrinsically ours, and just smile about it in smug complacency. You get the drift.

Both countries have shared personalities and dynasties across a millennium. For one thousand years it was the likes of Mahmud of Ghazni, Muhammad Ghori, the Khilji Dynasty, Lodi Dynasty, Mughal Emperor Babur, and Sher Shah Sur. Today, it is a chunk of Bollywood. Yes, Salman Khan, Shah Rukh Khan, Aamir Khan and Celina Jaitley, yesteryear heroes Feroz Khan and Sanjay Khan, and bad guy Kader Khan all have Afghan blood in them. And these are just a few in a long list. Continue reading →

photo essay: in search of kandahar, the taliban’s former capital

Posted on December 18, 2023 by Rama Arya

Right up to 15 August, 2021, it was impossible for foreign tourists to visit Kandahar, least of all by road. The city, a Taliban stronghold in southern Afghanistan, was labelled the ‘kidnapping capital’ and lethal land mines infested the road to it every few metres. You had a far greater chance of being blown alive en-route than getting in. And if perchance you did make it in, the odds of staying alive were slim. But a lot has changed since then. I went by car to Kandahar this year in October and spent two nights in the city. And I live to write this post. 🙂

Kandahar, founded by Alexander the Great in 330 BC, has been the spiritual headquarters of the Taliban since its inception in 1994. From 1996 to 2001, when the Taliban were first in control, it served as the capital of Afghanistan. Though Kabul is now the seat of government, the Taliban’s senior-most officials, including its supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada and his spiritual advisors, are based in Kandahar. All decisions that affect the lives of Afghans are made right here.

So, what’s Kandahar really like now? Let me take you on a visual journey of this much touted city as I went in search of it. Continue reading →

the complete travel guide to ancient bactria and silk road’s fabled city: balkh

Posted on December 4, 2023 by Rama Arya

Of all the cities that has survived the annals of time, Balkh, the capital of ancient Bactria [6th Century BC to 6th Century AD] in northern Afghanistan, is perhaps the most evocative.

Volumes have been written on its wars when it was the capital of Bactria, and thereafter, a part of post-Bactrian empires. Art and literature have had a constant muse in its colourful personalities, Alexander the Great and Roxanna, and their marriage which paved the course of history. One of the oldest religions in the world, Zoroastrianism, was founded by one of Balkh’s very own citizens, Zoroaster.

But its greatest claim to fame, and subsequently its greatest legacy, came from its simultaneous role as Silk Road’s fabled city. For 1,600 years, from 130 BC – 1453 AD, Balkh was not just a confluence of commodities, but also of religions, ideas, and knowledge. Continue reading →

top 15 memorable things to do in kabul, afghanistan’s capital

Posted on November 27, 2023 by Rama Arya

Afghanistan’s capital, Kabul, is not your regular city. Hemmed in by the Hindu Kush Mountains and Kabul River, it is beautiful. And broken.

The city traces itself back some 3,500 years and was a strategic trading centre on the Silk Road linking India with the Hellenic world. Over the centuries, the Who’s Who of Central Asia’s rulers and empires have ruled over it.

One of its earliest turning points was in the 9th Century when it was conquered and Islamised by the Abbasid Caliphate. Prior to this, Kabul was politically and culturally a part of India with a Buddhist and Hindu populace and rulers. Another major turning point was in 1776, when it officially became the capital of ‘Afghanistan,’ a nation the country’s founding father Ahmed Shah Durrani had established a decade earlier. Continue reading →

travel shorts: hazrat-e mazar, afghanistan’s most sacred site

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One of Islam’s most sacred sites lies in northern Afghanistan, a mere 55 kilometres from the Uzbekistan border. It is a blue-tiled mosque which glistens like a jewel, changing colour through the day, and home to countless pristine white pigeons.

Whilst the Shi’a sect of Islam believe that Ali, Prophet Muhammad’s cousin and son-in-law, is buried in Najaf, Iraq, the Sunni sect regard Hazrat-e Mazar in Mazar-e Sharif as Ali’s actual tomb.

Both, the city Mazar-e Sharif and its spiritual centrepiece Hazrat-e Mazar, date back to the 12th Century.

There is an interesting Afghan legend as to how the tomb came to be here. Continue reading →

taliban afghanistan, a solo indian woman traveller, and help from unexpected quarters

Posted on November 13, 2023 by Rama Arya

An Australian tour company versus the Taliban. Who would you trust?

If I am not mistaken nearly everyone would choose the tour company. I did too.

After all, it is ‘white-owned’, from a ‘developed country,’ and the default conclusion is that ‘I would be safe with them’ in an otherwise unsafe country—in this case, Afghanistan under the Taliban.

Instead, as the only person of colour in a group of 10 led by two white Australian tour leaders, I was subjected to a barrage of India-bashing from the group. By the time one of the group, a Welshman living in Poland, crossed the lines on the seventh day of the tour, I’d had enough. I told them to stop. What happened next is what travel nightmares are made of. Continue reading →