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Every village has its storyteller—and sometimes, its liar. In this third tale from the Yaghnobi oral tradition, we meet one such man: the Ҳиёлбоз—the Trickster. He is not a villain, but neither is he a saint. He belongs to a long tradition of characters found across Central Asia, the Caucasus, and beyond: the clever…
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In the high reaches of the Yaghnob Valley, every stone has a memory. Some whisper when the wind passes. Others echo only when the old names are spoken aloud. In this second installment of our Folk Memory series, we bring you the story of Khoja-i Buzurgvor—“The Noble Master.” More than just a tale, it’s…
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Welcome to our new storytelling series on Yagnob.org! This is where we give life to the voices of the past—through the folktales that have been whispered by firelight, passed from elder to child, and carried through centuries of wind, stone, and survival. These stories, recorded in the Yaghnobi language by linguist N. Khromov and…
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I once asked an elder in the Yaghnob Valley how he knew it was time to plant. He looked up at the sun, narrowed his eyes, and simply said, “The birds know. So do we.” For the Yaghnobi people—descendants of the ancient Sogdians and guardians of a nearly vanished tongue—time is not something measured.…