- Title: GEORGIA: BLOOD FEUDS REMAIN A PART OF LIFE IN UPPER SVANETIA
- Date: 9th October 1994
- Summary: USHGULI AND LATALI, UPPER SVANETIA, GEORGIA (RECENT) (RTV - ACCESS ALL) USHGULI, UPPER SVANETIA 1. GV VILLAGE - THE HIGHEST IN EUROPE 0.08 2. LV 900-YEAR OLD WATCHTOWERS 0.18 3. SV BOY RINGING BELL 0.23 4. GV VILLAGERS SITTING ON HILLSIDE 0.27 5. GV VALLEY, MOUNTAINS 0.33 LATALI, UPPER SVANETIA 6. SV ETERI PARJIANI, 52, WALKING UP HILL 0.41 7. SV PARJIANI ENTERING SHRINE OF SON KILLED IN BLOOD FEUD, WAILING "YOU WERE ONLY 22, YOU HAVEN'T LEFT A CHILD OF YOUR OWN" (SVANURI) 0.51 8. SV GRAVE / CU PHOTOGRAPH (2 SHOTS) 1.00 9. CU PARJIANI AT GRAVE 1.07 10.LV WATCHTOWER 1.10 11.LV EXT HOUSE, MATRESSES LYING OUTSIDE 1.13 12.SV PARJIANI SAYING LIFE HAS BECOME VERY DIFFICULT; GOD KNOWS HOW MANY MURDERS THERE HAVE BEEN. HALF OUR MEN HAVE BEEN KILLED IN BLOOD FEUDS AND THE OTHER HALF ARE IN HIDING (SVANURI) / CU HANDS (3 SHOTS) 1.38 USHGULI, UPPER SVANETIA 13.LV COW PULLING TRADITIONAL SVAN SLED 1.45 14.TRACK TRUCK 1.54 15.LV MAN CHOPPING WOOD 2.02 16.LV CHILDREN ON HORSE 2.17 17.SV DATO NIZHARADZE, 30, SAYING HE WANTS TO MOVE AWAY BUT CANNOT LEAVE HIS FATHER ANZOR, WHO IS VILLAGE'S ONLY DOCTOR; IF FATHER LEAVES, WHOLE VILLAGE WILL LEAVE (GEORGIAN) 2.27 18.GV FOOD ON TABLE WITH MOUNTAINS IN BACKGROUND 2.32 19.SV MEN SINGING AND CLAPPING 2.45 20.GV VILLAGE / VALLEY 2.51 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
- Embargoed: 24th October 1994 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: USHGULI AND LATALI, UPPER SVANETIA, GEORGIA
- Reuters ID: LVA9G4JT11F0OGQOXJMXRVYDMXGS
- Story Text: Blood feuds, harsh winters and pagan rites are a way of life in Ushguli, a remote mediaeval village high in the mountains of western Georgia.
The village's inhabitants are Svans, members of a fierce mountain people who have never been conquered by outsiders.
A 19th century travel writer, Douglas W. Freshfield, called the Svans "the most savage and dangerous-looking set of people I have ever come across".
Their villages are built around 11th-century family watchtowers, towers, made of granite and slate, which have withstood extreme weather conditions and avalanches for centuries. The secret of their strength remains a mystery. Laboratory analysis of the mortar has failed to reveal the exact building formula, but scientists believe egg yolk is an ingredient.
Svanetia is almost as isolated today as it was when Freshfield was there and villagers say the tradition of the vendetta is as strong as ever.
The vicious cycle in which relatives must avenge the death of a relative by murdering a member of the offending family can all but wipe out large families.
A few kilometres (miles) down the valley, in the village of Latali, 52-year old Eteri Parjiani climbs a hill every day to visit the grave of her son, who was killed in a vendetta last year.
"You were only 22, my little son... you didn't even leave a child... what is your old mother to do?", she wails, kneeling next to a perfectly-tended grave.
"Life is very hard. God knows how many murders there have been.
Half of our men have been killed in blood feuds and the other half are living in hiding," she said.
But there is a strong sense of community in the village.
Dato Nizharadze, 30, said he would like to move away but cannot leave his father, Anzor, who is the village's only doctor.
"If father leaves, the whole village will leave," he said.
Svanetia lies high in Georgia's Caucasus mountains, which rise spectacularly to about 5,200 metres (17,000 feet) along the border with Russia.
The 45,000 Svans speak a distinct language, Svanuri, which broke from Georgian nearly 2,000 years before the birth of Christ.
Their religion, though nominally Christian, includes pagan rituals.
Religious festivals are raucous affairs in which men and women parade through the Christian churches drunk and singing.
Roads in the region are accessible only in fine summer weather.
Even then, it takes four hours to negotiate the treacherous single-track road from the capital, Mestia to Ushguli -- a distance of 43 kilometres (28 miles).
Since the region is under snow for much of the year, Svans mostly use sleds for transport, even in the summer.
The first wheel appeared only in 1935. The Soviet Union provided electricity for the area, but now the supply is intermittent. The Svans live as subsistence farmers.
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