(2001 est. pop. 6.6 million). The Republic of Tajikistan emerged as an independent county after the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, the poorest of the post-Soviet republics. It entered the twentieth century ranking 108 out of 174 countries in the...

Traditional Tajik costume developed as a part of Central Asian costume, and had common style and design features with other countries in the region. Until the twentieth century, both men and women wore bulky pants and long tunic shirts with no opening...

Tajikistan Tajikistan, a landlocked country in Central Asia, is bordered by Uzbekistan to the west and north, Kyrgyzstan to the north, China to the east, and Afghanistan to the south. With an area of 143,100 square kilometers (55,235 square miles), it...

The educational system in Tajikistan has a strong Soviet/Russian influence. During the Soviet era (1918–1991) a comprehensive educational infrastructure and modern educational system provided free education emphasizing sciences, mathematics, and...

Tajikistan (pronounced /təˈdʒɪkɨstæn/ or /təˈdʒiːkɨstæn/; Tajik: Тоҷикистон, pronounced [tɔʤikɪsˈtɔn] or [tɒːʤikɪsˈtɒn]), officially, the Republic of Tajikistan (Tajik: ҷумҳурии Тоҷикистон) is a...

Tajikistan has come to a near standstill, with skilled labor fleeing the region and the economy nearly destroyed. The coalition government of old school communists and the Islamic Renaissance Party has collapsed. If the republics of ex-Soviet Central Asia are glass waiting to...

Lee Hockstader's article on the ills besetting Tajikistan {"Bloody Central Asian Border War Stirs Afghan Memories in Russia," news story, Oct. 24} is riddled with misunderstanding and perpetuates corrosive misperceptions. Tajikistan's closest cultural, ethnic and linguistic brethren are found in Afghanistan, not Iran....

With electricity reserves depleted, officials in impoverished Tajikistan — where residents are enduring one of the coldest winters in 25 years — said Tuesday they would be forced to cut power to much of the country.Supplies already have been cut off in many rural areas...

President Emomalii Rakhmon has banned high school graduation parties in this largely Muslim Central Asian nation, the latest in a string of edicts on Tajik cultural and social life.Rakhmon said he was concerned about the "pompous" and "excessive luxury" of school festivities, according to his...