Badakhshan
Badakhshan is a mountainous region divided between northeastern Afghanistan and the republic of Tajikistan. China borders both units to the north.
Once part of the ancient Greek kingdom of Bactria, the rugged mountain and valley terrain of the Badakhshan Province (2002 pop. 992,000) in northeast Afghanistan covers 43,626 square kilometers between the Hindu Kush Mountains and the Amu Darʾya River. A panhandle extension juts northward to the Xinjiang region in China, and separates Tajikistan to the north and Pakistan to the south. The extraction of gold and precious stones, such as lapis luzuli, emeralds, amethysts, and rubies, is the chief economic pursuit in the mountains. The fertile river valleys support barley, wheat, opium, and apricots, while animals (cattle, sheep, and goats) graze wherever moisture supports forage. The provincial capital and commercial center is Faizabad (2002 population 149,000 people), on the Kokcha River. The tree-lined streets are in stark contrast to the barren mountains that surround the city. Tajiks comprise the majority ethnic group.
Within Tajikistan, the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Oblast is a poor, sparsely populated, and isolated administrative unit with little political influence. During winter it is an enclosed geographical "dead end" resulting from border closures with neighboring China and Afghanistan and snows that block roads into western Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. This multifrontier corner of Central Asia has 44 percent of Tajikistan's land area (165,760 square kilometers) but only 3.3 percent of the population. Khorog (2002 population 29,000) is the capital. The majority Mountain Tajiks share this highland with Kyrgyz nomads, a dwindling number of Russians, and a mixture of Uygars, Kazakhs, and Mountain Tajiks from Afghanistan. The economy revolves around subsistence farming and animal husbandry. Opium smuggling has soared since the 1991 Soviet devolution and subsequent Tajik independence.
Further Reading
Eicher, Sharon. (1995) "Tajikistan." In Environmental Resources and Constraints in the Former Soviet Republics, edited by P. R. Pryde. Boulder, CO: Westview.
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