The traditions of the peoples of Tajikistan have evolved from the way of life for centuries. They manifested themselves in the Tajik folk dwelling, which can be divided into two types: flat, characterized by great architectural complexity, and mountainous, simpler in design. The plain type was distributed north of the Gissar Range - in the Zeravshan basin and in the Ferghana Valley. Such a house was built on a plinth, on a wooden frame, usually laid with mud bricks. Sometimes the walls were made of broken clay or mud bricks. The roof was flat, earthen, covered with clay. A terrace was built along the facade. Narrow light openings were made under the ceiling, replacing windows.
A characteristic feature of the dwelling was a fireplace or an over-hearth cap with a chimney. In the Gissar and Vakhsh valleys, the dwelling had a slightly different design. Sometimes it was with a gable roof (often without a ceiling) or with a gable canopy over the traditional roof. In the southern, mountainous regions of Tajikistan, dwellings look like mountain dwellings adapted for this condition. Such a dwelling had a massive appearance, was large in size and designed for crowded large, or patriarchal, undivided families. The walls of such houses were made of wild stone, sometimes of raw brick.
The wooden roof had a feature that was most pronounced in the houses of the Pamir Tajiks - a stepped wooden vault with a light-smoke hole in the center. The roof was supported by three to five supporting pillars located inside the house. In plan, this dwelling was single-chamber. Along the two longitudinal and end (opposite the entrance) walls there were bunks, smeared with clay, with a narrow passage between them. Today, even in remote mountain villages, dwellings of an old design, without windows, are usually used only as utility rooms.
The modern dwelling of the Pamir Tajiks retains the traditional design, only the roof vaults and supporting pillars are located inside the house. The modern dwelling has been significantly modernized: boards are now laid on the floor and bunk beds and painted, large windows are made, different types of stoves are used instead of a hearth, and the inner and outer walls are whitewashed. As for flat-type dwellings, many of their traditional features are quite steadily preserved in a modern rural house.
In the past, large settlements and cities had a similar layout. In the center rose the citadel, surrounded by adobe walls. Around this most ancient part of the settlement was located its later part with narrow streets, which overlooked the blank walls of the estates. Beyond the wall with several gates were the suburbs; here between the estates there were arable lands, kitchen gardens and orchards.
The modern dwelling is a block or stone building, which houses typical furniture, but traditionally there are a lot of carpets in the houses of Tajiks. For many centuries, the inhabitants of Tajikistan lived in the river valleys of the foothills, in the mountains, in oases. This meant the traditional occupations of the population. In the regions of the Western Pamirs, Tajiks grew wheat, barley, rye, millet, legumes, horticultural and melon crops. Here, cotton was grown in the valleys, and gardens and vineyards were cultivated. Traditionally, the inhabitants of Tajikistan were engaged in cattle breeding: they bred sheep and goats, cattle, and the Vakhani and Shugnans bred yaks. Transport animals for the population of this republic were horses, yaks and donkeys. Sericulture has been a long-standing occupation for Tajiks.
Of the traditional folk crafts, Tajiks have achieved the greatest perfection in the manufacture of various silk, cotton, woolen and cloth fabrics. Certain cities were famous for the production of this or that type of fabric. Weaving was done by men. The products of Tajik masters enjoyed great success: potters, blacksmiths, jewelers, woodcarvers, alabaster, as well as decorative embroidery, in which ancient artistic traditions can be traced.
The traditional costume of Tajiks in each region had its own characteristics, but also had common features. For men, it consisted of a tunic-shaped shirt, wide trousers and a swinging robe with a scarf belt, a skullcap or turban and local shoes: leather boots with soft soles and leather galoshes with a pointed toe (they were worn separately, and sometimes together with soft boots - ichigami). Mountain Tajiks had wooden shoes with three spikes for walking along mountain paths.
The common elements of traditional clothing for women were a shirt or dress of a tunic cut, wide trousers with a slouchy ankle, a head scarf (in some areas - a skullcap and a scarf), and for townswomen and lowland Tajik women also a swing robe and local shoes. Ethnic tradition is still manifested in the clothes of lowland and mountain Tajik women. The embroidered dresses of mountain Tajik women, especially in Darvaz and Kulyab, are excellent examples of folk decorative art. Mountain Tajiks, especially Pamirs, both men and women, in the cold season wear high socks knitted from colored wool (up to the knees and above) with a beautiful geometric or floral ornament.
Nowadays, men mainly wear modern, so-called urban, clothing purchased in stores or sewn in an atelier: a suit or trousers with a shirt, a pullover, a sweater. Turtlenecks, jeans are fashionable. Sports style prevails in youth clothes. Citizens often wear the traditional skullcap and robe, paired with modern urban attire.
The modern women's national costume retains more traditional features even in the city. It includes a dress, often no longer of a tunic cut, but detachable, on a yoke. It is most often sewn from silk, it is widespread in all Asian republics. They also wear bloomers (for girls and young women - much higher than the ankle and narrower), light scarves, scarves, skullcaps. Elements of urban costume are also widely used: jackets, knitted woolen sweaters, factory-made shoes or sewn in a shoe atelier. Depending on the season, they wear raincoats and coats.
In the past, mountain Tajik women did not have outerwear at all: it was believed that in the cold season a woman should not leave the house. Pamir Tajik women, when leaving the house in winter, put on two or three dresses. In villages, modern urban women's costumes and skirts are rarely worn. In cities, they are worn mainly by students and young women - employees, representatives of the intelligentsia. The veil has disappeared from the ancient types of women's clothing; rural women did not wear it in the past either, and in the urban environment it was obsolete already in the 1920s.
In the prewar years, it was still occasionally worn by old women. Despite the fact that many Tajiks in cities and towns wear modern clothes, the inhabitants of villages, especially mountainous areas, have preserved their national costume. Beautiful skullcaps, women's headscarves, dresses, jewelry, men's embroidered waist scarves, dressing gowns can be found to this day. Women's costume consists of a white or colored shirt dress, sewn from silk or paper factory fabrics, harem pants reaching to the ankle, their bottom is sheathed with patterned braid. Often bloomers are sewn from two types of fabrics.
Among the Pamir Tajiks, the traditional costume is also everywhere replaced by a modern one. There are a lot of Tajik elements in the modern clothes of the Pamiris, but they are borrowed not from the traditional, but from the modern national costume of the Tajiks. Borrowings in the field of housing, and, in particular, the interior, are of the same nature. Traditional Tajik food depended not only on the wealth of families, but also on the nature of the economy: the composition and diversity of cultivated crops, types of livestock. In the mountains, where crops of wheat and barley predominated, the inhabitants were engaged in cattle breeding, the main food was bread, cakes, dairy products, butter, and in the flat areas, there are many vegetable dishes and fruits in the food of the population.
In public life, the Tajiks retained some communal customs: various forms of collective mutual assistance and production artels (for example, women collectively prepared dairy products on spring pastures), public meals and entertainment on religious and folk holidays. One of these holidays is Nauruz - the New Year, which falls on the day of the vernal equinox; coincided in many places with the holiday of the day of the first plowing (carrying out the ritual first furrow). The day of harvesting was also celebrated, in the spring there were festivities - seily - in the custom.
Although small families prevailed among the Tajiks, there were many, especially in mountainous regions, undivided families. There was also polygamy: according to Muslim law (Sharia), it was allowed to have four wives at the same time, but this was available only to the rich; a man with an average fortune had two wives, and the poor usually had one. Both in large, undivided, and in small monogamous families, patriarchal orders dominated. In the family and in society, a woman occupied a lowered position. Among the mountain Tajiks, there was a bride price, i.e., a ransom for the bride.
In the family rituals of the Tajiks, regional differences have been preserved. So, for example, among the Tajiks of the northern regions, according to the ancient wedding ceremony, the newlywed is transported to her husband's house after sunset, by the light of torches and is circled three times around a fire lit in front of her husband's house. For a long time in South Tajikistan this crossing takes place only during the day. Only a widow or a divorcee is transported at night.
The transformation of social relations, the familiarization of Tajiks with advanced culture has dramatically changed their family life. Today, a woman is liberated and occupies an equal position with a man in production, in public life and in the family. Marriages are now in the vast majority of mutual love. Children in Tajikistan are a special privileged class. Tajik families have many children. It's nice to look at black-eyed boys in national skullcaps and girls in national dresses in a modern interpretation with 30-40 thin braided braids.