People of Georgia

Today was the first morning since August 8 when neither Georgia nor Russia was a featured story in Google News online. Not to say that there's no news about them, however. Things continue to develop on a daliy basis. As of today it's impossible for Georgian citizens to get Russian visas in Tbilisi, for example, and likely similar in Moscow for most Russians wanting to go to Georgia.

As for today's photos form my archive: I was at the funeral of the lady in the wheelchair in January this year, in Etseri, Svaneti; the fortress is that of the Dadeshkeliani family in Etseri, featuring the tallest watchtower in Svaneti, copied in Tbilisi's open-air architectural Ethnographic Museum; the headstone (of my great friend Nodar's father) uses a photograph of mine in typical Georgian style.

The Dadeshkeliani Watchtower, Etseri, May 2007

Reputed to be the tallest watchtower in Svaneti, and the only one basically complete in Etseri, though it's mising a roof.

(Okay, so I'm having some colour balance issues with the new camera. Whatever. You should see what this shot looked like BEFORE.)

The Stone Chair, Ushguli, August 2004

Nodar is sitting in the very spot where one of his ancestors was killed more than a century ago. The man, of the Dadeshkelianis who ruled Svaneti at the time, had come to put Ushguli under his authority, so I'm told. The village didn't want him, though, so they decided that he must die. But who would perform the deed? It would set off a chain of tit-for-tat revenge killings between the families of victim and murderer. This was avoided in a most ingenious way. A rifle was set up on a post poking through a hole in a wall, a long string tied to its trigger. The man was invited to the preordained location... and the entire village, men, women, children, were lined up along the string on the other side of the wall. They all pulled together, and all took blame for his death.

Welcome to pre-Soviet governance in the Caucasus.

Watchtower, Etseri, December 2000

Already seeking new views of the Dadeshkeliani tower during my first encounter, I aimed straight up one of its walls with a very wide-angle lens.