Tbilisi - Old © April 2017
“So let the love-maddened learn the meaning of love and know it. Disdain not the love of others nor let them disdain yours.” (Shota Rustaveli, from Georgia’s national epic)
Tibilisi’s glory emerged on the Caucasus branch of the Great Silk Road between the 7th and 14th centuries, was shining bright in the 19th Century, developed in Soviet times and is now fading as urban expansion mirrors that of many non-descript capital cities that draw people from rural regions with promises of greater riches and easy living.
The new Tibilisi is emerging everywhere, a rebirth as if in a rage. The currencies of Soviet and earlier times seem little valued, yet they are what made the love-maddened longing of Georgians and their conscience of who they are: proud, strong, passionate and generous.
“So let the love-maddened learn the meaning of love and know it. Disdain not the love of others nor let them disdain yours.” (Shota Rustaveli, from Georgia’s national epic)
Tibilisi’s glory emerged on the Caucasus branch of the Great Silk Road between the 7th and 14th centuries, was shining bright in the 19th Century, developed in Soviet times and is now fading as urban expansion mirrors that of many non-descript capital cities that draw people from rural regions with promises of greater riches and easy living.
The new Tibilisi is emerging everywhere, a rebirth as if in a rage. The currencies of Soviet and earlier times seem little valued, yet they are what made the love-maddened longing of Georgians and their conscience of who they are: proud, strong, passionate and generous.
The older Tibilisi is still there, and it is crumbling into oblivion and overwhelmed by the glitz of the new. Yet there are those who recognize its importance as a cultural icon that needs to inform rebirth, adaptation and expansion to changing times. This is a positive process of learning from the past, and building on its achievements.
The images here are but fragments of what ones was Tbilisi, mirroring the fragments of Rustaveli’s epic poem. What they depict is the Tibilisi that was everywhere and is now turning to rubble and at risk of completely disappearing.
But then this is Georgia, a Christian country that for over a millennium was a bulwark against Muslim foes, and where the morning greeting of ‘Gamerjoba’ translates as ‘May victory be yours!’
The images here are but fragments of what ones was Tbilisi, mirroring the fragments of Rustaveli’s epic poem. What they depict is the Tibilisi that was everywhere and is now turning to rubble and at risk of completely disappearing.
But then this is Georgia, a Christian country that for over a millennium was a bulwark against Muslim foes, and where the morning greeting of ‘Gamerjoba’ translates as ‘May victory be yours!’