The Historic Village of Abyaneh (Part 1)
In this article, we want to introduce the historic village of Abyaneh which is enlisted in Iran's List of National Monuments. Thanks to the cultural features and maintenance of its customs, traditions and ancient architecture style, this village has always been frequented by foreign tourists and native travellers.
On an almost steep slope in the skirts of a mountain, Abyaneh village is located 40 km away from a town called Natanz in Esfahan Province. Being on the east-north of Karkas Mountain of Zagros Mountain range, this village has an altitude of 2500 meters above the sea level and profits from Barzrood River as the main source for both drinking and irrigation of its farms and gardens. Abyaneh village also enjoys invaluable historic treasures researching into which reflects the rich Iranian culture.
Just like other villages in this region, the main income of the inhabitants of the village is from agricultural products, animal husbandry, and gardening. We can name apple and plum as the major products and walnut, almond, apricot, pear, wheat, and barley as some other products of this village. Farming and irrigation in this village is practiced in its conventional fashion, and the women, besides contributing in farming and animal husbandry, are active in the fields of handicrafts and traditional jobs such as carpet-weaving, making special kinds of shoes, silver adornments, and the like.
Due to the mountainous nature of Abyaneh village and its being far away from populated areas and access roads, its people have lived in seclusion for centuries; and therefore have maintained many of their tribal and traditional customs such as their ancient clothing and language, from the distant past. Many experts believe that the language spoken in this village has an Avesta root and is a combination of Pahlavi, Ashkanid, and Achamenian words. Actually the language spoken in Abyaneh village is a remnant from ancient Persian and Ashkanid Pahlavi. Its people wear some clothes similar to that of Bakhtiari tribes which is said to date back to the Sasanid period. This clothing consists of ordinary shirts and long, loose, black pants for men, and flowery white-background kerchiefs, and flowery dresses with pleated skirts for women.
From among special local customs followed in Abyaneh village we can point to the mourning ceremonies during the lunar month of Muharram which is practiced in a way similar to that of other parts of central Iran. The people of Abyaneh hold religious ceremonies especially those for the martyrdom anniversary of the grandson of the prophet of Islam (Peace Be upon Him and His Progeny), Imam Hussein (A.S), who was martyred in his way to combat Yazid, with a especial glory in the days of Tasooa and Ashura. It is for this reason that many people from all over the country go to Abyaneh to participate these ceremonies.
Source: irib.ir
Other links:
Photo Gallery of Abyaneh (1)
Photo Gallery of Abyaneh (2)
