Exploring Sufi shrines on the Turkmen border with Iran (Photo: Emily O'Dell)
Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing
and rightdoing there is a field.
I’ll meet you there.
— Rumi
While researching Sufi shrines and the legacy of shamanism in Turkmenistan, I got special permission to explore a mountainous region that borders Iran. Because of its remote location, the local traditions of its villagers haven’t been altered by Soviet and post-Soviet reforms. In fact, the villagers with whom I spoke on my bumpy ride through the mountains to this shrine said that they all consider themselves to be descendants of Alexander the Great. If I had hiked over those mountains in the distance, I would have found myself in Iran–but having already been there, I didn’t feel like pushing my luck. Instead, as the storm clouds rolled in, I indulged in the silence of this shamanist-inspired cemetery and shrine…
