The Yezidis village, Iraq - part two
This is the second part of the two part series.
If you missed the first part, you can find it here. Please read the WikiPedia article that I link you to in that entry! It gives you all sorts of background that if incorrect, I wouldn't have to update this page.

I admit that I'm breaking my "Absolutely No Photographs In Cemeteries" rule but it's worth it.

Let's face it, goths posing in front of American graves just aren't as groovy as these photos.

An interesting thing about the Arabic script in these photos is that they're all Kurdish words. The Kurds have some seriously strange linguistic skills. Imagine this, you speak one language and you can write it in Turkish (Latin characters) or in Arabic. It means the same thing. Imagine if you're living in California and people speaking the same language 200KM away write it entirely differently. Insanity! I suppose that's what happens when your people have to adapt to living under the rule of so many different oppressive forces. This is almost certainly magnified by the fact that they that are willing to commit genocide. Saddam wasn't nice to the Kurdish people and that goes double for the Yezidis people.



This is a shot of their graves, tombs and some sort of above ground crypt. On the gate is Malak Ta’us, their king. They commune with it to speak to their god.

This is what they say often according to my translator:
"You god. You king. You peacock."




A wider shot of the same.



Again another shot of the same graveyard.



This child is amused by my interest in his dead relatives.



This is an event hall where many of the Yezidis people have weddings and other ceremonies.



This tree is sacred in the faith and society of the Yezidis people. If you made the mistake of carving your name into it, you'd be in a lot of trouble. The name of the tree is chnar apparently. My friends that were translating were doing it from the Yezidis village dialect of Kurdish (Translator 1), into Arabic (Translator 2) and into English (Me). That makes for some hilarious English spelling! I might as well just make it up.



This is a side view of the crypt and another of their sacred trees.



This tree is bare and dead but left untouched. Their graves are similar to that of the western world but the Arabic script is very fancy and beautiful. Again, these are Kurdish words written in Arabic script.



This is one of the most beautiful markers in the entire cemetery.



The texture on this stone is slightly rough in the middle, smooth on the edges and the script.



This is a full shot of the gates with peacock king. Apparently the peacock consorts with another lion deity here.



A closer shot of the left side of the gate.



A close up of Malak Ta’us. This is the right side of the gate. It's hand painted.



A shot of one of the beautiful graves with the facade of Malak Ta’us on the gate in the background.



These graves are in the shade of a metal cage to both prevent people from walking on the graves but apparently these people were also either important somehow or wealthy.



I have no idea what this actually means but I'm pretty sure it means something.



This is the back of the event hall. Nice stairs.



This is the Malak Ta’us made of stone and painted gold on the inside of the event hall. Soft focus.



Here's an idea of the scale of this peacock: I'm 6'2" tall.



This is a closeup of the peacock.



The symbols to the left of the peacock.



The symbols to the right of the peacock.



A closeup of the peacock and it's feathers.



I've stepped back to show you the hall and the peacock.



This is embedded into the wall above the front and main entrance. Again, this is Arabic with Kurdish words.



This is the icon to the left of the main entrance, it's stone painted gold.



This is the icon to the right of the main entrance. You can see the roof of the building to the right of the icon. The roof is rounded and it's actually stacked like peacock feathers. When you're under it or on the roof you can see this better.



In this shot you can see that their priest sleeps inside of the hall often.



An almost full shot of the event hall.



Jayme then found her way to the roof on the previously mentioned stairs.



From the roof of the event hall facing the above ground crypt.



This is the roof and it's full glory of feather like spread. Pretty awesome architecture.



Here's another shot of the steps that are created because of the faux wing look.



Another shot of the wing. This is the front of the building.



This man only spoke Kurdish but identified himself as a member of some sort of Yedizis clergy.



This is another part of the roof and these are steps to a lower level. They're really interested in the peacock.



These are the some of the locals washing their clothing in the stream.



These happy children wave goodbye as we thank everyone for their time and then leave.