Returning to Turkey - 27 November 2007  | | Ottoman Military Band - Ph. by D. Santal |
Too often, when I visit a foreign country I approach my trip with long nurtured prejudices. I cannot help it. I love the arts: visual arts, architecture, music, good food (the culinary arts!)… I look forward to the surprises a foreign culture offers, I want to learn much about the history of a country, I even hope I will make personal contacts with people.
We just came back from our first in-depth visit of Turkey, actually of part of Turkey, the western part, as we only saw Istanbul, Ankara, Cappadocia and Ephesus. I was looking for the deeper roots of my western culture. On our list of “things to do”, there were museums, monuments, restaurants, concert halls and jazz clubs. We saw and enjoyed all of that, the depth of our explorations was dizzying.
In Istanbul, hoping to attend a concert of Turkish music, our inquiries led us to a most unexpected venue! The concierge of our hotel recommended the Museum of Military History, just a couple of blocks away: he told us that very often, in the afternoon, there are concerts of Ottoman music there. Until then, I would never have set foot in a military memorabilia museum largely because of my old anti-military attitudes, my lack of curiosity about arms, uniforms or soldiers... That afternoon, we were treated to music and harmonies our western ears were totally unaccustomed to: it sounded somewhat repetitious, but we got caught up in the enthusiastic beat and the joyful mood of the musicians and the spectators: we thoroughly enjoyed the performance, the spectacle, for spectacle it was as well.
Another amazing surprise, also in connection with Turkish culture, was our exposure to the famed Whirling Dervishes. One late evening, in Cappadocia, as we were wondering about what to do next, Cihan, our guide, suggested Whirling Dervishes. When we entered the performing space, we were given pamphlets explaining the service and the customs; I had no idea it was a religious service, I expected a dance with lots of men in white robes, reeling at full speed. Not at all! The dervishes are priests, so to speak, they perform a ceremony, and periodically spin like tops, but fairly slowly, while they form a circle around the room. It looked like a traditional dance, but it was not.
Both events took us out of our usual path, both were visually fantastic, and both helped us appreciate a wonderful country, very much like our own, yet different enough to satisfy our need to know it better for the differences.
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