GROUP JOURNAL FOR

TRADITIONAL WEAVING AND FIBER ART TOUR
September 8, 2005 - September 22, 2005
 

Kathy Kline’s Notes on
Melitour “Textiles and Fabrics”  September 8-22, 2005

9/14/05  Day Eight

Konya, like Homa in Syria, is  more conservative. It has 1 million inhabitants. Imagine our surprise when we flipped through the tv channels on our hotel tv and came across a female (lesbian?) soft porn channel!Breakfast in the hotel was good plain yogurt to which I added strawberry preserves, small pieces of different kinds of cheese, black olives and watermelon. Lobby full of people chatting and smoking. Radio music pumped up as background. Mosque – Meli talked to us about Sufism. A mosque is never closed. A carpet/kilim hangs over the open door.

Rumi

 respected and loved 700 years after his death  teachings were for individuals  humanistic, ecumenicals

born in 1207 in northern Afghanistan on one of the silk routes  His father, a teacher, announced he was going to Mecca after attacks from Mongolia

Moved to Baghdad; moved to Damascus (Assyrians); wanted to find land with no heresy and was told of the “Land of Rum” or Roman. Selcuks introduced tolerance so the father and a caravan moved again to Anatolia. His reputation came to the attention of the Sultan in Konya who invited him to his city. The father rejected his offer of living in a palace and asked for a school instead. When the father died, students taught the son Persian, Arabic, Hinduism, Buddhism, math, etc until he reached age 27. The son met a stranger from Tabriz who had euphony. Asked the son “Who do you know?” not from books/facts. For many years, they talked. The teacher left.

 Teaching of Rumi:

Religious non conformity
Rules and dogma of organized religion puts restrictions.
No duality (not only is man the creation of god but also his reflection)
association with the whirling dervish (whirling represents dynamic/change and becoming one with God; every individual can do it; orbit like being one with the universe; do it with music. Mystic and joy you have is a response for itself. Put up your hands and head up with eyes open to talk with God. “Be the child of the time.” “Power is love.”

 In Anatolia, 2,5000 years ago, a saying “You cannot get your feet wet twice” meaning you need to keep changing.For Rumi, god is in each person’s heart. Perfection is the trinity of wisdom, feeling and conscience. We begin as perfect human beings and need to maintain it. Door of love; invited all as they are.When Rumi was about to die, the Sultan asked where he wanted to be buried. He said in a cemetery. Son allowed his tomb to be built. Father and other family members also buried there.

 Lunch in Konya at Sifa, one of the most liked by locals. We had a delicious main dish of eggplant, little chunks of meat and great spices with yogurt and rice and salad (lettuce, onions and tomato). Soup and a yummy dessert like baklava with singed dough on top. Greeks use honey; Turks use syrup from sugar water and lemon.

 Heading south. Flat land. Sugar beets, black cabbage, irrigation provided free.

 Catalhoyuk

Life for thousands of years found Byzantine tombs

Obsidian (natural volcanic glass) mirrors, flint daggers from the Neolithic Era

pottery vessel among the oldest in Anatolia

Photo of a carved wood box, found as carbonized wood preserved by fire= deposits in  which they were buried. No central building. No ceremonial center. Ancestors were buried beneath floors in houses. Had 8,000 people. Moved across roofs; no streets.

 Medical system:
State should provide health services; not sufficient; long lines in cities sate will pay to have a patient treated abroad... child/mother care in every town. Vaccinations are widespread; touring dentists and optometrists visit schools one person can stay in a hospital with a patient; don’t have family doctors. Retirement women after 20 years of working. Meli stopped to buy fresh melons from a roadside cart. Returned to antique store – Karavan. Bought a carpet from Konya Obruk village, 45 km away. It is a traditional design related to good luck with cowry shells.

 Dinner at Gulbahce terrace restaurant facing Rumi’s tomb with cobalt and lead blue tower. Ate spicy tomato and yogurt; lentil soup; think pizza like slices; rice and delicious lamb