Tapchan

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Taptschane in front of a restaurant in the small town of Shahritus , southern Tajikistan

The Taptschan , other inscriptions Tapchan, Tapčan ( Ukrainian and Tajik Тапчан) is a frame mostly made of wood with a square base, which is used in the Central Asian countries Uzbekistan , Tajikistan , Kyrgyzstan and Turkmenistan outdoors and in the apartment as a raised place to sit and sleep serves.

Spread of the term

The word Taptschan has the same meaning in the countries mentioned. Also in the Polish language is Tapczan the name for a sofa bed and a daybed. An alternative name in Uzbekistan is Tachta , which is related to the Turkish word tahta ("board", "plank", "wood") and used to denote different types of seating and reclining furniture in Georgia and Armenia . This term was also adopted in the Russian language (тахта = sofa , couch ).

In her memoir, published in 1909, Bertha von Suttner describes the Caucasian tachta as a divan covered with carpet . A traditional Caucasian village house, which essentially consisted of one large room, had a fireplace in the middle and a bench ( tachta ) made of clay along the walls . After observations in the 1920s, Bruno Plaetschke describes the typical one-room house with a flat roof ( ssaklja ) in the mountains of Chechnya . Along one wall of the empty room in the middle - the chimney was on the entrance wall - there was a wooden cot, one meter wide and half a meter high, called a tachta. Poor residents covered the tachta with sheepskins or felt blankets, the wealthy with carpets.

The German merchant Martin Gruneweg made several trips through Eastern Europe in the late 16th century and summarized in a few sentences the function of the oriental Taptschan down to the last detail as he might have observed it today in Central Asia:

“The tapczan is a place of worship, which is built up by the earth in the shape of a workshop, as the hantwercker usually do with us. During the day they dine on the Taptzan soe. They spritz on it, they stretch to the ground, and while it is equal to the bancken from the ground, you can sit on it, whoever you want, because it is also broad, stretch out on it. The geldings need uniform tables and long tables, but the Turks have no other table to eat only the taptzan, so they stand up, put their feet in order, sit, eat as, do arithmetic or hold speeches. "

function

Simple wooden frame in a district of Schahritus
Resting place made of wood and rammed earth on the edge of the field near the Madrasa Chodscha Mahschad , southern Tajikistan

The old town quarters in the Muslim countries of Central Asia are called Mahalla . They include a mosque, a tea house (Tajik Choichona ), an enclosed pond ( chaus ) and grocery stores. A mahalla is not only a settlement geographical delimitation, it also represents the next larger social unit above the family, in which a council of elders, acting independently under administrative law, exercises control and the imam of the mosque as the religious head organizes the religious festivals. The mud brick houses in the Mahalla correspond to those of the surrounding villages ( Kischlak ). Of the streets and alleys, only high, windowless walls can be seen that surround an inner courtyard ( Hovli ). The traditional flat-roofed living rooms, stables and other outbuildings are usually elevated by a raised gable, under whose corrugated iron roof cattle feed is stored. All parts of the building erected in a U-shape along the surrounding walls are oriented towards the inner courtyard; in the case of larger systems, a veranda resting on wooden columns is in front of the residential building. In the country, the courtyard is usually a bit larger. The only connection to the outside world is an often artistically ornamented wooden gate, which was previously only opened for the entrance of an ox cart. Today the car is parked in the yard at night. The residents slip through a small passage in one wing of the gate. Even the simplest homestead had two rooms around the inner courtyard in pre-Soviet times: The smaller was the women's area ( Häräm ), to which male visitors were not allowed. Even if this separation no longer exists today, essential design elements of the inner courtyard still exist. Ideally, this should include a water basin, at least there should be a water connection in the middle of the courtyard where the dishes are washed. Fruit trees provide shade, the remaining area is used as a home garden for growing vegetables. Its irrigation takes place via a system of water channels from the pond, which is fed by canals ( arik ) that run along the streets.

Family picnic at the "44 springs" ( Tschilu-tschor tschaschma ), southern Tajikistan

A Taptschan, placed outdoors as close as possible to the cooling water basin, serves the family as a nightly place to sleep in the hot season and as a place to eat and rest during the day. It replaces a table, chair and bed that are not available in a conventional home. The Taptschan may not be entered with shoes. For sleeping in summer, it is covered with futon-like cotton fiber mats ( Kurpacha ). The food and the unsweetened green tea ( Choi kabud ), which is always available, is served on a tablecloth ( Dastarchan ) spread out in the middle . The Kurpacha rolled out on both sides then serve as seating.

Teahouses ( Tschoichona ) and many dining restaurants ( Oschchona ) have tables and chairs in their rooms or in the open with Taptschane, which are arranged around a central fountain if possible. A wooden table about 30 centimeters high in the middle of the Taptschan can replace the flat tablecloth. The table offers the possibility for the guests to sit on the edge of the Taptschan with their feet on the floor, as if on a chair.

Taptschane are occasionally set up in a free space under trees as a meeting point for the village community. Simple platforms can be found at the edges of the field as a midday resting place for the harvest workers. More carefully made tapshans under pavilions are part of the equipment of urban parks and picnic areas at excursion sites. There, mud-built hobs offer families the opportunity to prepare their own food on a wood fire.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Bertha von Suttner : Memoirs. Stuttgart, Leipzig 1909, p. 152 ( online at Zeno.org )
  2. Bruno Plaetschke: The Chechens. Research on ethnology of the north-eastern Caucasus based on trips in the years 1918-20 and 1927-28. Friedrichsen, de Gruyter & Co., Hamburg 1929, p. 93
  3. Almut Bues (ed.): The notes of the Dominican Martin Gruneweg (1562 - approx. 1618) about his family in Danzig, his trade trips in Eastern Europe and his monastic life in Poland. Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2009, p. 702, ISBN 978-3-447-05269-6
  4. ^ Judith Peltz: Uzbekistan. Along the Silk Road to Samarkand, Bukhara and Khiva . Trescher, Berlin 2010, p. 234
  5. ^ Sonja Bill: Tajikistan. Between Dušanbe and the roof of the world. Trescher, Berlin 2010, p. 51
  6. ^ Greg Castillo: Soviet Orientalism: Socialist Realism and Built Tradition. In: Traditional Dwellings and Settlements Review, Vol. 8, No. 2, Spring 1997, pp. 33-47, here p. 38
  7. ^ HE Adler: An Architect's Notes on Soviet-Turkestan. In: Man, Vol. 44 , November-December 1944, pp. 129-134, here p. 130