Abstract

This talk presents results from a two-week fieldwork in the Pamir Mountains of Tajikistan in summer 2025. The aim of the fieldwork was to explore the oral history and local knowledge of glaciers in Poi Mazor, a village in Vanj Valley. The people of Poi Mazor live in proximity of two surge glaciers: Bear Glacier and Hanging Ice Glacier. In local understandings, these two glaciers are “teeth” of the Fedchenko Glacier – one of the largest glaciers outside the polar and circumpolar areas – that remains hidden from sight behind the towering Academy of Science Range. The talk will focus on how these two glaciers are embedded in a geography shaped by vibrant historical, spiritual and mythical imaginations, however explicitly outside such interpretations. It will discuss this finding in relation to a Eurocentric history, colonial encounters and exoticising narratives of glaciers.