artist
Tajikistan

 

At all times, there were borders between countries that were continuously crossed by trade people and labor migrants, goods and technologies, scientific knowledge and cultural artifacts. Everything listed along the caravan routes moved to the cities - oases and ended up in the markets, where representatives of different nations sold, bought, exchanged material values, shared news and ... parables, plots and fables.
 

If the goods at the border were subject to customs duty and had a reasonable price in the market, then the parables were literally priceless, that is, free. They crossed the border in the minds of migrants and, during trade negotiations or just leisure, were broadcast to other participants in market relations. Merchants and migrants memorized them and could distribute them further in their homeland, where the parable adapted to local conditions and continued to exist in a new guise, performing its moral and mentoring function.
 

A parable, as you know, is a short edifying story in a metaphorical form, containing a moral teaching or, in other words, a morality ethical conclusion. Usually the work does not include the actual moralizing from the author, but assumes that the reader will draw the conclusion himself. The moral of parables is universal, that is, acceptable for all ethnic groups.
 

It is not difficult to recognize in the ethical conclusions of folk parables and plots, ideas consonant with the ideas of an open society: moral universalism, critical thinking, public good, freedom, equality, tolerance. In addition, the folk parable, as a rule, reflects the essence of the national character, the knowledge of parables makes it possible to better know and understand this or that ethnic group.
Parables are designed to make any truth more “tangible”. The interpretation in it is its essence, their main task is to present the interpretation in a simple and vivid form. That is, there are certain elements of consciousness that are not accessible to sensual human perception, they cannot be grasped by the mind, and the parable, especially illustrated in the comic format, makes ideas that are devoid of a visual and tactile image visible and tangible.
 

This book contains parables of the peoples who bordered or interacted with the peoples who lived on the lands of modern Tajikistan. The content of the parables is artistically reworked by the author of the project in a single style and presented in comics format - drawn stories or stories in pictures. The author did not always emphasize the national flavor, trying to focus on the ethical conclusions of the works and emphasize their universalism.
 

There are six comics in the book. Each comic is based on a specific parable. The character of the first story is a dysfunctional donkey - a staunch admirer of the doctrine of the transmigration of souls, trying to change his karma in practice. Imagining how he again and again in an endless labyrinth of reincarnations passes from one body to another, in the end, he finds, as it seems to him, a witty and short path.
 

Further, the energetic ant, who has become the owner of untold wealth, realizes that his condition is, in fact, an exorbitant burden. The parable of six moles and an elephant is an allegory about collective perception, where the methodological principle of constant variability is ironically displayed. The fourth story is about the direct dependence of fate and the configuration of life priorities, in other words, about the art of living. In the fifth parable, an inventive jester played out an intrigue, thanks to which his king was able to repay everyone fairly. And finally, in the sixth, a certain learned mystic, teacher, and ascetic in an ordinary situation, with the help of contemplation and meditation, came to a state of enlightenment and rhymed harmony.
 

The author wrote small texts on the preface of each comic, where the reader will find various information about the work that served as the basis of the comic: historical and artistic. Also, each text is preceded by a quote from the philosopher and sociologist Karl Popper, consonant with the ethical conclusion of this story.