Tehran
So i'm going to be bouncing a little out of order here so I have to catch up on back activities.
But jumping up to contemporary times. Yesterday I went and saw the Shah's palace in Tehran (I'm in Tehran. More on that later)
It was a very odd and uncomfortable experience to go to this 'palace'. It was built in the 60's and the Shah lived there until 1979. It's hard to describe what made it so uncomfortable for me...
When you visit palaces/castles in Europe their all from the 1500, 1700, etc. A distance separates the building from the present and the emotional history that is connected to them is dull. But this last palace which was really just a large mansion was built in the 60's and was where the Shah lived until 1979 when he fled the country.
It had all the ear marks of a historical building. Rooms encased behind glass shields except what you were looking at was someone's life left in mid-step. How to explain... There was an out lying house for the oldest son. A three room affair. There was a room with his childhood crayon drawings on the wall, a picture of him graduating from school and his first solo airplane flight. All his favorite childhood toys on display. In short it was a room any person could have had and the only thing that distinguished as historical was the style of furniture which was distinctly 70's. I felt like I was intruding into someone's life. And I didn't take a lot of pictures as a result.
The other kid's rooms were much the same. A childhood interuptus. A large goofy dog behind a panel of glass, a picture of speedy gonzales stuck on a pink tile bathroom wall. The aura of the place was odd.
There were some women working there with a light head scarf on and a pride in their voice when they talked about the Shah, his children and their accomplishments. Then there was an older woman in a full chador, a military commander who barked commands to her tour group. And while I couldn't understand what she said because she only spoke in farsi it wasn't hard to figure out that she supported Khomeini.
In this palace of recent past the struggle of past and present continues to this day and the identity of Iran is left unclear.
But jumping up to contemporary times. Yesterday I went and saw the Shah's palace in Tehran (I'm in Tehran. More on that later)
It was a very odd and uncomfortable experience to go to this 'palace'. It was built in the 60's and the Shah lived there until 1979. It's hard to describe what made it so uncomfortable for me...
When you visit palaces/castles in Europe their all from the 1500, 1700, etc. A distance separates the building from the present and the emotional history that is connected to them is dull. But this last palace which was really just a large mansion was built in the 60's and was where the Shah lived until 1979 when he fled the country.
It had all the ear marks of a historical building. Rooms encased behind glass shields except what you were looking at was someone's life left in mid-step. How to explain... There was an out lying house for the oldest son. A three room affair. There was a room with his childhood crayon drawings on the wall, a picture of him graduating from school and his first solo airplane flight. All his favorite childhood toys on display. In short it was a room any person could have had and the only thing that distinguished as historical was the style of furniture which was distinctly 70's. I felt like I was intruding into someone's life. And I didn't take a lot of pictures as a result.
The other kid's rooms were much the same. A childhood interuptus. A large goofy dog behind a panel of glass, a picture of speedy gonzales stuck on a pink tile bathroom wall. The aura of the place was odd.
There were some women working there with a light head scarf on and a pride in their voice when they talked about the Shah, his children and their accomplishments. Then there was an older woman in a full chador, a military commander who barked commands to her tour group. And while I couldn't understand what she said because she only spoke in farsi it wasn't hard to figure out that she supported Khomeini.
In this palace of recent past the struggle of past and present continues to this day and the identity of Iran is left unclear.