Armenia

1
Armenia
Mount Ararat, the holy mountain of
Armenia. Picture from Childrens Encyclopedia of
Armenian Christianity. Trans. and ed. Vatche
Ghazarian. Yerevan Diocese of the Armenian
Church of America, 2001, p. 16.
2
Tourists at Lake Sevan
Charlie, Marina (the guide), Martha, Beverlee,
Jerry. The lake is huge what you see here is
only a little inlet.
3
Top of the hill, Lake Sevan
Note the watercolor artist in the foreground.
4
From the bottom of the lake
During Soviet times, the water level of the lake
was taken way down. Because of this, many old
tablets and khochkars have been recovered from
the lake bottom. These are a few of many that
have been laid out in the little church
courtyard. Khochkars (kh is soft gutteral) are
crosses (khoch) made of stone (kar). The
Armenian cross is traditionally depicted with
flowers or tree leaves at the four ends, as a
symbol of life. In times of trouble, Armenian
communities have had to leave their churches
behind. But they carried their khochkars with
them.
5
Watercolor at Lake Sevan
Watercolor with (from left) Steve, Beverlee,
Martha, Jerry. The artist had painted this
picture and left the bench empty, to add in an
image of the buyer. We asked the artist to paint
all four of us. He was afraid that we wouldnt
like it, because with four people to paint, he
could only do cartoon images of us. But of
course, we loved it. In fact, there was a battle
as to who would get to buy it. I now own both the
picture and a karmic debt to Jerry.
6
On the road to Haghartsin
7
Haghartsin Monastery
Haghartsin Monastery was built in the 12th
century. There are three churches there, and a
refectory for the monks. Outside one of the
churches, there is a freestanding column about
three feet high. This traditional symbol marks a
place of learning, and was put there as a sign to
everyone who passed by that people were welcome
to come to the monastery to study. There is only
one priest in residence now. He keeps the
monastery open for tourists and keeps bees when
they come to him in June (the bees are taken from
monastery to monastery, as trees and flowers come
into bloom). He is married with two children his
family lives 100 kilometers away. If they came to
stay with him, there would be no place for the
kids to go to school. He says that he is never
alone in the presence of God, but he does get
lonely and bored.
8
Haghartsin
Charlie and Jerry in the refectory khochkar and
ancient nut tree the priests house with bee
houses in front Gohar putting out an incredible
picnic lunch.
9
On the road to Goshavank
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Goshavank Monastery
Founded in 1188. There is a little round room
there that was once a library. The windows in
that room are specially designed to let in the
maximum amount of light. These pictures were
taken from the road in front of the
monasteryfirst facing the monastery, and then
facing the village.
11
Children at Goshavank
12
Echmiadzin
is the Holy See of the Armenian Church. Top
right Marina, Steve, Jerry, Beverlee, Lynn.
Bottom right The residence of the Catholicos,
the supreme patriarch of the Church. Marina told
us that if you pass through that arch, you are
renewed. Needless to say, we all hightailed it
through the arch.
Picture from Childrens Encyclopedia of Armenian
Christianity. Trans. and ed. Vatche Ghazarian.
Yerevan Diocese of the Armenian Church of
America, 2001, p. 118.
13
The Temple at Garni
This is a little Roman temple that survived into
Christian times because Armenian royalty used it
as a summer house. The young women are high
school students who greeted us and wanted us to
take their picture.
14
Geghard Monastery
Geghard Monastery is cut into a cliff in a steep
river canyon. We had a picnic by the river before
touring the monastery. The monastery is named
after the spear said to have been used to pierce
the side of Jesus of Nazareth on the day he died.
That spear (the metal point from it) was kept
here for a long time, but is now housed in the
museum at Echniadzin.
15
Children at the riverside picnic
16
Inside Geghard
Its very difficult to take a picture of what it
looks like inside any of these buildings, but the
picture on the right gives you some idea of
scale. Its a custom in Armenian churches to
light a candle. At most of the churches we
visited, candles were on sale at the entrances
for 100 dram or so.
17
The End
I also have a few pictures of Yerevan, if anyone
wants them. Most of you took your own pictures of
the city. There were free-range pigs all over the
Armenian countryside, Jan, but I missed getting a
picture of one. Jerry claims to have seen a whole
herd of them at one point. It was so wonderful
working with all of you, and I hope to see you
all againmaybe at an AAHE meeting or something.
We can all have dinner together, complete with
toasts, songs, and stories about the flys
appendix. All my best, Martha
Picture from Childrens Encyclopedia of Armenian
Christianity. Trans. and ed. Vatche Ghazarian.
Yerevan Diocese of the Armenian Church of
America, 2001, p. 153.