TEHRAN – For 14 years, the remote and eco-friendly village of Kaare Bala has welcomed wildlife enthusiasts to its unique “Journey to the Habitat of the Iranian Ray Jay” festival. The festival is an annual event that brings residents and visitors together to celebrate and protect one of Iran’s rarest native birds.
The festival is part of a community conservation program to protect the bird, which is found only in Iran. The Iranian jay, known in Persian as “zag bul” and nicknamed “running fool” by older local villagers and scientifically identified as Podoces pleskei, is a sandy-yellow species that inhabits desert and semi-desert scrublands, especially the tamarisk-saksaul sand plains.
Located at the gateway to Turan National Park, Iran’s largest UNESCO biosphere reserve, the village of Kaare Bara enjoys a harmonious coexistence with this bird and other amazing wildlife such as the Asian cheetah and Persian onerager.
Kaare Bala village is located in Shahroud Governorate, Semnan Province, in the northeastern part of Iran’s central desert. Located in a hilly area with a hot and dry climate, the village is famous for its impressive architecture, formed from local materials such as adobe, mud, stone and wood, which give the houses a deeply authentic traditional character.
This year again, the Zague Bourg Festival was held in this beautiful village. The celebration was lively with the presence of local residents in traditional costumes, visitors from various states, environmentalists, bird watchers, Turan National Park rangers, and several local and national officials.
Various ancient cultural ceremonies were held in the central square and in the village’s central alleys, including traditional wedding ceremonies, tal and matar rain-making ceremonies, wooden stick dances, local music performances, and rain puppet shows. Each of these traditions reflected and revived the cultural identity and intangible heritage of the Calais Barra people.
“This year’s event once again highlighted the efforts of the villagers to present Kaare Bara as an environmentally friendly village. Efforts such as the unveiling of the Iranian Jikakes statue made from scrap steel conveyed a clear message from local artists about the importance of recycling, reducing waste and protecting the village’s natural resources, especially the Jikakes.”
“The use of cloth bags embroidered with designs of Iranian jays and other traditional, natural and local symbols continues to serve as a sustainable alternative to single-use plastic bags. Made by village women, these bags are recognized as one of Kaare Bala’s 300-year-old handicrafts, demonstrating the art, culture and entrepreneurial spirit of village women.”
The local market in the village, organized with the participation of local residents, sells local products based on pomegranates, apples, plums, grapes, etc. (grape syrup, fargel sauce, lavasak (fruit peel), pomegranate paste and sauces, jams, syrups, vinegar, distilled liquids such as rose water, medicinal herbs, etc.). Several stalls showcased the local wildlife diversity of Turan National Park by local youth and ecotourism activists.
During the festival, visitors will stay at the Kaare Bara ecolodge and experience authentic rural life in one of Iran’s earliest villages to develop community-based ecotourism. After the United Nations launched a project to protect the Asian cheetah in 2002, some villagers donated some of their land to Turan National Park for conservation and in return shifted to tourism and the establishment of ecolodges. In these traditional adobe houses, guests can enjoy authentic local cuisine such as abgusht, gandom polo, and a variety of traditional and oily breads, along with foods such as dano, ashkeneh, dighi, goluti, and local soups. A natural herbal drink made from thyme, kakuti, mint and rose adds warmth and authenticity to village hospitality. Among them, the special traditional dish “Dano” is the most popular and is served to tourists every year during the festival.
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