GEORGIA - RESEARCH IN THE CAUCASUS BY DAMON DE LASZLO

THE KESELO FOUNDATION

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The Keselo Foundation
The Foundation "Keselo" was established by charter under the Civil Code of Georgia and is registered as a non-profit organization with the Ministry of Justice of Georgia. It is considered as an N.G.O.
 
The Foundation cooperates a.o. with the Ministry of Culture, the State Chancery and the Department of Monuments of Georgia.
 
Now that the political situation in Georgia has improved considerably with the election of a western-oriented President (with a Dutch wife) and a new generation has come to the fore, the Board will invite some Georgian public figures to join the Keselo Advisory Board.
 
The Board of the Keselo Foundation
Hendrik Hooft - Chairman
Eliane Hooft-Calkoen
Prof. Dr. Zaza Piralishvili – Member of the State Chancery of Georgia
Anzor Idoidze – Civil and Mechanical Engineer
Nugzar Idoidze
Historian and retired Commanding Officer of the Georgian Borderguards
 
Advisory Board assists with Special Projects and with Fundraising
Prof. Dr. Johannes Semler
Frankfurt am Main, barrister and solicitor, honorary citizen of Georgia
Mr. Gerhard A.Greidanus - Amsterdam, Banker and Financial Advisor
Mr. Willem O. Baron Bentinck van Schoonheten
The Hague, retired Ambassador, earlier stationed in Moscow
 

AIMS & ACTIVITIES OF THE KESELO FOUNDATION

 
So far, the Foundation has raised funds and paid for the rebuilding of five towers of the Medieval fortress of Keselo, above old Omalo in Tusheti, the repair of a monument in the nearby village of Dartlo and the restoration of a tower in Khiso, on the road to Omalo.
 
The 'canton' of Tusheti is the most easterly of a handful of mountain regions in the Georgian Caucasus and borders on Chechnya and Dagestan.
 
The aim of the Foundation is to help the people of Tusheti.
 
Like a few of the other tribes in the Caucasus, the Tush follow a traditional way of life, although all of them have gone to good primary schools and many are graduates from higher institutes  of learning under the Soviet system. The majority (appr. 16,000 people) migrate, with tens of thousands of sheep and thousands of cows, between their summer villages and pastures, and their winter homes in the wine-rich plain of Kacheti, where the villages of Zemo and Kverno Alvani are exclusively Tush. They are the only tribe in the Caucasus which to this day follow a semi-nomadic life.
 
In the mountains, their days are filled with looking after their sheep and their cows, with lambing, sheering, milking, cheesemaking and other pastoral pursuits and with haymaking and growing and harvesting the few crops which grow at these high altitudes. The Tush cherish their culture, rich in music and poetry, performed each summer at folk festivals where shepherds, villagers and relatives from the city compete with each other. As everywhere in Georgia, eating, drinking and hospitality are elevated to an art, almost a religion. Their pantheon consists of Christian saints, angels and pagan deities, venerated at shrines called chatti, often located in sacred woods.
 
All the villages are traditional. Even the capital village ofTusheti, new Omalo, has only dirt roads and not a single shop. But it is lucky to have an OCSE border- observation post and a daily helicopter service with Tbilisi, which takes civilians too. The village of Dartlo, not far from Omalo, is a UN heritage site; the whole of Tusheti has recently by an Act of Parliament been declared a National Park.
 
One of the aims of the Foundation is to stimulate, through its activities, the development of a balanced eco-tourism, aimed at selective, nature-loving visitors. Omalo, old and new, with the fortress of Keselo looming over its plain, is the natural base for such tourists. There is already a pleasant, rustic guesthouse with a sauna and excellent kitchen overlooking new Omalo, halfway up the slope to Keselo. Here horses and guides can be obtained for the intrepid traveler.
 
 
 
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