{"id":236,"date":"2012-02-08T07:50:06","date_gmt":"2012-02-08T07:50:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ouritalianfarmhouse.com\/ourstory\/?p=236"},"modified":"2025-07-30T09:06:46","modified_gmt":"2025-07-30T09:06:46","slug":"a-funeral-in-the-clouds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ouritalianfarmhouse.com\/ourstory\/2012\/02\/08\/a-funeral-in-the-clouds\/","title":{"rendered":"A Funeral in the Clouds"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Sunday\nI felt better after a bout of flu and Jim wanted a drive, so we set off\nmid-morning to visit Jvari, a sixth-century church and monastery above\nMtskheta, the ancient Georgian capital, a 20-minute drive from Tbilisi.  After missing the mark (\u201cis THAT the\nroad???\u201d) and doubling back, we got on the right track and jounced six\nkilometers up steep and winding, pitted asphalt.  Along the way we passed a cowherd, gender obscured by thick\nlayers of clothing, feeding evergreen boughs to two long-haired beasts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\ncrested a hill and saw the church directly ahead; it seemed suspended in the\nair, somewhere between mountain and cloud.  Then we noticed the parking lot, definitely terrestrial and\ncrowded with a tour bus, sedans, and SUVs, all parked without regard for\ngeometry or cardinal direction. \nJim parked at the far edge of the crush and we picked our way over\npuddles of mud and snowmelt to the steep walkway leading to the church.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The\nstone pathway was well trafficked, groups of young men in open jackets lighting\ncigarettes on their descent; couples and families climbing together, holding\nhands; a slow-moving, solitary man blowing his nose on a plaid handkerchief as\nhe mounted the pavement.  I turned\nand snapped a few photos of the Kartli Range, snow caught in folded valleys and\npeaks marching northeast toward Tusheti, the wild country along the Chechen\nfrontier.  The wind blew colder and\nstronger the higher we went; near the top of the hill we veered off the path\nand across the pale grass to admire a view of the River Mtkvari and the red\nroofs of Mtskheta.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Mtskheta and the river, with the Cathedral at center<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Chilled\nand windblown, we sought the shelter of the church but could move no further\ninside than the doorway.  The\nsanctuary was filled with people, all standing and most holding lighted\ncandles–small, thin tapers of sweet-smelling beeswax.  Frankincense perfumed the air, and polyphonic\nchanting, an unseen choir of female voices, rose into the rough stone vaults\nand the dome above.  Jim motioned\nthat he would wait outside, but I stayed a few minutes more, breathing the\nsanctified atmosphere and taking the music into my heart.  As I turned to leave, beside the door I\nsaw an assortment of headscarves hung from simple wooden pegs; in Orthodox churches,\nwomen cover their heads and men remove their hats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I found Jim in a sunny corner out of the wind, a trio of other men standing nearby, smoking and talking in low tones.  \u201cI think it\u2019s a funeral,\u201d Jim said quietly, and the details fell into place – so many young men, in groups or alone, among the crowd; the hushed solemnity; the constant traffic in and out of the church – these were mourners, not sightseers or regular Sunday worshippers.  After that we walked around to the rear of the church, where we admired the restoration work being carried out by the Georgian Patriarchate, UNESCO, and others.  We saw a hearse drawn up at the foot of a stone stairway.  Yes, a funeral.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We\ntook another long look at the cloud-ringed mountains, climbed back into our\ntruck and drank mint tea from a thermos while we looked at maps to get our\nbearings.  Then we drove back down\nthe long hill (the cowherd and cattle had made some progress toward the high\npasture) toward Mtskheta, looking for lunch.\n\nThe place we found was a\ntypical Georgian roadside restaurant with several indoor dining rooms, outdoor\nterraces for warm weather, and ranks of small private dining huts, each with\nits own fireplace, table, and up to eight chairs.  We sat indoors near a fireplace on low, three-legged stools\nand ordered all our favorite Georgian specialties: lobio<\/em>, a spicy soup of red beans; tomato and cucumber salad;\nroasted eggplant; shashlik<\/em>, shish\nkebab of pork or beef with grilled onions; and just a few khinkhali,<\/em> big steamed dumplings filled variously with minced meat,\nbuttery saut\u00e9ed mushrooms, salmon mousse, potato, or kasha.  Georgians order them by the dozen and\neat them with nothing but beer or wine, but we like them as part of the full\nsmorgasbord.  Jim settled the\ncheck, which came to less than $20, and we strolled the empty terraces before\nturning toward Tbilisi, our own fireside, and a Sunday nap.  \n\n\n\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Sunday I felt better after a bout of flu and Jim wanted a drive, so we set off mid-morning to visit Jvari, a sixth-century church and monastery above Mtskheta, the ancient Georgian capital, a 20-minute drive from Tbilisi.  After missing the mark (\u201cis THAT the road???\u201d) and doubling back, we got on the right track
+ Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-236","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-at-home-in-georgia","category-other-places-other-times"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ouritalianfarmhouse.com\/ourstory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ouritalianfarmhouse.com\/ourstory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ouritalianfarmhouse.com\/ourstory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ouritalianfarmhouse.com\/ourstory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ouritalianfarmhouse.com\/ourstory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=236"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/ouritalianfarmhouse.com\/ourstory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1311,"href":"https:\/\/ouritalianfarmhouse.com\/ourstory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236\/revisions\/1311"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ouritalianfarmhouse.com\/ourstory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ouritalianfarmhouse.com\/ourstory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ouritalianfarmhouse.com\/ourstory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}