armenianow.com
July 30, 2004
Vacation Armenian Style: A pilgrimage to the rock of ages
By Gayane Abrahamyan
ArmeniaNow reporter
A big cave stands out against the background of a mountain opposite
the road leading to Geghard Monastery . Two holes like eyes seem to
peer from the rock keeping watch over the middle ages church. Anyone
who visits Armenia learns of Geghard. Not as many, however, know that
there was a time when the cave was a pilgrimage place where those who
managed to survive the impassible road lit candles for realizing their
dreams.
God made the cave; man made the rooms
It was (is) also a great retreat from summer heat and today has become a
leisure spot. Nobody promises ”rooms with European design and
twenty-four-hour hot and cold water”. But if your idea of a vacation (or
even a getaway) is untouched nature, relaxing sounds and the gurgle of a
river in an exotic environment, the Geghard caves offer it all. And Mother
Nature gives it for free.
For six years jeweler Robert Hovsepyan has been spending several rest days
in this cave and although he can afford to enjoy more comfortable vacations,
only here he finds complete harmony escaping from urban noise.
This time in his favorite cave he received his friend from Georgia painter
Maria Mehrabyan, who despite spending all her life in Georgia, has now
decided to settle down in her homeland.
This place is of particular importance for residents of the neighboring
villages. The cave, as they call it Tchgnavor’s Zagha (”cave” translated
from Turkish) or Kioroghli’s Zagha (”cave of a blind man’s son” from
Turkish), is a pilgrimage place for them.
”Even if somebody is planning to leave outside for work or is going to face
exams or he has a dream then they necessarily go to Zagha for lighting
candles and comforting their souls and only after that they do whatever
they’ve planned,” says 73-year-old Vazgen Kirakosyan.
The cave was once used by Geghard clerics who devoted themselves to an
ascetic life.
According to spiritual father of Geghard priest Ter Petros Malyan, there are
about 150 caves in the neighboring mountains of the church. There was a time
when these caves served clerics for a hermitage. They says there is even a
cave where Saint Grigor the Illuminator would live as a hermit.
Mountain-side solitude
According to Father Petros, these caves used to serve not only spiritual but
also defensive purposes. Armenian historian of 17th century Arakel
Davrizhetsi also bears record to that fact writing that during military
campaigns of Shah Abbas villagers were taking refuge in Tchgnavor’s Zagha.
However, cunning Persians burnt wet grass below the cave and smoke choked
women and children hiding in the cave. ”There were strange smiles on the
faces of choked people as if they were favored with eternal rest,” writes
the historian.
Of course, today this sad story has been forgotten and people hide in
Tchgnavor’s Zagha not from enemies but simply to escape from sun and
pollution and the routine life of the city.
For getting to the cave you have to walk a long road leading through thorny
briar bushes and over a stony river. If you can successfully overcome the
path then you reach the real challenge of climbing over the rock to reach
the cave entrance. The mania of reaching the cave fills even the most coward
visitors with courage. Regular visitors to the cave made the path easier in
some measure. They dug foot prints in the ground and fixed rope for safety
next to a 20 centimeter wide path leading over the rock.
After a few mountaineering jumps the rock is conquered and the huge cave,
which looked like a small hole when looking at it from afar, is before your
eyes with all of its beauty.
The cave is divided into several parts and only the first part is natural
while others were dug by visitors. Walls and ceiling of the middle-sized
rooms are completely covered in engraved graffiti, such as: ”One has to
have more power to live than to die”.
There was a time when clerics tasted that power of faith and life, isolating
themselves from comfortable life and settling down in this cave.
Big cave, small journalist
Robert Hovsepyan believes that in this cave people really experience new
feelings of self-assessment and self-knowledge and begin to look at life
with new standards.
”Many people like to visit this place. Sometimes it even happens when there
is no place to stay here,” says Hovsepyan, who passes through 40 centimeter
wide openings in the rock with the abyss below, as if walking around in his
house.
A most peculiar part of the cave is a place like a chair located on the edge
of rock fragment. It is a narrow ”armchair” dug in the rock, in which only
thin people can sit. The whole ”armchair” is in the air and it is
connected with the rock only by a small part. Its upper part pushes out
arch-wise and gives its guest a feeling of aloneness. This stone seat is
also an echo chamber sending even whispers circling back around its guest’s
ears. Perhaps it was meant for praying?
Almost every day guests go to Tchgnavor’s Zagha.
Varduhi Zohrabyan, a waitress at a café on the road to the cave says
tourists visiting them are very interested in that cave and even old
tourists venture to climb it.
”Every time I feel proud when foreigners say words of praise about our
Geghard and I also feel happy when they pay attention to the cave too,”
says Zohrabyan. “What do we have except for these beautiful, wonderful
monuments? We should be represented to the world by them.”