The culture of Tajikistan has developed over several thousand years. Tajik culture can be divided into two areas, Metropolitan and Kuhiston. Modern city centres include Dushanbe, Khudjand, Kulob, and Panjikent.
Religion
had been adopted by Persian emperors as a state religion, and was practiced in Central Asia as well. It eventually declined after the Arab conquests. The largest celebration in Tajikistan to come from the pre-Islamic period is Navruz, which means "New Day". It is held on March 21 or 22, when the cultivation of the land starts. During Navruz, many families visit relatives, throw out old belongings, clean the house, and play field games. Special dishes are also served. Other pre-Islamic Tajik traditions like fire jumping, dancing round the fire, and fighting 'devils' with fire, still occur in the more remote regions. Tajikistan's government has shown intolerance of some religious faiths, such as Jehovah's Witnesses, and has demolished religious buildings.
Cuisine
Tajik cuisine has much in common with Uzbek, Afghan, Russian, and Iranian. It is known for dishes such as kabuli pulao, qabili palau, and samanu. The national food and drink are plov and green tea, respectively. Traditional Tajikistani meals begin with small dishes of dried fruit, nuts, and halva, followed by soup and meat, and finished with plov. Tea accompanies every meal, and is often served between meals as a gesture of hospitality. It is often drunk unsweetened. Tajik cuisine offers a large variety of fruit, meat, and soup dishes.
Tajikistan's film industry dates from 1929. The first official movie studio, called Tajikkino, began operation in 1930. In 1935, Tajikkino started producing movies with voice-over. Some experts believe 1970-80 to be the golden age for Tajikfilm. Subsidized by the government, the studio was able to produce about six feature films each year. Examples of Tajikfilm's success during the Soviet times are such movies as The Legend of Rustam, The Legend of Rustam and Siavoush, and The Legend of the Smith Kova, based on stories from Ferdowsi's Shahnameh; First Morning of Adolescence, which tells the life story of people living in Badakhshanin the beginning of the Soviet Empire, when its army was still struggling with the Basmachi movement; a trilogy New tales from Shaherizada, based on Arabic tales One Thousand and One Nights. Among prominent Tajik producers are Valeriy Ahadov and Davlat Khudoynazarov. After the breakdown of Soviet Union and the civil war in Tajikistan, Tajik cinema went downwards. The studio mainly survived by taking small foreign orders, and produced only a few of its own movies. Mohsen Makhmalbaf's film Sex & Philosophy from 2005 was set and produced in Tajikistan, as was the film Angel on the Right by Jamshed Usmonov from 2002. Other Tajik movies produced in the past two decades include: Kosh ba Kosh, Business trip, and Luna Papa.
Traditional centers of Tajik literature were Samarkand and Bukhara, however these cities are now in Uzbekistan. In recent history, Tajik literature has been predominantly social realist. Though Tajiks do not draw a line, between their own literature and general Persian literature, there have been a few notable Tajik writers and poets. The standardization of the Tajik language has shaped Tajik literature in recent decades as well.
