“Bulgaria
has changed swiftly over the last decade, though in the villages
you can still find folk who ride the donkey to work, eat
homegrown potatoes and make their own cheese. The difference
now is that they wash it all down in front of a satellite
TV. When Bulgaria ran away with the topsy-turvy capitalist
circus, no one told its people they were swinging without
a safety net. But what the visitor encounters now is a country
struggling valiantly to adapt and people who remain remarkably
hospitable in the face of social and economic chaos. Urban
Bulgaria, especially Sofia, the capital, is much changed.” (www.lonelyplanet.com)
Bulgaria,
a Republic in the southeast of Europe, borders the Black
Sea to the east, Greece and Turkey to the south, Serbia and
Montenegro and the Republic of Macedonia to the west, and
Romania to the north along the River Danube. It is one of
Europe’s oldest countries. The territory is divided
into 28 regions, each headed by a regional governor appointed
by the government. In addition, there are 263 municipalities.
The southwest of the country is mountainous, containing the
highest point of the Balkan Peninsula, peak Musala at 2,925
m., and the range of the Balkan mountains runs west-east
through the middle of the country, north of the famous Rose
Valley. Hill country and plains are found in the southeast,
along the Black Sea coast in the east, and along Bulgaria’s
main river, the Danube in the north. The climate is temperate,
with cold, damp winters and hot, dry summers.
Most
citizens of Bulgaria are at least nominally members of the
Bulgarian Ortrhodox Church founded in 870 A.D., the independent
national church of Bulgaria. Like the other national branches
of Eastern Orthodoxy, it is considered an inseparable element
of Bulgarian national consciousness. The church has been
abolished, or rather reduced to a subordinate position within
the Greek Orthodox Church, twice during the periods of Byzantine
(1018-01185) and Ottoman (1396-1878) domination, but has
been revived every time as a symbol of Bulgarian statehood.
In 2001, the Bulgarian Orthodox Church had a total of 6,552,000
members in Bulgaria (82.6% of the population).
*
* *
A
coat of arms is, “a tabard or embroidered pennant attached
to a trumpet blazoned with bearings, usually depicted on
and around a shield that indicates ancestry and distinctions;
a representation of bearings. A tabard is the “a short
heavy cape, surcoat or tunic of coarse cloth formerly worn
outdoors in the Middle Ages by a knight or herald over his
armor.” Bearings are, “the manner in which one
carries or conducts oneself; awareness of one’s position
or situation relative to one’s surroundings.”
One
would not expect coats of arms to be an issue in this day
and age, but in Bulgaria, President Zhelyu Zhelev officially
abolished the emblem of the People’s Republic of Bulgaria
in December 1990, making it the only country in the world
without a coat of arms. For nearly five years and through
five governments, the political and intellectual elite argued
over the coat of arms, even as polls showed that much of
the public was uninterested in the issue. The battle lines
were drawn around the crown. One group favored Bulgaria’s
historical coat of arms or a new design that incorporated
the crowned lion within a crowned shield, found in the traditional
coat of arms. The other argued that the crown was a symbol
of monarchy and thus inappropriate to a republic.
Bulgarian
tsars had personal emblems depicting lions in the 14th century
and, as early as the 15th century, a crowned lion on a shield
was presented as the Bulgarian emblem throughout Europe.
But the crowned lion was the center of much controversy.
Neshka Robeva, a trainer of rhythmic gymnastics and former
world champion, said that she, “wanted to feel like
the citizen of a state and not of a zoo,” and favored
a crowned lion. She added, however, that for her the most
appropriate emblem for Bulgaria at that moment would be a
donkey stumbling over a bridge.
Finally
in 1997, the coat of arms pictured here was adopted. This
was the one first used by Bulgaria since Communist rule was
ended in that nation in the early 1990’s. The emblem
has two lions supporting a shield with a lion on it. It is
topped by the crown of Bulgarian King Ivan Asen II. At the
bottom of the shield is the Bulgarian national motto: “Uinity
Makes Power” in Cryllian text. The three lions represent
the three major portions of Bulgaria—Moesia, Thrace
and Macedonia. The crown on top of the shield, and thus upon
the shielded lion, is not that of the last Bulgarian monarchy,
but that of the second Bulgarian monarchy (1185-1396). This
monarchy, the second Bulgarian empire, was established by
the brothers Peter and Asen, after it was freed from Byzantine
control, and before it was subjugated by the Ottomans.
A
coat of arms such as Bulgaria’s is an important representation
of a people, a country, and a culture, containing important
and memorable iconography of the history of their bearings.
Even the most cursory look at the history of Bulgaria indicates
memories of bearing up under struggle. The Bulgars, a Central
Asian Turkic tribe, merged with the local Slavic inhabitants
in the late 7th century to form the first Bulgarian state.
In succeeding centuries, Bulgaria fought with the Byzantine
Empire to assert its place in the Balkans but, by the end
of the 14th century, the country was over run by the Ottoman
Turks. Northern Bulgaria attained autonomy in 1878 and all
of Bulgaria became independent in 1908. Having fought on
the losing side in both World Wars, Bulgaria fell within
the Soviet sphere of influence and became a People’s
Republic in 1946. Communist domination ended in 1990, when
Bulgaria held its first multiparty election since World War
II and began the contentious process of moving toward political
democracy and a market economy while combating inflation,
unemployment, corruption and crime. Today, reforms and democratization
keep Bulgaria on a path toward eventual integration into
the EU. The country joined NATO in 2004.
Even
as all this history was unfolding, in 1951 the “father
of Bulgarian concert folk music”, Philip Koutev, established
the Ensemble of the Bulgarian Republic. His goal was to join
the rich heritage of his country’s solo folk songs
with harmonies and arrangements that highlighted their beautiful
timbres and irregular rhythms. One year later, the Bulgarian
State Radio and Television Female Vocal Choir was founded.
Then as now, its members are singers from the rural regions
of Bulgaria, each an informal apprentice in the folk songs
of her home. The ensemble, now under the direction of conductor
Dora Hristova, has refined Koutev’s original idea into
a fine art. The Choir’s imaginatively arranged songs
join traditional folk melodies with sophisticated harmonies
and compelling rhythms, performed in an exotic six-part vocal
style. Repertoire is drawn from arrangements created by Bulgaria’s
most esteemed composers, among them Mr. Koutev, Krasimir
Kyurkchiyski, Nikolai Kaufman and Petar Lyondev.
The
distinctive sounds of Bulgarian folk singing come from the
many cultural influences experienced under the rule of the
Tartars from central Asia and the Ottoman Turks. Many Asian
elements can be heard in the use of modal scales, dissonant
harmonies and rhythmical and metrical variety. The diaphonic
singing tradition of two voices moving in parallel seconds,
sevenths or ninths along with the metallic vocal timbres
is preserved in the many arrangements. To western ears, this
style of singing seems very strange. The acappella singing
is occasionally accompanied by traditional instruments, such
as the kaval and the fiddle-like gadulka. Though the true
folk style is dying out, these songs are preserved in modern
versions, which combine folk with classical elements creating
a new art form. Let us take note that in this enterprise
Mr. Koutev and Ms. Hristova merged the music of their country’s
oppressors and Bulgaria to create a new music, using female
voices.
This
manner of strong traditions blended with evolving culture
is reflected in many of Bulgaria’s festivals and celebratory
events. Marked by ritual songs, dances and costumes, they
offer visitors perhaps the best glimpse into the country’s
folkways and customs. The traditions of the Thracians, Slavs
and Bulgarians have been blended into a folklore and lifestyle
variety that amazes experts. The world has started talking
about the Mystery of Bulgarian songs and dances. A Bulgarian
Rhodope folk song, together with Beethoven’s Ninth
Symphony, traveling to the stars with Voyager spaceships
is the Bulgarian message to alien civilizations. The world
is discovering it again and again at major folklore and song
contests in Italy, France, England, Ireland, etc., from which
the Bulgarian music and dance ensembles invariably walk off
with the first prizes.
Landmarks
in Bulgaria include many cathedrals and monasteries, and
many tourists travel to Bulgaria to see and even stay at
these cultural heritage locations. The short list of monasteries
on a tour would include the Rila, Dragalevtsi, Etropole,
Klisura, Kokalyane, Kremikovtsi, Osenovlak, Pravetz, Ruen,
and Zemen monasteries, but there are many, many more. Other
tourist destinations include the ancient town of Nicopolis,
the tomb of Silistra, a Magoura cave with drawings from the
bronze age, the rocks of Belogradchik, the town of Melnik,
many parks and two Neolithic dwellings with interior and
household furnishings and utensils completely preserved.
* * *
Vocally, in addition to singing
and dancing, Bulgarians speak Bulgarian, and read and write
Bulgarian, using the Cyrillic
alphabet. Because it’s the official alphabet, most street
signs, road names, etc. are written in Cyrillic, bearing absolutely
no relation to how they would appear if written in the Roman
alphabet.
If you were to ask Greek men of
letters, “Who
created your letters or who translated your books and when was
that?” it would seldom be that any of them knows. But if
you ask a Slav child who is learning its ABC’s “Who
created your alphabet?” or “Who translated your books?” all
of them would know and they would answer “Saint Constantin,
the Philosopher, called Cyril; he and his brother Methodius created
the alphabet and translated the books.” And if you were
to ask when it was, they would know and would say, “It
was in the lifetime of the Greek King Michael, of the Bulgarian
King Boris, of the Moravian Prince Rastitsa and of the Blatenian
Prince Cotsel,” and they would say that it was in the year
6363 of the creation of the world (855 A.D.). That was when the
brothers Cyril and Methodius of Thessaloniki (the largest city
in Bysantium) retired to a monastery to dedicate themselves to
evangelizing the Slavs. By 862, they had created an alphabet
of Slavonic script and translated the fundamental liturgical
books into Slavonic languages. Canonical recognition of the Slavonic
alphabet came in 879 when the Slavonic books were sanctified
by Pope Johann VIII. For many years, Europe had only one patron
acknowledged by canon law—Saint Benedict. Then, in 1979,
Pope John Paul II proclaimed the creators of the Slav alphabet,
the Bulgarians Cyril and Methodius, to also be patrons of Europe.
Until the invention of modern printing
machines, books were copied by hand. In the Orthodox world
the copying
of manuscripts continued almost until modern times. The initial
letters were an important element in the design of the medieval
Bulgarian book. Their alphabet is also the Cyrillic, and still
today most Slavic countries, including Russia, use an extension
of that alphabet. In Bulgaria, you will find not a subset, or
an extension, but the pure Cyrillic alphabet of the original
30 letters. The Old Bulgarian language is a basis for the creation
of Russian, Serbian, Slovene, and Croatian variants and gained
the significance of a universal literary Slavonic language. May
24 is celebrated throughout Bulgaria as “The Day of Slavic
Alphabet, Bulgarian Enlightenment and Culture.” The enthusiastic
celebrating of the day of the Saint brothers Kiril and Methody
by all Bulgarian people is a positive proof of their thirst for
enlightenment and science, for national self-defining and fast
economical and cultural advancement, their bearings. It is a
holiday that has no analogy among other nations—a holiday
of spiritual rising, perfection striving for scientific and cultural
achievements.
In any country it is the religion,
the music, the folk traditions, dancing, the literature that
help the inhabitants
keep their bearings in an increasingly complicated and shifting
world. In some cases, like Orthodox religion, power must be wrested
from others to maintain cultural faith. In some cases, as in
the music of Bulgaria, the bearings shift as the music of others
is fused with the traditional sounds. In still others, as in
the Cryllic alphabet, a firm commitment is made to honor the
history and maintain the historical heritage. In relation to
the coat of arms of Bulgaria, compromises are made to incorporate
the wishes of all the people. These human activities have in
common the fact that they occur on the surface of the earth:
power struggles, fusion, honor, compromise. And below these occurrences
we find common ground, the place where all controversies and
countries fuse into one planet, where the word “honor” is
never heard, where compromise does not exist, because these are
man’s issues and the soil of the earth is and always has
been quietly existing beneath all man’s posturing and proclaiming.
Bulgaria’s story is a good example of how
the “dirt process” often goes in this project: Anastasia
Chames, of Los Angeles, California, was the liaison between Common
Ground 191 in Laguna Beach, California and Georgia Nelson, in
Bulgaria, who works for the Peace Corps along the Turkish border. “Georgia,
Thank you for your call. Hope you can bring some dirt from Bulgaria.
See you in July. Leave the soil with Litsa, just in case I don’t
make it to Athens when you’re there!”
So, Georgia collected soil from
Ludga, a village between Cverachi and Ivaylousrad--“beautiful black rich
soil, from a village (where I’m living at this time) called
Ivailovgrad (ancient Greek name Ortakio). I collected the soil
here, placed it in the jar, as I was going to Athens. I left
the jar with cousins in Athens, left Greece, and returned to
Bulgaria.”
Then Anastasia went to Georgia’s cousin’s
in Athens, picked up the jar and delivered it to her cousin,
Fanis. Anastasia is of Greek heritage; her father was born on
Greek soil in Calabrica and her cousin, Fanis Lampropoulos lives
there. It was Fanis who collected soil from Greece and then shipped
both containers to Gary at Common Ground 191. Anastasia is currently
working on finding volunteers for soil collections in Israel
and Equador.
As we at Common Ground 191 continually
adjust our project’s bearings to adapt to these sometimes
confusing pathways on the surface, it is people like Anastasia,
Georgia
and Fanis who are ultimately our guides, traveling the world,
making friends, and generously sharing their time and good will
to further the Common Ground 191 story by carrying these little
jars of earth. Our gratitude goes out to all the friends of Common
Ground 191 who are creating the new bearings for a unity of all
soils of the planet.
