Romanian-Polish project: Transhumance 2013
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Locality Rotbav, commune Feldioara, county of Brasov, has become the "Transhumance Centre" on the map of Europe following a project which included two Romanians, two Ukrainians and two Polish who began reconstructing the historical route of the Transylvanian shepherds? transhumance five-six centuries ago. The six shepherds started with 300 sheep, two donkeys and six shepherd dogs. The trip is part of a Romanian-Polish project called "Transhumance 2013", initiated by Foundation "Pastoral Transhumance " from Poland and Foundation "Transhumance" from Romania.
Pastoral traditions
"By this project we are trying to bring the shepherds` traditions and customs of a few hundred years ago back to present by proving, at the same time, that an important part of the cultural inheritance from this geographical region comes from the Transylvanian shepherds who started transhumance towards Ukraine and today Poland ever since half the 15th century " declared George Catean, one of the initiators of the project. "Transhumance 2013" aims at proving that the entire culture in the Carpathians region has a common basis in terms of pastoral traditions which influenced music, dances, costumes of people in the mountainous areas, their customs and day-to-day life.
1,400 kilometres route
Before starting, an important pastoral festival was organized with the shepherds? traditional customs: sheep mixture, taking the flock to prayers. The 1,400 kilometres route crosses Romania, Ukraine, Slovakia, Poland and the Czech Republic. The flock leaves from Romania, goes to Ukraine, gets to Slovakia (at the beginning of August); in Poland the shepherds participate in the "European Fair for Traditional Products " from Zakopane; on August 24th they shall stop in locality Koniakow and participate in the "Shepherd?s Fair"; the last part of the route will cross the Czech Republic (August 31st ? September 14th), the entire trip ending with a big celebration marking the end of the summer pasturage season.
Facebook page and website
The trip of the six shepherds can be followed on the Internet by all interested people. The web page of the project has already been launched: www.transhumance.pl. The first information on the project may be read here in Polish, Romanian, Ukrainian, Slovak, Czech and English and people can also make donations for supporting. Anyone can ?buy? a sheep from the flock, and at the end of the project he/she will receive the bell the sheep wore at its neck all along the way of transhumance. The Facebook page shall be launched soon, and the route of the flock can be followed step by step here.
