For some years now, a return to nature, to a bucolic life, and to a reconnection with the earth has been increasingly widespread in the West. We often wonder when we lost it, how we got lost in the frenzy of cities, why we’ve become caged in an existence of rushing and smog. Our concept of “return,” however, is associated with comforts we take for granted: electricity, heating, hot water, internet. Eastern Turkey, a region of high mountains and deserts, is the poorest area in the country. Aside from a few major cities, it lies in a remote and silent expanse. The people who inhabit it are mostly shepherds, living in stone houses and small villages, often without electricity or hot water, heated in the winter by wood, in lands where temperatures drop to -30°C (-22°F). What, then, is this bucolic life we so forgetfully long for? What are we really willing to do to return to nature?
