About song

Gogale says that this is a song to sing for a timid guest, one who needs the encouragement to eat and drink more!

About song

A panduri¹ motif played by Shalva Suarishvili, Gogale's relative.

¹A three-stringed, fretted lute common in all regions of northeastern Georgia. The instrument is most frequently used to accompany ballad singing.  Read more about the panduri here.

About song

A patriotic song about life and death in the mountains of Khevsureti where the singer is from.

There is no English translation available for this song. If you are able to provide one, please include it in an email to TsutisopeliProject@gmail.com and we will update the page.

About song

About song

This is a gvrini¹ from Khevsureti.

To hear other gvrinis, visit the pages of Imeda Likokeli and Tekle Badrishvili.

¹The gvrini is a lament from Pshavi and Khevsureti, traditionally sung by men while haying to commemorate the souls of the dead.  George Charachidze talks about the gvrini in his 1968 book, Le système religieux de la Géorgie païenne: analyse structurale d’une civilization, and the following explanation is based on his writing:

Traditionally during a funerary ceremony in Khevsureti or Pshavi a woman is possessed by the dead soul and becomes an oracle through which the soul communicates with the living.  The ensuing lament that the soul communicates through the oracle is silently memorized by the men in attendance, who are not allowed to vocally mourn in any way during the ceremony.  Before the men go out to the fields on the first haying day of the year, a feast is held in the name of the most recently deceased. Only after this ritual feast occurs and only under the supervision of the mountain priest are the men allowed to bring their scythe into contact with the grass.  The Khevsurs and Pshavs believed that the afterlife was under the ground, and therefore that the motion of swinging the scythe close to the ground to cut grass was symbolically entwined with the Land of the Dead.  As the men began to mow on the first haying day of the year, they sang the gvrini that the dead soul communicated to them at his funeral. Through this lament they paid homage to the souls of the dead.

About song

Khirchla was a reputable hero from Khevsureti, a highland in northeastern Georgia.  Kists¹ were so scared of him that they paid him tribute by giving him a sheep or a lamb per village. The Kists brought these victims themselves to sacrifice at Khirchla's santuary, Gudani.  When sophisticated weaponry came into the region, the Kists were the first to acquire it. Suik'a Amaishvili, a Kist, is said to have found a rifle by the ocean and created more of them for his village. It is said that still today the khevisberi² of Gudani toasts to Khirchla, who lived by the sword and died by the bullet.

¹People of Chechen ancestry living in the Pankisi Gorge.  Read more about Kists here. 

²A Valley Elder in the northeastern highlands of Georgia. This term historically referred to a local elected leader, responsible for the political and military life of his community.  In contrast, a dekanozi was the chosen head priest in charge of the shrines and spiritual life of his highland community.  By the 19th century, as the dekanozi began taking on the responsibilities of the khevisberi and the two titles merged into one.  Today this leader is responsible for tending to the local mountain shrines.  In Khevi, Mtiuleti and Tusheti he is referred to as the dekanozi, whereas Pshavs and Khevsurs use the term khevisberi.