The Republic of Tajikistan is a mountainous landlocked country located in Central Asia. It shares borders with Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, the People’s Republic of China and Afghanistan. Most of the 143,100 square kilometer country is mountainous with over fifty percent of the land over 10,000 feet above sea level. The Pamir and Alay Mountains dominate the landscape. The capital is Dushanbe located in the western part of the country.
Following declarations of independence in neighboring Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan after the breakup of the former Soviet Union, the independent Republic of Tajikistan was proclaimed in 1991. From 1992-1997 they suffered a civil war between the government of President Rakhmon and the United Tajik Opposition. They are now in the process of strengthening their democracy and transitioning to a free market economy. Tajikistan remains the poorest of the former Soviet countries. Only 7 percent of the land is arable, with cotton being the primary agricultural crop. There are limited amounts of mineral resources, such as silver, gold, uranium and tungsten.
The official language used in Tajikistan is Tajik, a dialect of Persian. Russian, however, is still widely spoken. The population is over 7 million. The major religion is Islam with approximately 85 percent following the Sunni tradition.
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