Folk wisdom sums it up, “There is a feast for the eyes in the forest, and there is an order for the soul in the desert”. The animals in the sand oasis that successfully reincarnated as metaphorical heroes of edifying narratives and stories, help us understand ourselves. A thinker Niyazkuli at-Turkmen, who lived in Bukhara at the dawn of the 19th century, wrote, “Nature is a step to understanding high spirituality and deep morality.”

Several teachers and a group of students from the Agricultural University in Ashgabat have been staying with the shepherd’s camp of an experienced shepherd Ahmet aga for the second day. The future young specialists and their teachers came to study the behaviour of herd animals, methods of livestock care and treatment and effective grazing strategies. The guests became so attached to the good-natured shepherd within a couple of days that Ahmet aga became for them not only an expert in desert sheep breeding, but also a wise interlocutor.