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The St. Vartan Stone
"The inhabitants of Maku carried this stone away with them during the deportations. It is said that Commander Vartan's blood was
spilled on this stone."
("Avandapatoum")
Vartenik Spring (Located near the Vartenik Village of Martouni)
"It is said that the waters of this spring have great power. The hair of whoever bathes in it and drinks of its water will
become golden in color, and silken in texture. Those who have kidney stones come and drink the waters and as a result the stone is dissolved and washes away."
("Avandapatoum")
Monastery of
St. Vartan (Located
in Old Nakhichevan, near the village of Astapat, on the Araxes River)
"The soldiers killed in the Vartanian War were buried there. That is why it is called the Monastery
of St. Vartan.
"To defend the monastery against enemy attack the local inhabitants dug a moat all around it and
filled it with water from the Araxes River. Then they spread straw on the surface of the water. When Tamerlane's troops mounted a sudden attack on the monastery they all fell into the water of the moat and
drowned. The monastery remained undamaged."("Avandapatoum")
Saint Vartan (Located near the village of Shorot, in Sisian)
"When the inhabitants of this village were being deported from Persia they took with them bags of soil from Commander Vartan's
grave. In their new place of habitation they built a new monastery on the soil they had brought, naming the monastery Saint Vartan."
("Avandapatoum")
Commander Vartan Chapel (Located south of Khor, near the Dokour River, on the summit of Red Mountain)
"Commander Vartan had hounded the head of the Persian forces and driven them to the nearby hills. To evade pursuit the Persians
had taken refuge behind a rock outcropping. Vartan had pierced the rock with his arrows and killed the Persians. And it was there, on the top of Red Mountain, in fighting with the enemy that Vartan was killed. The
chapel built there was thus named Commander Vartan Chapel."
("Avandapatoum")
St. Vartan
Monastery (Located near the village of Aregh, in Hayots Tsor)
"According to tradition, Commander Vartan's head is buried in one corner, though which, it is unknown. Thus, it is
called St. Vartan's Monastery."("Avandapatoum")
"Vartan's Tree" (Excerpt from the novel, "The Last Teacher" [pp 543-544] by Vardges Petrosian)
"Man lives hardly more than a half million hours. But a tree man plants may live a thousand times longer, because other hands,
generation after generation, can take care of that tree, though a man will die – after about a half million hours.
"Why do I write all this?
"Because I remember that sturdy oak that stands in the village of Aghdan. According to a tradition,
Vartan Mamikonian planted that oak, and that would mean at least 1,5000 years ago.
"According to another tradition, Vartan
had only rested under that tree; it would follow that 1,500 years
would be less than to mark the date of planting. "According to botanists that oak is at least 1,000 years old. Springs flow from beneath the roots of that tree. Its waters are frigid, and they have healing properties. Over
the years some hands (or nature itself) have scratched away some sol from around the roots. One might imagine that the tree is standing on sub-terrain columns. No matter how much men have removed soil, the roots have
supported the tree on massive shoulders. Over many years that removal of soil has continued, and now ten to twelve men can easily fit into the space between the roots. When I saw the three the spring just past, there
were twenty to thirty sheep there in the space between the roots. I was told they were all Mousayel Shahnazarian's sheep. (According to tradition, when, long ago, young men were to go into battle they first came to the
spring to drink of its water, and to whet their swords against the oak. It is said that now too, when Armenian boys are to join the army, they like first to gather together under that tree.) "Asking Mousayel Shahnazarian's
sheep to excuse me I entered the opening in the tree. I saw that its inner core had been burned out. I looked upward, through the gigantic charred flue. It seemed to me to be a cave . . . No. The dome of
Geghard, carved into the mountain rock. But, the dome was open on top, and light shone there, because that is where the carving had been started. The center core of the tree had been burned out two years earlier.
How had they done it? I was given two stories, both equally likely. Before retelling the first story I would remind the reader that three was regarded as a holy site, and I could see lighted candles in the core, and the
remains of hundreds of earlier burned out candles. Probably, once there had been many candles burning at the same time, and when the people departed they had forgotten to extinguish them. Then, during the night, the
core may have caught fire and then burned itself out. "The second story has it that is was simply the result of a fire. It had started raining, and spirited revelers, who until then have been seated by the spring, moved
their fire into the opening of the tree, under its core. Seated by their fire and apparently pleased that they had escaped the rain, they had drunk a few rounds of a strong drink, toasting the tree and our people – and then
the fire spread. "And when it spread, 'We called the fire-station, the fire-house,' they related to me. 'We were asked, "What's burning?" We said, "The tree." They said, "A tree?" No matter how much we
asked them, they didn't come!' "So the tree had continued to burn. "The people poured out of their homes. Those out on the roadways came to watch. A valiant effort was undertaken to save the life of the tree.
They did save it. But the central core remained blackened, a charred wound. I want everybody to feel the pain of that wound. "On the walls of historical buildings we attach plaques saying "Historical Monument Being
Preserved by the Government." We restore partially destroyed monasteries and fortresses, because those monuments are stone memorials of our people. But is not Vartan's oak also a historical monument? I would like
to put this question to Hamid Ayvazian, the director of the management of Nerkin Aghdan. Then later I thought, why only to him? "Man lives only about a half million hours. that tree has lived many billions of hours.
Then, how many billions of hours has that man lived who a thousand or fifteen hundred years ago planted the seedling of the oak . . .? "I am sounding a battle call – let us protect the life of that miracle oak. Yes, protect
it . . . from ourselves. Also from our love. Fires arise out of love too. "(We did not protect it. Years after I wrote these lines the oak tree fell. It fell as a belfry would, when the foundation stones
are removed.)" -- Vardges Petrosian |
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