De anteriores visitas à bela vila histórica de Trakai, descobri que um dos pratos tradicionais da Lituânia é o Kibinai. O que eu desconhecia era que este prato de facto não é lituano mas Karaim. A questão a partir deste momento era saber quem são ou quem eram os Karaims.
Os Karaims (ou Caraítas) são um povo turco de religião judaica, que se encontram principalmente na Crimeia (Ucrânia) e na Lituânia. Nesta última, mais especificamente em Trakai e Vilnius, encontram-se ainda 200 membros deste povo, dos quais 50 ainda falam Karaim (os únicos no mundo que ainda falam Karaim).
Ontem em quanto caminhava pela Rua Karaim em Trakai, descobri um templo religioso Karaim e um museu etnológico dedicado a este povo. Vale a pena visitar.
DEIXO-VOS ALGUMA INFORMAÇÃO WIKIPEDIANA EM INGLÊS, PARA O CASO DE QUEREREM SABER MAIS SOBRE OS KARAIM:
Karaims in Lithuania:
The origin of the Karaites in Lithuania is much better documented and agreed upon by the scholars. The Lithuanian Karaites originated in Crimea. In 1392, the Grand Duke Vytautas of Lithuania defeated the Crimean Tatars and relocated 330 Crimean Karaite families to Lithuania (Schur 1995). They settled primarily in Vilnius and Trakai, maintaining their Turkic language; there has been further minor settlement in Biržai, Pasvalys, Naujamiestis and Upytė. Despite a history through the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries that included disease, famine, and pogroms, Lithuania was somewhat less affected by such turmoil than surrounding areas. As a result, Lithuanian Karaim had a relative sense of stability over those years, and maintained their isolation as a group, keeping their Turkic language rather than abandoning it for the local languages (“Karaim Homepage” 1998).
Distribution of Karaim speakers:
Today, there are Karaim living in Crimea, Lithuania, Poland, Israel, and the United States. However, there only remain about 200 Karaim in Lithuania, only one quarter of whom are competent speakers of the Karaim language (Csató 2001).
Karaim can be subdivided into three dialects. The now-extinct eastern dialect, known simply as Crimean Karaim, was spoken in Crimea until the early 1900s. The northwestern dialect, also called Trakai, is spoken in Lithuania, mainly in the towns of Trakai and Vilnius. The southwestern dialect, also known as the Lutsk or Halich dialect, spoken in Ukraine, was near-extinct with only six speakers in a single town as of 2001 (Csató 2001). Crimean Karaim is considered to make up the “Eastern group,” while the Trakai and Lutsk dialects comprise the “Western group.”
Language health:
Most dialects of Karaim are now extinct. Maintenance of the Karaim language in Lithuania is now endangered due to the dispersal of Karaim speakers under the Soviet regime post-World War II and the very small number and old age of fluent speakers remaining (Csató 2001). Children and grandchildren of Karaim speakers speak Lithuanian, Polish, or Russian, and only the oldest generation still speaks Karaim.
LINK WIKIPEDIA:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karaim_language