The sole resident of Europe’s highest and most isolated village has revealed it is a powerful sense of duty that keeps him living there.
Irakl Khvedaguridze, 84, is the only qualified doctor in Georgia’s remote Tusheti region, which covers about 380 square kilometers.
While everyone has left his village, Bochorna, Irakl has remained there with his faithful horse, Bichola, who serves as his only companion all year round.
In a YouTube documentary by filmmakers Yes Theorythe eighty-year-old explains how he is committed to keeping the last parts of life alive in the mountains.
When asked if he ever thought about leaving Bochorna – which is 2,300 meters above sea level – he answers: ‘You also have to think about the well-being of others.
Irakli Khvedaguridze, 84, is the only qualified doctor in Georgia’s remote Tusheti region, which covers about 380 square kilometers
While everyone has left his village of Bochorna, Irakl has remained there with his faithful horse Bichola, who serves as his only companion all year round.
In a YouTube documentary by filmmakers Yes Theory, the eighty-year-old explains how he is committed to keeping the last bits of life alive in the mountains
When asked if he ever thought about leaving Bochorna – which is 2,300 meters above sea level – he answers: ‘You also have to think about the well-being of others’
‘I’m going to help people who are sick. Even if I’m sick myself, I still put on my hat and get on that horse.”
Tusheti has been inhabited for thousands of years, with sheep farming as its main industry.
However, as traditions steadily die out, many people have left the mountainous region.
According to the Georgian travel guidethere are 40 abandoned villages and 10 villages that are very sparsely populated.
Of the remaining communities, the majority have only one or two full-time residents, such as Bochorna.
Most villagers leave Tusheti in late September, as conditions during the high-altitude winter can be brutal, with temperatures dropping well below freezing and more than six feet of snow on the ground for months.
However, Irakli remains in his simple farmhouse in Bochorna with the wood stove burning so that he can respond to any emergency calls.
The dedicated doctor was born in the exalted village and had an interview with in 2022 National Geographiche explained the hold the old enclave has on him.
He told the publication: “My father, my grandfather, all my ancestors were born here. This area was ours.”
In another short film about his life, called Irakli’s Lantern, Irakli reveals that when he was in first grade in 1949, he remembers nine families living in Bochorna, but over time they disappeared and even his own children have left to seek a more modern lifestyle.
Irakli left home to study medicine in the Georgian capital Tbilisi and then took his first job at a hospital in another part of the country.
However, when the previous doctor serving Bochorna and the Tusheti region left in 1979, he began to rotate and moved there full-time in 2009 instead of retiring.
Irakli touches on what the future holds for Georgia’s mountain communities, saying in the new YouTube documentary that “things are going in a bad direction.”
He continues: ‘The lifestyle [has] changed. Nobody wants to work in the villages anymore.
‘If this continues, there will be no more winter tourism.’
Tusheti and the villages in the region have been inhabited for thousands of years, with sheep farming as the main industry
Irakli left home to study medicine in the Georgian capital Tbilisi and then took his first job at a hospital in another part of the country.
Irakli touches on what the future holds for Georgian mountain communities, saying in new YouTube documentary that ‘things are heading in the bad direction’
Irakli, who is partially blind, did not say whether anyone was lined up as his replacement
Yes Theory filmmaker Thomas Brag says: ‘Part of me hopes that younger generations will see the beauty here and reverse the inevitable disappearance of villages like this’
Irakli says the hardest part about his job and being so remote is, “When you have a really sick patient, you want to help, but you can’t.”
He reveals, “I’ve had a few cases like that. The palm of a 14-year-old boy was cut in half – blood flowed from the artery everywhere like a fountain.
‘We held his hand very tightly so that the bleeding would stop. Thank God Shamila, the pilot, immediately flew away and took the child with him.
‘It was very crucial for me when you want to help a dying child, but you can’t.’
Irakli, who is partially blind, did not say whether anyone was lined up as his replacement.
After sharing some wine and food with the Yes Theory camera team, the medic walks them to a church next to his house.
Inside the stone structure, which dates from the 19th century, he lights some candles and says some prayers “for the glory of my family.”
After saying goodbye to him, the Yes Theory team heads to a few more villages in the area, traveling treacherous roads along the way.
In a dilapidated village they find a couple who live there alone.
They explain that their son is a pilot, so occasionally he helps transport supplies, but mostly they are self-sufficient.
After exploring Georgia’s dwindling communities, Yes Theory team member Thomas Brag concludes: ‘Part of me hopes that some of us, in the younger generations, will see the beauty that is here and reverse what is currently the inevitable disappearance of villages as it appears.
“But maybe I’m just clinging to a romanticized view of what life in places like this should be like. Time is inevitable and resisting it can be a hopeless quest.”