The village of Dorvan is located in a cold, mountainous, and snowy region, approximately thirty kilometers away from the current city of Karaj, in the southern foothills of Central Alborz. Among the villages in the Alborz Province, Dorvan is situated at the highest point. After Dorvan, there are no other villages along the path of the 4,000-meter-high Alborz mountains, but there are many villages to the south. Central Alborz has numerous rivers flowing through it, making it a very pleasant and fertile area with many orchards. In Dorvan, two rivers named the Big River (Gat Rokhaneh) and the Small River (Khord Rokhaneh) merge and flow southward.
The river formed by these two eventually joins another river from the west in Barghan, passes through Siakaran, and flows into another river in Vardeh, then reaches Jolangdar and finally Kurdan, from where it spreads to the villages of Savojbolagh. The Central Alborz region also has a significant amount of underground water reserves, which have formed over thousands of years and are still used by the people today. In spring, when the snow on the peaks melts, there is abundant water in the region. During times of heavy rainfall and flooding, the water even reaches Lake Qom. Central Alborz has approximately ten to fifteen habitable areas, all of which have a pleasant climate. The higher-altitude areas are engaged in livestock farming, while the lower-altitude areas focus on gardening.
In the past, most villages had landlords, but not Dorvan and the villages in the foothills of Central Alborz. Because there was not much income, landlords were not interested in buying these areas. The people of Dorvan were comfortable but could only manage themselves. They did not have additional income that would attract landlords and influential individuals from the country. These people were free; everyone had their own piece of land to live on and several herds in the mountains, taking advantage of the good climate.
Back then, the management of life was different from now; people lived very comfortably. Nowadays, life is completely different and bears no resemblance to the past. During the fall, the people of Dorvan would secure their year’s supply of food. At the end of most houses, there was a place called “Pasine,” meaning behind; in Pasine, they stored everything, such as flour, chickpeas, beans, and legumes. Among the things they did, they dried fruits like plums and apples for the winter. For example, they would pick the apple stems, cut them into quarters, and then dry them. When it was time to use them, they would soak them and eat them. Women with taste would dig up ten or twenty clumps of kale and tie them together. In winter, when the snow covered everything, they would make a delicious soup with fresh kale, yogurt, and dried whey. They also stored carrots, potatoes, and beets. They kept onions outside; it was a type of mountain onion they would pick and fry in oil. The eldest woman in the family managed the household and handled all the economic affairs, including how much flour to prepare and how much rice, and so on. Dorvan did not have agriculture; there was very little cultivation, mostly rain-fed, on the slopes of the mountains. At that time, people cultivated wheat and black chickpeas, which were known as “Ranginak-Sanginak,” similar to the current variety of lentils. These crops were grown with dry farming techniques, and each measure of wheat would yield four measures. They used to say, “One seed gives four seeds.” In Karaj, however, they would sow one measure and harvest twelve measures. Well, this amount of wheat was not sufficient, so the people of Dorvan would buy the wheat they needed from other places. Those who were financially weak would grind barley and make bread from it. There were ten mills in the village, but they operated on a rotating basis. Each week, a different family would take charge of the mill, and the people of Dorvan would have their wheat or barley ground and stored in Pasine. After grinding the wheat, some bran would remain, which they usually mixed with various ingredients and ate with cheese, honey, wheat, rice bran, and meat stew. They would pour some of it into their food, making it tasty and aromatic.