1967

How lucky to be in Tehran in time for the Shah's coronation. We hadn't expected it, hadn't even known it was to happen until we got to Iran. We had been traveling for months, and although we bought TIME whenever we could find it, it had been some weeks now since we had seen a recent copy.

When we first reached Tehran, we had been directed to the only developed camp ground in all of Iran. After a trip south to visit Isfahan, Persepolis, and Shiraz, when we returned to the camp ground some miles outside Tehran, we were greeted by the young man who owned it by "Your friends are expecting you."

"Friends!, What friends?" We knew of no friends in Tehran.

Shortly after getting settled in our space and while starting supper, there was a knock on the door.

"You must be the Johnsons, " a pleasant voice greeted us. "I am Lillie Douglass, and we are here with the Larsons whom you met in Finland some months ago. The Larson's are camping on the Embassy grounds. Ky is a reserve officer, and has that privilege. But we are going to move in to Tehran in the morning to a parking lot in the center of town, and if you'd like to join us there, we'd be glad to have you."

So it happened that we met the Douglasses from Sidona and later we traveled with them for several months through Pakistan, India, and Malaysia.

So during all of the festivities surrounding the coronation, we camped in a dusty parking lot with very primitive facilities, but right in the center of everything - just a few blocks from the American Embassy where a few years later so much frustration occurred.

Just outside our parking lot were the millions of colored lights strung across the streets and around the doorways of shops. Tehran in that time was a dazzling sight, and seemed so happy without the turmoil which was to engulf it later.

We had obtained tickets for seats to watch the Coronation Procession and were taken out by bus. The women on the buses were foreigners, and all wore ordinary street clothes, but other women in cars were "dressed up". Some cars went by with men who seemed to be wearing academic robes. Other men were wearing white tie and tails. The women, when there were women, were wearing light colored party type dresses and light colored hats. Among the women on the street more seemed to be wearing white chadors, the all enveloping robes which were usually black. But I saw an older woman get out of a cab with a short dress and high heels, but covered with a white chador. I saw mixed groups in which some of the women were wearing the chador, and others not. Iran then was becoming westernized with fewer restrictions on women.

School girls dressed with dark blue skirts and different colored blouses were seated across the meidan from us and boys wearing dark pants and white shirts sat in rows above the girls. They all sang from time to time during the proceedings.

It wasn't long before a parade of marching contingents of army, navy, air force, and foreign delegations started passing by the grandstand on the boulevard. There were soldiers in ordinary khaki, walking, and horsemen with full dress uniforms. For two hours we watched possibly 17 groups pass by. The most unusual and interesting were Pakistani bag pipers dressed in black pants and a rusty-red jacket.

Finally, horsemen in full regalia led the way through the meidan, and then we saw the Shah and his wife in an elaborate blue coach drawn by six black horses. They were on their way to Gulistan Palace where the Shah was to be crowned King of Iran, and his wife, Queen. In another coach, drawn by eight white horses, was the little prince, not quite seven years, who was to be named the Crown Prince.

We didn't see the crowning ceremony, but heard the cannons booming after the ceremony. During the interim, the Pakistani bag pipers gave us a very entertaining program of marching and music. Three drummers among them wore tiger skin shawls, and the bag pipers wore an orange and brown plaid shawl over their rusty-red jackets which made a pretty pattern as they marched.

The blue coach with the newly crowned King and his Queen, now wearing their crowns, returned, followed by the Crown Prince's carriage. They drove around the meidan, followed by a few other cars bearing family members and officials. The Imperial coach continued through the city for all to see, and covered by TV cameras. That was the end of the Coronation Procession for us, and we walked back to our car. It had been a great show.

The Shahanshah Mohamed Reza Pahlavi refused to have his coronation until Iran could be freed from the moribund remnants of feudalism. He had been ruler for 26 years and had led a popular revolution. Kings had been crowned in Iran for two and a half thousand years.

A few days later we visited the Bank Melli to see the crown jewels. The crowns worn a few days earlier had been replaced in this vault in the basement of the bank which was closed with a heavy vault door.

It was a large room, dimly lit, except for spot lights on each jewel case. Cabinets stood all around the sides of the room, and five cases stood in the center. At the front was the case with the Shah's crown made of red velvet and set with these dazzling jewels, mostly diamonds, emeralds and pearls. This crown is not new, but was worn by the Shah's father who had risen from a general in the army.

The second case had the Queen's crown which is new, and was made especially for her in Paris from a design that she had selected from a number of designs shown her. It is made of green velvet and the stones are alternating emeralds, rubies, diamonds and pearls. These stones were already in the crown jewel collection and are worth millions of dollars. We thought it a very graceful design.

In the third case was another crown made of red velvet and with mostly diamonds and pearls. It wasn't as attractive and maybe not as rich as the present Shah's crown. Next came a case with a globe of the world, made of emeralds, rubies, and maybe sapphires but mostly just the red and green. This was a marvelous creation. Finally came a case with the Peacock Throne, and this was fabulous with hundreds of precious stones. In the cases around the room were ornaments once used by the royal court, and quite a number of pieces were missing, since they were presumably out in use by the Queen and probably other members of the Royal Family. There was a case which had handfuls of emeralds, and a whole chest full of seed pearls. There were chest pieces, belt buckles, watches, rings, brooches, and many pieces which we didn't recognize. There were also enameled pieces, vases and lamp bases. One case had vases, lamp bases and jewelry with turquoises, and these were beautiful, I thought.

We had read that one of the biggest diamonds in the world was in this collection, and we had thought it was in the Shah's crown and had looked for it, but decided it wasn't big enough, so we inquired. An attendant took us to see the Sea of Light, the Darya-i-Noor diamond which is a mate of the Kohr-i-Noor in the crown jewels of England. It was the center piece of a head dress with some costumes which were lavishly decorated with seed pearls.

Many of these jewels were brought from India by a former ruler in the early 18th Century, but there had been a good jewel collection in Iran before then. Many of the jewels were given as gifts to other states, as was the Kohr-i-Noor.

This collection surely outshone the crown jewels in the Tower of London, and they were much better displayed, and I think they were a more lavish collection than the jewels in Topkapi in Istanbul, or the jewels in the Kremlin Museum. I have never seen anything like it.

The jewels no longer belonged to the royal family at that time, but were the backing for the Iranian currency. They also, of course, have oil resources, so their currency should be stable, and we heard of no Black Market here.

The ten days we spent in Tehran were a pleasant interlude in our many months traveling around the northern hemisphere.