Area:
804,000 sq. km
Capital:
Islamabad
Population:
141.6 million
Government:
Federal Republic
Time:
GMT + 5 hrs
Religion:
Islam
Power:
220 V 50 Hz
Cities:: Kalash Valley
HISTORY
The history and background of this primitive tribe and its 3,000 people is still shrouded in mystery, as are the lofty peaks that house the Kalash valleys. Some historians say that they were slaves to an Afghan tribe called Red Kafirs, and were to be persecuted. To escape it, they had crossed the valley and settled in what we know today as Kalash. Other historians have come up with the suggestion that they have descended from Bactrian colonies, many of whom could boast of Greek ancestry, which resulted from Alexander's campaign through the sub-continent. Still others delve deeper and link them to the five soldiers of the legions of Alexander, who settled in Chitral. This is not all, for there are documents that speak the contrary; historians have noted that Alexander came across wooden boxes of a strange type, which were chopped by his troops for the purpose of making fire. It need not be clarified that these 'wooden boxes' were coffins that contain the dead and are not buried. Further, these people are aptly described as a light skinned race who can pass off as Europeans. Hence, their generations have continued till the present day. It may have been that not much skilled in fighting, they had not resisted invaders and preferred to move further into the Hindu Kush. Another possibility suggests that because they had rejected Islam, they were forced to migrate from the plains and set up settlements in the mountains. As hostile forces intruded deeper into the northern areas of the sub-continent, they had ventured ahead and finally settled against the south icy wall of the Hindu Kush mountain range.LANGUAGE
Chiefly a blend of Sanskrit and Greek and belonging to the Dardic Group, Khowar is the language of the Kalash people. However, Kalashamun is the closest to Khowar. Khowar has 42 phonemes, several of which do not exist in any other regional language. Khowar lacks a written documentation. The idea of scripting it in an Urdu or Roman based writing script has failed to gain popularity.RELIGION
As is the case with animists, the Kalash believe in an omnipresent god, worship images and offer sacrifices to the gods. Greek gods and goddesses, such as Zeus, Apollo, Aphrodite, Pan and Hestia are still accepted deities. But to infer that the invading Greeks left their religious legacy to the Kalash does not carry much appeal because the Greeks did not pass through Chitral, nor did they stop or stay for long. They just used the area as a passage and even that passage lay within fifty miles of Chitral. A more valid explanation would attribute the Kalash and the Greek religion to the same origin, the proto-Indo European religion. This, along with the Indo European language, was brought to them about 3,000 to 4,000 years ago.FOOD
The Kalash cling to religious superstitions that tend to associate taboos with certain dietary items. They do not feed themselves on eggs, chicken and poultry. Subsequently, vegetables, fruits and nuts meet their dietary needs. Corn is the chief food item; it is either roasted on the cob or ground into bread. Potatoes and tomatoes are occasionally served as part of a meal, but in small quantities. Cheese made of sheep' milk may also sometimes appear on the table. Kawa is the traditional drink. While working, people chew grapes, apricots, mulberries and walnuts. Though prohibited in Pakistan, the Kalash use mulberries and grapes in the making of a local wine that is of a low grade and its consumption is restricted to special occasions. Mulberries are also dried in the sun and stored for the winter months.ARCHITECTURE
Walnut timber, rocks and mud/clay are the ingredients used in the construction of a typical Kalash house. To be more precise, these are built with stone and wood while cracks are stuffed with stones and pebbles. Made by hands and very rustic, these houses bespeak of the skills and craftsmanship of these people. Standing on the hillside, it faces the rising sun. Remove from the scene the corn drying on the flat roofs and they would simulate alpine chalets. Some houses in Birir are built on lofty stilts because of their location in the flood zone.WOMEN AND APPEARANCE
Kalash men dress so roughly and poorly that women, when compared to them, seem to be at a fancy dress show. Dressed in trousers that are baggy, coats that are unkempt and cloak that are made of rough goatskin; they spend their days in the cold and rugged Kalash region. Some men also wear a Chitrali cap that is decked with a flower or a feather. Unlike the Muslims, they do not wear a beard but have a moustache. Unlike the Pakistani women, Kalash women do not hide themselves in pardah. Their garment is a long black gown. Cotton or a coarse cloth is used during the summer season, which is replaced by homespun wool dyed in black during the winters. Its hem and wrists are embroidered in bright colors. A long, thickly woven sash is used to pull in the dress at the waist. Though simple in style, their jewelry is quite colorful. It comprises of bracelets and numerous strands of necklaces. The most commonly used stuff includes brown seeds and China beads that are red, yellow, white and blue in color. All women wear earrings and some adorn their shoulders by a silver brooch. Above this, what most holds attention is their head dress, whose shape varies from valley to valley. It is usually made of woolen black material and ornamented with pompoms or a large colored feather on the top; the hood is beautified with metal buttons, coins, red beads, white cowry shells, trinkets that fall on their back and similar objects set in rows.Women do apply make-up, but of a primitive sort. Its use is limited to festivals and other celebrations. This make-up is obtained by various means - burning the feet of a red-legged partridge produces a powder that is applied as make-up. Moreover, goat horns, when melted, yield a paste that is applied on the face. This also acts as a protective agent against sunburn. Also charred twigs are used to sketch patterns on the face. A lipstick would probably make no sense to them until, perhaps, you apply it on your lips to familiarize them with its use. They wash and comb their hair once is every three days, employing the stream as a looking glass. The hair is never cut and is made into five or seven plaits with the middle one knotted in the front.
CULTURE & TRADITIONS
The Kalash people follow traditions and relate folklore that bear no similarity to its counterparts in other areas of Pakistan.Being a pagan tribe, it clings to superstitions. A woman's comb, for example, is considered unclean, and the tradition goes that it is kept under a stone at the side of a stream. This may sound absurd to the ears of a modern person, but the Kalash are comfortable with it, accepting it as we accept our respective religions without questioning.
According to one of the customs, women leave their house and family and move to a building called Bashleni, which has been set aside for them to stay during menstruation and for childbirth. They move in the house some days before the expected labor, and return after the birth of the baby. Painted with stylized animals, it is also a shrine to Dezalik, the goddess of birth. The building is only entered by 'unclean' women because of the belief that a clean person might also get contaminated by the impure. Meals are left at the door by other female relatives. If a mid-wife is needed, she must enter naked, as are all the other women in the building. After the period, the women take a bath to cleanse them, dress, and rejoin their family. The cycle is repeated very month. An equally illogical custom dictates that a woman must not eat, or even touch a male animal that is to be sacrificed or already sacrificed. Only female animals can be killed and consumed by them. Moreover, irrespective of their religion and ethnic origin, some holy places are shut to women. The drudgery and restrictions meet some compensation in the respect bestowed on women in the role of child bearers.
Those who abide by the more orthodox traditions, especially those who live in Birir, follow a custom by which a woman who is childless is served by a young shepherd chosen by the elders of the tribe on the basis of his looks and physical strength.
When the summer season sets in, he gathers his flock and leaves for the mountains. Here, he leads a hard life, for he survives on the little he gets from the land and some special food sent by the villagers up the mountains. He returns in September, when the festival of Phool takes place, and is welcomed in a grand fashion. This event coincides with the end of the harvest, and homage is paid to the gods for the ripening of fruits, especially grapes. The joy is complete with the preparation and consumption of wine, cheese and corn. Grapes are crushed by virgin boys, who hold a prominent place in local customs. The Spartan shepherd is also rewarded with the hand of the most beautiful girl of the tribe - to use our usage; they are Mr. And Miss Tribe. It is believed that this practice saves the tribe from dying out.
Taking death as a form of escape from the toils of life, the demise of a tribesman asks for festivity, and not sorrow. The corpse is carried to a temple in a walnut coffin, where it is kept for three days (according to some, the duration is seven days). During this time, the relatives of the deceased inhabit the temple and spend the time in eating, drinking and dancing. However, there is no dancing if the corpse is that of a female. The corpse is finally carried to the graveyard but not buried; it is left there with a few of its personal belongings. It is probable that animals ward off the lid of the coffin, either exposing the skeleton or scattering the contents. It has also been known that people open these coffins to steal the contents other than the corpse. Due to land sliding, the corpse meets a natural burial. With time, the practice of erecting temples on the corpse has been given up.
EVENTS AND FESTIVALS
The Kalash amuse themselves by numerous festivals that are intricately related to dancing and music. One of the most popular is the spring festival known as Jhoshi or Jyoshi, and celebrated on the 14th and 15th of May. The festival is meant to thank the gods and welcome the spring with new hopes and aspirations. Flowers are used to embellish houses Animals are sacrificed and women are assigned the task of sprinkling milk on Jestak, the female effigy.Then there is the festival of Chomas or Chitras, which falls on the 25th of December. (Some accounts say that the festival begins on the 18th and ends on the 22nd of December.) The event is organized to thank the gods for animals, fruits, crops and sufficient food storage for the winters. Mountains are reserved as a meeting place for men (though it is freezing cold), and women gather in the valley. Each group fulfils the sacred rite of sacrificing an animal. Then in the light of torches, they start walking towards each other. In the dark of the night and without a lantern or a torch, a native would be more comfortably walking and escaping the hollows in the ground. The tourist runs the risk of losing balance and falling. On reaching the village, the villagers march into a hall for dancing. Thereby follows a night of dance and festivity that knows no end till dawn. The music is neither intricate nor complicated, and at times, borders on monotony. It flows in a different strain when juxtaposed with Pakistani music. With the passing of the night, the slow drumbeat complemented by whistles shifts to a faster beat. The pairs formed for dancing engage their hands such that their right hand rests on their partner's shoulder while the left is wound round their partner's waist. You will also catch sight of a bold girl dancing alone, her dance invested with overtones of sexuality. The dancing, too, changes with the beat - dancers begin with a bored expression but switch over to a movement so fast that their bare feet barely seem to touch the ground.
While dancing is condemned in Pakistan on religious grounds, the Kalash firmly believe that dancing purifies the spirit and defeats evil. Some tourists have mentioned that every night, the girls of the valley dance around a log-fire. Other than this, you may also come across a simultaneous performance of different dances, when people in a group engage in different dances. Men generally stand around, sharing tales and drinking wine. Some travelogues say that you have to pay a certain amount to the headman of the village if you want to see the dance of the Kalash women. This has led some anthropologists to conclude that the presentation of the Kalash as a noble savage is a false myth; its creation has provided tourist agencies with exotic stuff that can be used in the exploitation of tourists.
PEOPLE
Massive poverty reigns in the region. The main occupations open to the people are agriculture, cattle rising, sheep and goat keeping - all pertaining to the soil. Women give a hand in all sorts of jobs except ploughing, which is exclusively for men. In the summer season, women irrigate the corn fields and harvest wheat while men take the goats to pastures at a higher level. Women work without haste and often take a break to gossip and laugh under the shady trees.Fruits, walnut trees and grain crops are cultivated at a height of about 1800 meters. These terraced farms are small and watered by means of irrigation channels. During the summers, cattle is taken to pastures on a higher level while winter sees them in stables that are above the villages and around evergreen oak woodlands. This utilization of natural resources at various levels has made families - in possession of a hectare of arable land and a few score goats - a self sufficing unit.
Natural resources abound in the Kalash valleys and these have made possible their agro-pastoral survival. While hill slopes in Chitral are denuded, they are crowned with thick forests of holm in the Kalash area. In winter, they provide firewood for household and fodder for goats. This enables the Kalash to possess livestock in larger numbers as compared to their Muslim neighbors. Crop yields too are much higher than reaped by small farmers in Chitral. Within an altitude of 2000 meters, you will also come across arable terraces and alluvial fans. Watered through irrigation channels, they are suitable for double cropping. The valleys can also boast of harboring about half of the conifer forests in the Chitral District. These can be found at a height of about 2,300 meters and comprise of pines forests and Himalayan cedar. Beyond these, sedge and course grass form alpine pastures.
KALASH TODAY
The Kalash are ill treated in their own land, for Tablighi Pathans kidnap Kalash girls to marry and 'chastise' them by force. They women are shut away from their families until they embrace Islam. Many of these face the embarrassment of being sold at auctions. Men are equally harassed, for they are circumcised without their permission. The word 'kafir' in inevitably used with the Kalash. Being inhuman and unjust, it is no less than a humiliation and a means of psychological harassment. The conversion of the kafirs to Tablighi Islam can be attributed to the poverty of these people. In want of money, they borrow from the Tablighis, but this means more trouble because they have to pay a high rate of interest. Unable to pay off these loans, they either have to declare themselves Muslims or submit their properties to the Tablighis. Being kafirs, they are not entitled to loans from the government. The police and the judiciary side with the Tablighis, not bothering to take notice of the atrocities to which the kafirs have been subjected. Rambor remains the most 'original' valley of the Kalash, as it is the only valley where the Kafir Kalash is in a majority. Green fields give way to craggy rock faces. As compared to the other valleys, this is less green, narrower, less accessible and less visited. The sheep remains the most important animal because it is a source of milk and wool. However, goats are the more reverenced as they are sacrificed to the gods, and goat husbandry is considered a sacred activity. Except perhaps for the carcass, nothing of a sacrificed goat goes waste. It is cleansed of every bit of fat. The skin serves as a bed, and is also used in the making of shoes and garments. The hair is utilized in weaving. The slaughter of young goats for commercial purposes is secondary to their sacrificial feasting. Unsuccessful attempts have been made to end such irrational practices. Neither have they succeeded in controlling funerary feasting nor in tutoring them in the art of efficient marketing. The pastures are being ransacked by the non-Muslim refugees who migrated from Afghanistan in the 1890s. Daily necessaries, like tea, sugar, salt, yarn and cotton are sold at a few shops in Bumboret. Not long ago, barter system was the medium of trade. This mechanism is collapsing due to inflation, which has made the traders reluctant in accepting a goat, an embroidered shawl or a bag of walnuts as payment. Subsequently, the Kalash have been compelled to sell their land and walnut trees, thereby living off their own property as tenants. Despite hardships, the Kalash are a welcoming and candid people. They live together in harmony, so much so that one gets the impression that the fruit trees are the property of the whole community, planted by no one and harvested by all. Though invaded by tourists, they seem unruffled and un-agitated by the hordes of explorers and cling to their quiet, unaffected pastoral lives. Allured by a cheerful spirit, they grab every opportunity to indulge in music and dancing. While Muslim houses and worship places are facilitated with electricity and tap water, these are denied to the Kafirs. The winters are even worst; bereft of lights, hot water and heaters, snow is melted to quench thirst. Wood is used to make fire. Humans and animals live together for the six winter months and the living area also serves as a toilet; this gives a clue to the condition of cleanliness and sanitation. The curriculum of all government schools (all Muslim) comprises of Urdu, English, mathematics and Islamic studies. Few Kalash girls are enrolled while boys attend these schools. Little medical aid is available to the Kafirs. The Tablighis go about in jeeps while hardly any Kafir has any sort of a vehicle. Owing to their diet, they are physically weak and unhealthy. Go closer and it will not take you long to know that they rarely bathe themselves.GETTING THERE
The Kalash live in twenty villages in the three valleys of Bumboret, Birir and Rambor, which are at a distance of 40 kilometers, 34 kilometers and 32 kilometers respectively from Chitral. Chitral is the gateway to the Kalash Valley, connected to it via a jeep road. It would take you four hours to travel the 32 kilometer road from Chitral to Kalash; this is an indicator of the condition of roads in the area. The journey follows an icy cold river that flows down into the valley. Then the traveler finds himself driving on the top of a pass 2,743 meters high. One is even higher than the kites flown by those in the valley. Looking down, the Bumboret Valley (the largest and the most beautiful of the three valleys inhabited by the Kafir-Kalash) cuddled in the Hindu Kush charms the sight.
