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Located in the North West Frontier Province of Pakistan and in the south
of Chitral, Kalash is a fascinating pagan tribe secluded in the Hindu Kush.
The lifestyle of its people is a living image of what the European
community once was in the medieval age. This may be because they were set
apart from the world for centuries and had lost interaction with its
inhabitants, thereby following their unique customs, culture, and religion
since 400 BC. What claims interest is the fact that the pagan tribe is
enclosed and isolated in a Muslim country. Some tourist writers have
looked upon it as a manifestation of nature itself, for their religious
and social customs are strongly rooted in their natural environment.
Known to the world as the Kafir-Kalash, it may sound ironic, and even
skeptical to many that while Kafir and Kafiristan mean “Infidel” and “land
of the infidels” respectively, this land, with its waterfalls, lakes,
forests, wildlife, green fields, wheat and corn crops, apricot, apple,
walnut, pear, peach and mulberry trees canopied by a blue sky that holds a
mellow sun brings to mind the idea of a paradise. The picture is complete
with delicate and ravishingly beautiful women.
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.
Quite a number of mountain tribes in Pakistan have Greek blood, and
Kalash, with its short dark and tall fair people is no exception. It is
likely that the difference between the dark, olive skinned and the tall,
Aryan-type Kalash women results from a difference in class and ancestry.
This statement is supported by the way they reacted when photographed by a
tourist; the former was not hesitant in demanding money while the latter
had tossed back her head at the prospect. Her manner and appearance showed
that she belonged to some aristocratic family.
Prior to the birth of Islam, Kafiristan also included the southern part of
Afghanistan. Talking in terms of political history, neither the Muslim nor
the British rulers meddled with these people, leaving them at peace but
simultaneously contributing to their isolation. At the time of the British
rule, western historians were so amazed at the physical similarity between
themselves and the kafirs that they accepted them as belonging to their
own stock. Subsequently, the kafirs were given a free hand and allowed to
indulge in their primitive customs, such as drinking wine, promiscuous
dancing and free sex.
The kafirs met a tragic fate in Afghanistan near the close of the 19th
century, when the rulers declared their intentions of wiping away every
kafir from their territory. Here we have an un-Islamic version of Islam
being used as a tool to decimate humans, for kafirs were either to convert
to Islam or face a death penalty. The campaign ended in success, for
Afghanistan entered the 20th century cleansed of infidels. Even the names
of their villages underwent Islamization.
Before the early 1970s, the Kalash existed as a legend to the outside
world. Stories of comely women enclosed in a celestial landscape prevailed
in the air. About thirty years back, the government discovered the area as
a valuable asset to hook foreign tourists. The national media took it up
and it emerged on the scene as a famine-hit land. Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, who
was the Prime Minister of the country at that time, came to the rescue and
visited the area twice in the early 1970s by helicopter. He initiated
minor welfare projects along with distributing donations. Primary schools
and medical dispensaries were set up in the valleys, and rough, jeep roads
constructed to link them to the country. Tragedy, however, cannot be
averted for long, and for the Kalash, it re-surfaced as an annihilating
force fiercer than before. The Islamic Revolution in Iran in 1979 and the
jehad in Afghanistan backed by the CIA inspired the religious groups and
the military dictatorship of Pakistan to strive for Islamization in their
own country. The Kalash were targeted around 1981, when a mosque was built
on a forcefully occupied cultivated land in Bumboret. This was only the
beginning, for between 1981 and 1995, about 70 percent of their land was
in the hands of the Pathan Tablighi groups and the Afghan refugees. The
seized land was utilized in the building of seminaries and mosques, which
apparently serve as centers of Islamic education, but also tutor students
in the techniques of warfare. The trained are then used against the
Muslims as well as the non-Muslims, especially the Indians. Above this,
the Afghan refugees had no scruples in destroying the forests and
wildlife. This was an irreparable damage, for the cattle could not nourish
itself well on sparse vegetation. The kafirs were being stripped off their
already meager means of livelihood.
And then began the forced conversions. The Kalash were informed that they
could only live in Pakistan (the land of the pure) as Muslims. This is
synonymous to leaving them without a choice, for any place beyond their
own valleys is frightfully foreign. While many kafirs were been killed
simply because they refused to convert, no kafir is permitted to arm
himself with a gun.
It ought to be stated that development schemes continued through the
1980s, under Zia-ul-Haq's military regime. Main projects revolved around
the building of bridges, irrigation channels and flood protection walls.
It was in 1982 that Kalasha representatives on the Chitral District and
Union Councils could contest for local elections. Though they could not
participate in district political elections, they could enroll with a
national minority constituency of non-Muslims. This resulted from appeals
to Zia to safeguard them from the steamroller of his Islamization. It has
been estimated that the Ministry of Minority Affairs spent 10 million
Rupees on development funding during the 1980s.
In 1983, the Agha Khan Rural Support Programme (AKRSP) was extended to
Chitral. Their goal was to promote cooperative Village Organizations, and
to accomplish it, they invited the Kalash people to come up with
suggestions related to 'Productive Physical Infrastructures' that would
contribute to an increase in income. The end of the decade saw more than
20 Kalash Village Organizations that opted for the construction of new
irrigation channels, with donations worth Rs. 4 million. Launched in1987,
another program was meant to equip these groups with engineering, resource
management and entrepreneurial skills. It also meant to instill gender
equality within the framework of their culture. Many Women’s Organizations
have sprung from it; these work for the market gardening of vegetables
plantation of trees. Other than this, they provide credit and technical
assistance for pesticides and chemical fertilizers, introduce
high-yielding varieties of maize and wheat, and innovative techniques in
livestock breeding. However, projects related to the environment are not
as popular amongst the people as are those dealing with increased
production.
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.
Mahandeo (the male god and guardian of hunt) and Jestak (the custodian of
the home and family) are worshipped as the chief deities, especially in
Bumboret. Other aspects of life and livelihoods safeguarded by the gods
include crops, fruits, animals and so on. The ritual of sacrifice is
conducted such that men sacrifice a male goat to Mahandeo while women
offer a female goat to Jestak. Like all pagans, they have a firm faith in
fairies and demons, and apply simple logic to interpret natural
phenomenon. Thunder, for example, implies fairies fighting on horseback;
bad weather indicates the violation of something sacred or the
contravention of a taboo, such as a chicken or a woman nearing some scared
site.
The wooden effigies of gods are a common sight in the valley. Some can be
seen standing while others squatting on totem poles. The latter has
buttocks so vividly marked that they do not escape notice. Hilltops are
reserved for the leading sacrificial temples. Carvings, especially on and
around the pillars, ceilings and doors surface on the wooden temples. The
Mahandeo temple in Bumboret has been sketched by Lieutenant-Colonel M.
Afzal Khan (the author of Chitral and Kafiristan and also the commander of
the Chitral scouts in the earlier part of the twentieth century) as a low
building with no window, hence without any outlet for soot and the smell
of animal fat (with which it seem to be filled). Carved goats’ heads are
used as a means of adorning its entrance.
Embracing Islam (even if it is being used by some as a garb to preserve
their own religion and identity in an Islamic country) means a radical
change in their lifestyle; it has affected their customs, diet and
clothes. Women are obliged to give up their fantastic, colorful costumes
and opt for pardah. As is the Muslim rite, the dead must be buried instead
of being left in the graveyard. Though the sacrificial ceremony is
observed on Eid-ul-Azha, the pagan custom of passing its head through
flames and sprinkling blood on those standing by is no longer observed. It
would not be a hard to locate a mosque in the valleys, even in the
predominately Kalasha village of Brun. One can sense the friction between
the pagans and their Muslim neighbors, who outnumber them. Yet, there are
instances of the Kalash marrying into the Muslim families. With the
encroachment of civilization, the world is fast becoming bereft of its
truly pagan inhabitants.
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.
Mapping a typical Kalash house is quite easy. You set foot into a broad
veranda by climbing a notched log. The place is used for drying corns and
fruits. Moving upstairs, you are confronted with two rooms that are
windowless, blocking the view of the valley. The tough and hard life of
the Kalash leaves little room for an aesthetic appreciation of the
scenery. Or maybe because they toil all day in the beautiful valley that
they are unmindful of the view. Still, the design serves a practical
purpose; it contributes to the warmth in the winter months.
In the summer season, women cook in the verandah while during the winters,
one of the rooms is used as kitchen. This is a small area where women cook
on a hearth in the center. A hole has been made in the center of the
wooden ceiling to provide an outlet for the smoke. The other room is
larger and brought in use for multiple purposes; it passes for a living
room/lounge, a dining room and a bedroom. A constant fire dimly lights the
rooms but this fire has also blackened them. Small stools make up the
little furniture in the room. Macedonian suns and stars are incorporated
in their carpentry for the purpose of embellishment. Animal skin serves as
a bed. The little light that comes through the doorway is lost in darkness
when its source sets behind the mountains. The house has no toilet or
bathroom; these arrangements are made outdoors.
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.
However primitive and uncivilized they might be, the women succeed in
attracting you with their gait. It would not be exaggeration to say that
their walk bears the sophistication of a Paris model in her cat walk. The
effect is most likely produced by their head dress that falls down on
their back to the waist and weighs about three to four pounds. Since the
age of five, this is worn by every female member of the tribe.
As is the case with women of the undeveloped, rustic areas of our country,
the Kalash women lead a hard life, a life none of us would qualify as
'happy'. They toil indoor and outdoor, and consequently, some women die as
young as at the age of forty. This short life is further enclosed in
taboos and customs.
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.
The low consumption of natural resources can be attributed to well manage
efforts and strategic planning made effective through traditional
institutions. A 'constabulary' of youths is appointed on annual basis to
coordinate religious events and subsistence activities. They are also
entrusted the task of supervising the clearing of irrigation channels in
spring, the ascent and descent of herds, and the banning of fruit and
walnut harvest during the summers.
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.
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.
With little flat land available for agriculture, farming has to be carried
out on the mountains. This does not yield enough to feed the population,
and hence the shortage of food. The situation has been complicated by the
cutting and selling of Kalash forests by the Forest Corporation of
Pakistan and other big shots, for livestock are a source of income for the
common people, and cattle depends on forests. The vanishing trees also
pose the threat of soil depletion, corrosion, and mudslides. Nothing has
been done to compensate the loss. As their natural environment is being
corrupted, the Kalash are more in need to legal rights than money or
technology to protect and control their natural resources, especially the
forests. It is a fact that with due support from the government, resources
are better managed in indigenous hands rather than by development agencies
from the outside world, though these may be sincere in their intentions.
Due to the dwindling of resources, the Kalash are bound to crawl out of
their traditional life and opt for living in the commercial zones of the
country.
It need not be said that the Kafirs and their culture is on the verge of
bankruptcy. Yet the Tablighis have not succeeded in effacing them from the
face of the earth, though it was projected in the 1980s that the end of
the century would see no Kafir in the area. Intending to preserve and
propagate Kafir culture, the government of Pakistan has set up the Kalash
Foundation. However, the truth remains that the organization has actually
done nothing positive for the Kafirs other than slowing down the spread of
the Tablighi version of Islam. It may be a matter of great concern to the
World Wildlife Federation that barely 5,000 tigers can be found in their
natural habitat; the 3,000 Kalash are a concern of none. With the
Tablighis wholeheartedly pursuing their mission of converting the pagans
to Islam, it is likely that the present century would envisage their
extinction. Their culture would meet the fate of all indigenous cultures;
it would be swept away by the metropolitan culture due to the negligence
of the Ministry of Cultural Affairs. Its role is restricted to entertain
an audience by putting up exhibitions of the culture and lifestyle of
those who have seen systematically wiped out. And however rich their
culture may be, one can hardly find a standard text unfolding it.
A group of Greek teachers working on voluntary basis have made an effort
to preserve the Kalash and introduce a progressive lifestyle in the area,
The various projects launched by these within the last few years include
the supply of clean water via a network of water pipes, a primary school
located at an elevation of about three kilometers (the building is
considered to be the biggest primary school building in Pakistan),
residential facilities to new mothers, landscaping, and the availability
of pharmaceutical supplies.
Whatever the motives behind them, it can be safely said that various
development projects have worked to the advantage of the Kalasha. A
substantial rise has been registered in the employment rate. Yet many
projects have failed in their practical application. Irrigation channels
are so misaligned that they carry little or no water. They have not been
built in accordance with traditional skills and methods but comply with
the survey of an outside engineer. The Kalasha were skilled in
constructing the dry-stone walling made by gradual trial-flow, which was
replaced by the use of roughly dressed stones set in poor cement. Flood
protection walls have not lasted for more than a few months after their
construction, and the initial summer floods lay waste the suspension
bridges. As for the water pipes, they have been laid too deep and winter
frosts damage them. This exposes the corruption of the authorities, for
the Kalash have been acknowledged for their outstanding engineering skills
in the construction of cantilever bridges, irrigation channels and
aqueducts. They have been employed in such projects throughout Chitral.
Apart from these, projects funded on religious basis (such as the
re-construction of alters with stone and cement) have revealed themselves
as unnecessary. Similarly, environment oriented programs; such as the
plantation of broadleaf saplings at the banks of irrigation channels are
of no avail. It can be concluded that millions have been wasted on the
Kalash Valleys. Furthermore, all development programs have a negative side
– they harm the social set-up by leading to a disagreement amidst local
leaders regarding the use and control of lucrative resources, which were
previously collectively managed. Not only this, local wisdom is undermined
as indigent knowledge.
Although personal gains and political ambitions may drive men to initiate
projects that lack practical application, these were carried out after
consulting the Kalasha. A valid reason can be some sort of
miscommunication between the two groups. Moreover, anthropological
evidence has shown that the Kalash have deliberately used false knowledge
about themselves as a tool against exploitation. This mask of servility,
ignorance and wretchedness (with dignity lurking underneath) has worked to
their advantage and attracted NGOs, but its disadvantages have not escaped
the educated upcoming generations.
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. |
