Chitral KALASH

KALASH, the enigma of HINDU KUSH

The Kalash, numbering approximately 3,000, are the smallest group amongst the religious minorities of Pakistan.
Unlike the other minorities, they live exclusively in a particular geographical area; the valleys of Birir, Bamborait and Rumbur situated in the Hindu Kush between the Afghan border and the Chitral Valley of Pakistan.
The Kalash Valleys are easily accessible from Chitral. Bamborait and Rumbur valleys are both reached via the beautiful village of Ayun, situated on a large alluvial fan on the west bank of the Kunar River.
Around 12 kms to the south of Chitral on the main road down towards the Lowari Pass, a turning leads down to a bridge across the river and then to Ayun, around 3 kms further on.
The main jeep stop is across another small bridge over the river draining the Kalash Valleys. Regular passenger jeeps run as far as Ayun. Though many also continue on to Bamborait, the most popular valley. Services to Rumbur are less frequent.

If there is nothing going to Rumbur, take a Bamborait jeep as far as the check post and then walk (2-3 hours to Brum/Balanguru).
There are no regular passenger jeep services to Birir Valley, to the south of Rumbur and Bamborait, although occasionally jeeps do go from Ayun, following a jeep track along the west bank of the Kunar River.
The main route is via the bridge at Gahiret, 7 kms south of the bridge turning for Ayun.
All of the jeep tracks up the valleys are subject to frequent blockages due to floods, landslides, and earthquakes.
In such cases the track to Bamborait is usually repaired within a few days, but for Rumbur and Birir valleys often seem to take much longer.
Visitors to the Kalash Valleys must pay a toll ( Rs 100 to 150 valid for all three valleys) at the check post at the junction of Bamborait and Rumbur valleys.
The proceeds from this toll are in theory channelled back into the valleys.
Foreigners first must have registered in Chitral Town. If staying for more than one week, a permit must be obtained from the DCO in Chitral. The latter is primarily aimed at these (anthropologists and the like); don't worry if you overstay by a few days.

Kalasha myths tell that the Kalash originally came from Tsiam, thought to be near Yarkand. The Kalasha oral tradition also tells that the Kalash are descended from Alexander the Great's brave general Shalak Shah of Tsiam, to whom Alexander gave the Chitral Valley as a reward.
Kalasha language is of great interest to linguists as it belonged to the ancient Dardic branch of the Indo-European languages, suggesting a Central Asian origin.
Around 1500 AD the Kalash were dominated throughout Southern Chitral; the Kalasha oral tradition mentions eight great Kalasha kings.

Local people outside the valleys often find remnants of buildings revealling evidence of former Kalash settlements.
After this Kalasha period, Islam became dominant in Chitral. Islam at first seem to have been adopted by the kings who then converted their subjects. The most persistent of the Kalash took refuge from the conversion in the less accessible side valleys. As a result the Kalash became marginalized; a subjugated people bound to pay tributes and corvee labour ('feudal' day's work of unpaid labour due by vassal) to the Mehtars, economically expolited and subject to frequent raids from their neighbours in what is now Nuristan.
When the British established the Durand Line the Kalasha valleys became part of British India and so part of present-day Pakistan. This protected the Kalash from the forcible conversion to Islam carried out by the Afghan king Abdur Rahman in 1896. Groups of Red Kafirs fled these conversions into Chitral. The refugees were given land in the upper parts of the Kalasha valleys and still have their villages there. Ironically they all later gradually converted to Islam. In 1969 the kingdom of Chitral became the part of Pakistan. To the Kalash this meant a lifting of their serfdom and the enshrining of their constitutional right to practice their religion.

In 1969, the Greek Prime Minister paid an official foray to the Bamborait Valley. When he saw the Kalash, he said, "I 'm witnessing the era of the Alexander the Great.