Revision as of 08:12, 14 December 2006 editKhoikhoi (talk | contribs)71,605 edits made necessary changes in according to move← Previous edit | Latest revision as of 21:46, 15 December 2024 edit undoFirstorm (talk | contribs)Extended confirmed users4,841 edits →Nader Shah | ||
Line 1: | Line 1: | ||
{{About|the Kalasha of Chitral|the Kalasha of Nuristan|Nuristani people|other uses|Kalash (disambiguation)}} | |||
{{otheruses}} | |||
{{pp-move}} | |||
{{CoorHeader|35|44|09|N|71|46|04|E|type:}} | |||
{{EngvarB|date=November 2023}} | |||
{{Ethnic group| | |||
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2023}} | |||
|group=Kalash | |||
{{Infobox ethnic group | |||
|image=] | |||
| group = Kalash | |||
|poptime=3,000 - 6,000 | |||
| image = File:Kalash Girls); Tahsin Shah 04.jpg | |||
|popplace=]:<br> 3,000 - 6,000 | |||
| caption = Kalash girls photographed in April 2016 | |||
|langs=] | |||
| population = c. 3,800<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.dawn.com/news/1465752 | title=The last of the Kalasha | date=24 February 2019 }}</ref> | |||
|rels=], ] | |||
| popplace = ], ], ] | |||
|related=• ]<br> | |||
| rels = Majority: ] and ancestor worship{{efn|name="animism_ancestor_worship"}} with elements of ancient Indo-Aryan (]) religion{{efn|name="Indo_Iranian_religion"}}<br />Minority: ]{{sfn|Ahmed|1986|p=23–28}} | |||
• ]<br> | |||
| langs = ], ] | |||
• ]<br> | |||
| related = ], other ] | |||
• ]<br> | |||
| native_name = | |||
• ]<br> | |||
| native_name_lang = | |||
• ]<br> | |||
• ]<br> | |||
• ]<br> | |||
• ]<br> | |||
• ]<br> | |||
}} | }} | ||
The '''Kalash''' (]: کالؕاشؕا, romanised: ''Kaḷaṣa''), or '''Kalasha''', are a small ]{{efn|name="West_Indo-Aryan"}} ] (minority) people residing in the ] of the ] province of ]. The term is also used to refer to several distinct ] speaking people, including the Väi, the Čima-nišei, the Vântä, plus the ]- and ]-speakers.<ref group=web name="The kalaṣa of kalaṣüm"/> | |||
According to one Kalash tradition, their ancestors migrated to ] from ] or a location further south,<ref group=web name="www2.unitar.org"/><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cd0rAAAAMAAJ&q=kalash+tsiyam|title=Folk: dansk etnografisk tidsskrift|last1=Nicolaisen|first1=Johannes|last2=Yde|first2=Jens|date=1963|publisher=Dansk etnografisk forening.|language=en}}</ref> called "Tsiyam" in their folk songs and epics,<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-dXlAAAAMAAJ&q=kalash+tsiyam|title=East and West|date=1992|publisher=Istituto italiano per il Medio ed Estremo Oriente|language=en}}</ref> and possibly located near ] and ] in Afghanistan. Another tradition claims descent from the ] and ] kingdoms, which emerged following ] expedition into the region. While these kingdoms exerted influence over parts of modern-day Pakistan, no evidence exists to suggest that they directly controlled or significantly impacted the Chitral Valley.<ref group=web name="Shah"/><ref group=web name="Strand-nuristan-kalaṣa"/>{{efn|name="Strand_Alexander"}}<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Cacopardo|first=Augusto|title=Are the Kalasha Really of Greek Origin? The Legend of Alexander the Great and the Pre-Islamic World of the Hindu Kush|journal=Acta Orientalia|volume=72|year=2011|pages=47-92|doi=10.5617/ao.4847|doi-access=free}}</ref> | |||
The '''Kalash''' or '''Kalasha''', are an ethnic group that lives in the ] region of ]. Their neighbors, the ] call them '''Kasivo'''. The Kalash are probably an ancient ] who speak the ]. Seemingly out of place in ], they are known to have light skin, eyes, and hair, similar to what one would find in ]. Many Kalash claim that they are the direct descendants of either ] settlers, ] army, or even Alexander himself. The claims are questionable, as there is evidence of their existence before Alexander's invasion of the ]. The ] evidence has also proven that they do not have ] haplogroups. <ref> Greek origins of some Pathans but not other Pakistanis</ref> One theory suggests that similarities in the culture of the Kalash and Greek people stem from the expansion of ]. | |||
They are considered unique among the people of Pakistan,<ref group=web name="www2.unitar.org"/><ref group=web name="The kalaṣa of kalaṣüm"/>{{sfn|Cacopardo|2016|p=28}} and form Pakistan's smallest ],<ref group=web name="The Express Tribune"/> practicing what authors consider as a form of ] and ancestor worship{{efn|name="animism_ancestor_worship"}} with elements of Indo-Aryan (]) religion.{{efn|name="Indo_Iranian_religion"}} | |||
It is important to note that there is no current connection between the '''''Kalash of Chitral''''' and the '''''Kalasha of ]''''' (former Kafiristan Kalasha). These two populations descend from different branches of the ], a division that goes back some 5,000 years. According to linguist , a professional in this area, the people of Chitral apparently adopted the name of the former ] Kalasha, who at some unknown time extended their influence into ]. A reference for this assumption could be the names '''kâsv'o''' respectively '''kâsi'o''', used by the neighboring Nuristani ] and ] for the Kalash of Chitral. From these the earlier name '''kâs'ivo''' (instead Kalasha) could be derived. | |||
==Location, climate and geography== | |||
There is still controversy over what defines the ethnic characteristics of the Kalash. The Pakistani government estimates that there are only 2,550 people who continue to worship their polytheistic gods<ref></ref>, while many thousands more have converted to Islam (whether genuinely or for economic and social gain), yet still live within the Kalash villages and maintain their language. | |||
The term "Kalash people" is used to refer to several distinct ] speaking people, including the Väi, the Čima-nišei, the Vântä, plus the ]- and ]-speakers,<ref group=web name="The kalaṣa of kalaṣüm"/> and to a small group of Indo-Aryan speaking people. This specific group, the topic of this article, lives in three isolated mountain valleys located in ], ]: ] (Kalash: ''{{lang|kls|Mumuret}}''), ] (''{{lang|kls|Rukmu}}''), and ] (''{{lang|kls|Biriu}}''). These valleys open towards the ], some 20 km south (downstream) of ], | |||
]]] | |||
==Customs== | |||
The Bumburet and Rumbur valleys join at {{Coord|35|44|20|N|71|43|40|E|}} (1,640 m), joining the Kunar at the village of Ayrun ({{Coord|35|42|52|N|71|46|40|E|}}, 1,400 m) and they each rise to passes connecting to Afghanistan's ] at about 4,500 m.{{Citation needed|date=November 2019}} | |||
<!-- Unsourced image removed: ] --> | |||
The Birir Valley opens towards the Kunar at the village of Gabhirat ({{Coord|35|40|8|N|71|45|15|E|}}, 1,360 m). A pass connects{{Citation needed|date=November 2019}} the Birir and Bumburet valleys at about 3,000 m. The Kalash villages in all three valleys are located at a height of approximately 1,900 to 2,200 m.{{Citation needed|date=November 2019}} | |||
<!-- Image with unknown copyright status removed: ] --> | |||
Although there are heavy Kafiristani (today known as ]) influences in the language, religion and ethnicity of the Kalash, their unique culture and belief system differs drastically from the various ethnic groups surrounding them. The Kalash believe in various deities Mahadeo (], the Khowar word for God is also used), and worship other deities that offer protection to different aspects of life (such as Jeshtak, who represents family, pregnant mothers, and marriage). It is suggested that they are based on the ], similar to the twelve ] of ]. Nature plays a highly significant and spiritual role in their daily life. As part of their religious tradition, sacrifices are offered and festivals held to give thanks for the abundant resources of their three valleys. Presently, these self-sufficient farmers are moving towards a cash-based economy whereas previously wealth was measured in livestock and crops. | |||
The region is extremely fertile, covering the mountainside in rich oak forests and allowing for intensive agriculture, although most of the work is done not by machinery, but by hand. The powerful and dangerous rivers that flow through the valleys have been harnessed to power grinding mills and to water the farm fields through the use of ingenious irrigation channels. ], ], ]s (generally used for ]), ]s, ]s and ]s are among the many foodstuffs grown in the area, along with surplus ] used for feeding the livestock.<ref>{{citation |last=Parkes |first=Peter |chapter=Enclaved Knowledge: Indigent and Indignant Representations of Environmental Management and Development among the Kalasha of Pakistan |editor1=R. Ellen |editor2=P. Parkes |editor3=A. Bicker |title=Indigenous Environmental Knowledge: critical anthropological perspectives |publisher=Harwood Academic |year=1999 |chapter-url=http://www.mtnforum.org/resources/library/parkp99a.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060117080555/http://www.mtnforum.org/resources/library/parkp99a.htm |archive-date=17 January 2006 }}</ref> | |||
They celebrate the Joshi (spring) festival at the end of May each year, which they gauged by the movement of the sun. The first day of Joshi is "Milk Day", on which the Kalash offer ]s of milk that have been saved for ten days prior to the festival. Kalash women usually wear long black robes, often embroidered with ] shells. For this reason, they are known in ] as "]". Men have adopted the Pakistani ], while children wear small versions of adult clothing after the age of four. | |||
The climate is typical of high elevation regions without large bodies of water to regulate the temperature. The summers are mild and agreeable with average maximum temperatures between {{convert|23|and|27|C}}. Winters, on the other hand, can be very cold, with average minimum temperatures between {{convert|2|and|1|C}}. The average yearly precipitation is {{convert|700|to|800|mm|abbr=in}}.{{Citation needed|date=November 2019}} | |||
In contrast to the surrounding Pakistani culture, the Kalash do not in general separate males and females or frown on contact between the sexes. However, menstruating girls and women are sent to live in the "bashaleni", the village menstrual building, during their periods, until they regain their "purity". They are also required to give birth in the bashaleni. There is also a ritual restoring "purity" to a woman after childbirth which must be performed before a woman can return to her husband. The husband is an active participant in this ritual. Kalash women breastfeed in public. Although some marriages are arranged by families, Kalash boys and girls can also propose and arrange their own marriages. This, and the fact that females freely interact with males in public, have created a false impression among some that the Kalash culture is sexually promiscuous. | |||
==History== | ==History== | ||
===Origins=== | |||
The Kalash have been ruled by the ] of ] since the 1700s and have enjoyed a cordial relationship with the major ethnic group of Chitral, the Kho who are ] and ] ]s. The multi-ethnic and multi-religious State of Chitral ensured that the Kalash were able to live in peace and harmony and practice their culture and religion. The ], their neighbors in the region of former ] east of the border, were invaded in the 1890s and forced to convert to Islam by ] of ] and their land was renamed ]. | |||
The Kalash people have several traditions regarding their origins. According to one tradition, their ancestors migrated to ] from ] or a location further south,<ref group=web name="www2.unitar.org"/><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cd0rAAAAMAAJ&q=kalash+tsiyam|title=Folk: dansk etnografisk tidsskrift|last1=Nicolaisen|first1=Johannes|last2=Yde|first2=Jens|date=1963|publisher=Dansk etnografisk forening.|language=en}}</ref> called "Tsiyam" in their folk songs and epics.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-dXlAAAAMAAJ&q=kalasha+tsiyam|title=East and West|date=1992|publisher=Istituto italiano per il Medio ed Estremo Oriente|language=en}}</ref> "Tsiyam" is said to be near ] and ] according to Morgenstierne.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nl05AAAAIAAJ&q=Tsiyam+Jalalabad|title=Pakistan Geographical Review|date=1969|publisher=Pakistan Geographical Review|language=en}}</ref> | |||
Another tradition has it that the Kalash descend from the armies of ] who were left behind from his armed campaign, though no evidence exists for him to have passed the area.<ref group=web name="Shah"/><ref group=web name="Strand-nuristan-kalaṣa"/>{{efn|name="Strand_Alexander"}} | |||
Prior to that event, the people of Kafiristan had paid tribute to the Mehtar of Chitral and accepted his suzerainty. This came to an end with the ] when Kafiristan fell under the Afghan sphere of Influence. Recently, the Kalash have been able to stop their demographic and cultural spiral towards extinction and have, for the past 30 years, been on the rebound. Increased international awareness, a more tolerant government, and monetary assistance has allowed them to continue their way of life. | |||
According to ] (1834-1892) the Kalash are the descendants of ].<ref name="Ludwig" /> | |||
Nevertheless the pressure of radical Muslim organizations increases more and more. An example for this is the closely to the Taliban associated radical Islamic ] movement, which is responsible for numerous assault over the Kalash.<ref> Ethnic Cleansing of the Kafirs in Pakistan</ref> | |||
====Genetic research - South Asia==== | |||
==Location, climate and geography== | |||
<div class="noprint">] gene frequencies in selected populations into a given number of clusters. For seven or more clusters, a cluster (yellow) appears which is nearly unique to the Kalash. Smaller amounts of Kalash gene frequencies join clusters associated with Europe and Middle East (blue) and with South Asia (red).]]</div> | |||
] | |||
A study by Rosenberg, Mahajan, ''et al''. (2006)<ref name=Rosenberg-Mahajan-etal-2006/> employing ] testing among the Kalash population concluded that they are a distinct (and perhaps ]) population with only minor contributions from outside peoples. In one cluster analysis {{nobr| (with {{mvar|K}} {{=}} 7), }} the Kalash formed one cluster, the others being Africans, Europeans/Middle Easterners, ], East Asians, ], and ].<ref name=Rosenberg-Mahajan-etal-2006>{{cite journal |vauthors=Rosenberg NA, Mahajan S, Gonzalez-Quevedo C |display-authors=etal |date=December 2006 |title=Low levels of genetic divergence across geographically and linguistically diverse populations from India |journal=PLOS Genetics |volume=2 |issue=12 |page=e215 |pmid=17194221 |pmc=1713257 |doi=10.1371/journal.pgen.0020215 |doi-access=free }}</ref> | |||
Genetic analysis of ] (mtDNA) by Quintana-Murci, Chaix, ''et al''. (2004)<ref name=QuintanaMurci-Chaix-etal-2004/> stated that "the western Eurasian presence in the Kalash population reaches a frequency of 100%" with the most prevalent mtDNA Haplogroups being ] (34%), ] (23%), ] (16%), and ] (9%). The study asserted that no East or South Asian lineages were detected and that the Kalash population is composed of maternal western Eurasian lineages (as the associated lineages are rare or absent in the surrounding populations). The authors concluded that a western Eurasian maternal origin for the Kalash is likely.<ref name=QuintanaMurci-Chaix-etal-2004>{{cite journal |vauthors=Quintana-Murci L, Chaix R, Wells RS |display-authors=etal |date=May 2004 |title=Where west meets east: the complex mtDNA landscape of the southwest and Central Asian corridor |journal=] |volume=74 |issue=5 |pages=827–45 |pmid=15077202 |pmc=1181978 |doi=10.1086/383236 }}</ref> | |||
Located in the ] of ], the Kalash people live in three isolated mountain valleys: '''''Bumboret''''', '''''Rumbur''''', and '''''Birir'''''. The region is extremely fertile, covering the mountainside in rich oak forests and allowing for intensive agriculture, despite the fact that most of the work is done not by machinery, but by hand. The powerful and dangerous rivers that flow through the valleys have been harnessed to power grinding mills and to water the farm fields through the use of ingenious irrigation channels. ], ], ] (generally used for ]), ], and ] are among the many foodstuffs grown in the area, along with surplus ] used for feeding the livestock.<ref> Agricultre and livestock information</ref> | |||
Genetic analysis of ] DNA (Y-DNA) by Firasat, Khaliq, ''et al''. (2007)<ref name=Firasat-Khaliq-2007/> on Kalash individuals found high and diverse frequencies of these Y-DNA Haplogroups: ] (22.7%), ] (20.5%), ] (18.2%), ] (18.2%), ] (9.1%), ] (6.8%), ] (2.3%), and ] (2.3%).<ref name=Firasat-Khaliq-2007>{{cite journal |author1=Firasat, Sadaf |author2=Khaliq, Shagufta |author3=Mohyuddin, Aisha |author4=Papaioannou, Myrto |author5=Tyler-Smith, Chris |author6=Underhill, Peter A. |author7=Ayub, Qasim | year = 2007 | title = Y-chromosomal evidence for a limited Greek contribution to the Pathan population of Pakistan | journal = European Journal of Human Genetics | volume = 15 | issue = 1| pages = 121–126 | doi=10.1038/sj.ejhg.5201726 | pmid=17047675 | pmc=2588664}}</ref> | |||
The climate is typical of high elevation regions without large bodies of water to regulate the temperature. The summers are mild and agreeable with average maximum temperatures between 23° and 27°C (73° - 81°F). Winters, on the other hand, can be very cold, with average minimum temperatures between 2° and 1°C (36° - 34°F). The average yearly precipitation is 700 to 800mm (28 - 32 inches).<ref> Climate information</ref> | |||
A study by Li, Absher, ''et al''. (2008)<ref name=Li-Absher-etal-2008/> with geneticists using more than 650,000 ]s (SNP) samples from the Human Genome Diversity Panel, found deep rooted ] that could be distinguished in the Kalash. The results showed them clustered within the ] / ]n populations {{nobr| (at {{mvar|K}} {{=}} 7). }} The study also showed the Kalash to be a separated group, having no membership within European populations.<ref name=Li-Absher-etal-2008>{{cite journal |last1=Li |first1=J.Z. |last2=Absher |first2=D.M. |last3=Tang |first3=H. |last4=Southwick|first4=A.M. |last5=Casto |first5=A.M. |last6=Ramachandran |first6=S. |last7=Cann |first7=H.M. |last8=Barsh |first8=G.S. |last9=Feldman |first9=M. |last10=Cavalli-Sforza |first10=L.L. |last11=Myers |first11=R.M. |display-authors=6 |year=2008 |title= Worldwide Human Relationships Inferred |journal=Science |volume=319 |issue=5866 |pages=1100–1104 |s2cid=53541133 |bibcode=2008Sci...319.1100L |pmid=18292342 |doi=10.1126/science.1153717 }}</ref> | |||
==Genetics== | |||
Lazaridis et al. (2016) note that the demographic impact of steppe related populations on South Asia was substantial. According to the results, the ], a south Indian ] population with minimal Ancestral North Indian (ANI) along the 'Indian Cline' have nevertheless ~ 18 % steppe-related ancestry, showing the strong influence of ANI ancestry in all populations of India. The Kalash of Pakistan are inferred to have ~ 50 % EMBA steppe-related ancestry, with the rest being of Iranian Neolithic (~29 %), Onge (~16 %) and Han (~5 %).{{sfnp|Lazaridis|Nadel|Rollefson|Merrett|2016|pp=123}}<ref name="Lazaridis">{{Cite journal|last1=Lazaridis|first1=Iosif|last2=Nadel|first2=Dani|last3=Rollefson|first3=Gary|last4=Merrett|first4=Deborah C.|last5=Rohland|first5=Nadin|last6=Mallick|first6=Swapan|last7=Fernandes|first7=Daniel|last8=Novak|first8=Mario|last9=Gamarra|first9=Beatriz|last10=Sirak|first10=Kendra|last11=Connell|first11=Sarah|display-authors=6|date=16 June 2016|title=The genetic structure of the world's first farmers|url=http://biorxiv.org/content/biorxiv/suppl/2016/06/16/059311.DC1/059311-1.pdf|journal=Nature|series=Supplementary Information|volume=536|issue=7617|pages=419–424|bibcode=2016Natur.536..419L|doi=10.1038/nature19310|pmc=5003663|pmid=27459054|last18=Lengyel|last15=Gonzalez-Fortes|first15=Gloria|first24=Ahuva-Sivan|last16=Jones|first16=Eppie R.|last17=Roodenberg|first17=Songül Alpaslan|last20=Gasparian|first18=György|last24=Mizrahi|last19=Bocquentin|first20=Boris|last21=Monge|first21=Janet M.|last22=Gregg|first22=Michael|last23=Eshed|first23=Vered|first27=Luminita|last35=Kovacs|last25=Meiklejohn|first25=Christopher|last26=Gerritsen|first26=Fokke|first14=Qiaomei|last28=Blüher|first28=Matthias|last29=Campbell|first29=Archie|last30=Cavalleri|first30=Gianpiero|last31=Comas|first31=David|last32=Froguel|first32=Philippe|last33=Gilbert|first33=Edmund|last34=Kerr|first34=Shona M.|first19=Fanny|last13=Harney|first35=Peter|last41=Richards|first37=Darren|last38=Merrigan|first38=Michael|last39=Merriwether|first39=D. Andrew|last40=O'Reilly|first45=Michael|first40=Seamus|last45=Stumvoll|last42=Semino|first42=Ornella|last43=Shamoon-Pour|first43=Michel|last44=Stefanescu|first44=Gheorghe|first41=Martin B.|last14=Fu|last37=McGettigan|first46=Anke|first36=Johannes|last36=Krause|last47=Torroni|first47=Antonio|last48=Wilson|first48=James F.|last49=Yengo|first49=Loic|last50=Hovhannisyan|first50=Nelli A.|last51=Patterson|last46=Tönjes|last52=Pinhasi|first52=Ron|last53=Reich|first53=David|first13=Eadaoin|first12=Kristin|last12=Stewardson|first51=Nick|last27=Bejenaru}}</ref> | |||
] | |||
According to Narasimhan, Patterson, ''et al''. (2019),<ref name=Narasimhan-Patterson-etal-2019/> the Kalash were found to possess the highest ANI ancestry among the population samples analysed in the study.<ref name=Narasimhan-Patterson-etal-2019>{{cite journal |last1=Narasimhan |first1=Vagheesh M. |last2=Patterson |first2=Nick |last3=Moorjani |first3=Priya |last4=Rohland |first4=Nadin |last5=Bernardos |first5=Rebecca |last6=Mallick |first6=Swapan |last7=Lazaridis |first7=Iosif |last8=Nakatsuka |first8=Nathan |last9=Olalde |first9=Iñigo |last10=Lipson |first10=Mark |last11=Kim |first11=Alexander M. |last12=Olivieri |first12=Luca M. |last13=Coppa |first13=Alfredo |last14=Vidale |first14=Massimo |last15=Mallory |first15=James |last16=Moiseyev |first16=Vyacheslav |last17=Kitov |first17=Egor |last18=Monge |first18=Janet |last19=Adamski |first19=Nicole |last20=Alex |first20=Neel |last21=Broomandkhoshbacht |first21=Nasreen |last22=Candilio |first22=Francesca |last23=Callan |first23=Kimberly |last24=Cheronet |first24=Olivia |last25=Culleton |first25=Brendan J. |last26=Ferry |first26=Matthew |last27=Fernandes |first27=Daniel |last28=Freilich |first28=Suzanne |last29=Gamarra |first29=Beatriz |last30=Gaudio |first30=Daniel |display-authors=6 |year=2019 |title=The formation of human populations in south and central Asia |journal=Science |doi=10.1126/science.aat7487 |volume=365 |issue=6457 |pages=eaat7487 |pmid=31488661 |pmc=6822619}}</ref> | |||
As mentioned above, the Kalash have unique physical characteristics that are not common in Central and ]. Like any other ethnic group the Kalash has a large degree of diversity within its own population, running the gambit from brunette Mediterranean to blond ].{{fact}} Relying on local report, many scientists sought to explain this phenomenon by attributing their appearance to the migration of European peoples, specifically ], to the Hindu Kush following the invasion by Alexander the Great. However, recent ] testing among the Kalash population has shown that they are, in fact, a distinct population with only minor contributions from outside peoples. | |||
====Genetic research - descent from Alexander's soldiers==== | |||
The Greek contribution to the Kalash is somewhat of a mystery. The ] evidence has also proven that they do not have ] haplogroups. <ref> Greek origins of some Pathans but not other Pakistanis</ref> Recent analysis of the ] shows that the Greek admixture could be as high as 20-40%, but considering that the local population contains no ] 21 the findings have been chalked up as ].<ref>#Raheel Qamar, Qasim Ayub, Aisha Mohyuddin, Agnar Helgason, Kehkashan Mazhar, Atika Mansoor, Tatiana Zerja, ], and S. Qasim Mehdi, "," '']'' '''70'''(5):1107–1124, 2002 May.</ref> On the basis of Y chromosome ] frequency, researchers describe the possibility of Greek lineage among the Kalash as unclear <ref></ref>. Surprisingly, ] research has shown that there is no ] or ] genetic mtDNA influence within the Kalash. This is in stark contrast to some of their closest Indo-European neighbors.<ref>Lluis Quintana-Murci et al., "," ''] '''74'''(5): 827–845, 2004 May. </ref> | |||
A study by Ayub, Mezzavilla, ''et al''. (2015)<ref name=Ayub-Mezzavilla-etal-2015/> found no evidence of their claimed descent from soldiers of Alexander. The study, however, found that they shared a significant portion of ] with ], a 24,000 year-old ] Siberian ] fossil and the ]. The researchers thus believe they may be a drifted ] stock from which some of the modern European and Middle Eastern population also descends. Their ]s are predominantly from western Eurasia. Due to their uniqueness, the researchers believed that they were the earliest group to separate from the ancestral stock of the modern population of the Indian subcontinent estimated around 11,800 years ago.<ref name=Ayub-Mezzavilla-etal-2015>{{cite journal |last1=Ayub |first1=Qasim |last2=Mezzavilla |first2=Massimo |last3=Pagani |first3=Luca |last4=Haber |first4=Marc |last5=Mohyuddin |first5=Aisha |last6=Khaliq |first6=Shagufta |last7=Mehdi |first7=Syed Qasim |last8=Tyler-Smith |first8=Chris |display-authors=6 |year=2015 |title=The Kalash genetic isolate: Ancient divergence, drift, and selection |journal=] |volume=96 |issue=5 |pages=775–783 |pmc=4570283 |doi=10.1016/j.ajhg.2015.03.012 |pmid=25937445}}</ref> | |||
The estimates by Qamar, Ayub, ''et al''. (2002) of 20%–40% Greek ] in the Kalash<ref name=Qamar-Ayub-2002>{{cite journal |last1=Qamar |first1=Raheel |last2=Ayub |first2=Qasim |last3=Mohyuddin |first3=Aisha |last4=Helgason |first4=Agnar |last5=Mazhar |first5=Kehkashan |last6=Mansoor |first6=Atika |last7=Zerjal |first7=Tatiana |last8=Tyler-Smith |first8=Chris |last9=Mehdi |first9=Syed Qasim |display-authors=6 |year=2002 |doi=10.1086/339929 |pmid=11898125 |title=Y-chromosomal DNA variation in Pakistan |journal=] |volume=70 |issue=5 |pages=1107–1124 |pmc=447589}}</ref> has been dismissed by ], Rootsi, ''et al''. (2003)<ref name=Kivisild-Rootsi-etal-2003/> stating that: | |||
==Tourism== | |||
: "some admixture models and programs that exist are not always adequate and realistic estimators of gene flow between populations ... this is particularly the case when markers are used that do not have enough restrictive power to determine the source populations ... or when there are more than two parental populations. In that case, a simplistic model using two parental populations would show a bias towards overestimating admixture".<ref name=Kivisild-Rootsi-etal-2003>{{cite journal |vauthors=Kivisild T, Rootsi S, Metspalu M |author1-link=Toomas Kivisild |display-authors=etal |date=February 2003 |title=The genetic heritage of the earliest settlers persists both in Indian tribal and caste populations |journal=] |volume=72 |issue=2 |pages=313–332 |pmid=12536373 |pmc=379225 |doi=10.1086/346068 }}</ref> | |||
The study came to the conclusion that the Kalash population estimate by Qamar, Ayub, ''et al''. | |||
{{blockquote|is unrealistic and is likely also driven by the low marker resolution that pooled southern and western Asian-specific ] ] together with European-specific ], into an uninformative polyphyletic cluster 2.<ref name=Kivisild-Rootsi-etal-2003/>}} | |||
] magazine genetics blogger ] has repeatedly cited information indicating that the Kalash are part of the South Asian genetic continuum, with no ]ian ethnic admixture, albeit shifted towards the Iranian people.<ref>{{cite web |last=Khan |first=R. |author-link=Razib Khan |date=30 July 2013 |title=Alexander's soldiers left no mark |website=] |type=blog |url=http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/gnxp/2013/07/alexanders-soldiers-left-no-mark/ |access-date=1 August 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Khan |first=R. |author-link=Razib Khan |date=15 February 2012 |title=The Kalash in perspective |website=] |type=blog |url=http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/gnxp/2012/02/the-kalash-in-perspective/#.UfdK69__5KA |access-date=1 August 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Khan |first=R. |author-link=Razib Khan |date=18 February 2012 |title=Kalash on the human tree |website=] |type=blog |url=http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/gnxp/2012/02/kalash-on-the-human-tree/ |access-date=1 August 2013}}</ref> | |||
Tourism now makes up a large portion of the economic activities of the Kalash. Before departing to the valleys one must first register one's name at the town of Chitral. People attempting to enter the valleys have to pay a toll to the Pakistani government, which they claim will be used to preserve and care for the Kalash people and their culture. | |||
A study by Firasat, Khaliq, ''et al''. (2006)<ref name=Firasat-Khaliq-etal-2006/> concluded that the Kalash lack typical ] Haplogroups such as ]. Furthermore, autosomal analysis gave no indication that Kalash were genetically related to Greeks.<ref name=Firasat-Khaliq-etal-2006>{{cite journal |vauthors=Firasat S, Khaliq S, Mohyuddin A |display-authors=etal |date=January 2007 |title=Y-chromosomal evidence for a limited Greek contribution to the Pathan population of Pakistan |journal=] |volume=15 |issue=1 |pages=121–126 |pmid=17047675 |pmc=2588664 |doi=10.1038/sj.ejhg.5201726}}</ref> | |||
Travellers should refrain from interfering with or patronizing the locals. The villages are more heavily visited by tourists (possibly due to the "Palin effect" when Michael Palin visited in 2004 as part of his Himalaya series, in which he states this may happen) than ever before and the Kalash people may not enjoy getting their picture taken. Holy festivals are very serious to them and joining in or gawking at their practices is considered very rude. Also, because they are surrounded by Muslim peoples on all sides, pressure to convert to Islam has been strong. Preaching any religion is considered to be in bad taste.<ref></ref> | |||
== |
===Islamic rule=== | ||
====Nader Shah==== | |||
*] | |||
] (1698-1747) formed the Rais dynasty of Chitral. The Rais invaded southern Chitral, which was then under Kalasha rule.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Siiger|first=Halfdan|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ljPXAAAAMAAJ&q=Rais+invaded+Chitral|title=Ethnological Field-research in Chitral, Sikkim, and Assam: Preliminary Report|date=1956|publisher=I kommission hos Munksgaard|language=en}}</ref> Kalasha traditions recount severe persecution and massacres at the hands of the Rais. Many Kalash fled the Chitral valley; those who remained while still practising their faith had to pay tribute in kind or with '']'' labour.<ref>{{cite book|author=Augusto S. Cacopardo|title=Pagan Christmas: Winter Feasts of the Kalasha of the Hindu Kush|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DVgrDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT30|year=2017|publisher=Gingko Library|isbn=978-1-909942-85-1|page=30}}</ref> The term "Kalash" was used to denote "Kafirs" in general; however, the Kalash of Chitral were not considered "true Kafirs" by the ] who were interviewed about the term in 1835.<ref>{{cite book|author=Wynne Maggi|title=Our Women are Free: Gender and Ethnicity in the Hindukush|url=https://archive.org/details/ourwomenarefreeg00magg|url-access=registration|year=2001|publisher=University of Michigan Press|isbn=0-472-06783-4|page=}}</ref> | |||
*] | |||
*] | |||
*] | |||
*] | |||
The Kalash were ruled by the ] of ] from the 18th century onward. They enjoyed a cordial relationship with the major ethnic group of Chitral, the ], who are ] and ] ]s. This multi-ethnic, multi-religious ] ensured that the Kalash were able to live in peace and harmony and practice their culture and religion. They were protected from Afghan raids by the Chitralis, who also generally did not allow missionaries to Kalash. Instead, the Chitralis allowed the Kalasha to look after their matters themselves.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Maggi|first=Wynne|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FVotcuQ1dvEC&q=Kalasha+raids+on+Chitral&pg=PA22|title=Our Women are Free: Gender and Ethnicity in the Hindukush|date=2001|publisher=University of Michigan Press|isbn=978-0-472-06783-1|language=en}}</ref> | |||
==Notes and references== | |||
However, in the 1890s ] of ] converted the ], neighbours of the Kalash in the region of former ] west of the border, to Islam on pain of death, and their land was renamed;<ref>.</ref><ref>William Dalrymple, (, 21 March 2018);</ref> earlier, the people of Kafiristan had paid tribute to the Mehtar of Chitral and accepted his suzerainty. This ended with the conclusion of the ], under which Kafiristan fell into the Afghan sphere of influence.{{Citation needed|date=November 2019}} | |||
<!--This article uses the Cite.php citation mechanism. If you would like more information on how to add references to this article, please see http://meta.wikimedia.org/Cite/Cite.php --> | |||
<div class="references-small"><references/></div> | |||
== |
====20th century==== | ||
Prior to the 1940s the Kalash had five valleys, the current three as well as Jinjeret kuh and Urtsun to the south. The last Kalash person in Jinjeret kuh was Mukadar, who passing away in the early 1940s found himself with no one to perform the old rites. The people of Birir valley just north of Jinjeret came to the rescue with a moving funeral procession that is still remembered fondly by the valleys now converted Kalash, firing guns and beating drums as they made their way up the valley to celebrate his passing according to the old custom.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Cacopardo|first=Alberto|title=The Other Kalasha. A Survey of Kalashamun-Speaking People in Southern Chitral. Part III: Jinjeret Kuh and the Problem of Kalasha Origins|journal=East and West|volume=42|issue=2/4|date=December 1992|pages=333–375}}</ref> | |||
The Kalash of Urtsun valley had a culture with a large Kam influence from the ]. It was known for its shrines to Waren and Imro, the Urtsun version of Dezau, which were visited and photographed by ] in 1929 and were built in the ] style unlike those of other Kalash valleys. The last Shaman was one Azermalik who had been the Dehar when ] visited in the 1890s. His daughter Mranzi who was still alive into the 1980s was the last Urtsun valley Kalash practising the old religion. She had married into the ] Kalash and left the valley in the late 1930s when the valley had converted to ]. Unlike the Kalash of the other valleys the women of Urtsun did not wear the Kup'as headdress but had their own P'acek, a headress worn at casual times, and the famous horned headress of the Bashgul valley, which was worn at times of ritual and dance.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Cacopardo|first=Augusto|title=The Other Kalasha. A Survey of Kalashamun-Speaking People in Southern Chitral. Part II: The Kalasha of Urtsun|journal=East and West|volume=41|issue=1/4|date=December 1991|pages=331–350}}</ref> ] put forth the view that the dominant Kafir races like the Wai were refugees who fled to the region. The Kafirs are historically recorded for the first time in 1339.<ref name="Ludwig">{{cite book |editor-link=Ludwig W. Adamec |editor=Adamec, L.W. |year=1985 |title=Historical and Political Gazetteer of Afghanistan |volume=6 |publisher=Akademische Druck- u. Verlagsanstalt Graz |page=349 |quote=He identifies them more particularly with the Gandhari, that is to say, the former inhabitants of what is now known as the Mohmand country.}}</ref> | |||
<div class="references-small"> | |||
Being a very small minority in a Muslim region, the Kalash have increasingly been targeted by some proselytising Muslims. Some Muslims have encouraged the Kalash people to read the Koran so that they would convert to Islam.<ref> 20 October 2011</ref><ref> 17 October 2011</ref> The challenges of modernity and the role of outsiders and NGOs in changing the environment of the Kalash valleys have also been mentioned as real threats for the Kalash.<ref name="auto"/> | |||
#Decker, Kendall D. (1992) Languages of Chitral ISBN 969-8023-15-1 http://www.ethnologue.com/show_work.asp?id=32906 | |||
#Morgenstierne, Georg (1926) Report on a Linguistic Mission to Afghanistan. Instituttet for Sammenlignende Kulturforskning, Serie C I-2. Oslo. | |||
#Khowar English Dictionary (by ], 1981) ISBN 0-923891-15-3 published in Pakistan, reprinted in 2006 | |||
#], "Pakistan's Kalash People", '']'', pp. 458-473, 1981 October. | |||
#], ''The Kafirs of The Hindu-Kush'', London: Lawrence & Bullen Ltd., 1896. | |||
During the 1970s, local Muslims and militants tormented the Kalash because of the difference in religion and multiple ] attacks on the tribe lead to the death of many, their numbers shrank to just two thousand.<ref>Manzar, A. Taliban in Pakistan: A Chronicle of Resurgence (Terrorism, Hot Spots and Conflict-Related Issues). (2009). Nova Science Publishers.</ref> | |||
</div> | |||
However, protection from the government led to a decrease in violence by locals, a decrease in Taliban attacks, and a great reduction in the child mortality rate. The last two decades saw a rise in numbers.<ref name="wild">{{cite web | url=http://www.wildfrontiers.co.uk/wildfrontiers/kalash.jsf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090405021218/http://www.wildfrontiers.co.uk/wildfrontiers/kalash.jsf | title=The Kalash | publisher=Wild Frontiers |archive-date=5 April 2009 }}</ref> | |||
In recent times the Kalash and ] have been threatened with death by the Taliban. The threats caused outrage and horrified ]{{Failed verification|date=November 2017}} throughout ] and the ] responded by fortifying the security around Kalash villages,<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.pakistantoday.com/2014/02/14/national/security-for-kalash-tribe-after-taliban-threat/|title= Security for Kalash tribe after Taliban threat | date=14 February 2014|publisher=pt|access-date=20 February 2014}}</ref> the ] also took judicial intervention to protect the Kalash under both the ethnic minorities clause of the constitution and Pakistan's Sharia law penal code which declares it illegal for Muslims to criticise and attack other religions on grounds of personal belief.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.thenews.com.pk/article-138470-CJ-takes-suo-moto-notice-of-threats-to-Kalash,-Chitral-people|title= CJ takes suo moto notice of threats to Kalash, Chitral people | date=20 February 2014|publisher=The News|access-date=20 February 2014}}</ref> The Supreme Court termed the Taliban's threats against Islamic teachings.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://tribune.com.pk/story/674126/sc-takes-notice-of-ttp-threats-to-kalash-ismali-communities/|title= SC takes notice of TTP threats to Kalash, Ismaili communities | date=20 February 2014 |work=] |access-date=20 February 2014}}</ref> ] condemned the forced conversions threat as un-Islamic.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.dawn.com/news/1086976/forcibly-converting-people-un-islamic-says-imran|title= Forcibly converting people un-Islamic, says Imran | date=14 February 2014|publisher=Dawn.com|access-date=20 February 2014}}</ref> | |||
In 2017, ] became the first Kalasha man to win a seat in the ]. He became the member of the Provincial Assembly (PA) on a minority reserved seat.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.dawn.com/news/1416605 | title=For Kalash, Wazirzada personifies hope for identity| date=28 June 2018}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://tribune.com.pk/story/1768671/1-kalash-celebrate-wazirzada-makes-way-assembly/|title=Kalash celebrate as Wazirzada makes his way to assembly |work=] |date=29 July 2018|access-date=19 December 2019}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news | url=https://www.dawn.com/news/1413911/in-a-first-kalash-man-nominated-for-minority-seat-by-pti | title=In a first, Kalash man nominated for minority seat by PTI| newspaper=Dawn.com| date=13 June 2018| author1=Sirajuddin}}</ref> | |||
In November 2019, the Kalash people were visited by the ] and ], as part of their Pakistan tour and they saw a traditional dance performance there.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/50083552|title=William and Kate: What have they been up to on their Pakistan tour? |work=CBBC Newsround |date=18 October 2019 |access-date=9 February 2020}}</ref> | |||
==Culture== | |||
{{Kalash people}} | |||
{{See also|Kalash cuisine}} | |||
The Kalash have fascinated anthropologists due to their unique culture compared to the rest in that region.<ref name="Newby, Eric 2008"/> The culture of the Kalash people differs in many ways from the many contemporary ] ethnic groups surrounding them in northwestern Pakistan. Nature plays a highly significant and spiritual role in their daily life. As part of their religious tradition, sacrifices are offered and festivals held to give thanks for the abundant resources of their three valleys. Kalasha Desh (the three Kalash valleys) is made up of two distinct cultural areas, the valleys of ] and ] forming one, and ] the other; Birir Valley being the more traditional of the two.<ref>{{cite web |date=11 November 2014 |title=The Kalasha Valleys |website=Kalasha Heritage Conservation |url=http://kalashaheritage.org/kalashavalleys/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141111054126/http://kalashaheritage.org/kalashavalleys/ |archive-date=11 November 2014 |access-date=8 September 2020}}</ref> | |||
===Language=== | |||
{{Main|Kalasha-mun}} | |||
The Kalasha language, also known as Kalasha-mun, is an ] whose closest relative is the neighbouring ]. Kalasha was formerly spoken over a larger area in south Chitral, but it is now mostly confined to the western side valleys having lost ground to Khowar.<ref>{{Cite journal| last = Morgenstierne| first = Georg| date = 1947| title = Some features of Khowar morphology| journal = Norsk Tidsskrift for Sprogvidenskap| volume = 14| pages = 5–28}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Heegård Petersen |first=Jan |date=30 September 2015 |title=Kalasha texts – With introductory grammar |url=http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03740463.2015.1069049 |journal=Acta Linguistica Hafniensia |language=en |volume=47 |issue=sup1 |pages=1–275 |doi=10.1080/03740463.2015.1069049 |s2cid=218660179 |issn=0374-0463}}</ref> | |||
===Customs=== | |||
] | |||
There is some controversy over what defines the ethnic characteristics of the Kalash. Although there was a larger population in the 20th century, the non-Muslim minority has seen its numbers dwindle over the past century. A leader of the Kalash, Saifulla Jan, has stated, "If any Kalash converts to Islam, they cannot live among us anymore. We keep our identity strong."<ref>Raffaele, Paul. ] Jan. 2007: page 66-68.</ref> About three thousand have converted to Islam or are descendants of converts, yet still live nearby in the Kalash villages and maintain their language and many aspects of their ancient culture. By now, ''sheikhs'', or converts to Islam, make up more than half of the total Kalasha-speaking population.{{sfn|Ahmed|1986|p=23–28}} | |||
Kalasha women usually wear long black robes, often embroidered with ] shells. | |||
For this reason, they are known in ] as "]".{{sfn|Lines|1996}} Men have adopted the ]i ], while children wear small versions of adult clothing after the age of four.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/modernity-and-muslims-encroach-on-unique-tribe-in-pakistan-1433370643|title=Modernity and Muslims Encroach on Unique Tribe in Pakistan|first=Saeed|last=Shah|date=3 June 2015 |newspaper=The Wall Street Journal |access-date=5 April 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=In pictures: Kalash spring festival |publisher=] |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/picture_gallery/05/south_asia_kalash_spring_festival/html/5.stm |access-date=5 April 2018}}</ref> | |||
In contrast to the surrounding Pakistani culture, the Kalasha do not in general separate males and females or frown on contact between the sexes. However, menstruating girls and women are sent to live in the "bashaleni", the village menstrual building, during their periods, until they regain their "purity". They are also required to give birth in the bashaleni. There is also a ritual restoring "purity" to a woman after childbirth which must be performed before a woman can return to her husband. The husband is an active participant in this ritual.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.palinstravels.co.uk/book-3626 |title=Palin's Travels: Pakistan, Himalaya |publisher=Palinstravels.co.uk |access-date=22 October 2012}}</ref> | |||
Girls are initiated into womanhood at an early age of four or five and married at fourteen or fifteen.{{sfn|Böck|Rao|2000}}{{sfn|Raza|1998}} If a woman wants to change husbands, she will write a letter to her prospective husband informing him of how much her current husband paid for her. This is because the new husband must pay double if he wants her. | |||
Marriage by ] is rather frequent, also involving women who are already married to another man. Indeed, wife-elopement is counted as one of the "great customs" (''ghōna dastūr'') together with the main festivals. Wife-elopement may lead in some rare cases to a quasi-feud between clans until peace is negotiated by mediators, in the form of the double bride-price paid by the new husband to the ex-husband.<ref name=autogenerated2>Parkes in: Rao and Böck (2000), p. 273</ref> | |||
Kalash lineages (''kam'') separate as marriageable descendants that have separated by over seven generations. A rite of "breaking agnation" (''tatbře čhin'') marks that previous agnates (''tatbře'') are now permissible affines (''därak'' "clan partners").<ref name=autogenerated2 /> Each ''kam'' has a separate shrine in the clan's ''Jēṣṭak-hān'', the temple to lineal or familial goddess ''Jēṣṭak''.{{Citation needed|date=June 2017}} | |||
===Music=== | |||
Kalasha traditional music mainly consists of flute-like instruments (usually high in pitch), singing, poetry, clapping and the rhythmic playing of drums, which include the: | |||
* ] – A small ]-shaped drum; this is made from 'chizhin' (pine wood), 'kuherik' (pine nut wood), or 'az'a'i' (apricot (tree) wood). It is played with a larger drum called a 'dãu' for the Kalasha dances. | |||
* ] – A large drum; this is played with a smaller drum called a 'wãc' for the Kalasha dances, the smaller drum giving a lighter counterpart to the larger one.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.fli-online.org/documents/languages/kalasha/kalasha_lexicon_Ge/index-english/main.htm |title=English - Kalasha |website=fli-online.org}}</ref> | |||
] | |||
==Religion== | |||
] | |||
===Animism, ancestor worship, and Indo-Aryan religion=== | |||
While a minority of the Kalash has converted to Islam, the Kalash people are primarily practitioners of the traditional Kalasha religion, which is a form of ] and ]{{efn|name="animism_ancestor_worship"}} mixed with elements from ancient Indo-Aryan Vedic Hinduism.{{efn|name="Indo_Aryan_religion"}} | |||
According to Witzel, the Kalash religion contains both pre-Vedic and Indo-Iranian elements, but very little post-Vedic influences.{{sfn|Witzel|2004|p=581–636}}{{efn|{{harvtxt|Witzel|2004}}: "the Hindukush area shares many of the traits of IIr. myths, ritual, society, and echoes many aspects of Rigvedic, but hardly of post-Rigvedic religion."}} Elements of the Kalash mythology and folklore are closely related to the ],{{sfn|Witzel|2004|p=581–636}} and its religion has also been compared to that of ],<ref group=web>{{cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/picture_gallery/05/south_asia_kalash_spring_festival/html/2.stm|title=BBC NEWS | In pictures: Kalash spring festival |work=BBC News |access-date=19 December 2019}}</ref> due to the hypothesis that the Kalsh are descendants of Alexander the Great's soldiers. | |||
Kalash culture and belief system differ from the various ethnic groups surrounding them, but are similar to those practised by the neighbouring ] in northeast Afghanistan before their ] to Islam.<ref name="saxena"/><ref name="folklore"/> ], a prominent expert on languages of the Hindu Kush, spent three decades in the Hindukush. He noted the following about the pre-Islamic Nuristani religion: | |||
{{blockquote|Before their conversion to Islâm the Nuristânis practised a form of ancient Hinduism, infused with accretions developed locally. They acknowledged a number of human-like deities who lived in the unseen Deity World (Kâmviri ''d'e lu''; cf. Sanskrit ''deva lok'a-'')."<ref group=web name="nuristan.info">{{cite web | url = http://nuristan.info/Nuristani/Nuristanis1.html | title = Richard Strand's Nuristân Site: Peoples and Languages of Nuristan | publisher = Nuristan.info | access-date = 22 October 2012}}</ref>}} | |||
The historical religious practices of neighbouring ] of ], ], ], and ] are similar to those of the Kalash people in that they "ate meat, drank alcohol, and had shamans".<ref name="Cacopardo2017"/> In addition, the Pahāṛi people "had rules of lineage exogamy that produced a segmentary system closely resembling the Kalasha one".<ref name="Cacopardo2017">{{cite book|last=Cacopardo|first=Augusto S.|title=Pagan Christmas: Winter Feasts of the Kalasha of the Hindu Kush|date=15 February 2017|publisher=Gingko Library|language=en|isbn=9781909942851|page=120}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Zoller |first1=Claus Peter |title="Pagan Christmas: Winter feast of the Kalasha of the Hindu Kush" and the true frontiers of 'Greater Peristan': Review article |journal=Acta Orientalia |date=2018 |volume=79 |pages=163–377 |doi=10.5617/ao.7672 |url=https://journals.uio.no/actaorientalia/article/view/7672 |issn=0001-6438|doi-access=free }}</ref> | |||
The neighbouring ] of the adjacent ] (historically known as ]) province of ] once had the same culture and practised a faith very similar to that of the Kalash, differing in a few minor particulars.<ref name="saxena">{{cite book|last=Saxena|first=Anju|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vTgv1ZYGZdoC&q=kalash+nuristani+religion&pg=PA72|title=Himalayan Languages: Past and Present|publisher=]|language=en|page=72|isbn=9783110898873|date=12 May 2011}}</ref><ref name="folklore">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ienxrTPHzzwC&q=kalash+nuristani+religion&pg=PA318|title=South Asian Folklore: An Encyclopedia : Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka|publisher=]|language=en|page=318|isbn=9780415939195|year=2003}}</ref> | |||
===Islamic conversions and persecution=== | |||
The first historically recorded Islamic invasions of their lands were by the ] in the 11th century<ref name="Caocopardo">, By Augusto S. Cacopardo</ref> while they themselves are first attested in 1339 during ]'s invasions.<ref name="Ludwig" /> Nuristan had been forcibly converted to ] in 1895–96, although some evidence has shown the people continued to practice their customs.<ref name="Iranica">{{cite encyclopedia |last=Klimberg |first=Max |encyclopedia= ]|title=NURISTAN |url= http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/nuristan|edition= Online|date=1 October 2004 |publisher= ]|location= United States}}</ref> The Kalash of Chitral have maintained their own separate cultural traditions.<ref name="Newby, Eric 2008">Newby, Eric. A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush. 2008. {{ISBN|1741795281}}</ref> During the mid-20th century an attempt was made to force a few Kalasha villages in Pakistan to convert to Islam, but the people fought the conversion and, once official pressure was removed, the vast majority resumed the practice of their own religion.<ref group=web name="The kalaṣa of kalaṣüm" /> Nevertheless, some Kalasha have since converted to Islam, mostly as a result of marriages with Muslims.{{sfn|Ahmed|1986|p=23–28}}<ref group=web name="Last_Kafir"/> | |||
The Kalash people are often referred to as Kalash Kafirs by the local Muslims and have been subjected to increasing incidents of killings, rape and seizure of their lands.<ref name="Persecution">{{cite web|url=https://www.persecution.org/2019/07/02/kalasha-voiceless-nation-teeters-brink-extinction-part-1-2/|title=The Kalasha – Voiceless Nation Teeters on the Brink of Extinction|date=2 July 2019|publisher=persecution.org}}</ref> As per the Kalash, forced conversions, robberies, and attacks endanger their culture and faith.<ref name="Persecution"/><ref name="Washington Post">{{cite news |last= Craig|first= Tim|date=16 August 2016|title=A little-known Pakistani tribe that loves wine and whiskey fears its Muslim neighbors|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/a-little-known-pakistani-tribe-that-loves-wine-and-whiskey-fears-its-muslim-neighbors/2016/08/15/9a8483aa-5273-11e6-b652-315ae5d4d4dd_story.html|newspaper=Washington Post}}</ref> Kalasha gravestones are desecrated and the symbolic carved horses on Kalasha altars are destroyed.<ref name="PRI">{{cite web|url=https://www.pri.org/stories/2009-03-15/fate-kalasha|title=The fate of the Kalasha | |||
|publisher=PRI}}</ref> | |||
===Deities=== | |||
{{See also|Hindu deities}} | |||
Noted linguist and Harvard professor Michael Witzel summarises the faith practised by the Kalash with this description: | |||
{{blockquote|In myth it is notably the role of ], his rainbow and his eagle who is shot at, the killing of his father, the killing of the snake or of a demon with many heads, and the central myth of releasing the Sun from an enclosure (by Mandi < ]). There are echoes of the ] myth, and there is the cyclical elevation of ] Rājan (Imra) to sky god (Witzel 1984: 288 sqq., ''pace'' Fussman 1977: 70).<br /> | |||
Importantly, the division between two groups of deities (]) and their intermarriage (Imra's mother is a 'giant') has been preserved, and this dichotomy is still re-enacted in rituals and festivals, especially the Chaumos. Ritual still is of this type: Among the Kalash it is basically, though not always, temple-less, involving fire, sacred wood, three circumambulations, and the *]. Some features already have their Vedic, and no longer their Central Asian form (e.g. dragon > snake).{{sfn|Witzel|2004|p=581–636}}}} | |||
;Mahandeo: | |||
{{Main article|Shiva}} | |||
Mahandeo is a deity whom the Kalash pray to and is known as '']'' in other languages of the Indian subcontinent in modern Hinduism.<ref name=Jamil-2019>{{cite web |last=Jamil |first=Kashif |date=19 August 2019 |title=Uchal — a festival of shepherds and farmers of the Kalash tribe |publisher=] |language=en |url=https://dailytimes.com.pk/450469/uchal-a-festival-of-shepherds-and-farmers-of-the-kalash-tribe/ |access-date=23 January 2020}}</ref>{{efn|Some of their deities who are worshiped in Kalash tribe are similar to the Hindu god and goddess like Mahadev in Hinduism is called Mahandeo in Kalash tribe. ... All the tribal also visit the Mahandeo for worship and pray. After that they reach to the gree (dancing place).<ref name=Jamil-2019/>}} | |||
;Imra: | |||
{{Main article|Yama|Mara (Hindu goddess)}} | |||
Certain deities were revered only in one community or tribe, but one was universally revered as the Creator: The ancient Hindu god ] Râja called imr'o in Kâmviri.<ref name="nuristan.info"> | |||
{{cite web | |||
| url = http://nuristan.info/Nuristani/Nuristanis1.html | |||
| title = Richard Strand's Nuristân Site: Peoples and Languages of Nuristan | |||
| publisher = Nuristan.info | |||
| access-date = 22 October 2012 | |||
}} | |||
</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=Guillard, J.M. |year=1974 |title=Seul chez les Kalash |publisher=Carrefour des Lettres}}</ref> There is a creator god, appearing under various names, no longer as Father Heaven, but as lord of the nether world and of heaven: Imra | |||
(*] Rājan), ] 'death' (Nuristani){{sfn|Witzel|2004|p=581–636}} He (Yama rajan) is a creator deity called ''Dezau'' (ḍezáw) whose name is derived from Indo-European *dheig'h 'to form' (Kati Nuristani dez 'to create', CDIAL 14621); Dezauhe is also called by the ] term ]. There are a number of other deities, semi-gods and spirits. | |||
;Indr: | |||
{{Main article|Indra}} | |||
Michael Witzel claims there is an ]-like figure, often actually called Indr (N., K.) or Varendr (K., waræn, werín, *aparendra). As in the ], the rainbow is called after him. When it thunders, ] is playing Polo. Indra appears, however, in various forms and modern 'disguises', such as Sajigor (Sajigōr), also called Shura Verin. The shrine of Sajigor is in ] valley.{{Citation needed|date=November 2019}} | |||
Warén(dr-) or In Warīn is the mightiest and most dangerous god. Even the recently popular Balumain (baḷimaín, K.) has taken over some of Indra's features: He comes from the outside, riding on a horse. Balumain is a culture hero who taught how to celebrate the Kalash winter festival (Chaumos). He is connected with ''Tsyam'', the mythological homeland of the Kalash. Indr has a demon-like counterpart, Jeṣṭan, who appears on earth as a dog; the gods (Devalog, Dewalók) are his enemies and throw stones at him, the shooting stars.{{sfn|Witzel|2004|p=581–636}} | |||
;Munjem Malék: | |||
Another god, Munjem Malék (munjem 'middle'; malék from Arab. malik 'king'), is the Lord of Middle Earth and killed, like the Indra, his father. ''Mahandeo'' (mahandéo, cf. the Nuristani Mon/Māndi), is the god of crops, and also the god of war and a negotiator with the highest deity.{{sfn|Witzel|2004|p=581–636}} | |||
;Jestak: | |||
''Jestak'' (jéṣṭak, from *jyeṣṭhā, or *deṣṭrī?) is the goddess of domestic life, family and marriage. Her lodge is the women's house (Jeṣṭak Han). ''Dezalik'' (ḍizálik), the sister of "Dezau" is the goddess of childbirth, the hearth, and of life force; she protects children and women.{{sfn|Witzel|2004|p=581–636}} She is similar to the Nirmali (Indo-Iranian *nirmalikā). She is also responsible for the Bashaleni lodge.{{Citation needed|date=November 2019}} | |||
;Suchi, Varōti and Jach: | |||
{{Main article|Mount Kailash|Gandharva|Apsara|Brahman}} | |||
There also is a general pattern of belief in mountain fairies Suchi (súči), who help in hunting and killing enemies, and the Varōti (called vātaputrī in Sanskrit), their violent male partners of Suchi, reflecting the later Vedic (and typical medieval Kashmiri) distinction between ]s and ]. They live in the high mountains, such as ] like ''Tirich Mir'', but in late autumn they descend to the mountain meadows. The Jach (j.ac.) are a separate category of female spirits of the soil or of special places, fields, and mountain pastures.{{sfn|Witzel|2004|p=581–636}} | |||
The Kalasha people believe in one God (''Dezao'') with reverence to minor 'gods' (''Maloths'') or more aptly known as celestial beings. They also use some Arabic and Persian words to refer to God.<ref name="auto">Zaheer-ud-Din, Muslim Impact on Religion and Culture of the Kalash, Al-Adwa 43:30, 2015</ref> | |||
;Krumai | |||
Krumai is the goddess of the mountain ]. She appears in the form of a wild goat, and she is associated with childbirth.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZoH2oQFIhWIC&q=Krumai+goddess&pg=PA61|title = A History of Kafferistan: Socio-economic and Political Conditions of the Kaffers|last1 = Chohan|first1 = Amar Singh|year = 1989}}</ref> | |||
In one legend, she disturbed the other gods, and was chased by Imra, who threw her into a fast river. Krumai jumped up the river and ran up the cliff, causing the cliff's shape with her hooves. She revealed her true form and prepared a feast for the other gods, and they accepted her into their pantheon.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://twitter.com/MHuzaifaNizam/status/1439263171961925638 |title=Huzaifa. On Twitter: "Lesser Known Fact: The Terich Mir mountain in #Pakistan (Hindu Kush's highest) has for centuries attracted the Khos & Kalashas of #Chitral. So much so that {{as written|i|t's }} mythology & folklore regards it as a home of a goddess and the fort of the Faeries. Thread on Terich Mir Folklore... |website=twitter.com |access-date=11 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210920004625/https://twitter.com/MHuzaifaNizam/status/1439263171961925638 |archive-date=20 September 2021 |url-status=dead}}</ref>{{Self-published inline |date=November 2021 |certain=y }} | |||
===Rituals=== | |||
{{See also|Puja (Hinduism)}} | |||
] | |||
These deities have shrines and altars throughout the valleys, where they frequently receive goat sacrifices. In 1929, as ] testifies, such rituals were still carried out by Kalash priests, "ištikavan" 'priest' (from ištikhék 'to praise a god'). This institution has since disappeared but there still is the prominent one of shamans (dehar).<ref>Lièvre and Loude 1990{{Page needed|date=August 2010}}</ref> Witzel writes that "In Kalash ritual, the deities are seen, as in Vedic ritual (and in Hindu Pūjā), as temporary visitors."{{sfn|Witzel|2004|p=581–636}} Mahandeo shrines are a wooden board with four carved horse heads (the horse being sacred to Kalash) extending out, in 1929 still with the effigy of a human head inside holes at the base of these shrines while the altars of Sajigor are of stone and are under old juniper, oak and cedar trees.{{sfn|Witzel|2004|p=581–636}} | |||
Horses, goats and sheep were sacrificed. Wine is a sacred drink of Indr, who owns a vineyard (Indruakun in the Kafiristani wama valley contained both a sacred vineyard and shrine (Idol and altar below a great juniper tree) along with 4 large vates carved out of rocks)—that he defends against invaders. Kalash rituals are of the ] type; by organising rituals and festivals (up to 12; the highest called biramōr) one gains fame and status. As in the Veda, the former local artisan class was excluded from public religious functions.{{sfn|Witzel|2004|p=581–636}} | |||
There is a special role for prepubescent boys, who are treated with special awe, combining pre-sexual behaviour and the purity of the high mountains, where they tend goats for the summer month. Purity is very much stressed and centered around altars, goat stables, the space between the hearth and the back wall of houses and in festival periods; the higher up in the valley, the more pure the location.{{sfn|Witzel|2004|p=581–636}} | |||
By contrast, women (especially during menstruation and giving birth), as well as death and decomposition and the outside (Muslim) world are impure, and, just as in the Veda and ], many cleansing ceremonies are required if impurity occurs.{{sfn|Witzel|2004|p=581–636}} | |||
Crows represent the ancestors, and are frequently fed with the left hand (also at tombs), just as in the Veda. The dead are buried above ground in ornamented wooden coffins. Wooden effigies are erected at the graves of wealthy or honoured people.{{sfn|Witzel|2004|p=581–636}}<ref>{{citation |last=Maggi |first=Wynne |chapter=The Kalasha Bashali |title=Our Women are Free: Gender and Ethnicity in the Hindukush |chapter-url=http://www.press.umich.edu/pdf/0472097830-05.pdf |url=https://archive.org/details/ourwomenarefreeg00magg/page/230 |year=2001 |publisher=University of Michigan Press |isbn=978-0-472-06783-1 |pages= }}</ref> | |||
===Festivals=== | |||
], Kalash women and men dance and sing their way from the dancing ground to the village arena, the Charso, for the end of the day's festivities]] | |||
] festival celebrations]] | |||
] | |||
The three main festivals (khawsáṅgaw) of the Kalash are the '']'' in middle of May, the ''Uchau'' in autumn, and the ''Caumus'' in midwinter.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.pilotguides.com/destination_guide/asia/pakistan/kalash_choimus_festival.php|title=Kalash Festival of Choimus|work=The Official Globe Trekker Website|access-date=15 August 2007|archive-date=19 December 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121219112925/http://www.pilotguides.com/destination_guide/asia/pakistan/kalash_choimus_festival.php|url-status=dead}}</ref> The pastoral god Sorizan protects the herds in Fall and Winter and is thanked at the winter festival, while Goshidai does so until the Pul festival (pũ. from *pūrṇa, full moon in Sept.) and is thanked at the ] (joṣi, žōši) festival in spring. Joshi is celebrated at the end of May each year. The first day of Joshi is "Milk Day", on which the Kalash offer ]s of milk that have been saved for ten days prior to the festival.<ref>{{Cite news |title=Chilam Joshi Festival starts on May 13 at Kalash Valley |language=en |url=https://www.thenews.com.pk/latest/117187-Chilam-Joshi-Festival-starts-on-May-13-at-Kalash-Valley |access-date=8 September 2020}}</ref> | |||
The most important Kalash festival is the ] (cawmōs, ''ghona chawmos yat'', Khowar "chitrimas" from *], CDIAL 4742), which is celebrated for two weeks at winter solstice (c. 7–22 December), at the beginning of the month ''chawmos mastruk''. It marks the end of the year's fieldwork and harvest. It involves much music, dancing, and goats killed for consumption as food. It is dedicated to the god Balimain who is believed to visit from the mythical homeland of the Kalash, ''Tsyam'' (Tsiyam, tsíam), for the duration of the feast.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Conway |first1=Rebecca |title=Welcoming a New Year at an Ancient Festival in Pakistan |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/27/world/asia/pakistan-kalash-chawmos.html |access-date=30 December 2020 |work=The New York Times |date=27 December 2020}}</ref> | |||
At ''Chaumos'', impure and uninitiated persons are not admitted; they must be purified by waving a fire brand over women and children and by a special fire ritual for men, involving a shaman waving juniper brands over the men. The 'old rules' of the gods (Devalog, dewalōk) are no longer in force, as is typical for year-end and carnival-like rituals. The main Chaumos ritual takes place at a Tok tree, a place called Indra's place, "indrunkot", or "indréyin". Indrunkot is sometimes believed to belong to Balumain's brother, In(dr), lord of cattle.{{sfn|Witzel|2004|p=581–636}} | |||
The men must be divided into two parties: the pure ones have to sing the well-honored songs of the past, but the impure sing wild, passionate, and obscene songs, with an altogether different rhythm. This is accompanied by a 'sex change': men dress as women, women as men (Balumain also is partly seen as female and can change between both forms at will).{{sfn|Witzel|2004|p=581–636}} | |||
At this crucial moment the pure get weaker, and the impure try to take hold of the (very pure) boys, pretend to mount them "like a hornless ram", and proceed in snake procession. At this point, the impure men resist and fight. When the "nagayrō" song with the response "han sarías" (from *samrīyate 'flows together', CDIAL 12995) is voiced, Balumain showers all his blessings and disappears. He gives his blessings to seven boys (representing the mythical seven of the eight Devalog who received him on arrival), and these pass the blessings on to all pure men.{{sfn|Witzel|2004|p=581–636}} | |||
In myth, Mahandeu had cheated Balumain from superiority, when all the gods had slept together (a euphemism) in the Shawalo meadow; therefore, he went to the mythical home of the Kalash in Tsiyam (tsíam), to come back next year like the Vedic Indra (] 10.86). If this had not happened, Balumain would have taught humans how to have sex as a sacred act. Instead, he could only teach them fertility songs used at the Chaumos ritual. He arrives from the west, the ], in early December, before solstice, and leaves the day after. He was at first shunned by some people, who were annihilated. He was, however, received by seven Devalog and they all went to several villages, such as Batrik village, where seven pure, young boys received him whom he took with him. Therefore, nowadays, one only sends men and older boys to receive him. Balumain is the typical culture hero. He told people about the sacred fire made from junipers, about the sowing ceremony for wheat that involved the blood of a small goat, and he asked for wheat tribute (hushak) for his horse. Finally, Balumain taught how to celebrate the winter festival. He was visible only during his first visit, now he is just felt to be present.{{sfn|Witzel|2004|p=581–636}} | |||
During the winter the Kalash play an inter-village tournament of Chikik Gal (ball game) in which villages compete against each other to hit a ball up and down the valley in deep snow.{{Citation needed|date=November 2019}} | |||
==Economy== | |||
Historically a goat herding and subsistence farming people, the Kalasha are moving towards a cash-based economy whereas previously wealth was measured in livestock and crops. Tourism now makes up a large portion of the economic activities of the Kalash. To cater to these new visitors, small shops and guest houses have been erected, providing new luxury for visitors of the valleys.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.patternfilms.com|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070704191013/http://www.patternfilms.com/alphabet/kalash|title=About the Kalash|archive-date=4 July 2007|website=PatternFilms.com|access-date=19 December 2019|url-status=usurped}}</ref> People attempting to enter the valleys have to pay a toll to the Pakistani government, which is used to preserve and care for the Kalash people and their culture. | |||
After building the first road which could be driven on by 4wD vehicles in the Kalasha valleys in the mid-1970s the people are engaged in other professions including tourism and joining the military, police and border force.<ref>Muhammad Kashif Ali, Cultural Transitions in Kalash Valley (1947–2006). (M.Phil Thesis, University of the Punjab, Lahore., 2010)</ref> | |||
==See also== | |||
* ] | |||
* ] | |||
* ] | |||
* ] | |||
* ] | |||
==Notes== | |||
{{notelist|35em|refs= | |||
<!-- A --> | |||
<!-- "animism_ancestor_worship" --> | |||
{{efn|name="animism_ancestor_worship"|Animism and ancestor worship: | |||
* {{harvtxt|Witzel|2004|p=2}}: "There is the prominent role of shamans (pshur, wrear, deal N., dehar K., LIEVRE & LOUDE 1990) and related items: the use of flat circular drums, of various types of psychopharmaca (wine, fly agaric, rhubarb, mead, Pashto hum ~ Kalash sámani; cf. also NYBERG 1995), and a general pattern of goat sacrifice (already seen at Mehrgarh, near Quetta, 6500 BCE), with sprinkling of the blood of the victim. There also is a general pattern of belief in mountain fairies, now often called by their Persian name, Peri, but still called Apsaras in the Rājatara ṅgi ṇī (3.465, 468-471 for King Ra ṇāditya's entering and disappearig in a mountain cave into the company of Daitya women)." | |||
* {{harvtxt|Searle|2013|p=lxxvii}}: "Kafiristan, the 'Land of the unbelievers', is a tiny enclave of pagans, who practice animism and ancestor worship, and remain unconverted to Islam." | |||
* {{harvtxt|Pelton|1997}}: "The Kalash (which means 'black' because of the black garments they wear) are an animist tribe who live in a region sometimes called Kafiristan." | |||
* {{harvtxt|Ruhland|2019|p=107}}: "Their traditional shamanic religion is probably rooted in Indo-Iranian, pre-Zoroastrian Vedic traditions."}} | |||
<!-- S --> | |||
<!-- "Strand_Alexander" --> | |||
{{efn|name="Strand_Alexander"|Richard R. Strand, : "According to their traditions, the Väi fled the Ghaznavid invasion of Kâma, following the Kunar up to mâdeš and samâlâm in the Shigal Valley and thence over the watershed to their main community of väigal. Accounts of the Gawâr people state that the Väi expropriated the current site of Väigal from the Gawâr, who fled to the Kunar Valley. As the Väi expanded, they established the communities listed above.<br.<br>At a probable later time, Âṣkuňu-speaking immigrants from the community of Nakara in the Titin Valley in Laghmân migrated eastward, settled the community of gřâmsaňâ gřâm in the middle Pech Valley, and thence moved further on into the lower Wâigal basin. There they established the community of nišeigrâm and gradually settled the district of čimi, which includes the communities of müldeš, kegal, and akuṇ. The čima-nišei, as these people call themselves, drove out the native preǰvře˜inhabitants to the neighbouring valley of Tregâm. They apparently adopted the language, väi-alâ, of the upper valley inhabitants (varǰan); so that today both the Čima-Nišei and the Väi speak Kalaṣa-alâ, although with a distinct division of dialects. The inhabitants of the hamlet of vânt were originally refugees from later Muslim invaders in Tregâm; they speak Kalaṣa-alâ but are not reckoned as either Väi or Čima-Nišei."}} | |||
<!-- W --> | |||
<!-- "Indo_Iranian_religion" --> | |||
{{efn|name="Indo_Iranian_religion"|Elements of ancient Indo-Iranian religion: | |||
* {{harvtxt|Witzel|2004|p=2}}: | |||
:* "an ancient, common substrate (TUITE 2000, cf. BENGTSON 1999, 2001, 2002). These must be separated from what ''may'' appear to be Vedic." | |||
:* "A few key features that highlight the position of Hindukush religion in between the IIr. , BMAC and Vedic religions will be summarized and discussed in some detail, as they by and large even now remain unknown to Vedic specialists, in spite of BUDDRUSS 1960 and the selective summary "d'un domaine mal connu des indianistes" by FUSSMAN (1977: 21-35), who, even with an "esprit hypercritique comme le nôtre" (1977: 27), overstresses (post-Vedic) Indian influences (1977: 69; for a balanced evaluation of the linguistic features, see now DEGENER 2002). However, both Hindukush and Vedic mythology, ritual, and festivals, in spite of many layers of developments and mutual influences, tend to explain each other very effectively; cf. the similar case of Nepal (Witzel 1997c: 520-32)." | |||
* {{harvtxt|Ruhland|2019|p=107}}: "Their traditional shamanic religion is probably rooted in Indo-Iranian, pre-Zoroastrian Vedic traditions." | |||
* {{harvtxt|Vinogradov|Zharnikova|2020|p=182}}: "... the pagan Kafir pantheon, which has preserved the relics of the most ancient Indo-Iranian mythological concepts." | |||
* Richard Strand, : "Before their conversion to Islâm the Nuristânis practised a form of ancient Hinduism, infused with accretions developed locally. They acknowledged a number of human-like deities who lived in the unseen Deity World (Kâmviri d'e lu; cf. Sanskrit deva lok'a-)" | |||
* {{harvtxt|West|2010|p=357}}: "The Kalasha are a unique people living in just three valleys near Chitral, Pakistan, the capital of North-West Frontier Province, which borders Afghanistan. Unlike their neighbours in the Hindu Kush Mountains on both the Afghani and Pakistani sides of the border the Kalasha have not converted to ]. During the mid-20th century a few Kalasha villages in Pakistan were forcibly converted to this dominant religion, but the people fought the conversion and, once official pressure was removed, the vast majority continued to practice their own religion.<br />Their religion is a form of ] that recognises many gods and spirits and has been related to the religion of the Ancient Greeks, who mythology says are the ancestors of the contemporary Kalash However, it is much more likely, given their Indo-Aryan language, that the religion of the Kalasha is much more closely aligned to the Hinduism of their Indian neighbours than to the religion of Alexander the Great and his armies.}} | |||
<!-- "West_Indo-Aryan" --> | |||
{{efn|name="West_Indo-Aryan"|{{harvtxt|West|2010|p=357}}: "The Kalasha are a unique people living in just three valleys near Chitral, Pakistan, the capital of North-West Frontier Province, which borders Afghanistan However, it is much more likely, given their Indo-Aryan language, that the religion of the Kalasha is much more closely aligned to the Hinduism of their Indian neighbours that to the religion of Alexander the Great and his armies."}} | |||
}} | |||
==References== | |||
{{reflist|25em}} | |||
==Sources== | |||
;Printed sources | |||
{{refbegin}} | |||
<!-- A --> | |||
* {{cite book | last =Ahmed | first =Akbar S. | year =1986 | chapter =The Islamization of the Kalash Kafirs | title=Pakistan Society: Islam, ethnicity, and leadership in South Asia | place =New York, NY | publisher =Mayflower Books | pages =23–28 |isbn =978-0-19-577350-7 }} | |||
<!-- B --> | |||
* {{cite book |editor-last1=Böck | editor-first1 = Monika |editor-last2 =Rao | editor-first2 =Aparna |title=Culture, Creation, and Procreation: Concepts of Kinship in South Asian Practice |date=2000 |publisher=Berghahn Books |page=277 |isbn= 978-1-57-181912-3 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=xSImJbqr4yMC&pg=PA277}} | |||
<!-- C --> | |||
* Cacopardo, Augusto S. (2016) ''Pagan Christmas. Winter Feasts of the Kalasha of the Hindu Kush''. Gingko Library. London. | |||
* {{cite book | last =Cacopardo | first =Augusto S. | year =2016 | title =Pagan Christmas: Winter Feasts of the Kalasha of the Hindu Kush | url =https://books.google.com/books?id=DVgrDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT28}} | |||
<!-- D --> | |||
<!-- F --> | |||
* Mytte Fentz, The Kalasha. Mountain People of the Hindu Kush. Rhodos Publishers, Copenhagen 2010. {{ISBN|9788772459745}}. | |||
* Maraini Fosco, ''Gli ultimi pagani'', Bur, Milano, 2001. | |||
<!-- G --> | |||
* Paolo Graziosi, ''The Wooden Statue of Dezalik, a Kalash Divinity, Chitral, Pakistan'', Man (1961). | |||
<!-- L --> | |||
* Viviane Lièvre, Jean-Yves Loude, Kalash Solstice: Winter Feasts of the Kalash of North Pakistan, Lok Virsa (1988) | |||
* D. Levinson et al., Encyclopedia of world cultures, MacMillan Reference Books (1995). | |||
* {{cite book | last =Lines | first =Maureen | date =1996 | title =The Kalasha People of North-Western Pakistan | publisher =Emjay Books International | page =49 | url =https://books.google.com/books?id=ov1tAAAAMAAJ}} | |||
<!-- M --> | |||
* Anwaar Mohyuddin, | |||
* ], 1973. Indo-Iranian Frontier Languages, Vol. IV: The Kalasha Language. Oslo. | |||
* ], 1947. The spring festival of the Kalash Kafirs.In: India Antiqua. Fs. J.Ph. Vogel. Leiden: Brill, pp 240–248 | |||
<!-- P --> | |||
* Parkes, Peter (1987). "Livestock Symbolism and Pastoral Ideology among the Kafirs of the Hindu Kush." Man 22:637-60 | |||
* {{cite book | last =Pelton | first =Robert Young | date =1997 | title =Fielding's The World's Most Dangerous Places |publisher =Fielding Worldwide | isbn=978-1-56952-140-3 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IVY1qg1hiNYC}} | |||
<!-- R --> | |||
* {{cite book |last =Raza | first =M. Hanif | date =1998 | title =Heavens of Hindukush | publisher =Colorpix | page =123 | isbn =9789698010133 | url =https://books.google.com/books?id=8qgMAQAAMAAJ}} | |||
* Sir George Scott Robertson, 1896. ''The Kafirs of The Hindu-Kush'', London: Lawrence & Bullen Ltd. | |||
* {{cite book | last =Ruhland | first =Heike | year =2019 | title =Peacebuilding in Pakistan: A Study on the Religious Minorities and Initiatives for Interfaith Harmony | publisher =Waxmann Verlag}} | |||
<!-- S --> | |||
* {{cite book | last =Searle | first =Mike | date =2013| title =Colliding Continents: A geological exploration of the Himalaya, Karakoram, and Tibet | publisher =OUP Oxford | isbn=978-0-19-165249-3 | url =https://books.google.com/books?id=-BLJuEo8lT0C}} | |||
<!-- T --> | |||
* Trail, Gail H, ''Tsyam revisited: a study of Kalasha origins.'' In: ] and Israr-ud-Din (eds.), Proceedings of the second International Hindukush Cultural Conference, 359–76. Hindukush and Karakoram Studies, 1. Karachi: Oxford University Press (1996). | |||
<!-- V --> | |||
* {{cite book | last1 =Vinogradov | first1 =A.G. | last2 =Zharnikova | first2 =S.V. | year =2020 | title =Indo-European Ornamental Complexes and their Analogies in the Cultures of Eurasia}} | |||
<!-- W --> | |||
* {{cite book |last=West |first=Barbara A. | date=2010 | title =Encyclopedia of the Peoples of Asia and Oceania | publisher =] | language =en | isbn =9781438119137 | page =357 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pCiNqFj3MQsC&pg=PA357}} | |||
* {{cite book | first =Michael | last =Witzel | year =2004 | author-link =Michael Witzel | chapter =Kalash Religion (extract from 'The Ṛgvedic Religious System and its Central Asian and Hindukush Antecedents') | editor1 =A. Griffiths | editor2=J. E. M. Houben | title =The Vedas: Texts, Language and Ritual | location =Groningen | publisher =Forsten | pages =581–636 | chapter-url =https://fid4sa-repository.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/3370/1/KalashaReligion.pdf}} | |||
{{refend}} | |||
;Citations | |||
{{reflist|group=web|refs= | |||
<!-- L --> | |||
<!-- "Last_Kafir" --> | |||
<ref group=web name="Last_Kafir">{{cite web|date=1 March 2021|title=Tribe of Kalash: The Last Kafir|url=http://www.ghrd.org/2021/03/01/tribe-of-kalash-the-last-kafir/|access-date=11 April 2021|website=Global Human Rights Defence|language=en-US|archive-date=22 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210422022929/https://www.ghrd.org/2021/03/01/tribe-of-kalash-the-last-kafir/|url-status=dead}}</ref> | |||
<!-- S --> | |||
<!-- "Shah" --> | |||
<ref group=web name="Shah">{{Cite web |last=Shah |first=Danial |date=29 September 2012 |title=In the land of infidels |url=https://www.dawn.com/2012/09/29/in-the-land-of-infidels/ |access-date=16 March 2023 |website=DAWN.COM |language=en}}</ref> | |||
<!-- "Strand-nuristan-kalaṣa" --> | |||
<ref name="Strand-nuristan-kalaṣa">{{cite web |author=Strand, R. |author-link=Richard |title=The kalaṣa of kalaṣüm Strand |website=nuristan.info |url=http://www.nuristan.info/Nuristani/Kalasha/kalasha.html}}</ref> | |||
<!-- T --> | |||
<!-- "The kalaṣa of kalaṣüm" --> | |||
<ref group=web name="The kalaṣa of kalaṣüm">{{Cite web |title=Richard Strand's Nuristân Site: The Kalasha of Kalashüm |url=http://www.nuristan.info/Nuristani/Kalasha/kalasha.html |access-date=31 December 2022 |website=www.nuristan.info}}</ref> | |||
<!-- "The Express Tribune" --> | |||
<ref group=web name="The Express Tribune">{{cite news |url=http://tribune.com.pk/story/988585/earthquake-was-allahs-wrath-for-kalash-communitys-immoral-ways/ |title='Earthquake was Allah's wrath for Kalash community's immoral ways' |work=] |date=10 November 2015 |access-date=11 November 2015}}</ref> | |||
<!-- W --> | |||
<!-- "www2.unitar.org" --> | |||
<ref group=web name="www2.unitar.org">{{cite web |title=The Kalash – Protection and Conservation of an Endangered Minority in the Hindukush Mountain Belt of Chitral, Northern Pakistan |url=http://www2.unitar.org/hiroshima/programmes/whs07/materials/Country%20Presentations/Pakistan.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070707041729/http://www.unitar.org/hiroshima/programmes/whs07/materials/Country%20Presentations/Pakistan.pdf|archive-date=7 July 2007}}</ref> | |||
}} | |||
==Further reading== | |||
* {{cite book|author1=Ali, Shaheen Sardar |author2=Rehman, Javaid|year=2001|title=Indigenous Peoples and Ethnic Minorities of Pakistan: Constitutional and Legal Perspectives|publisher=Curzon|isbn=9780700711598|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HNyJS9YfbyoC}} | |||
* {{Cite book | last =Decker |first =Kendall D. | year =1992 |title =Languages of Chitral | publisher =National Institute of Pakistan Studies, Quaid-i-Azam University | isbn =978-969-8023-15-7 | url =http://www.ethnologue.com/show_work.asp?id=32906}} | |||
* {{Cite journal | last =Denker | first =Debra |date=October 1981 |title = Pakistan's Kalash People |journal=] |pages = 458–473}} | |||
* {{cite book | last =Lines | first =Maureen | date =2003 | title =The Last Eden | publisher =Alhamra | page =311 | isbn = 978-9-69-516126-5 | url =https://books.google.com/books?id=5_1tAAAAMAAJ}} | |||
* {{Cite book |last = Morgenstierne |first = Georg |year = 2007 |orig-year = 1926 |title = Report on a Linguistic Mission to Afghanistan. |series=Instituttet for Sammenlignende Kulturforskning, Oslo |volume=Serie C I-2 |location = Bronx, NY |publisher = Ishi Press International |isbn = 978-0-923891-09-1 |title-link = Institute for Comparative Research in Human Culture}} | |||
==External links== | ==External links== | ||
{{commons category|Kalash people}} | |||
* A plethora of high quality pictures of the Kalash people and their homeland. | |||
* | |||
* | |||
* | |||
* | |||
* Zaheer-ud-Din in Al-Adwa 43:30 (2015) | |||
* | |||
* A website used by the Kalasha people to promote, conserve and protect the Kalasha tangible and intangible heritage | |||
* | |||
* | |||
* A blog used by Kalasha and their New Alphabet to write Kalashamondr (Kalasha language) | |||
* by Dimitra Stasinopoulou, ELINEPA, 2019 | |||
* | |||
{{Ethnic groups in Pakistan}} | |||
{{Religion in Pakistan}} | |||
] | |||
{{Authority control}} | |||
] | |||
] | |||
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kalash People}} | |||
] | |||
] | |||
] | |||
] | |||
] | |||
] | |||
] | |||
] | |||
] | |||
] | |||
] |
Latest revision as of 21:46, 15 December 2024
This article is about the Kalasha of Chitral. For the Kalasha of Nuristan, see Nuristani people. For other uses, see Kalash (disambiguation).Ethnic group
Kalash girls photographed in April 2016 | |
Total population | |
---|---|
c. 3,800 | |
Regions with significant populations | |
Kalasha Valleys, Chitral District, Pakistan | |
Languages | |
Kalasha, Khowar | |
Religion | |
Majority: Animism and ancestor worship with elements of ancient Indo-Aryan (Vedic Hindu-like) religion Minority: Islam | |
Related ethnic groups | |
Nuristanis, other Indo-Aryan peoples |
The Kalash (Kalasha: کالؕاشؕا, romanised: Kaḷaṣa), or Kalasha, are a small Indo-Aryan indigenous (minority) people residing in the Chitral District of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. The term is also used to refer to several distinct Nuristani speaking people, including the Väi, the Čima-nišei, the Vântä, plus the Ashkun- and Tregami-speakers.
According to one Kalash tradition, their ancestors migrated to Chitral Valley from Nuristan Province, Afghanistan or a location further south, called "Tsiyam" in their folk songs and epics, and possibly located near Jalalabad and Lughman in Afghanistan. Another tradition claims descent from the Greco-Bactrian and Indo-Greek kingdoms, which emerged following Alexander's expedition into the region. While these kingdoms exerted influence over parts of modern-day Pakistan, no evidence exists to suggest that they directly controlled or significantly impacted the Chitral Valley.
They are considered unique among the people of Pakistan, and form Pakistan's smallest ethnoreligious group, practicing what authors consider as a form of animism and ancestor worship with elements of Indo-Aryan (Vedic Hinduism-like) religion.
Location, climate and geography
The term "Kalash people" is used to refer to several distinct Nuristani speaking people, including the Väi, the Čima-nišei, the Vântä, plus the Ashkun- and Tregami-speakers, and to a small group of Indo-Aryan speaking people. This specific group, the topic of this article, lives in three isolated mountain valleys located in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan: Bumburet (Kalash: Mumuret), Rumbur (Rukmu), and Birir (Biriu). These valleys open towards the Kunar River, some 20 km south (downstream) of Chitral,
The Bumburet and Rumbur valleys join at 35°44′20″N 71°43′40″E / 35.73889°N 71.72778°E / 35.73889; 71.72778 (1,640 m), joining the Kunar at the village of Ayrun (35°42′52″N 71°46′40″E / 35.71444°N 71.77778°E / 35.71444; 71.77778, 1,400 m) and they each rise to passes connecting to Afghanistan's Nuristan Province at about 4,500 m.
The Birir Valley opens towards the Kunar at the village of Gabhirat (35°40′8″N 71°45′15″E / 35.66889°N 71.75417°E / 35.66889; 71.75417, 1,360 m). A pass connects the Birir and Bumburet valleys at about 3,000 m. The Kalash villages in all three valleys are located at a height of approximately 1,900 to 2,200 m.
The region is extremely fertile, covering the mountainside in rich oak forests and allowing for intensive agriculture, although most of the work is done not by machinery, but by hand. The powerful and dangerous rivers that flow through the valleys have been harnessed to power grinding mills and to water the farm fields through the use of ingenious irrigation channels. Wheat, maize, grapes (generally used for wine), apples, apricots and walnuts are among the many foodstuffs grown in the area, along with surplus fodder used for feeding the livestock.
The climate is typical of high elevation regions without large bodies of water to regulate the temperature. The summers are mild and agreeable with average maximum temperatures between 23 and 27 °C (73 and 81 °F). Winters, on the other hand, can be very cold, with average minimum temperatures between 2 and 1 °C (36 and 34 °F). The average yearly precipitation is 700 to 800 mm (28 to 31 inches).
History
Origins
The Kalash people have several traditions regarding their origins. According to one tradition, their ancestors migrated to Chitral Valley from Nuristan or a location further south, called "Tsiyam" in their folk songs and epics. "Tsiyam" is said to be near Jalalabad and Lughman according to Morgenstierne.
Another tradition has it that the Kalash descend from the armies of Alexander who were left behind from his armed campaign, though no evidence exists for him to have passed the area.
According to Henry Walter Bellew (1834-1892) the Kalash are the descendants of Gandhari people.
Genetic research - South Asia
A study by Rosenberg, Mahajan, et al. (2006) employing genetic testing among the Kalash population concluded that they are a distinct (and perhaps aboriginal) population with only minor contributions from outside peoples. In one cluster analysis (with K = 7), the Kalash formed one cluster, the others being Africans, Europeans/Middle Easterners, South Asians, East Asians, Melanesians, and Native Americans.
Genetic analysis of Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) by Quintana-Murci, Chaix, et al. (2004) stated that "the western Eurasian presence in the Kalash population reaches a frequency of 100%" with the most prevalent mtDNA Haplogroups being U4 (34%), R0 (23%), U2e (16%), and J2 (9%). The study asserted that no East or South Asian lineages were detected and that the Kalash population is composed of maternal western Eurasian lineages (as the associated lineages are rare or absent in the surrounding populations). The authors concluded that a western Eurasian maternal origin for the Kalash is likely.
Genetic analysis of Y-chromosome DNA (Y-DNA) by Firasat, Khaliq, et al. (2007) on Kalash individuals found high and diverse frequencies of these Y-DNA Haplogroups: L3a (22.7%), H1* (20.5%), R1a (18.2%), G (18.2%), J2 (9.1%), R* (6.8%), R1* (2.3%), and L* (2.3%).
A study by Li, Absher, et al. (2008) with geneticists using more than 650,000 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) samples from the Human Genome Diversity Panel, found deep rooted lineages that could be distinguished in the Kalash. The results showed them clustered within the Central / South Asian populations (at K = 7). The study also showed the Kalash to be a separated group, having no membership within European populations.
Lazaridis et al. (2016) note that the demographic impact of steppe related populations on South Asia was substantial. According to the results, the Mala, a south Indian Dalit population with minimal Ancestral North Indian (ANI) along the 'Indian Cline' have nevertheless ~ 18 % steppe-related ancestry, showing the strong influence of ANI ancestry in all populations of India. The Kalash of Pakistan are inferred to have ~ 50 % EMBA steppe-related ancestry, with the rest being of Iranian Neolithic (~29 %), Onge (~16 %) and Han (~5 %).
According to Narasimhan, Patterson, et al. (2019), the Kalash were found to possess the highest ANI ancestry among the population samples analysed in the study.
Genetic research - descent from Alexander's soldiers
A study by Ayub, Mezzavilla, et al. (2015) found no evidence of their claimed descent from soldiers of Alexander. The study, however, found that they shared a significant portion of genetic drift with MA-1, a 24,000 year-old Paleolithic Siberian hunter-gatherer fossil and the Yamnaya culture. The researchers thus believe they may be a drifted Ancient Northern Eurasian stock from which some of the modern European and Middle Eastern population also descends. Their mitochondrial lineages are predominantly from western Eurasia. Due to their uniqueness, the researchers believed that they were the earliest group to separate from the ancestral stock of the modern population of the Indian subcontinent estimated around 11,800 years ago.
The estimates by Qamar, Ayub, et al. (2002) of 20%–40% Greek admixture in the Kalash has been dismissed by Kivisild, Rootsi, et al. (2003) stating that:
- "some admixture models and programs that exist are not always adequate and realistic estimators of gene flow between populations ... this is particularly the case when markers are used that do not have enough restrictive power to determine the source populations ... or when there are more than two parental populations. In that case, a simplistic model using two parental populations would show a bias towards overestimating admixture".
The study came to the conclusion that the Kalash population estimate by Qamar, Ayub, et al.
is unrealistic and is likely also driven by the low marker resolution that pooled southern and western Asian-specific Y-chromosome Haplogroup H together with European-specific Haplogroup I, into an uninformative polyphyletic cluster 2.
Discover magazine genetics blogger R. Khan has repeatedly cited information indicating that the Kalash are part of the South Asian genetic continuum, with no Macedonian ethnic admixture, albeit shifted towards the Iranian people.
A study by Firasat, Khaliq, et al. (2006) concluded that the Kalash lack typical Greek Haplogroups such as Haplogroup 21 (E-M35). Furthermore, autosomal analysis gave no indication that Kalash were genetically related to Greeks.
Islamic rule
Nader Shah
Shah Nadir Rais (1698-1747) formed the Rais dynasty of Chitral. The Rais invaded southern Chitral, which was then under Kalasha rule. Kalasha traditions recount severe persecution and massacres at the hands of the Rais. Many Kalash fled the Chitral valley; those who remained while still practising their faith had to pay tribute in kind or with corvée labour. The term "Kalash" was used to denote "Kafirs" in general; however, the Kalash of Chitral were not considered "true Kafirs" by the Kati who were interviewed about the term in 1835.
The Kalash were ruled by the Mehtar of Chitral from the 18th century onward. They enjoyed a cordial relationship with the major ethnic group of Chitral, the Kho, who are Sunni and Ismaili Muslims. This multi-ethnic, multi-religious State of Chitral ensured that the Kalash were able to live in peace and harmony and practice their culture and religion. They were protected from Afghan raids by the Chitralis, who also generally did not allow missionaries to Kalash. Instead, the Chitralis allowed the Kalasha to look after their matters themselves.
However, in the 1890s Amir Abdur-Rahman of Afghanistan converted the Nuristani, neighbours of the Kalash in the region of former Kafiristan west of the border, to Islam on pain of death, and their land was renamed; earlier, the people of Kafiristan had paid tribute to the Mehtar of Chitral and accepted his suzerainty. This ended with the conclusion of the Durand Agreement, under which Kafiristan fell into the Afghan sphere of influence.
20th century
Prior to the 1940s the Kalash had five valleys, the current three as well as Jinjeret kuh and Urtsun to the south. The last Kalash person in Jinjeret kuh was Mukadar, who passing away in the early 1940s found himself with no one to perform the old rites. The people of Birir valley just north of Jinjeret came to the rescue with a moving funeral procession that is still remembered fondly by the valleys now converted Kalash, firing guns and beating drums as they made their way up the valley to celebrate his passing according to the old custom.
The Kalash of Urtsun valley had a culture with a large Kam influence from the Bashgul Valley. It was known for its shrines to Waren and Imro, the Urtsun version of Dezau, which were visited and photographed by Georg Morgenstierne in 1929 and were built in the Bashgul Valley style unlike those of other Kalash valleys. The last Shaman was one Azermalik who had been the Dehar when George Scott Robertson visited in the 1890s. His daughter Mranzi who was still alive into the 1980s was the last Urtsun valley Kalash practising the old religion. She had married into the Birir Valley Kalash and left the valley in the late 1930s when the valley had converted to Islam. Unlike the Kalash of the other valleys the women of Urtsun did not wear the Kup'as headdress but had their own P'acek, a headress worn at casual times, and the famous horned headress of the Bashgul valley, which was worn at times of ritual and dance. George Scott Robertson put forth the view that the dominant Kafir races like the Wai were refugees who fled to the region. The Kafirs are historically recorded for the first time in 1339.
Being a very small minority in a Muslim region, the Kalash have increasingly been targeted by some proselytising Muslims. Some Muslims have encouraged the Kalash people to read the Koran so that they would convert to Islam. The challenges of modernity and the role of outsiders and NGOs in changing the environment of the Kalash valleys have also been mentioned as real threats for the Kalash.
During the 1970s, local Muslims and militants tormented the Kalash because of the difference in religion and multiple Taliban attacks on the tribe lead to the death of many, their numbers shrank to just two thousand.
However, protection from the government led to a decrease in violence by locals, a decrease in Taliban attacks, and a great reduction in the child mortality rate. The last two decades saw a rise in numbers.
In recent times the Kalash and Ismailis have been threatened with death by the Taliban. The threats caused outrage and horrified citizens throughout Pakistan and the Pakistani military responded by fortifying the security around Kalash villages, the Supreme Court also took judicial intervention to protect the Kalash under both the ethnic minorities clause of the constitution and Pakistan's Sharia law penal code which declares it illegal for Muslims to criticise and attack other religions on grounds of personal belief. The Supreme Court termed the Taliban's threats against Islamic teachings. Imran Khan condemned the forced conversions threat as un-Islamic.
In 2017, Wazir Zada became the first Kalasha man to win a seat in the Provincial Assembly of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. He became the member of the Provincial Assembly (PA) on a minority reserved seat.
In November 2019, the Kalash people were visited by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, as part of their Pakistan tour and they saw a traditional dance performance there.
Culture
Part of a series on |
Kalash people |
---|
The Kalash have fascinated anthropologists due to their unique culture compared to the rest in that region. The culture of the Kalash people differs in many ways from the many contemporary Muslim ethnic groups surrounding them in northwestern Pakistan. Nature plays a highly significant and spiritual role in their daily life. As part of their religious tradition, sacrifices are offered and festivals held to give thanks for the abundant resources of their three valleys. Kalasha Desh (the three Kalash valleys) is made up of two distinct cultural areas, the valleys of Rumbur and Bumburet forming one, and Birir Valley the other; Birir Valley being the more traditional of the two.
Language
Main article: Kalasha-munThe Kalasha language, also known as Kalasha-mun, is an Indo-Aryan language whose closest relative is the neighbouring Khowar language. Kalasha was formerly spoken over a larger area in south Chitral, but it is now mostly confined to the western side valleys having lost ground to Khowar.
Customs
There is some controversy over what defines the ethnic characteristics of the Kalash. Although there was a larger population in the 20th century, the non-Muslim minority has seen its numbers dwindle over the past century. A leader of the Kalash, Saifulla Jan, has stated, "If any Kalash converts to Islam, they cannot live among us anymore. We keep our identity strong." About three thousand have converted to Islam or are descendants of converts, yet still live nearby in the Kalash villages and maintain their language and many aspects of their ancient culture. By now, sheikhs, or converts to Islam, make up more than half of the total Kalasha-speaking population.
Kalasha women usually wear long black robes, often embroidered with cowrie shells. For this reason, they are known in Chitral as "the Black Kafirs". Men have adopted the Pakistani shalwar kameez, while children wear small versions of adult clothing after the age of four.
In contrast to the surrounding Pakistani culture, the Kalasha do not in general separate males and females or frown on contact between the sexes. However, menstruating girls and women are sent to live in the "bashaleni", the village menstrual building, during their periods, until they regain their "purity". They are also required to give birth in the bashaleni. There is also a ritual restoring "purity" to a woman after childbirth which must be performed before a woman can return to her husband. The husband is an active participant in this ritual.
Girls are initiated into womanhood at an early age of four or five and married at fourteen or fifteen. If a woman wants to change husbands, she will write a letter to her prospective husband informing him of how much her current husband paid for her. This is because the new husband must pay double if he wants her.
Marriage by elopement is rather frequent, also involving women who are already married to another man. Indeed, wife-elopement is counted as one of the "great customs" (ghōna dastūr) together with the main festivals. Wife-elopement may lead in some rare cases to a quasi-feud between clans until peace is negotiated by mediators, in the form of the double bride-price paid by the new husband to the ex-husband.
Kalash lineages (kam) separate as marriageable descendants that have separated by over seven generations. A rite of "breaking agnation" (tatbře čhin) marks that previous agnates (tatbře) are now permissible affines (därak "clan partners"). Each kam has a separate shrine in the clan's Jēṣṭak-hān, the temple to lineal or familial goddess Jēṣṭak.
Music
Kalasha traditional music mainly consists of flute-like instruments (usually high in pitch), singing, poetry, clapping and the rhythmic playing of drums, which include the:
- wãc – A small hourglass-shaped drum; this is made from 'chizhin' (pine wood), 'kuherik' (pine nut wood), or 'az'a'i' (apricot (tree) wood). It is played with a larger drum called a 'dãu' for the Kalasha dances.
- dãu – A large drum; this is played with a smaller drum called a 'wãc' for the Kalasha dances, the smaller drum giving a lighter counterpart to the larger one.
Religion
Animism, ancestor worship, and Indo-Aryan religion
While a minority of the Kalash has converted to Islam, the Kalash people are primarily practitioners of the traditional Kalasha religion, which is a form of animism and ancestor worship mixed with elements from ancient Indo-Aryan Vedic Hinduism.
According to Witzel, the Kalash religion contains both pre-Vedic and Indo-Iranian elements, but very little post-Vedic influences. Elements of the Kalash mythology and folklore are closely related to the Vedic mythology, and its religion has also been compared to that of ancient Greece, due to the hypothesis that the Kalsh are descendants of Alexander the Great's soldiers.
Kalash culture and belief system differ from the various ethnic groups surrounding them, but are similar to those practised by the neighbouring Nuristanis in northeast Afghanistan before their forced conversion to Islam. Richard Strand, a prominent expert on languages of the Hindu Kush, spent three decades in the Hindukush. He noted the following about the pre-Islamic Nuristani religion:
Before their conversion to Islâm the Nuristânis practised a form of ancient Hinduism, infused with accretions developed locally. They acknowledged a number of human-like deities who lived in the unseen Deity World (Kâmviri d'e lu; cf. Sanskrit deva lok'a-)."
The historical religious practices of neighbouring Pahāṛi peoples of Nepal, Kashmir, Uttarakhand, and Himachal Pradesh are similar to those of the Kalash people in that they "ate meat, drank alcohol, and had shamans". In addition, the Pahāṛi people "had rules of lineage exogamy that produced a segmentary system closely resembling the Kalasha one".
The neighbouring Nuristani people of the adjacent Nuristan (historically known as Kafiristan) province of Afghanistan once had the same culture and practised a faith very similar to that of the Kalash, differing in a few minor particulars.
Islamic conversions and persecution
The first historically recorded Islamic invasions of their lands were by the Ghaznavids in the 11th century while they themselves are first attested in 1339 during Timur's invasions. Nuristan had been forcibly converted to Islam in 1895–96, although some evidence has shown the people continued to practice their customs. The Kalash of Chitral have maintained their own separate cultural traditions. During the mid-20th century an attempt was made to force a few Kalasha villages in Pakistan to convert to Islam, but the people fought the conversion and, once official pressure was removed, the vast majority resumed the practice of their own religion. Nevertheless, some Kalasha have since converted to Islam, mostly as a result of marriages with Muslims.
The Kalash people are often referred to as Kalash Kafirs by the local Muslims and have been subjected to increasing incidents of killings, rape and seizure of their lands. As per the Kalash, forced conversions, robberies, and attacks endanger their culture and faith. Kalasha gravestones are desecrated and the symbolic carved horses on Kalasha altars are destroyed.
Deities
See also: Hindu deitiesNoted linguist and Harvard professor Michael Witzel summarises the faith practised by the Kalash with this description:
In myth it is notably the role of Indra, his rainbow and his eagle who is shot at, the killing of his father, the killing of the snake or of a demon with many heads, and the central myth of releasing the Sun from an enclosure (by Mandi < Mahān Deva). There are echoes of the Puruṣa myth, and there is the cyclical elevation of Yama Rājan (Imra) to sky god (Witzel 1984: 288 sqq., pace Fussman 1977: 70).
Importantly, the division between two groups of deities (Devalog) and their intermarriage (Imra's mother is a 'giant') has been preserved, and this dichotomy is still re-enacted in rituals and festivals, especially the Chaumos. Ritual still is of this type: Among the Kalash it is basically, though not always, temple-less, involving fire, sacred wood, three circumambulations, and the *hotṛ. Some features already have their Vedic, and no longer their Central Asian form (e.g. dragon > snake).
- Mahandeo
Mahandeo is a deity whom the Kalash pray to and is known as Mahadev in other languages of the Indian subcontinent in modern Hinduism.
- Imra
Certain deities were revered only in one community or tribe, but one was universally revered as the Creator: The ancient Hindu god Yama Râja called imr'o in Kâmviri. There is a creator god, appearing under various names, no longer as Father Heaven, but as lord of the nether world and of heaven: Imra (*Yama Rājan), Māra 'death' (Nuristani) He (Yama rajan) is a creator deity called Dezau (ḍezáw) whose name is derived from Indo-European *dheig'h 'to form' (Kati Nuristani dez 'to create', CDIAL 14621); Dezauhe is also called by the Pashto term Khodai. There are a number of other deities, semi-gods and spirits.
- Indr
Michael Witzel claims there is an Indra-like figure, often actually called Indr (N., K.) or Varendr (K., waræn, werín, *aparendra). As in the Veda, the rainbow is called after him. When it thunders, Indra is playing Polo. Indra appears, however, in various forms and modern 'disguises', such as Sajigor (Sajigōr), also called Shura Verin. The shrine of Sajigor is in Rumbur valley.
Warén(dr-) or In Warīn is the mightiest and most dangerous god. Even the recently popular Balumain (baḷimaín, K.) has taken over some of Indra's features: He comes from the outside, riding on a horse. Balumain is a culture hero who taught how to celebrate the Kalash winter festival (Chaumos). He is connected with Tsyam, the mythological homeland of the Kalash. Indr has a demon-like counterpart, Jeṣṭan, who appears on earth as a dog; the gods (Devalog, Dewalók) are his enemies and throw stones at him, the shooting stars.
- Munjem Malék
Another god, Munjem Malék (munjem 'middle'; malék from Arab. malik 'king'), is the Lord of Middle Earth and killed, like the Indra, his father. Mahandeo (mahandéo, cf. the Nuristani Mon/Māndi), is the god of crops, and also the god of war and a negotiator with the highest deity.
- Jestak
Jestak (jéṣṭak, from *jyeṣṭhā, or *deṣṭrī?) is the goddess of domestic life, family and marriage. Her lodge is the women's house (Jeṣṭak Han). Dezalik (ḍizálik), the sister of "Dezau" is the goddess of childbirth, the hearth, and of life force; she protects children and women. She is similar to the Nirmali (Indo-Iranian *nirmalikā). She is also responsible for the Bashaleni lodge.
- Suchi, Varōti and Jach
There also is a general pattern of belief in mountain fairies Suchi (súči), who help in hunting and killing enemies, and the Varōti (called vātaputrī in Sanskrit), their violent male partners of Suchi, reflecting the later Vedic (and typical medieval Kashmiri) distinction between Apsaras and Gandharva. They live in the high mountains, such as Mount Kailash like Tirich Mir, but in late autumn they descend to the mountain meadows. The Jach (j.ac.) are a separate category of female spirits of the soil or of special places, fields, and mountain pastures.
The Kalasha people believe in one God (Dezao) with reverence to minor 'gods' (Maloths) or more aptly known as celestial beings. They also use some Arabic and Persian words to refer to God.
- Krumai
Krumai is the goddess of the mountain Tirich Mir. She appears in the form of a wild goat, and she is associated with childbirth.
In one legend, she disturbed the other gods, and was chased by Imra, who threw her into a fast river. Krumai jumped up the river and ran up the cliff, causing the cliff's shape with her hooves. She revealed her true form and prepared a feast for the other gods, and they accepted her into their pantheon.
Rituals
See also: Puja (Hinduism)These deities have shrines and altars throughout the valleys, where they frequently receive goat sacrifices. In 1929, as Georg Morgenstierne testifies, such rituals were still carried out by Kalash priests, "ištikavan" 'priest' (from ištikhék 'to praise a god'). This institution has since disappeared but there still is the prominent one of shamans (dehar). Witzel writes that "In Kalash ritual, the deities are seen, as in Vedic ritual (and in Hindu Pūjā), as temporary visitors." Mahandeo shrines are a wooden board with four carved horse heads (the horse being sacred to Kalash) extending out, in 1929 still with the effigy of a human head inside holes at the base of these shrines while the altars of Sajigor are of stone and are under old juniper, oak and cedar trees.
Horses, goats and sheep were sacrificed. Wine is a sacred drink of Indr, who owns a vineyard (Indruakun in the Kafiristani wama valley contained both a sacred vineyard and shrine (Idol and altar below a great juniper tree) along with 4 large vates carved out of rocks)—that he defends against invaders. Kalash rituals are of the potlatch type; by organising rituals and festivals (up to 12; the highest called biramōr) one gains fame and status. As in the Veda, the former local artisan class was excluded from public religious functions.
There is a special role for prepubescent boys, who are treated with special awe, combining pre-sexual behaviour and the purity of the high mountains, where they tend goats for the summer month. Purity is very much stressed and centered around altars, goat stables, the space between the hearth and the back wall of houses and in festival periods; the higher up in the valley, the more pure the location.
By contrast, women (especially during menstruation and giving birth), as well as death and decomposition and the outside (Muslim) world are impure, and, just as in the Veda and Avesta, many cleansing ceremonies are required if impurity occurs.
Crows represent the ancestors, and are frequently fed with the left hand (also at tombs), just as in the Veda. The dead are buried above ground in ornamented wooden coffins. Wooden effigies are erected at the graves of wealthy or honoured people.
Festivals
The three main festivals (khawsáṅgaw) of the Kalash are the Chilam Joshi in middle of May, the Uchau in autumn, and the Caumus in midwinter. The pastoral god Sorizan protects the herds in Fall and Winter and is thanked at the winter festival, while Goshidai does so until the Pul festival (pũ. from *pūrṇa, full moon in Sept.) and is thanked at the Joshi (joṣi, žōši) festival in spring. Joshi is celebrated at the end of May each year. The first day of Joshi is "Milk Day", on which the Kalash offer libations of milk that have been saved for ten days prior to the festival.
The most important Kalash festival is the Chawmos (cawmōs, ghona chawmos yat, Khowar "chitrimas" from *cāturmāsya, CDIAL 4742), which is celebrated for two weeks at winter solstice (c. 7–22 December), at the beginning of the month chawmos mastruk. It marks the end of the year's fieldwork and harvest. It involves much music, dancing, and goats killed for consumption as food. It is dedicated to the god Balimain who is believed to visit from the mythical homeland of the Kalash, Tsyam (Tsiyam, tsíam), for the duration of the feast.
At Chaumos, impure and uninitiated persons are not admitted; they must be purified by waving a fire brand over women and children and by a special fire ritual for men, involving a shaman waving juniper brands over the men. The 'old rules' of the gods (Devalog, dewalōk) are no longer in force, as is typical for year-end and carnival-like rituals. The main Chaumos ritual takes place at a Tok tree, a place called Indra's place, "indrunkot", or "indréyin". Indrunkot is sometimes believed to belong to Balumain's brother, In(dr), lord of cattle.
The men must be divided into two parties: the pure ones have to sing the well-honored songs of the past, but the impure sing wild, passionate, and obscene songs, with an altogether different rhythm. This is accompanied by a 'sex change': men dress as women, women as men (Balumain also is partly seen as female and can change between both forms at will).
At this crucial moment the pure get weaker, and the impure try to take hold of the (very pure) boys, pretend to mount them "like a hornless ram", and proceed in snake procession. At this point, the impure men resist and fight. When the "nagayrō" song with the response "han sarías" (from *samrīyate 'flows together', CDIAL 12995) is voiced, Balumain showers all his blessings and disappears. He gives his blessings to seven boys (representing the mythical seven of the eight Devalog who received him on arrival), and these pass the blessings on to all pure men.
In myth, Mahandeu had cheated Balumain from superiority, when all the gods had slept together (a euphemism) in the Shawalo meadow; therefore, he went to the mythical home of the Kalash in Tsiyam (tsíam), to come back next year like the Vedic Indra (Rigveda 10.86). If this had not happened, Balumain would have taught humans how to have sex as a sacred act. Instead, he could only teach them fertility songs used at the Chaumos ritual. He arrives from the west, the Bashgal valley, in early December, before solstice, and leaves the day after. He was at first shunned by some people, who were annihilated. He was, however, received by seven Devalog and they all went to several villages, such as Batrik village, where seven pure, young boys received him whom he took with him. Therefore, nowadays, one only sends men and older boys to receive him. Balumain is the typical culture hero. He told people about the sacred fire made from junipers, about the sowing ceremony for wheat that involved the blood of a small goat, and he asked for wheat tribute (hushak) for his horse. Finally, Balumain taught how to celebrate the winter festival. He was visible only during his first visit, now he is just felt to be present.
During the winter the Kalash play an inter-village tournament of Chikik Gal (ball game) in which villages compete against each other to hit a ball up and down the valley in deep snow.
Economy
Historically a goat herding and subsistence farming people, the Kalasha are moving towards a cash-based economy whereas previously wealth was measured in livestock and crops. Tourism now makes up a large portion of the economic activities of the Kalash. To cater to these new visitors, small shops and guest houses have been erected, providing new luxury for visitors of the valleys. People attempting to enter the valleys have to pay a toll to the Pakistani government, which is used to preserve and care for the Kalash people and their culture. After building the first road which could be driven on by 4wD vehicles in the Kalasha valleys in the mid-1970s the people are engaged in other professions including tourism and joining the military, police and border force.
See also
Notes
- ^ Animism and ancestor worship:
- Witzel (2004, p. 2): "There is the prominent role of shamans (pshur, wrear, deal N., dehar K., LIEVRE & LOUDE 1990) and related items: the use of flat circular drums, of various types of psychopharmaca (wine, fly agaric, rhubarb, mead, Pashto hum ~ Kalash sámani; cf. also NYBERG 1995), and a general pattern of goat sacrifice (already seen at Mehrgarh, near Quetta, 6500 BCE), with sprinkling of the blood of the victim. There also is a general pattern of belief in mountain fairies, now often called by their Persian name, Peri, but still called Apsaras in the Rājatara ṅgi ṇī (3.465, 468-471 for King Ra ṇāditya's entering and disappearig in a mountain cave into the company of Daitya women)."
- Searle (2013, p. lxxvii): "Kafiristan, the 'Land of the unbelievers', is a tiny enclave of pagans, who practice animism and ancestor worship, and remain unconverted to Islam."
- Pelton (1997): "The Kalash (which means 'black' because of the black garments they wear) are an animist tribe who live in a region sometimes called Kafiristan."
- Ruhland (2019, p. 107): "Their traditional shamanic religion is probably rooted in Indo-Iranian, pre-Zoroastrian Vedic traditions."
- ^ Elements of ancient Indo-Iranian religion:
- Witzel (2004, p. 2):
- "an ancient, common substrate (TUITE 2000, cf. BENGTSON 1999, 2001, 2002). These must be separated from what may appear to be Vedic."
- "A few key features that highlight the position of Hindukush religion in between the IIr. , BMAC and Vedic religions will be summarized and discussed in some detail, as they by and large even now remain unknown to Vedic specialists, in spite of BUDDRUSS 1960 and the selective summary "d'un domaine mal connu des indianistes" by FUSSMAN (1977: 21-35), who, even with an "esprit hypercritique comme le nôtre" (1977: 27), overstresses (post-Vedic) Indian influences (1977: 69; for a balanced evaluation of the linguistic features, see now DEGENER 2002). However, both Hindukush and Vedic mythology, ritual, and festivals, in spite of many layers of developments and mutual influences, tend to explain each other very effectively; cf. the similar case of Nepal (Witzel 1997c: 520-32)."
- Ruhland (2019, p. 107): "Their traditional shamanic religion is probably rooted in Indo-Iranian, pre-Zoroastrian Vedic traditions."
- Vinogradov & Zharnikova (2020, p. 182): "... the pagan Kafir pantheon, which has preserved the relics of the most ancient Indo-Iranian mythological concepts."
- Richard Strand, Peoples and Languages of Nuristan: "Before their conversion to Islâm the Nuristânis practised a form of ancient Hinduism, infused with accretions developed locally. They acknowledged a number of human-like deities who lived in the unseen Deity World (Kâmviri d'e lu; cf. Sanskrit deva lok'a-)"
- West (2010, p. 357): "The Kalasha are a unique people living in just three valleys near Chitral, Pakistan, the capital of North-West Frontier Province, which borders Afghanistan. Unlike their neighbours in the Hindu Kush Mountains on both the Afghani and Pakistani sides of the border the Kalasha have not converted to Islam. During the mid-20th century a few Kalasha villages in Pakistan were forcibly converted to this dominant religion, but the people fought the conversion and, once official pressure was removed, the vast majority continued to practice their own religion.
Their religion is a form of Hinduism that recognises many gods and spirits and has been related to the religion of the Ancient Greeks, who mythology says are the ancestors of the contemporary Kalash However, it is much more likely, given their Indo-Aryan language, that the religion of the Kalasha is much more closely aligned to the Hinduism of their Indian neighbours than to the religion of Alexander the Great and his armies.
- West (2010, p. 357): "The Kalasha are a unique people living in just three valleys near Chitral, Pakistan, the capital of North-West Frontier Province, which borders Afghanistan However, it is much more likely, given their Indo-Aryan language, that the religion of the Kalasha is much more closely aligned to the Hinduism of their Indian neighbours that to the religion of Alexander the Great and his armies."
- ^ Richard R. Strand, The kalaṣa of kalaṣüm: "According to their traditions, the Väi fled the Ghaznavid invasion of Kâma, following the Kunar up to mâdeš and samâlâm in the Shigal Valley and thence over the watershed to their main community of väigal. Accounts of the Gawâr people state that the Väi expropriated the current site of Väigal from the Gawâr, who fled to the Kunar Valley. As the Väi expanded, they established the communities listed above.<br.
At a probable later time, Âṣkuňu-speaking immigrants from the community of Nakara in the Titin Valley in Laghmân migrated eastward, settled the community of gřâmsaňâ gřâm in the middle Pech Valley, and thence moved further on into the lower Wâigal basin. There they established the community of nišeigrâm and gradually settled the district of čimi, which includes the communities of müldeš, kegal, and akuṇ. The čima-nišei, as these people call themselves, drove out the native preǰvře˜inhabitants to the neighbouring valley of Tregâm. They apparently adopted the language, väi-alâ, of the upper valley inhabitants (varǰan); so that today both the Čima-Nišei and the Väi speak Kalaṣa-alâ, although with a distinct division of dialects. The inhabitants of the hamlet of vânt were originally refugees from later Muslim invaders in Tregâm; they speak Kalaṣa-alâ but are not reckoned as either Väi or Čima-Nišei." - Cite error: The named reference
Indo_Aryan_religion
was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - Witzel (2004): "the Hindukush area shares many of the traits of IIr. myths, ritual, society, and echoes many aspects of Rigvedic, but hardly of post-Rigvedic religion."
- Some of their deities who are worshiped in Kalash tribe are similar to the Hindu god and goddess like Mahadev in Hinduism is called Mahandeo in Kalash tribe. ... All the tribal also visit the Mahandeo for worship and pray. After that they reach to the gree (dancing place).
References
- "The last of the Kalasha". 24 February 2019.
- ^ Ahmed 1986, p. 23–28.
- Nicolaisen, Johannes; Yde, Jens (1963). Folk: dansk etnografisk tidsskrift. Dansk etnografisk forening.
- East and West. Istituto italiano per il Medio ed Estremo Oriente. 1992.
- Cacopardo, Augusto (2011). "Are the Kalasha Really of Greek Origin? The Legend of Alexander the Great and the Pre-Islamic World of the Hindu Kush". Acta Orientalia. 72: 47–92. doi:10.5617/ao.4847.
- Cacopardo 2016, p. 28.
- Parkes, Peter (1999), "Enclaved Knowledge: Indigent and Indignant Representations of Environmental Management and Development among the Kalasha of Pakistan", in R. Ellen; P. Parkes; A. Bicker (eds.), Indigenous Environmental Knowledge: critical anthropological perspectives, Harwood Academic, archived from the original on 17 January 2006
- Nicolaisen, Johannes; Yde, Jens (1963). Folk: dansk etnografisk tidsskrift. Dansk etnografisk forening.
- East and West. Istituto italiano per il Medio ed Estremo Oriente. 1992.
- Pakistan Geographical Review. Pakistan Geographical Review. 1969.
- ^ Adamec, L.W., ed. (1985). Historical and Political Gazetteer of Afghanistan. Vol. 6. Akademische Druck- u. Verlagsanstalt Graz. p. 349.
He identifies them more particularly with the Gandhari, that is to say, the former inhabitants of what is now known as the Mohmand country.
- ^ Rosenberg NA, Mahajan S, Gonzalez-Quevedo C, et al. (December 2006). "Low levels of genetic divergence across geographically and linguistically diverse populations from India". PLOS Genetics. 2 (12): e215. doi:10.1371/journal.pgen.0020215. PMC 1713257. PMID 17194221.
- ^ Quintana-Murci L, Chaix R, Wells RS, et al. (May 2004). "Where west meets east: the complex mtDNA landscape of the southwest and Central Asian corridor". The American Journal of Human Genetics. 74 (5): 827–45. doi:10.1086/383236. PMC 1181978. PMID 15077202.
- ^ Firasat, Sadaf; Khaliq, Shagufta; Mohyuddin, Aisha; Papaioannou, Myrto; Tyler-Smith, Chris; Underhill, Peter A.; Ayub, Qasim (2007). "Y-chromosomal evidence for a limited Greek contribution to the Pathan population of Pakistan". European Journal of Human Genetics. 15 (1): 121–126. doi:10.1038/sj.ejhg.5201726. PMC 2588664. PMID 17047675.
- ^ Li, J.Z.; Absher, D.M.; Tang, H.; Southwick, A.M.; Casto, A.M.; Ramachandran, S.; et al. (2008). "Worldwide Human Relationships Inferred". Science. 319 (5866): 1100–1104. Bibcode:2008Sci...319.1100L. doi:10.1126/science.1153717. PMID 18292342. S2CID 53541133.
- Lazaridis et al. (2016), pp. 123.
- Lazaridis, Iosif; Nadel, Dani; Rollefson, Gary; Merrett, Deborah C.; Rohland, Nadin; Mallick, Swapan; et al. (16 June 2016). "The genetic structure of the world's first farmers" (PDF). Nature. Supplementary Information. 536 (7617): 419–424. Bibcode:2016Natur.536..419L. doi:10.1038/nature19310. PMC 5003663. PMID 27459054.
- ^ Narasimhan, Vagheesh M.; Patterson, Nick; Moorjani, Priya; Rohland, Nadin; Bernardos, Rebecca; Mallick, Swapan; et al. (2019). "The formation of human populations in south and central Asia". Science. 365 (6457): eaat7487. doi:10.1126/science.aat7487. PMC 6822619. PMID 31488661.
- ^ Ayub, Qasim; Mezzavilla, Massimo; Pagani, Luca; Haber, Marc; Mohyuddin, Aisha; Khaliq, Shagufta; et al. (2015). "The Kalash genetic isolate: Ancient divergence, drift, and selection". The American Journal of Human Genetics. 96 (5): 775–783. doi:10.1016/j.ajhg.2015.03.012. PMC 4570283. PMID 25937445.
- Qamar, Raheel; Ayub, Qasim; Mohyuddin, Aisha; Helgason, Agnar; Mazhar, Kehkashan; Mansoor, Atika; et al. (2002). "Y-chromosomal DNA variation in Pakistan". The American Journal of Human Genetics. 70 (5): 1107–1124. doi:10.1086/339929. PMC 447589. PMID 11898125.
- ^ Kivisild T, Rootsi S, Metspalu M, et al. (February 2003). "The genetic heritage of the earliest settlers persists both in Indian tribal and caste populations". The American Journal of Human Genetics. 72 (2): 313–332. doi:10.1086/346068. PMC 379225. PMID 12536373.
- Khan, R. (30 July 2013). "Alexander's soldiers left no mark". Discover (blog). Retrieved 1 August 2013.
- Khan, R. (15 February 2012). "The Kalash in perspective". Discover (blog). Retrieved 1 August 2013.
- Khan, R. (18 February 2012). "Kalash on the human tree". Discover (blog). Retrieved 1 August 2013.
- ^ Firasat S, Khaliq S, Mohyuddin A, et al. (January 2007). "Y-chromosomal evidence for a limited Greek contribution to the Pathan population of Pakistan". European Journal of Human Genetics. 15 (1): 121–126. doi:10.1038/sj.ejhg.5201726. PMC 2588664. PMID 17047675.
- Siiger, Halfdan (1956). Ethnological Field-research in Chitral, Sikkim, and Assam: Preliminary Report. I kommission hos Munksgaard.
- Augusto S. Cacopardo (2017). Pagan Christmas: Winter Feasts of the Kalasha of the Hindu Kush. Gingko Library. p. 30. ISBN 978-1-909942-85-1.
- Wynne Maggi (2001). Our Women are Free: Gender and Ethnicity in the Hindukush. University of Michigan Press. p. 21. ISBN 0-472-06783-4.
- Maggi, Wynne (2001). Our Women are Free: Gender and Ethnicity in the Hindukush. University of Michigan Press. ISBN 978-0-472-06783-1.
- Nuristan on Encyclopaedia Iranica.
- William Dalrymple, Dancing in the hills: a journey to meet Pakistan's Kalash people (Financial Times, 21 March 2018);
- Cacopardo, Alberto (December 1992). "The Other Kalasha. A Survey of Kalashamun-Speaking People in Southern Chitral. Part III: Jinjeret Kuh and the Problem of Kalasha Origins". East and West. 42 (2/4): 333–375.
- Cacopardo, Augusto (December 1991). "The Other Kalasha. A Survey of Kalashamun-Speaking People in Southern Chitral. Part II: The Kalasha of Urtsun". East and West. 41 (1/4): 331–350.
- Reuters: "Conversions to Islam threaten Pakistan's "Macedonian" tribe" 20 October 2011
- The Guardian: "Taliban threat closes in on isolated Kalash tribe" 17 October 2011
- ^ Zaheer-ud-Din, Muslim Impact on Religion and Culture of the Kalash, Al-Adwa 43:30, 2015
- Manzar, A. Taliban in Pakistan: A Chronicle of Resurgence (Terrorism, Hot Spots and Conflict-Related Issues). (2009). Nova Science Publishers.
- "The Kalash". Wild Frontiers. Archived from the original on 5 April 2009.
- "Security for Kalash tribe after Taliban threat". pt. 14 February 2014. Retrieved 20 February 2014.
- "CJ takes suo moto notice of threats to Kalash, Chitral people". The News. 20 February 2014. Retrieved 20 February 2014.
- "SC takes notice of TTP threats to Kalash, Ismaili communities". The Express Tribune. 20 February 2014. Retrieved 20 February 2014.
- "Forcibly converting people un-Islamic, says Imran". Dawn.com. 14 February 2014. Retrieved 20 February 2014.
- "For Kalash, Wazirzada personifies hope for identity". 28 June 2018.
- "Kalash celebrate as Wazirzada makes his way to assembly". The Express Tribune. 29 July 2018. Retrieved 19 December 2019.
- Sirajuddin (13 June 2018). "In a first, Kalash man nominated for minority seat by PTI". Dawn.com.
- "William and Kate: What have they been up to on their Pakistan tour?". CBBC Newsround. 18 October 2019. Retrieved 9 February 2020.
- ^ Newby, Eric. A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush. 2008. ISBN 1741795281
- "The Kalasha Valleys". Kalasha Heritage Conservation. 11 November 2014. Archived from the original on 11 November 2014. Retrieved 8 September 2020.
- Morgenstierne, Georg (1947). "Some features of Khowar morphology". Norsk Tidsskrift for Sprogvidenskap. 14: 5–28.
- Heegård Petersen, Jan (30 September 2015). "Kalasha texts – With introductory grammar". Acta Linguistica Hafniensia. 47 (sup1): 1–275. doi:10.1080/03740463.2015.1069049. ISSN 0374-0463. S2CID 218660179.
- Raffaele, Paul. Smithsonian Jan. 2007: page 66-68.
- Lines 1996.
- Shah, Saeed (3 June 2015). "Modernity and Muslims Encroach on Unique Tribe in Pakistan". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 5 April 2018.
- "In pictures: Kalash spring festival". BBC News. Retrieved 5 April 2018.
- "Palin's Travels: Pakistan, Himalaya". Palinstravels.co.uk. Retrieved 22 October 2012.
- Böck & Rao 2000.
- Raza 1998.
- ^ Parkes in: Rao and Böck (2000), p. 273
- "English - Kalasha". fli-online.org.
- ^ Witzel 2004, p. 581–636.
- ^ Saxena, Anju (12 May 2011). Himalayan Languages: Past and Present. Walter de Gruyter. p. 72. ISBN 9783110898873.
- ^ South Asian Folklore: An Encyclopedia : Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka. Taylor & Francis. 2003. p. 318. ISBN 9780415939195.
- ^ Cacopardo, Augusto S. (15 February 2017). Pagan Christmas: Winter Feasts of the Kalasha of the Hindu Kush. Gingko Library. p. 120. ISBN 9781909942851.
- Zoller, Claus Peter (2018). ""Pagan Christmas: Winter feast of the Kalasha of the Hindu Kush" and the true frontiers of 'Greater Peristan': Review article". Acta Orientalia. 79: 163–377. doi:10.5617/ao.7672. ISSN 0001-6438.
- Pagan Christmas: Winter Feasts of the Kalasha of the Hindu Kush, By Augusto S. Cacopardo
- Klimberg, Max (1 October 2004). "NURISTAN". Encyclopædia Iranica (Online ed.). United States: Columbia University.
- ^ "The Kalasha – Voiceless Nation Teeters on the Brink of Extinction". persecution.org. 2 July 2019.
- Craig, Tim (16 August 2016). "A little-known Pakistani tribe that loves wine and whiskey fears its Muslim neighbors". Washington Post.
- "The fate of the Kalasha". PRI.
- ^ Jamil, Kashif (19 August 2019). "Uchal — a festival of shepherds and farmers of the Kalash tribe". Daily Times. Retrieved 23 January 2020.
- "Richard Strand's Nuristân Site: Peoples and Languages of Nuristan". Nuristan.info. Retrieved 22 October 2012.
- Guillard, J.M. (1974). Seul chez les Kalash. Carrefour des Lettres.
- Chohan, Amar Singh (1989). "A History of Kafferistan: Socio-economic and Political Conditions of the Kaffers".
- "Huzaifa. On Twitter: "Lesser Known Fact: The Terich Mir mountain in #Pakistan (Hindu Kush's highest) has for centuries attracted the Khos & Kalashas of #Chitral. So much so that it's [sic] mythology & folklore regards it as a home of a goddess and the fort of the Faeries. Thread on Terich Mir Folklore..." twitter.com. Archived from the original on 20 September 2021. Retrieved 11 January 2022.
- Lièvre and Loude 1990
- Maggi, Wynne (2001), "The Kalasha Bashali" (PDF), Our Women are Free: Gender and Ethnicity in the Hindukush, University of Michigan Press, pp. 230–, ISBN 978-0-472-06783-1
- "Kalash Festival of Choimus". The Official Globe Trekker Website. Archived from the original on 19 December 2012. Retrieved 15 August 2007.
- "Chilam Joshi Festival starts on May 13 at Kalash Valley". Retrieved 8 September 2020.
- Conway, Rebecca (27 December 2020). "Welcoming a New Year at an Ancient Festival in Pakistan". The New York Times. Retrieved 30 December 2020.
- "About the Kalash". PatternFilms.com. Archived from the original on 4 July 2007. Retrieved 19 December 2019.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link) - Muhammad Kashif Ali, Cultural Transitions in Kalash Valley (1947–2006). (M.Phil Thesis, University of the Punjab, Lahore., 2010)
Sources
- Printed sources
- Ahmed, Akbar S. (1986). "The Islamization of the Kalash Kafirs". Pakistan Society: Islam, ethnicity, and leadership in South Asia. New York, NY: Mayflower Books. pp. 23–28. ISBN 978-0-19-577350-7.
- Böck, Monika; Rao, Aparna, eds. (2000). Culture, Creation, and Procreation: Concepts of Kinship in South Asian Practice. Berghahn Books. p. 277. ISBN 978-1-57-181912-3.
- Cacopardo, Augusto S. (2016) Pagan Christmas. Winter Feasts of the Kalasha of the Hindu Kush. Gingko Library. London.
- Cacopardo, Augusto S. (2016). Pagan Christmas: Winter Feasts of the Kalasha of the Hindu Kush.
- Mytte Fentz, The Kalasha. Mountain People of the Hindu Kush. Rhodos Publishers, Copenhagen 2010. ISBN 9788772459745.
- Maraini Fosco, Gli ultimi pagani, Bur, Milano, 2001.
- Paolo Graziosi, The Wooden Statue of Dezalik, a Kalash Divinity, Chitral, Pakistan, Man (1961).
- Viviane Lièvre, Jean-Yves Loude, Kalash Solstice: Winter Feasts of the Kalash of North Pakistan, Lok Virsa (1988)
- D. Levinson et al., Encyclopedia of world cultures, MacMillan Reference Books (1995).
- Lines, Maureen (1996). The Kalasha People of North-Western Pakistan. Emjay Books International. p. 49.
- Anwaar Mohyuddin, Religion as a Space for Kalash Identity: A Case Study of Village Bumburetin Kalash Valley, District Chitral
- Georg Morgenstierne, 1973. Indo-Iranian Frontier Languages, Vol. IV: The Kalasha Language. Oslo.
- Georg Morgenstierne, 1947. The spring festival of the Kalash Kafirs.In: India Antiqua. Fs. J.Ph. Vogel. Leiden: Brill, pp 240–248
- Parkes, Peter (1987). "Livestock Symbolism and Pastoral Ideology among the Kafirs of the Hindu Kush." Man 22:637-60
- Pelton, Robert Young (1997). Fielding's The World's Most Dangerous Places. Fielding Worldwide. ISBN 978-1-56952-140-3.
- Raza, M. Hanif (1998). Heavens of Hindukush. Colorpix. p. 123. ISBN 9789698010133.
- Sir George Scott Robertson, 1896. The Kafirs of The Hindu-Kush, London: Lawrence & Bullen Ltd.
- Ruhland, Heike (2019). Peacebuilding in Pakistan: A Study on the Religious Minorities and Initiatives for Interfaith Harmony. Waxmann Verlag.
- Searle, Mike (2013). Colliding Continents: A geological exploration of the Himalaya, Karakoram, and Tibet. OUP Oxford. ISBN 978-0-19-165249-3.
- Trail, Gail H, Tsyam revisited: a study of Kalasha origins. In: Elena Bashir and Israr-ud-Din (eds.), Proceedings of the second International Hindukush Cultural Conference, 359–76. Hindukush and Karakoram Studies, 1. Karachi: Oxford University Press (1996).
- Vinogradov, A.G.; Zharnikova, S.V. (2020). Indo-European Ornamental Complexes and their Analogies in the Cultures of Eurasia.
- West, Barbara A. (2010). Encyclopedia of the Peoples of Asia and Oceania. Infobase Publishing. p. 357. ISBN 9781438119137.
- Witzel, Michael (2004). "Kalash Religion (extract from 'The Ṛgvedic Religious System and its Central Asian and Hindukush Antecedents')" (PDF). In A. Griffiths; J. E. M. Houben (eds.). The Vedas: Texts, Language and Ritual. Groningen: Forsten. pp. 581–636.
- Citations
- ^ "Richard Strand's Nuristân Site: The Kalasha of Kalashüm". www.nuristan.info. Retrieved 31 December 2022.
- ^ "The Kalash – Protection and Conservation of an Endangered Minority in the Hindukush Mountain Belt of Chitral, Northern Pakistan" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 7 July 2007.
- ^ Shah, Danial (29 September 2012). "In the land of infidels". DAWN.COM. Retrieved 16 March 2023.
- ^ Strand, R. "The kalaṣa of kalaṣüm Strand". nuristan.info.
- "'Earthquake was Allah's wrath for Kalash community's immoral ways'". The Express Tribune. 10 November 2015. Retrieved 11 November 2015.
- "BBC NEWS | In pictures: Kalash spring festival". BBC News. Retrieved 19 December 2019.
- "Richard Strand's Nuristân Site: Peoples and Languages of Nuristan". Nuristan.info. Retrieved 22 October 2012.
- "Tribe of Kalash: The Last Kafir". Global Human Rights Defence. 1 March 2021. Archived from the original on 22 April 2021. Retrieved 11 April 2021.
Further reading
- Ali, Shaheen Sardar; Rehman, Javaid (2001). Indigenous Peoples and Ethnic Minorities of Pakistan: Constitutional and Legal Perspectives. Curzon. ISBN 9780700711598.
- Decker, Kendall D. (1992). Languages of Chitral. National Institute of Pakistan Studies, Quaid-i-Azam University. ISBN 978-969-8023-15-7.
- Denker, Debra (October 1981). "Pakistan's Kalash People". National Geographic: 458–473.
- Lines, Maureen (2003). The Last Eden. Alhamra. p. 311. ISBN 978-9-69-516126-5.
- Morgenstierne, Georg (2007) . Report on a Linguistic Mission to Afghanistan. Instituttet for Sammenlignende Kulturforskning, Oslo. Vol. Serie C I-2. Bronx, NY: Ishi Press International. ISBN 978-0-923891-09-1.
External links
- IUCN, the International Union for Conservation of Nature, Kalash Protection and conservation of an endangered Minority in the Hindu Kush
- BBC article on Kalash women
- Muslim Impact on Religion and Culture of the Kalash Zaheer-ud-Din in Al-Adwa 43:30 (2015)
- Kalasha Heritage A website used by the Kalasha people to promote, conserve and protect the Kalasha tangible and intangible heritage
- Investigation of the Greek ancestry of northern Pakistani ethnic groups using Y chromosomal DNA variation
- The Kalash People in Northern Pakistan by Dimitra Stasinopoulou, ELINEPA, 2019
Ethnic groups in Pakistan | |||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Religion in Pakistan | ||
---|---|---|