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The Kalash
Valley of Rumbur
Chitral - Pakistan - June 2006
The Kalash (Urdu:
Nuristani: Kasivo) or Kalasha, are indigenous people of the Hindu Kush mountain
range, residing in the Chitral district of the North-West Frontier Province
of Pakistan. They speak the Kalash language, from the Dardic family of Indo-Iranic,
and are considered a unique tribe among the Indo-Aryan stock.
mology
According to the linguist Richard Strand, the people of Chitral apparently
adopted the name of the former Kafiristan Kalasha, who at some unknown time
extended their influence into Chitral. A reference for this assumption could
be the names kâsv'o respectively kâsi'o, used by the neighboring
Nuristani Kata and Kom for the Kalash of Chitral. From these the earlier name
kâs'ivo (instead Kalasha) could be derived
The culture of Kalash people is unique and differs drastically from the various
ethnic groups surrounding them. They are polytheists and 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[3]. Kalash mythology and folklore
has been compared to that of ancient Greece, but they are much closer to Indo-Iranian
(Vedic and pre-Zoroastrian) traditions
Kalash 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 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.[11] The
husband is an active participant in this ritual.
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" (gho¯na dastu¯r) together with the main festivals.
Girls are usually married at an early age. If a woman wants to change husbands,
she will write a letter to her prospective husband offering herself in marriage
and informing the would-be groom how much her current husband paid for her.
This is because the new husband must pay double if he wants her. For example,
if the current husband paid one cow for her, then the new husband must pay
two cows to the original husband if he wants her.
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 have separated
by over seven generations. A rite of "breaking agnation" (tatbrıe
cıhin) marks that previous agnates (tatbrıe) are now permissible affines (därak
"clan partners).[12] Each kam has a separate shrine in the clan's Je¯??ak-ha¯n,
the temple to lineal or familial goddess Jeak.
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 (pu˜.
from *pu¯r?a, full moon in Sept.) and is thanked at the Joshi (jo?i,
zıo¯sıi) 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 Chaumos (cawmo¯s, ghona chawmos
yat, Khowar "chitrimas" from *ca¯turma¯sya, CDIAL 4742),
which is celebrated for two weeks at winter solstice (c. Dec. 7-22), 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 the sacrifice of many goats.
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. Food sacrifices are offered at the clans' Jeshtak shrines, dedicated
to the ancestors.A Kalash man dances during the Uchau FestivalAt Chaumos,
impure and uninitiated persons are not admitted; they must be purified by
a 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, dewalo¯k) 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. [15] Ancestors, impersonated by young boys (o¯nje??a 'pure')
are worshipped and offered bread; they hold on to each other and form a chain
(cf. the Vedic anva¯rambha?a) and snake through the village.
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).
This includes the Festival of the Budulak (bu?á?ak, the 'shepherd king').
In this festival, a strong prepubescent boy is sent up into the mountains
to live with the goats for the summer. He is supposed to get fat and strong
from the goat milk. When the festival comes he is allowed for a 24-hour period
only to have sexual intercourse with any woman he wants, including even the
wife of another man, or a young virgin or his own mother if he wants her.
Any child born of this 24-hour rampage is considered to be blessed. The Kalash
claim to have abolished this practice in recent years due to negative worldwide
publicity.
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 "nagayro¯" song with the response "han
sarías" (from *samri¯yate '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 (Kati Kafir) 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.
There is a creator deity called Dezau (ezáw) whose name is derived
from Indo-European *dheig'h 'to form' (cf. Vedic dih, Kati Nuristani dez 'to
create', CDIAL 14621); he is also called by the Pashto term Khodai. There
are a number of other deities, semi-gods and spirits. The Kalash pantheon
is thus one of the last living representatives of Indo-European religion,
along with Hinduism and Zoroastrianism.
There is the prominent Indr or Varendr (Warín, Werín from *aparendra);
the rainbow (indré~ CDIAL 1577) is called "Indra's bow" as
in Vedic; when it thunders, Indra plays Polo. Indra is attested both in Vedic
and Avestan texts and goes back to Indo-Iranian deity V?trahan the 'slayer
of vtra' (resistance).
Indra appears in various form, such as Sajigor (Sajigo¯r), also called
Shura Verin (Sıúra Werín from *s´u¯ra *aparendra
'the hero, the unrivaled Indra'). Warén(dr-) or In Wari¯n is the
mightiest and most dangerous god. The location of his shrine was assigned
by bow shot, which recalls the Vedic Indra's Bunda bow . Another one of his
forms is the recently popular Balumain (Ba?imaín). Riding on a horse,
comes to the Kalash valleys from the outside at winter solstice. 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. Indra
has a demon-like counterpart, Jean (from *jyeha? 'the best'), who appears
on earth as a dog; the gods (Devalog, Dewalók) are his enemies and
throw stones at him, the shooting stars.
Another god, Munjem Malik (munjem from *madhyama 'middle'; malék from
Arab. malik 'king'), is the Lord of Middle Earth and killed, like the Vedic
Indra, his father. Mahandeo (mahandéo, cf. the Nuristani Mon/Ma¯ndi,
from *maha¯n deva), is the god of crops, and also the god of war and
a negotiator with the highest deity.
Jestak (jéak, from *jyeha¯, or *deri¯?) is the goddess of
domestic life, family and marriage. Her lodge is the women's house (Jeak Han).
Dezalik (?izálik), 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 Kafiri Nirmali (Indo-Iranian *nirmalika¯). She
is also responsible for the Bashaleni lodge.
There also is a general pattern of belief in mountain fairies, Suchi (súcıi,
now often called Peri), who help in hunting and killing enemies, and the Varo¯ti
(~ Sanskrit Va¯taputra), their violent male partners (echoing the Vedic
Apsaras and Gandharvas). They live in the high mountains, such as Tirich Mir
(~ Vedic Meru, *devameru: Shina díamer, CDIAL 6533), but in late autumn
they descend to the mountain meadows. The Jach (j.ac. from *yak?(ini¯),
are a separate category of female spirits of the soil or of special places,
fields and mountain pastures.
There is some confusion regarding to the present status of the Kalash, as
some sources are stating that Islamic fundamentalists have converted all the
Kalash, while some other sources stating that there are still some pagan Kalash
remaining. According to the latter source, during the seventies, when local
Muslims forced a number of conversions upon the Kalash, their numbers shrank
to just two thousand. However, with protection from the government, a decrease
in voluntary conversion and a great reduction in the child mortality rate,
the last two decades have seen their numbers double.
Recently there was some controversy when two Kalash girls converted to Islam.
However, there is a special role for prepubescent boys, who are treated with
special awe, combining pre-sexual behavior 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.
The Kalash are known as indigenous people of Chitral, and their ancestors
migrated to Chitral from Afghanistan in the 2nd century BC. It is thought
the Kalash descendants migrated to Afghanistan from a distant place in South
Asia, which the Kalash call “Tsiyam” in their folk songs and epics.
The Kalash were ruled by the Mehtar of Chitral from the 1700s onward. They
have enjoyed a cordial relationship with the major ethnic group of Chitral,
the Kho who are Sunni and Ismaili Muslims. 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 Nuristani, their neighbours in
the region of former Kafiristan west of the border, were converted to Islam
by Amir Abdur-Rahman of Afghanistan in the 1890s and their land was renamed
Nuristan.
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 Durand
Agreement 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. Their numbers remain stable
at around 3,000. Although many convert to Islam, the high birth rate replaces
them, and with medical facilities (previously there were none) they live longer.
Allegations of "immorality" connected with their practices have
led to the forcible conversion to Islam of several villages in the 1950s,
which has led to heightened antagonism between the Kalash and the surrounding
Muslims. Since the 1970s, schools and roads were built in some valleys.
Rehman and Ali (2001) report that pressure of radical Muslim organizations
is on the increase:
Ardent Muslims on self-imposed missions to eradicate idolatry regularly attack
those engaged in traditional Kalash religious rituals, smashing their idols.
The local Mullahs and the visiting Tableghi Jammaites remain determined to
'purify' the Kafirs.
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, 1360
m). A pass connects the Birir and Bumboret valleys at about 3000 m. The Kalash
villages in all three valleys are located at a height of approximately 1900
to 2200 m.
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.
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° - 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 800 mm (28 - 32 inches).
In a 2005 study of ASPM gene variants, Mekel-Bobrov et al. found that the
Kalash people of Pakistan have among the highest rate of the newly-evolved
ASPM haplogroup D, at 60% occurrence of the approximately 6,000-year-old allele.[28].
The Kalash also have been shown to exhibit the exceedingly rare 19 allele
value at autosomal marker D9S1120 at a frequency higher than the majority
of other world populations which do have it.
Firasat et al. (2006) conclude that the Kalash lack typical Greek haplogroups
(e.g. haplogroup 21), On the other hand, a study by Qamar et al. (2002) found
that even though "no support for a Greek origin of their Y chromosomes
was found" in the Kalash, Greek y-chromosome admixture could be as high
as 20% to 40%. Considering the apparent absence of haplogroup 21 in the local
population, one of the possibilities suggested was because of genetic drift.
On the basis of Y chromosome allele frequency, some researchers describe the
exact Greek contribution to Kalash as unclear.
Another study with Qasim Ayub, and S. Qasim Mehdi, and led by Quintana-Murci
claims that "the western Eurasian presence in the Kalash population reaches
a frequency of 100%, the most prevalent [mtDNA] haplogroup being U4, (pre-HV)1,
U2e, and J2," and that they show "no detectable East or South Asian
lineages. The outlying genetic position is seen in all analyses. Moreover,
although this population is composed of western Eurasian lineages, the most
prevalent ... are rare or absent in the surrounding populations and usually
characterize populations from Eastern Europe, the middle East and the Caucasus...
All these observations bear witness to the strong effects of genetic drift
of the Kalash population... However, a western Eurasian origin for this population
is likely, in view of their maternal lineages, which can ultimately be traced
back to the Middle East".
The estimates by Qamar et al. of Greek admixture has been dismissed by Toomas
Kivisild et al. (2003): “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 Pakistani Kalash population estimate
by (Qamar et al. 2002) “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”.
A study by Rosenberg et al. (2006) employing genetic testing among the Kalash
population concluded that they are, in fact, 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.
A genetic study published led by Firasat (2007) on Kalash individuals found
high and diverse frequencies of :Haplogroup 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%). Haplogroup
L originates from prehistoric South Asia.
In the recent study: "Worldwide Human Relationships Inferred from Genome-Wide
Patterns of Variation (2008)", 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 not only to be distinct, but perfectly clustered within
the Central/South Asian populations at (K = 7). The study also showed the
Kalash to be a separated group, with having no membership within European
populations.
Reference
Conservation of an Endangered Minority
Ethnic Cleansing of the Kafirs in Pakistan
Enclaved Knowledge
Genebase Tutorials
Worldwide Human Relationships Inferred from Genome
Return to Indigenous Peoples' Literature
Compiled by: Glenn Welker
ghwelker@gmx.com
This site has been accessed 10,000,000 times since February 8, 1996.