KALASH VALLEY

KALASH VALLEY

KALASH VALLEY: 

A very peaceful and friendly environment of "Kalash Valley", is ready to welcome you. The inhabitants of Kalash Valley are known as Kalash people. Kalash Valley is one of the most unique and taboo for many in Pakistan and elsewhere on earth. The mysterious beauty of Kalash Valley is worth-seeing.

"BEST WAY TO PURIFY YOUR SOUL IS,  START LOVING THE NATURE"

KALASH VALLEY

 KALASH VALLEY:BEAUTY

KALASH people are peace-loving and generous. They serve their guests whatever they have.They kept their doors always open for others. They celebrate every moment of their lives with full festivity and colours.They speak the Kalasha language.

KALASH VALLEY

KALASH VALLEY:  LOCATION

Kalash Valley, an extremely fertile, unique and different region, is situated in Chitral District ,Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. Kalash Valley is surrounded by Hindu-Kush mountain range.  There are three main valleys. The largest and most populous valley is called Bumburet. The other two valleys are named Rumbur and Biriu. It is a source of attraction for Pakistani as well as international tourists.

KALASH VALLEY: CULTURE

Kalash Valley is famous for its unique people, culture, festivals and food.They have not changed their culture,dress and religion for more than 2000 centuries ago. as they believe that if they change their way of culutre/beliefs , they'll have to face the anger of their god. Dancing is a part of their religious ceremony. Sun and lunar eclipse is condidred as a bad omen so they sacrifice goats to deal with it.

KALASH VALLEY:Marriage Ceremony

There was arranged marriage system but now it has changed to love marriage. They are free to choose and decide their life partners. read more

KALASH VALLEY

KALASH VALLEY:BASHALI (MATERNITY HOME)

Their belief about pregnant women is quite different. They keep pregnant women in a special building known as "Bashali". Women live there during delievery period. They are considered impure so can't touch anyone and can't cook anything. They live freely there for 15 to 20 days. Men are not allowed in that particular building.

KALASH VALLEY: DIVORCE

If any lady is get tired living with first husband so she can decide to get married with someone else but second husband has to pay fine to first husband.

KALASH VALLEY: DEATH CEREMONY

They also celebrate/morn the death of their relative in a very particular way.For two days, dead body is kept in temples (Jastarkhan) and three villages gather and have death ceremony. They talk about dead person's family history and cry but after that they also do dancing and singing. Because they want to make the dead one happy. They sacrifice about fifty goats and four to five cows. Guests are served with pure ghee and butter. It sounds a very costly death ceremony but all the people of three villages equally participate in this ceremonty. Another unique thing about their ceremony is the two memorial statues. These statues don't look like the dead one but one of these is kept in the graveyard whereas the other one at the entrance of the village. They thought that dead get whatever is offered to these statues by the people.

KALASH VALLEY

KALASH VALEY: GRAVEYARD
One of the worth-seeing place of KALASH VALLEY is the graveyard. Because, there you'll find a lot of open coffins with bones and skulls... Because accoring to their custom,wooden coffins of dead bodies are kept in open air so that they keep in touch with god. they are also keep their belogings with dead so that they dont miss those things. But now they have started burrying those coffins.

KALASH VALLEY

KALASH VALLEY:Women empowerment

KALASH VALLEY

Kalash is also different from other areas of Pak because here women are more dominant than men. So,Kalash women take mostly decisions in every step of their lives.

KALASH VALLEY:DRESS

The women of KALASH VALLEY wear traditional attire with lively colors and hair dresses have patterns of flowers on it, decorated with beads,stones, etc. They wear beaded necklaces which compliments their dresses and head gears. Men wear traditional Shalwar Kameez with a waistcoat made of wool.

KALASH VALLEY

KALASH VALLEY:PROFESSION

They consider animals as their backbones because They depend on Livestock for their living.Women do weaving and knitting work and sell themselves their own hand-made things.A woman in Kalash Valley tends her sheep. The primary source of earning in Kalash Valley is tourism, rearing goats and sheep, and growing walnuts.

KALASH VALLEY:HOUSE CONSTRUCTION

Their houses are built in a very unique way and known as Earth-quack proof. They use wooden nails. Mostly houses are constructed with wood and stones. Ground floor is used as store. They like to keep kitchen (Bukhari) out of the house. Some houses in the valley can be accessed easily via stairs, while others have difficult access and can only be reached by scaling stone walls.

KALASH VALLEY

KALASH VALLEY: MUSEUM 
There is a museum where you can see many pictures and things to better know about the tradition and culture of Kalash such as Kalash dresses, utensils, musical instruments, horns of markhor (Capra falconeri) etc.

RELIGION:

Kalash people follow a form of ancient Hinduism.It is the ethnic minority of Pakistan because their culture, traditions and customs are poles apart from the Islamic and Pakistani culture.The Kalash people live in three valleys across the Chitral region, and, according to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, are divided nearly equally between adherents of Islam and their own religion. While the Kalash religion is primarily polytheist, based around the worship of 12 gods and goddesses, most Kalash say they are monotheistic and follow Dezau, while the remaining “gods” are merely his messengers. They believe in multiple gods and offer sacrifice for their gods.Their religion and culture are interlinked and that is prominent in their way of celebrations.They don't allow children to go to alters or temples, they tell them about religion at the age of 12-15 years. They take it as a way to purify their souls, and they are puyrified by sprinkling blood of animals.The people generally do not intermarry with local Muslims, neither they are hostile towards them.

KALASH VALLEY

Kalasha tribe celebrates many festivals around the year. The three main Kalash Festivals are Chilam Joshi (spring festival), Choimus (winter festival) and Uchal (summer festival).
(Continue reading my other posts related to these KALASH FESTIVALS in detail)

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By: Hayat Maidah