Kalash Valley: Jewel of The Northern Areas With Colourful Traditions and Amazing Beliefs - - A Place Where Fairies Dance and Sing

Kalash Valley is a historical site, populated tribe, which is considered to be direct descendants of the Greek armies of Alexander the Great. Kalash Valley lies in the south district of Chitral, about 20 km from the city of Chitral in Pakistan. The area consists of 3 valleys; Birir, Bumburet and Rambur. 



The largest community of Kafir Kalash tribe, literally Bearers of black clothes, lives in the valley Bamburet. Small village built on the slopes Kalash Valley, near rivers. Houses are built of roughly shaped trunks. Kalash Valley is alive and popular area during religious holidays. Each ceremony is accompanied with traditional dance festivals and music.

Kalash Valley: Jewel of The Northern Areas

Kalash Valley: Jewel of The Northern Areas

Kalash Valley: Jewel of The Northern Areas

Kalash Valley: Jewel of The Northern Areas

Obscured by high mountains and treacherous muddy tracks, there live a people up in the north of Pakistan, who do not even know who they are or from where they came to live a life of isolation - yet maintain and protect their beliefs, their ideology and way of living. Their ancestry is enveloped in mystery and has always remained a subject of controversy. A legend says that five soldiers of the legions of Alexander of Macedonia settled in Chitral and are the progenitors of the Kafir-Kalash. 

One can still find similarities between the sports and games (specially the wrestling and shot-put style with those practiced in the ancient Olympics. Their features are not local and are thought to resemble those of the South-European characteristics. Some even find their influence of Greek music in Kalash music. Alexander the Great when encountered Kalash, he is said to have remarked that he encountered strange wooden boxes, which his troops chopped up to be used as firewood. These "boxes" were actually coffins for their dead following the custom which the Kalash Kafirs of Chitral still have of leaving their dead outside in wooden coffins. He also described them as a light skinned race of European type people, which is exactly what they are. 

Kalash ruled over the areas now part of the Chitral Valley and neighbouring Afghanistan for three centuries (1200-1400AD). Remnants and ruins of Kalash forts can still be seen Uchusht and Asheret . The famous bridge over Chitral River known as Chee Bridge was also built by a Kalash ruler. The names of Bala Sing, Razhawai and Nagar Shao are still alive in the folklore of Chitral. They were the most prominent among the eight Kalash Kings.

Kalash Valley: Jewel of The Northern Areas

Kalash Valley: Jewel of The Northern Areas

The Kalash are a friendly and cheerful people, who love music and dancing, particularly on their religious festivals like Joshi Chilamjusht (14th & 15th May in spring), Phool (20th-25th September) and Chowas (18th to 21st December). In the spring festival Joshi, autumn festival Uchao, weddings, funerals, feasts and on many other occasions the whole society of the Kalash gather and participate in a grand performance called cha, drajahilak and dushak. These are set performances all consisting of song (ghu), dance (nat) and the drums but the details differ respectively. 5 to 10 elders make a circle and one of them will sing alone, followed by a chorus. Besides them there will be one set of drummers, one playing a barrel shaped drum called dahu and the other a glass-hour shaped drum, wach. Around the elders and the drummers, 20 to 200 dancers dance while singing.

Kalash Valley: Jewel of The Northern Areas

Kalash Valley: Jewel of The Northern Areas

The Kalash women wear five large braids and ‘Cheo’ (a black woollen home spun dress), red-beaded necklaces by the dozens and and exceptional head piece (shaped differently in each valley) covered in cowries’ shells, beads and trinkets that flow down their back. Fro their black robes, the Kalash are sometimes referred to as the “Wearers of the Black Robes”. Kalash means ‘Black’ in their language.

Kalash Valley: Jewel of The Northern Areas

Kalash Valley: Jewel of The Northern Areas

Kalash Valley: Jewel of The Northern Areas

Kalash women adorned with make-up and their necks laden with bright orange and yellow necklaces, wear brightly coloured embroidered robes, which go very well with their rather fair colour and generally blue eyes. The women in Kalash are expected to treasure traditional knowledge. Yet when it comes to sitting around for a lunch or dinner, like many other agrarian communities, they are suppose to take a back seat, eat less and offer the better dietary constituents, like butter, milk and meat, to their brothers, husbands and sons. There are special laws for women. In the special days, women are sent to make shift made shelters, called "Bashali", till they are clean. There are also segregation rooms for expecting mothers. The Kalash believe that women in later stages of pregnancy are impure therefore they avoid getting into contact with them. For this purpose, these special rooms are built where such women live up to four months. All food and other necessities are provided to them during their stay, but care is taken in not touching the impure women.

Kalash Valley: Jewel of The Northern Areas

Kalash Valley: Jewel of The Northern Areas

The Kalash tribes have their own distinctive religious and social traditions. The Kalash believe in God they call “Deziao”. However their religious practices are a mixture of animism and ancestor worship. Their god is represented in wooden effigy, while animal effigies represent their belief in animism. There is also a concept of male and female sacred spirits called “Dewalok” who are responsible for different activities and are believed to communicate prayers to Deziao. There is also a concept of pure-impure dualism in Kalash religion. The pure is called ‘Onjesta’- the pure – while women are considered Pragata- the impure. They leave their dead open in the coffins, even when the bodies have become mere skeletons. 

They usually leave all of the belongings of that person next to their coffins. At nightfall, animals and other beasts of prey come down the mountains and eat up what remains of that dead while the belongings are carried away by other inhabitants in the area. The Kafirs end up believing that the deceased has gone along with his belongings. The Kalash graveyards are smelly for the obvious reason and the faint-hearted should not go as they should expect to see unsuitable scenes.