Kalash - heirs of the ancient Aryans
High in the mountains of Pakistan on the border with Afghanistan, in the Nuristan province, are several tiny plateaus scattered. Locals call this area Chintal. A unique and mysterious people live here - the Kalash. Their uniqueness lies in the fact that this people of Indo-European origin managed to survive almost in the very heart of the Islamic world.

Meanwhile, the Kalash do not profess Islam at all, but polytheism (polytheism), that is, they are pagans. If the Kalash were a numerous people with a separate territory and statehood, then their existence would hardly surprise anyone, but today there are no more than 6 thousand Kalash people left - they are the smallest and most mysterious ethnic group in the Asian region.

Kalash (self-name: kasivo; the name “Kalash” comes from the name of the area) is a people in Pakistan living in the highlands of the Hindu Kush (Nuristan or Kafirstan). Number of people: about 6 thousand people. They were almost completely exterminated as a result of the Muslim genocide by the beginning of the 20th century, as they profess paganism. They lead a secluded lifestyle. They speak the Kalash language of the Dardic group of Indo-European languages ​​(however, about half of the words of their language have no analogues in other Dardic languages, as well as in the languages ​​of neighboring peoples).

In Pakistan, there is a widespread belief that the Kalash are the descendants of the soldiers of Alexander the Great (due to which the Macedonian government built a center of culture in this area, see, for example, “Macedonia is a cultural center in Pakistan”). The appearance of some Kalash is characteristic of Northern European peoples; blue-eyedness and blondness are common among them. At the same time, some Kalash have an Asian appearance that is quite characteristic of the region.

The religion of most Kalash is paganism; their pantheon has many common features with the reconstructed ancient Aryan pantheon. The claims of some journalists that the Kalash worship “ancient Greek gods” are unfounded. At the same time, about 3 thousand Kalash are Muslims. Conversion to Islam is not welcomed by the Kalash, who are trying to preserve their tribal identity. The Kalash are not descendants of the warriors of Alexander the Great, and the Northern European appearance of some of them is explained by the preservation of the original Indo-European gene pool as a result of refusal to mix with the alien non-Aryan population. Along with the Kalash, representatives of the Hunza people and some ethnic groups of the Pamiris, Persians, and others also have similar anthropological characteristics.

Scientists classify the Kalash as a white race - this is a fact. The faces of many Kalash are purely European. The skin is white, unlike Pakistanis and Afghans. And the light and often blue eyes are like the passport of an infidel-kafir. Kalash eyes are blue, gray, green and very rarely brown. There is one more touch that does not fit into the culture and way of life common to Muslims in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Kalash were always made for themselves and used as furniture. They eat at the table, sitting on chairs - excesses that were never inherent to the local “natives” and appeared in Afghanistan and Pakistan only with the arrival of the British in the 18th-19th centuries, but never took root. And from time immemorial, the Kalash have used tables and chairs...

At the end of the first millennium, Islam came to Asia, and with it the troubles of the Indo-Europeans and in particular the Kalash people, who did not want to change the faith of their ancestors to the Abrahamic “teachings of the book.” Surviving in Pakistan professing paganism is almost hopeless. Local Muslim communities persistently tried to force the Kalash to convert to Islam. And many Kalash were forced to submit: either live by adopting a new religion, or die. In the 18th-19th centuries, Muslims slaughtered thousands of Kalash. Those who did not obey and even secretly practiced pagan cults were, at best, driven from the fertile lands by the authorities, driven into the mountains, and more often - destroyed.
The brutal genocide of the Kalash people continued until the middle of the 19th century, until the tiny territory that Muslims called Kafirstan (land of the infidels), where the Kalash lived, came under the jurisdiction of the British Empire. This saved them from complete extermination. But even now the Kalash are on the verge of extinction. Many are forced to assimilate (through marriage) with Pakistanis and Afghans, converting to Islam - this makes it easier to survive and get a job, education, or position.

The life of modern Kalash can be called Spartan. The Kalash live in communities - it’s easier to survive. They live in houses that they build from stone, wood and clay. The roof of the lower house (floor) is also the floor or veranda of another family's house. Of all the amenities in the hut: table, chairs, benches and pottery. The Kalash know only by hearsay about electricity and television. A shovel, a hoe and a pick are more understandable and familiar to them. They draw their living resources from agriculture. The Kalash manage to grow wheat and other grain crops on lands cleared of stone. But the main role in their livelihood is played by livestock, mainly goats, which provide the descendants of the ancient Aryans with milk and dairy products, wool and meat.

In everyday life, a clear and unshakable division of responsibilities is striking: men are the first in labor and hunting, women only help them in the least labor-intensive operations (weeding, milking, housekeeping). In the house, men sit at the head of the table and make all important decisions in the family (in the community). For women in each settlement, towers are built - a separate house where the women of the community give birth to children and spend time on “critical days”. A Kalashi woman is obliged to give birth to a child only in the tower, and therefore pregnant women settle in the “maternity hospital” in advance. Nobody knows where this tradition came from, but the Kalash do not observe other segregation and discriminatory tendencies towards women, which infuriates and makes Muslims laugh, who because of this treat the Kalash as people not of this world...

Marriage. This sensitive issue is decided exclusively by the parents of the young. They can consult with the newlyweds, they can talk with the parents of the bride (groom), or they can solve the problem without asking the opinion of their child.

The Kalash do not know days off, but they cheerfully and hospitably celebrate 3 holidays: Yoshi - the sowing festival, Uchao - the harvest festival, and Choimus - the winter festival of the gods of nature, when the Kalash ask the gods to send them a mild winter and a good spring and summer.
During Choymus, each family slaughters a goat as a sacrifice, the meat of which is treated to everyone who comes to visit or meets on the street.

In the 1980s, the development of writing for the Kalash language began in two versions - based on Latin and Persian graphics. The Persian version turned out to be preferable and in 1994, for the first time, an illustrated alphabet and a book for reading in the Kalash language based on Persian graphics were published. In the 2000s, an active transition to the Latin font began. In 2003, the alphabet “Kal" as "a Alibe" was published.

The first explorers and missionaries began to penetrate Kafiristan after the colonization of India, but truly extensive information about its inhabitants was provided by the English doctor George Scott Robertson, who visited Kafiristan in 1889 and lived there for a year. The uniqueness of Robertson's expedition is that he collected material on the rituals and traditions of the infidels before the Islamic invasion. Unfortunately, a number of collected materials were lost while crossing the Indus during his return to India. However, the surviving materials and personal memories allowed him to publish the book “The Kafirs of Hindu-Kush” in 1896.

Based on observations of the religious and ritual side of the life of infidels made by Robertson, one can quite reasonably assert that their religion is reminiscent of transformed Zoroastrianism and the cults of the ancient Aryans. The main arguments in favor of this statement can be the attitude towards fire and funeral rites. Below we will describe some of the traditions, religious foundations, religious buildings and rituals of the infidels.


For comparison, this is the traditional pattern of the ancient Germans and Slavs.

The main, “capital” village of the infidels was a village called “Kamdesh”. The houses of Kamdesh were arranged in steps along the mountain slopes, so the roof of one house was the yard of another. The houses were richly decorated with intricate wood carvings. It was women, not men, who did the field work, although the men first cleared the field of stones and fallen logs. Men at this time were engaged in sewing clothes, ritual dances in the village square and solving public affairs.

The main object of worship was fire. In addition to fire, the infidels worshiped wooden idols, which were carved by skilled craftsmen and displayed in sanctuaries. The Pantheon consisted of many gods and goddesses. The god Imra was considered the main one. The god of war, Gisha, was also highly revered. Each village had its own small patron god. The world, according to beliefs, was populated by many good and evil spirits fighting with each other.

V. Sarianidi, based on the testimony of Robertson, describes religious buildings as follows:

"...the main temple of Imra was located in one of the villages and was a large structure with a square portico, the roof of which was supported by carved wooden columns. Some of the columns were entirely decorated with sculpted heads of rams, others had only one animal head and horns carved at the base which, wrapping around the trunk of the column and crossing each other, rose up, forming a kind of openwork grid. In its empty cells there were sculptural figures of funny little men.

It was here, under the portico, on a special stone, blackened with dried blood, that numerous animal sacrifices were performed. The front facade of the temple had seven doors, famous for the fact that on each of them there was another small door. The large doors were tightly closed, only the two side doors were opened, and then only on special occasions. But the main interest was the door leaves, decorated with fine carvings and huge relief figures depicting the seated god Imru. Particularly striking is the face of the god with a huge square chin reaching almost to the knees! In addition to the figures of the god Imra, the façade of the temple was decorated with images of huge heads of cows and rams. On the opposite side of the temple, five colossal figures were installed supporting its roof.

Having walked around the temple and admired its carved “shirt,” we will look inside through a small hole, which, however, must be done furtively so as not to offend the religious feelings of the infidels. In the middle of the room, in the cool twilight, you can see a square hearth right on the floor, at the corners of which there are pillars, also covered with amazingly fine carvings representing human faces. On the wall opposite the entrance there is an altar framed with images of animals; in the corner under a special canopy stands a wooden statue of the god Imra himself. The remaining walls of the temple are decorated with carved caps of irregular hemispherical shape, placed on the ends of poles. ... Separate temples were built only for the main gods, and for minor ones, one sanctuary was built for several gods. Thus, there were small temples with carved windows from which the faces of various wooden idols looked out."

The most important rituals included the selection of elders, the preparation of wine, sacrifices to the gods and burial. Like most rituals, the selection of elders was accompanied by mass sacrifices of goats and abundant food. The election of the chief elder (jasta) was carried out by the elders from among the elders. These elections were also accompanied by the recitation of sacred hymns dedicated to the gods, sacrifices and refreshments for the assembled elders in the candidate's house:
“...the priest present at the feast is seated in the center of the room, a lush turban is wrapped around his head, richly decorated with shells, red glass beads, and juniper branches in front. His ears are adorned with earrings, a massive necklace is worn around his neck, and bracelets are placed on his hands. A long shirt, reaching to the knees, hangs loosely over embroidered trousers, tucked into boots with long tops.A bright silk Badakhshan robe is thrown over this clothing, and a dance ritual hatchet is clutched in one hand.

Here one of the sitting elders slowly stands up and, tying his head with a white cloth, steps forward. He takes off his boots, washes his hands thoroughly and begins the sacrifices. Having slaughtered two huge mountain goats with his own hands, he deftly places a vessel under the stream of blood, and then, approaching the initiate, draws some signs on his forehead with blood. The door to the room opens, and the servants bring in huge loaves of bread with sprigs of burning juniper stuck into them. These loaves are solemnly carried around the initiate three times. Then, after another hearty meal, the hour of ritual dancing begins. Several guests are given dance boots and special scarves, which they use to wrap around their lower backs. Pine torches are lit and ritual dances and chants begin in honor of the many gods."

Another important ritual of the infidels was the ritual of preparing grape wine. To prepare the wine, a man was chosen, who, after thoroughly washing his feet, began to crush the grapes brought by the women. Bunches of grapes were presented in wicker baskets. After careful crushing, the grape juice was poured into huge jugs and left to ferment.

The festive ritual in honor of the god Gish proceeded as follows:

“... early in the morning, the villagers are awakened by the thunder of many drums, and soon a priest with madly ringing metal bells appears in the narrow crooked streets. Following the priest, a crowd of boys moves, to whom he throws handfuls of nuts from time to time, and then rushes to drive them away with feigned ferocity. Accompanying him, the children imitate the bleating of goats. The priest's face is whitened with flour and smeared with oil, in one hand he holds bells, in the other - an axe. Writhing and writhing, he shakes the bells and axe, performing almost acrobatic acts and accompanying them with terrible screams. Finally The procession approaches the sanctuary of the god Guiche, and the adult participants solemnly position themselves in a semicircle near the priest and those accompanying him. Now dust swirls to the side, and a herd of fifteen bleating goats appears, driven by the boys. Having completed their task, they immediately run away from the adults to get busy children's pranks and games...

The priest approaches a burning fire made of cedar branches producing thick white smoke. Nearby there are four pre-prepared wooden vessels with flour, melted butter, wine and water. The priest thoroughly washes his hands, takes off his shoes, pours a few drops of oil into the fire, then sprinkles the sacrificial goats with water three times, saying: “Be clean.” Approaching the closed door of the sanctuary, he pours out the contents of the wooden vessels, reciting ritual spells. The young boys serving the priest quickly cut the throat of the kid, collect the splashed blood into vessels, and the priest then splashes it into the burning fire. Throughout this entire procedure, a special person, illuminated by the reflections of the fire, sings sacred songs all the time, which gives this scene a touch of special solemnity.

Suddenly another priest rips off his hat and, rushing forward, begins to twitch, screaming loudly and waving his arms wildly. The chief priest tries to calm down the angry “colleague”; finally he calms down and, waving his hands a few more times, puts on his hat and sits down in his place. The ceremony ends with the recitation of poetry, after which the priests and all those present touch their foreheads with the tips of their fingers and make a kiss with their lips, signifying a religious greeting to the sanctuary.

In the evening, completely exhausted, the priest enters the first house he comes across and gives his bells for safekeeping to the owner, which is a great honor for the latter, and he immediately orders the slaughter of several goats and a feast in honor of the priest and his entourage. So, for two weeks, with slight variations, celebrations in honor of the god Guiche continue."

Finally, one of the most important was the burial rite. The funeral procession was initially accompanied by loud women's crying and lamentations, and then by ritual dancing to the beat of drums and the accompaniment of reed pipes. Men wore goat skins over their clothes as a sign of mourning. The procession ended at the cemetery, where only women and slaves were allowed to enter. The infidels, as it should be according to the canons of Zoroastrianism, did not bury the deceased in the ground, but left them in wooden coffins in the open air.

These, according to Robertson's colorful descriptions, were the rituals of one of the lost branches of an ancient, powerful and influential religion. Unfortunately, it is now difficult to verify where this is a scrupulous statement of reality and where it is artistic fiction. In any case, today we have no reason to doubt Robertson's story.

An article about Kalash is published here: http://www.yarga.ru/foto_arhiv/foto/kalash.htm,
Photos from this article and from other open sources on the web.

There is a lot of information about dards on the Internet and it is contradictory. The Kalash are one of the nationalities that belong to a large group of peoples who have the common name “Dards” due to the fact that they all speak the same language - Dardin.

For reference:

Dardic languages

a group of languages ​​spoken in adjacent areas of northeastern Afghanistan, Pakistan and India. Number of speakers of D. i. about 3 million people (1967, assessment). D. i. They are part of the Indo-Iranian group, being intermediate between Iranian and Indian. Divided into 3 subgroups. The most famous languages ​​are: Kashmiri, Shina, the Kohistani group of languages ​​(eastern subgroup); Khowar, Kalasha, Pashai, Tirah, Gavar, Votapuri, etc. (central subgroup); Ashkur, Prasun, Vaigali, Kati, Dameli (Western subgroup, often called Kafir). Written language is only in Kashmiri. In phonetics there is a rich consonantism: there are a number of aspirated (except for 4 languages ​​of the Western subgroup), cerebral, and in some languages ​​also palatalized and labialized. Morphology is characterized by a large number of postpositions with a generally poor system of cases (from zero to 4). A system of enclitic pronouns has been developed, used in some languages ​​only with names, in others - also with verbs. Numerals are characterized by vigesimal (20th) counting. In syntax there is the presence of ergative constructions of various types.

Lit.: Edelman D.I., Dardic languages, M., 1965; Grierson G. A., Linguistic survey of India, v. 8, pt 2, Calc., 1919; Morgenstjerne G., Indo-lranian frontier languages, v. 3, pt 1, Oslo, 1967, pt 2. Oslo, 1944, pt 3, Oslo, 1956.

There are several tiny plateaus scattered high in the mountains of Pakistan on the border with Afghanistan. Locals call this area Chintal. Here lives a unique and mysterious tribe, or people, the Kalash. Their uniqueness lies in the fact that a small people managed to survive in the very heart of Muslim states.

If the Kalash were a huge and numerous diaspora with a separate territory and statehood, then their existence would hardly surprise anyone, but today there are several thousand Kalash left - the smallest and most mysterious ethnic group in the Asian region.

Kalash(self-name: kasivo; the name "Kalash" comes from the name of the area) - a nationality in Pakistan, living in the highlands of the Hindu Kush (Nuristan or Kafirstan). Number of people: about 6 thousand people. They were almost completely exterminated as a result of the Muslim genocide by the beginning of the 20th century, as they profess paganism. They lead a secluded lifestyle. They speak the Kalash language of the Dardic group of Indo-European languages ​​(however, about half of the words of their language have no analogues in other Dardic languages, as well as in the languages ​​of neighboring peoples). In Pakistan, there is a widespread belief that the Kalash are the descendants of the warriors of Alexander the Great (due to which the Macedonian government built a center of culture in this area. The appearance of some Kalash is characteristic of Northern European peoples, Among them, blue-eyedness and blondness are often found. At the same time, some Kalash have an Asian appearance that is quite characteristic of the region.

The names of the gods that the Kalash worship will amaze you even more. They call Apollo the god of gods and lord of the sun. Aphrodite is revered as the goddess of beauty and love. Zeus evokes mute and enthusiastic reverence in them, etc.

Familiar names? And where does a semi-wild tribe, whose members have never descended from the mountains, cannot read and write, know and worship the Greek gods? Moreover, their religious rituals are strikingly similar to Hellenic ones. For example, oracles are mediators between believers and the gods, and on holidays the Kalash do not skimp on sacrifices and alms to the gods. By the way, the language in which the tribesmen communicate is reminiscent of ancient Greek.

The most inexplicable mystery of the Kalash tribe is their origin. This is a mystery that ethnographers around the world are scratching their heads over. However, the mountain pagans themselves explain their appearance in Asia simply. Another thing is that it is not so easy to separate truth from myths.

At the same time, about 3 thousand Kalash are Muslims. Conversion to Islam is not welcomed by the Kalash, who are trying to preserve their tribal identity. The Northern European appearance of some of them is explained by the more or less preserved Indo-European gene pool as a result of refusal to mix with the surrounding population. Along with the Kalash, representatives of the Hunza people and some ethnic groups of the Pamiris, Persians, and others also have similar anthropological characteristics.

The Kalash claim that their people formed as a single conclave 4 thousand years ago, but not in the mountains of Pakistan, but far beyond the seas, where the inhabitants of Olympus ruled the world. But the day came when some of the Kalash went on a military campaign under the leadership of the legendary Alexander the Great. This happened in 400 BC. Already in Asia, Macedonsky left several Kalash barrage detachments in local settlements, strictly ordering them to wait for his return.

Alas, Alexander the Great never returned for his faithful soldiers, many of whom went on a campaign with their families. And the Kalash were forced to settle in new territories, waiting for their master, who either forgot about them, or deliberately left them on new lands as the first settlers from distant Hellas. The Kalash are still waiting for Alexander to this day.

There is something in this legend. Ethnographers attribute the Kalash to the Indo-Aryan race - this is a fact. The faces of the Kalash are purely European. The skin is much lighter than that of Pakistanis and Afghans. And the eyes are the passport of an unfaithful foreigner. Kalash eyes are blue, gray, green and very rarely brown. But there is one more touch that does not fit into the common culture and way of life of these places. Kalash were always made for themselves and used as furniture. They eat at the table, sitting on chairs - excesses that were never inherent to the local “natives” and appeared in Afghanistan and Pakistan only with the arrival of the British in the 18th-19th centuries, but never took root. And from time immemorial, the Kalash have used tables and chairs. Did you come up with it yourself? And there are many such questions...

So, the Kalash survived. They preserved their language, traditions, and religion. However, later Islam came to Asia, and with it the troubles of the Kalash people, who did not want to change their religion. Adapting to Pakistan by preaching paganism is a hopeless undertaking. Local Muslim communities persistently tried to force the Kalash to convert to Islam. And many Kalash were forced to submit: either live by adopting a new religion, or die. In the 18th-19th centuries, Islamists massacred hundreds and thousands of Kalash. Under such conditions, surviving and preserving the traditions of your ancestors, you see, is problematic. Those who did not obey and even secretly practiced pagan cults were, at best, driven from the fertile lands by the authorities, driven into the mountains, and more often - destroyed.

Today, the last Kalash settlement is located in the mountains at an altitude of 7000 meters - not the best conditions for agriculture, livestock breeding and life in general!

The brutal genocide of the Kalash people continued until the middle of the 19th century, until the tiny territory that Muslims called Kafirstan (land of the infidels), where the Kalash lived, came under the protection of Great Britain. This saved them from complete extermination. But even now the Kalash are on the verge of extinction. Many are forced to assimilate (through marriage) with Pakistanis and Afghans, converting to Islam - this makes it easier to survive and get a job, education, or position.

The life of modern Kalash can be called Spartan. The Kalash live in communities - it’s easier to survive. They huddle in tiny huts, which they build from stone, wood and clay in narrow mountain gorges. The back wall of a Kalash house is a plane of rock or mountain. This saves building materials, and the home becomes more stable, because digging a foundation in mountainous soil is a Sisyphean task.

The roof of the lower house (floor) is also the floor or veranda of another family's house. Of all the amenities in the hut: table, chairs, benches and pottery. The Kalash know only by hearsay about electricity and television. A shovel, a hoe and a pick are more understandable and familiar to them. They draw their living resources from agriculture. The Kalash manage to grow wheat and other grain crops on lands cleared of stone. But the main role in their livelihood is played by livestock, mainly goats, which provide the descendants of the Hellenes with milk and dairy products, wool and meat. Having such a meager choice, the Kalash manage not to lose their own pride and not stoop to begging and theft. But their life is a struggle for survival. They work from dawn to dusk and do not complain about fate. Their way of life and its way of life have changed little over 2 thousand years, but this does not upset anyone.

And yet there is something mountainous in Kalash. A clear and unshakable division of responsibilities is striking: men are the first in labor and hunting, women only help them in the least labor-intensive operations (weeding, milking, housekeeping). In the house, men sit at the head of the table and make all important decisions in the family (in the community).

For women in each settlement, towers are built - a separate house where the women of the community give birth to children and spend time on “critical days”.

A Kalashi woman is obliged to give birth to a child only in the tower, and therefore pregnant women settle in the “maternity hospital” in advance. No one knows where this tradition came from, but the Kalash do not observe other segregation and discriminatory tendencies towards women, which infuriates and makes Muslims laugh, who treat the Kalash as people not of this world.

Marriage. This sensitive issue is decided exclusively by the parents of the young. They can consult with the newlyweds, they can talk with the parents of the bride (groom), or they can solve the problem without asking the opinion of their child. And yet no one here tells the tragic stories of Romeo and Juliet. Young people trust their elders, and elders treat their own children and youth with love and understanding.

The Kalash do not know days off, but they cheerfully and hospitably celebrate 3 holidays: Yoshi - the sowing festival, Uchao - the harvest festival, and Choimus - the winter festival of the gods of nature, when the Kalash ask the “Olympians” to send them a mild winter and a good spring and summer.
During Choymus, each family slaughters a goat as a sacrifice, the meat of which is treated to everyone who comes to visit or meets on the street.

And the Kalash don’t forget Bacchus: they know how to walk. Wine flows like a river during the holidays, however, religious holidays do not turn into booze.

It is not known for certain whether the Kalash are descendants of the soldiers of the army of Alexander the Great. What is undeniable is that they are clearly different from the peoples around them. Moreover, in a recent study - a joint effort of the Vavilov Institute of General Genetics, the University of Southern California and Stanford University - on the collection and processing of a huge amount of information on the genetic connections of the planet's population, a separate paragraph is devoted to the Kalash, which states that their genes are truly unique and belong to the European group.

It all started when one of our English friends, when asked “Where is the best place to go in July?”, answered without hesitation: “To the mountains of Pakistan.” We did not associate the mountains of Pakistan with anything pleasant, especially since these places, located at the junction of the borders of three states - Afghanistan, Tajikistan and Pakistan, cannot be called the most peaceful on earth. “Where is it calm now?” - asked the Englishman. There was nothing to answer to this.

And we also heard from him that there, in inaccessible valleys, lives the Kalash tribe, whose history allegedly dates back to the soldiers of the army of Alexander the Great, that the Kalash are really similar to Europeans and that very little is known about them, because recently they were completely isolated from outside world. “I don’t think, however, that you will be able to reach them...” the Englishman added. After that we couldn’t help but go.

We fly to Peshawar with a stopover in Dubai. We are flying a little nervously because we are trying to remember what good things in Russia are associated with the word Peshawar. The only things that come to mind are the war in Afghanistan, the Taliban, and the fact that it was from Peshawar on May 1, 1960 that the U-2 reconnaissance plane, shot down by Soviet air defense, took off. We arrive in Peshawar early in the morning. We're scared.

But it wasn't scary for long. After we were quite politely allowed through passport control, where our Russian passports did not arouse any suspicion (although we were noted in a separate booklet), we realized that our fears were in vain - looking ahead, I will say that rarely in any country the world treated us more openly and trustingly.

Peshawar surprised us from the first minute. Coming out through customs into the airport building, we saw a wall of people dressed exactly the same - long shirts, on their heads - hats that we saw in films about the Mujahideen. And this whole wall is full of men.

The majority of the population of Peshawar, the administrative center of the North-West Frontier Province of Pakistan, in the very north of which was the final destination of our journey, the Kalash Valley, are Pashtuns. They are known to not recognize the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan (the so-called Durand Line drawn by the British in 1893) and constantly move from one country to another. In this part of Pakistan, Islamic traditions are especially strong, and all women stay at home, and if they occasionally go out, they are wrapped from head to toe in shapeless clothes. That is why the streets in Peshawar are completely dominated by men and children dressed in long shirts and oversized pants. Having passed through their ranks, we were picked up by a guide and taken to the hotel. Throughout our entire journey through the North-West Frontier Province, we never met a person dressed differently. Even in the mirror, we appreciated the advantages of this clothing, ideal for the local climate, the very next day. The differences appear only in the colors of the material, although there are few options - white, green, blue, purple and black. This uniform creates a strange feeling of equality and togetherness. However, our Pakistani friends assured us that the whole issue is the cost - many would change into European clothes if they were not so expensive. It was difficult for us to imagine the comfort of jeans at 40 degrees heat and 100 percent humidity...

When we arrived at the hotel and met its manager, we learned that during the recent US military operations in Afghanistan, the hotel business experienced a brief “Golden Age.” Many journalists lived in Peshawar in order to break into Afghanistan from there, or simply broadcast live from the city. This short period brought good money - toilets and bathrooms were rented to journalists for $100 per day. The rest of the population received dividends by depicting militant demonstrations - there are situations when some event has already passed or was not colorful enough, but 100, or better yet 200 dollars is quite capable of embellishing it and even repeating it... At the same time, the “Golden Age” served and disrepute - television footage spread all over the world, and the civilian inhabitants of the Earth got the impression that Peshawar is a constantly bubbling cauldron, and therefore since then foreigners have not been seen in local hotels...

Peshawar has an ancient and rich history. The date of its foundation is lost in the 1st millennium BC. e. It is located at the exit of the Khyber Pass leading from Afghanistan to India, a major route for traders and conquerors. In the 1st century, Peshawar became the capital of the Kushan Kingdom and an important center of Buddhism. In the 6th century the city was destroyed and remained desolate for many centuries. And in the 16th century it again gained importance as a major urban center of the Mughal Empire.

The word "Peshawar" is often translated as "city of flowers", although there are many other versions of its origin - both the "Persian city", and the city of Purrusa in honor of the forgotten king of the Indus, and the like. Peshawari residents themselves like to think that they live in a city of flowers, especially since in the past it was really famous for its surrounding gardens. These days, the rhythm of life in Peshawar is largely determined by its proximity to Afghanistan - a huge number of Afghan refugees from the times of the Soviet-Afghan conflict. Officially, their total number is more than 2 million people, but their real number is hardly possible to determine. Well, the life of people who left their places, as you know, is not easy. Therefore, almost all types of smuggling are thriving, as well as the arms manufacturing business (we were even offered to go and film the production process of cheap Kalashnikov assault rifles, but we didn’t go). Although the majority, of course, are busy with completely peaceful affairs - agriculture and trade. Pakistanis told us that they are not welcome in Afghanistan, and when they have to go there, they prefer to pretend to be a resident of any other state.

And the Pakistani-Afghan cauldron continues to boil. Afghans perceive the Taliban as Pakistani aggressors, and not at all as liberators. Pakistanis are seriously worried about the huge flows of Afghan refugees, whom their state is forced to provide assistance to. At the same time, the Pakistanis are offended that the Afghans do not feel any sense of gratitude towards them - since they do not recognize the borders between the countries, and accordingly, they do not consider themselves refugees. And it is not possible to figure out who is right and who is wrong.

We walked around Peshawar... The city is far from in the best condition. Many houses in the center are abandoned, the streets are not always in order. At the same time, people on the streets are quite optimistic and friendly. We never caught any suspicious or hostile glances on ourselves; on the contrary, we were allowed to film almost everything. A distinctive feature of Peshawar is its huge old buses. Painted in all unimaginable colors, with fluttering black scraps of material (to ward off evil spirits), they constantly honk and rush through the city streets like pirate ships. On the day we arrived, it was raining in Peshawar and rivers of water were flowing through the streets - in order to get to the other side, we had to take a taxi.

The food was delicious. For Russian citizens, there is only one problem - in Peshawar you cannot buy alcohol, even for foreigners, even in the bar of a five-star hotel. A Muslim caught with alcohol receives a prison sentence of up to 6 months.

...In the evening we were already preparing for the next stage of the journey - at 5 in the morning we flew to the city of Chitral - to the Hindu Kush mountains, and from there - in search of the mysterious Kalash.

The first stop was made at the cemetery in the city of Charsadda. According to local residents, this is the largest cemetery in Asia. It really was huge - it stretched to the very horizon, and people began burying the dead here even before our era. This place is historically very important and even sacred. Here was the ancient capital of the state of Gandhara - Pushkalavati (in Sanskrit - “lotus flower”).

Gandhara, famous for its outstanding works of art and philosophical works, is one of the most important places of Buddhism. From here Buddhism spread to many countries, including China. In 327 BC. e. Alexander the Great, after a 30-day siege, personally accepted the surrender of the city. Today there is nothing here that reminds us of that time, except that lotuses still grow in its surroundings.

We had to move on. The Malakand pass appeared ahead. Through it the road goes to the Swat River valley, and further to the northern regions of Pakistan. Malakand gained worldwide fame at the end of the 19th century, when the British, in order to have free passage to Chitral, which at that time was already their controlled territory, occupied the pass. At the exit from it there is still one of the many, albeit former, English forts named after Winston Churchill. As a 22-year-old second lieutenant, Churchill was stationed here in 1897 when the fort came under attack by Pashtun tribesmen. His articles, sent to the Daily Telegraph (at 5 pounds per column, which was a lot) and praising the valiant British army, brought the future prime minister his first fame and self-confidence. Then, based on these articles, Sir Winston Churchill wrote his first book, “The History of the Malakand Field Army.” The war was terrible. Local tribes declared a holy war on the British - jihad. Despite the brave tone of newspaper editorials, in letters to his grandmother, the Duchess of Marlborough, Churchill wrote quite differently: “I ask myself the question - do the British have the slightest idea of ​​what kind of war we are waging here... The very word “mercy” has been forgotten. The rebels torture the wounded and mutilate the corpses of killed soldiers. Our troops also do not spare anyone who falls into their hands.” During this war, British troops used brutal weapons - explosive dum-dum bullets, which were later banned by the Hague Convention of 1899.

After a fair amount of spinning around the pass (as a consolation, imagining how you would have felt here 100 years ago, pushing a cannon and waiting for a shot from an ambush), we drove into the valley of the Swat River, a place again extremely important and not so well explored. According to one version, it was here that the first Aryans came in the 2nd millennium BC. e. The Swat River (in Sanskrit - “garden”) is mentioned in the Rig Veda, a collection of religious hymns of ancient Indians. This valley is oversaturated with history - here is Alexander the Great, who fought 4 battles here, and the flourishing of Buddhism (from the 2nd century BC to the 9th AD, when there were 1,400 Buddhist monasteries in these places), and the struggle of the Great Mughals, and much later - the British and local tribes.

And in order to imagine those distant times, you don’t even need much imagination. The local method of road repair, which does not seem to have changed much over the past centuries, may well help with this. Throughout the entire journey, groups of local residents slowly and truly sadly chop the asphalt with picks and just as slowly throw it onto the side of the road. All this is done manually, and it is clear that it did not start yesterday and will not end tomorrow - if only because for the authorities this is one of the ways to support the poorest segments of the population. Everyone benefits, except those who drive on the roads - one of its two lanes is almost constantly under repair. This creates a noisy mess, especially when huge trucks and buses packed with people rush into the narrow passage. And here, whoever is first is right.

In a word, when we once again watched a scene where two people are digging with one shovel - one holds it, and the other pulls it by the rope, a seditious thought came to mind - what if we pay local residents so that they do not repair the roads...

The traffic problem here is as old as time. Many people tried to cope with it. The legendary ruler of the Mughal Empire, Akbar, sent masons ahead of him to reach the mountainous regions. The British required local princes to keep the main roads in order so that they could quickly move their troops. To which they responded with sabotage, according to their reasons - in the event of a conflict, while the invading army is making its way through the gullies, they can have time to prepare for defense or go to the mountains...

Meanwhile, we entered another area. In the valley of the Paijkora River, near the city of Timargarh, we found ourselves in the onion kingdom. Onions were everywhere. It was sorted right along the road, put into bags, which were piled on top of each other, adding new onion mountain ranges to the Hindu Kush. Bags of onions were hanging from the cars, and it was completely unclear why they did not fall. Onions are very cheap here - about $2 per bag of 50-60 kilograms. The second crop in that area was tobacco, but there was simply no time to take an interest in it.

Having passed the onion mountains and past the city of Dir, we approached the most difficult section of the route - the Lowari Pass. By this time, the only thing that could save the tired travelers was lunch. During our entire trip we ate the same (rice, chicken), although very tasty food. I remember well the bread, which is made differently in each region. Probably, in the best Parisian restaurant the food is excellent, but in order to forever remember the taste and aroma of a hot flatbread, you need to drive 6 hours in a car along a Pakistani road, and then go to a nice and clean hotel that came from nowhere...

Here we were forced to transfer from a passenger car to a jeep - otherwise we would not be able to pass Lavaray. This mountain is very high - 3,122 meters, and it plays a very important role in the life of the inhabitants of Chitral (the purpose of our trip). This is the only reliable connection with the outside world, and this pass is closed for almost 8 months a year (from October - November to May).

Our car slowly crawled along the cliff. The thrill was given by the huge trucks, which clearly felt like rightful masters on the road and were extremely remarkable in themselves. Every driver strives to paint his truck as brightly as possible. Some of them even had carved wooden doors. They also say that the truck is painted for a practical purpose - it makes it more visible in the dark. Drivers spend many days on the road, but this profession is considered both honorable and profitable in these places.

There was a “truck” buzz at the pass - in 4 months we had to manage to deliver food and goods for the half-million population of Chitral. Large old (20-30 years old) cars were in a hurry, overtaking each other in clouds of dust. Before our eyes, one of the trucks collapsed onto the road. Some junk fell in all directions, which, on closer inspection, turned out to be rusty, pressed metal cans and canisters, apparently destined for melting down on the mainland.

Further along the road we passed the entrance to an unfinished tunnel leading to Chitral. This tunnel is the most important dream of the Chitral people. Thanks to him, they would be able to travel from Chitral all year round. Life is not easy for Chitrali people now. Although in the winter season there is air communication with Peshawar, in reality planes may not fly for months, and in this case the population is cut off from many benefits of civilization, the main one of which is medicine. Thus, the Lavarai Pass is literally the road of life for the Chitral people. The long-awaited tunnel began to be built 30 years ago, but was not completed in time, and the political and economic events of recent decades do not allow it to continue what was started. True, now there is some chance - on the way we met two Austrian engineers who were studying the condition of the tunnel. So it is possible that work on its construction will be resumed.

Finally, the Lavaray Passage was left behind. The mustachioed (like the entire male population of Pakistan) policeman waved his hand at us and began meticulously examining our passports (this was pleasant, especially considering that the vast majority of the local population is illiterate). I would like to note once again that everyone who met us treated us with cordiality and openness.

About two more hours and we entered Chitral. At the entrance to the city we came across several former British, and now Pakistani forts. On one of them, in large letters, was written “We want to die more than you want to live,” a phrase reminiscent of the times of the first steps of Islam on earth.

As you know, in Pakistan the most prestigious thing is to serve in the army, and one of the most respected units of this army is the Chitral intelligence officers. The day before our arrival in Chitral, the President of Pakistan flew in to congratulate the intelligence officers on their holiday. The people of Chitra are famous for being some of the best mountain shooters in the world. To do this, they train in any weather, and also constantly play sports (the main and sacred sport for them is polo - playing ball with sticks on horses). The Chitral intelligence officers treated us with some suspicion and, in response to our attempts to enter into conversation with them, they said that they had no right to respond to foreigners. Deciding that this was the true professionalism of the scouts, we retreated to previously occupied positions, to the hotel.

The next day we went to explore Chitral. The city stands on the banks of a picturesque and very stormy river. The water in it is gray in color, and when the sun illuminates the river, it seems that it is not water, but liquid stones rushing somewhere from the high mountains of the Hindu Kush. The mountains, by the way, are really high, local residents said that the six-thousanders don’t even have names - only those mountains that are higher than 7,000 meters have names. In addition, Pakistan is home to five eight-thousanders (including the world's second highest mountain, K-2).

The city has an ancient fort that belonged to the Chitral kings. It is still owned by their descendants as private property. Its current owners are hatching the idea of ​​reconstructing the fort and turning it into a museum, but its implementation is still far away. There is also a magnificent ancient mosque here. The main sports facility in the city is the polo stadium; football competitions are also held here. The climate in Chitral is radically different from Peshawar. In the mountains it is incomparably easier to breathe, and the air, despite the more than 30-degree heat, is cooler. Chitral residents told us about their difficult life in winter: about huge queues for planes (sometimes up to 1,000 people are waiting for a flight), about the fact that medicine is not easy to find, that just three years ago there was no normal communication in the city. By the way, there is another passage in the mountains, through Afghanistan, but now it is closed for obvious reasons.

The people of Chitral are proud of their history - in the past, Chitral was one of the most important milestones on the Great Silk Road. Another important event in history was the confrontation between the Russians and the British in the 19th century. At that time, the sympathies of the local population were divided - some were for the Russians, others for the British. The British frightened local residents with Russian soldiers and actively built forts, and after the formation of the Turkestan region in the 1880s, they blocked the roads. The border of the Russian Empire was very close - Tajikistan is only a few tens of kilometers from here.

...Our main goal - the Kalash villages - was very close, two hours away. And we moved towards the mysterious descendants of the soldiers of Alexander the Great. We had to go through very narrow gorges. The Hindu Kush mountains closed in, as if not wanting to let us into the Kalash valleys. In winter, driving along these roads is really a problem, but 20 years ago there were no roads at all. The only way to get to the villages was on foot. The Kalash received electricity only 7 years ago, and it is not always available; interruptions are especially frequent in winter. Finally we reached the largest Kalash village of Bumboret; besides it there are two more large villages of Rumbur and Brir - in total about 3,000 people live in them.

The Kalash are not Muslims, they have their own religion, which we will talk about later, so Kalash girls do not hide their faces, and this circumstance attracts numerous tourists from Pakistan. In addition, girls from childhood should wear beautiful embroidered dresses and very picturesque national jewelry. The first person we met was thirteen-year-old Zaina. She studies in the 8th grade at a local school and sometimes works as a tour guide. Zaina is a friendly girl, although overly thoughtful, we learned a lot of interesting things from her.

Firstly, it turned out that Bumboret is not one village, but many different ones with different names, both Brun and Batrick, the same one we were in is called Karakal. Bumboret is the name of the valley where the purest river of the same name flows. Secondly, Zaina had never heard of Russia in her life. How can it be, we were upset: “Moscow! Petersburg! Russia!”, in response to this Zaina only smiled uncertainly. At first we tried to convince our guide Jamil that he was translating incorrectly. To which he answered offendedly that he spoke 29 languages ​​of Pakistan (not counting Japanese and English) and that there could be no mistake - he pronounced the word “Russia” in as many as five local dialects. Then we had to come to terms, although we were determined to get to the roots of this ignorance: we saw that on the streets most men walk with a radio, the main source of knowledge for most Pakistanis. Zaina explained to us that men listen to news, but girls only listen to music. This explanation satisfied us, but we still quietly inquired about what was taught at the local school. It turned out that the school was built by the Greeks.

While the whole world doubts the Greek origin of the Kalash, the Greeks themselves are actively helping them. We then saw a school - a gift from the Greek people, and a hospital. Therefore, we were not surprised when, when asked what countries she knew, Zaina firmly answered: “Greece!”

We went to visit her, where we were hospitably greeted by her father, mother and grandmother. Together they began to convince us that the Kalash trace their origins to the soldiers of the army of Alexander the Great. This ancient story has been passed on from mouth to mouth for many years - the Kalash have no written sources.

Legend has it that two warriors and two girls who broke away from the Greek army came to these places. The men were wounded and could not move. It was they who laid the foundation for the Kalash people.

The Kalash lived in isolation for many centuries. We asked about the recent story of their forced conversion to Islam - you can find articles on this topic on the Internet. The young answered confidently that they had not seen anything like that, the answers of the older ones were more evasive, but they also assured that they did not remember any harsh measures. The transition to Islam occurs when a Kalash girl marries a Muslim, which does not happen often. And although at the Kalash gathering places we noticed the inscriptions “Muslims are prohibited from entering,” the purely everyday relations between the two peoples seemed to us more than tolerable.

Zaina’s father also showed how the Kalash sport, beloved by the Kalash, is played. For us, it looks like a kind of rounders, golf and baseball at the same time. They play it in winter, two people compete. They hit the ball with a stick, then both of them look for the ball. Whoever found it first and ran back won. The score goes up to 12 points. It cannot be said that we understood the intricacies of its rules very well, but we understood that the main thing in this game is the feeling of celebration. Residents of one village come to visit another to play, and then the host prepares a treat for everyone.

We also learned that within a month, right at this time, the annual Rat Nat festival takes place, that is, a night dance, which is attended by residents of other Kalash villages, as well as tourists from Pakistan, and that today we will also be able to see it. With poorly concealed joy, we assured that we would definitely come.

Zaina's grandmother proudly showed us the jewelry she makes. An important detail of a woman's dress is beads. By the way a woman is dressed, you can tell how old she is and whether she is married. Age, for example, is indicated by the number of strings of beads. Kalash people marry for love. The girl chooses her future husband herself. This usually happens in the spring, during dances. If both agree, the young man must kidnap the girl - this is the tradition. After 2-3 days, the bride's father comes to the groom's house, and immediately after that the wedding celebration begins. The Kalash divorce procedure is no less original - a woman can run away with another man, but at the same time he must give her dowry to her ex-husband, and in double the amount. And - no offense.

A distinctive feature of the Kalash is a large number of holidays. In the spring, in May, their main holiday is Joshi - everyone dances and gets to know each other. Joshi is a holiday in between hard work - the grain has already been sown, and the men have not yet gone to the mountains to pasture. In the summer they celebrate Uchao - you need to appease the gods at the end of August in order to get a good harvest. In winter, in December, the main holiday is Chomus - animals are solemnly sacrificed and men go to the sacred mountain. In general, there are so many holidays and family events that something is bound to happen during the week.

The Kalash have sacred places for dancing - Jeshtak. The ones we saw are decorated in the Greek style - columns and paintings. The main events in the life of the Kalash take place there - funerals and sacred ceremonies. Their funeral turns into a noisy celebration, accompanied by feasting and dancing, which lasts for several days and is attended by hundreds of people from all villages.

The Kalash have special rooms - “bashali” - for women in labor and “unclean” ones, that is, women during menstruation. Everyone else is strictly prohibited from even touching the door or wall of this room. Food is served there in special bowls. A woman in labor gets there 5 days before the birth of the child, and leaves after 10. “Bashali” reflect one of the main features of the Kalash people’s worldview - the concept of purity. Water, goats, wine, grain and sacred plants are “pure”, while women, Muslims and chickens are “unclean”. Women, however, constantly change their status, and end up in “bashali” at the moment of greatest “uncleanness” (in this case we are not talking about hygiene).

We managed to get to the Rat Nat holiday only in the evening of the next day. The day before we went in search of dancers, but it began to rain, which was not very good for the holiday. In addition, our new friend Sef drowned a jeep, or rather part of it, in a ditch. And since we couldn’t get the car out in the dark, we had to wait until the next day. At this moment it became clear that it was time to appease the local gods, and at the same time make friends with the local population, so we asked the Kalash to prepare the main holiday dish - goat. The feast was stormy, since the Kalash, not being Muslims, distill moonshine from apricots, a strong drink even by our standards.

But we still got to the dance festival. It took place in pitch darkness, occasionally illuminated by the flashes of our cameras. To the beat of the drums, the girls sang a strange, rhythmic song and circled in groups of 3-6 people, placing their hands on each other’s shoulders. When the music died down a little, an elderly man with a long stick in his hands began to tell something in a measured, mournful voice. He was a storyteller - he told the audience and participants of the festival legends from the life of the Kalash.

Rat nat continues all night until dawn. Among the spectators, in addition to the Kalash themselves, were Pakistanis from various parts of the country, Peshawaris, and residents of Islamabad. We all watched in fascination as the black and red shadows swirled to the sound of drums. At first only girls danced, but towards morning the boys also joined them - there are no prohibitions here.

After everything we had seen, we decided that it would be good to summarize our knowledge about Kalash life, and turned to the elder. He told us about the difficulties that accompanied the Kalash just 20 years ago, when they were completely isolated. He said that the Kalash still eat very simply: three times a day - bread, vegetable oil and cheese, meat - on holidays.

The elder told us about the love of the Kalash through his own example. In his life, he married three times. The first time he fell in love, but the girl was very beautiful and ran away with someone else. The second woman was very nice, but they fought all the time, and he left. They lived with their third wife for a long time, she bore him a son and a daughter, but she died. He gave all his wives an apple - they were of great value, since previously one apple was worth a whole goat.

To our question about religion, the elder answered: “God is one. I believe that my spirit will come to God after death, but I don’t know whether there is heaven or not.” Then he thought about it. We also tried to imagine a Kalash paradise, because we heard from Zaina that paradise is a place where rivers of milk flow, every man will get a beautiful girl, and the girl will get a man. One got the impression that the Kalash have their own paradise for everyone...

From the research of scientists it is known that in fact the Kalash have a lot of gods, and different gods and goddesses are worshiped in different villages. In addition to gods, there are also many spirits. Recently, when asked by outsiders, the Kalash often answer that they believe in one god, apparently so that the difference between their religion and Islam is not too obvious.

Shamans played a major role in the life of the Kalash. The most famous of them - Nanga dhar - could pass through rocks and instantly appear in other valleys. He lived for more than 500 years and had a significant influence on the customs and beliefs of this people. “But now the shamans have disappeared,” the elder sadly told us. Let's hope he just didn't want to tell us all the secrets.

In parting, he said: “I don’t know where I came from. I don’t know how old I am either. I just opened my eyes in this valley.”

The next day we went to the neighboring valley of Bumboret, Rumbur. Rumbur is smaller than Bumboret, although this Kalash conglomerate also consists of many small villages. Upon arrival, we discovered that there was another difference. The inhabitants of this village treated us with much less hospitality than the inhabitants of Bumboret. We were not allowed to enter the houses; the women hid their faces from the camera. And there were several reasons for this.

It turned out that the most famous representative of the Kalash, Lakshan Bibi, lives in this village. She made an amazing career for her people - she became an airplane pilot and, taking advantage of her popularity, created a fund to support the Kalash people - to help local residents and to promote their rare culture throughout the world. Things went quite successfully, and, as often happens, some Rumbur residents began to suspect Lakshan Bibi of embezzling funds allocated by foreigners for their needs. Perhaps the residents of Rumbur were annoyed by the rich house of Lakshan Bibi, which we saw at the entrance to the village - it, of course, is very different from the other buildings.

Rumburians are generally very reluctant to communicate with foreigners. But the latter are increasingly interested in them. We met two Japanese in the village. It must be said that representatives of the Land of the Rising Sun are very actively involved in various projects both in Pakistan in general and in the Kalash Valley in particular. In the village of Rumbur, for example, they are developing projects to create additional energy sources. This village is also interesting because there lives a Japanese woman who married a local resident, her name is Akiko Wada. Akiko has been studying the life of the Kalash from the inside for many years and recently published a book about them and their customs.

In general, the cooling of the Rumburians towards foreigners, which happened this year, reflects numerous contradictions in the life of all Kalash. Now in Bumboret, for example, there is active construction of new hotels. On the one hand, an influx of any funds could change the difficult life of the Kalash for the better. On the other hand, tourists, as a rule, “erode” the local culture, and the Kalash cannot help but see that they themselves are beginning to conflict with each other. It's probably not very pleasant to be the subject of research either. Tourists try to photograph Kalash in the most unexpected places and at the most inopportune times.

By the way, in one of the scientific books, “fatigue from taking photographs” is cited as one of the reasons for the transition of Kalash girls to Islam. Add to this the Islamic environment and the difficulties experienced by Pakistan itself, and then it becomes clear that life in the valley is not getting any easier. However, it's not all bad. Somewhere from October to April, the Kalash in the valley are left alone - the roads are covered with snow, planes, as we already know, fly sporadically - and they continue to live, left to their own devices.

Kalash keep many mysteries - their origin is still unclear. Some researchers are inclined to believe that they appeared in the valleys near Chitral, fleeing from Afghanistan from the policy of forced Islamization and land seizure carried out by the Afghan emir Abdurrahman Khan in 1895-1896. The khan began this policy after an entire region in the Hindu Kush, “Kafiristan” (“Country of the Infidels”), came to him after the British drew the border (the notorious “Durand Line”) between what was then India and Afghanistan. The region was renamed “Nuristan” (“Country of Light”), and the tribes who tried to preserve their customs fled under English protectorate.

Other scientists believe that the Kalash themselves were invaders and occupied this area somewhere in the mists of time. A similar version is widespread among the Kalash - they believe that they came from the distant country of Tsiyam, but where this country was located is now unlikely to be established. Whether the Kalash are descendants of the soldiers of the army of Alexander the Great is also unknown for certain. What is undeniable is that they are clearly different from the peoples around them. Moreover, in a recent study - a joint effort of the Vavilov Institute of General Genetics, the University of Southern California and Stanford University - on the collection and processing of a huge amount of information on the genetic connections of the planet's population, a separate paragraph is devoted to the Kalash, which states that their genes are truly unique and belong to the European group.

After the meeting with the Kalash, it no longer mattered to us whether they were related to Alexander the Great or not. Apparently, because for a moment we ourselves became Kalash - among huge mountains, stormy rivers, with their dances in the night, with a sacred hearth and sacrifices at the rock. We realized how difficult it is for a small people, lost among the mountains, to preserve their beliefs and traditions, constantly experiencing the increasing influence of the outside world.

In parting, we asked the elder about the meaning and features of Kalash national clothing, for which Muslims called them “black infidels,” that is, “black infidels.” He began to explain patiently and in detail, but then thought for a second and said the following: “You ask, what is special about the clothes that our women wear? The Kalash are alive as long as women wear these dresses.”

We, having left the land of the Kalash, headed further - to the province of Punjab, and then to the border between Pakistan and India.

Few people know that direct descendants of the ancient Greeks live in Pakistan. The people, whose faces seem to have come out of ancient vases, call themselves Kalash (Kal’as’a) and profess their own religion, different from the Muslim environment.

Kalash girl
(photo from Wikipedia)

It is difficult to say in detail what kind of religion this is. The Kalash themselves answer questions about their religion evasively, which is most likely due to fears of religious genocide to which this people were subjected by Muslims not so long ago (according to some reports, the Kalash, who today number only 3,000 people, dated back to the end of the 19th century were at least 200 thousand people). They often tell visitors that they believe in a single creator god, called Desu (by the ancient Greeks Deos), although the number of gods they worship is much greater. It was not possible to find out in detail what the Kalash pantheon is. According to some sources, among their gods one can find Apollo, Aphrodite and Zeus, familiar to us from childhood, while other sources say that these opinions are unfounded.

In the story of the Kalash, it is striking not only that in the Muslim world they managed to preserve their religion, but also that they are not at all similar to the peoples around them, but similar to Western Europeans, among them there are many people with blond hair and blue and green eyes . Everyone who has visited Kalash villages notes the extreme beauty of Kalash women.

Old Kalash man

Here it is appropriate to talk about what kind of people they are and how they ended up in Pakistan, in the inaccessible region of the Hindu Kush, just a few kilometers from the borders with Afghanistan and Tajikistan, not far from the Pakistani regional center of Chitral.

Documentary about Kalash - part 1 and part 2

According to the most common version, the Kalash are the descendants of the soldiers of Alexander the Great. On the way to India, he left barrage detachments in the rear, which, in the end, did not wait for their master, and remained settled in these places. If the Kalash have their roots in the conquests of Alexander the Great, then the legend seems more plausible, according to which Alexander specially selected 400 of the healthiest Greek men and women and settled them in these inaccessible places with the aim of creating a colony on this territory.

Kalash girl with a chicken in her hands

According to another version, the Kalash are the descendants of the people who settled in the mountains of Tibet during the great migration of peoples during the Aryan invasion of Hindustan. The Kalash themselves do not have a consensus on their origin, but when talking about this issue with foreigners, they often prefer the version of Macedonian origin.

Kalash girl
(photo from silkroadchina website)

A more accurate explanation of the origin of this people could be provided by a detailed study of the Kalash language, which, unfortunately, is still poorly studied. It is believed that it belongs to the Dardic language group, but on the basis of which this assignment was made is not entirely clear, because more than half of the words from the vocabulary of the Kalash language have no analogues in the languages ​​of the Dardic group and the languages ​​of surrounding peoples. There are publications that directly say that the Kalash speak ancient Greek, but whether this is true is unknown. The fact is that the only people today who help the Kalash survive in extreme high-mountain conditions are modern Greeks, with whose money a school, a hospital, a kindergarten were built, and several wells were dug.

A study of the Kalash genes did not reveal anything concrete. Everything is very unclear and unsteady - they say that the Greek influence can be from 20 to 40%. (Why carry out research if the similarities with the ancient Greeks are already visible?)

The Kalash are busy with agriculture. Gender equality is accepted in families. A woman is free to leave her husband, but at the same time, her previous husband must receive a double ransom from the new one. The only harassment of women is the isolation of women in a separate house during menstruation and childbirth. It is believed that at this time the woman is unclean, and she must be isolated, it is forbidden to communicate with her, and food is passed to them through a special window in this house. The husband is also free to leave his unloved wife at any time.

Video presentation about Kalash

There's something else worth saying about the location. The Kalash people live in several villages scattered across three mountain plateaus in an area that Pakistanis call Kafiristan - the country of infidels (more on this in an interesting article in MN). In this very country of infidels, by the way, besides the Kalash, there live several more equally exotic peoples.

Cemetery (photo from indostan.ru)

The Kalash perform religious worship in special places. The basis of the cult is animal sacrifices.

The Kalash bury their dead in the cemetery, but the coffins are not closed.

The most impressive thing, according to everyone who visited the Kalash villages, is the dances of the Kalash women, which hypnotize the audience.

Like many small nations today, this unique people is on the verge of extinction. Modern civilization, bringing the temptations of the modern world to the high-mountain villages of the Kalash, is gradually washing away young people from their villages.

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The Kalash are a small Dardic people inhabiting two valleys of the right tributaries of the Chitral (Kunar) River in the mountains of the southern Hindu Kush in the Chitral district of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province (Pakistan). The native language - Kalasha - belongs to the Dardic group of Indo-Iranian languages. The uniqueness of the people, surrounded on all sides by Islamized neighbors, lies in the fact that a significant part of them still professes a pagan religion, which developed on the basis of the Indo-Iranian religion and substratum beliefs.

History and ethnonym

The Dard peoples inhabiting Chitral usually unanimously consider the Kalash to be the aborigines of the region.

The Kalash themselves have legends that their ancestors came to Chitral through Bashgal and pushed the Kho people north, to the upper reaches of the Chitral River. However, the Kalash language is closely related to the Khowar language. Perhaps this legend reflects the arrival in the 15th century. in Chitral by a militant Nuristani-speaking group that conquered the local Dardo-speaking population. This group separated from the Vaigali language speakers, who still call themselves kalašüm, passed on their self-name and many traditions to the local population, but were assimilated by them linguistically.

The idea of ​​the Kalash as aborigines is based on the fact that in earlier times the Kalash inhabited a larger area in Southern Chitral, where many place names are still of a Kalash character. With the loss of militancy, the Kalash in these places were gradually supplanted or assimilated by speakers of the leading Chitral language, Khovar.

Spiritual culture

The Kalash are the only people in the region who have partially preserved their traditional religion and have not completely converted to Islam. The religious isolation of the Kalash began in the beginning. XVIII century, when they were subjugated by the mekhtar (ruler) of Chitral and found themselves under cultural pressure from the related Kho people, who had by that time converted to Islam. In general, Chitral politics was characterized by relative tolerance, and the Islamization of the region, carried out by Sunni mullahs and Ismaili preachers, was rather spontaneous and gradual. When carried out in the 19th century. Durand's line of Kalash remained in British possession, which saved them from the mass forced conversion to Islam carried out in 1896 by the Afghan emir Abdur Rahman in neighboring Nuristan.

Nevertheless, cases of conversion of Kalash to Islam occurred throughout the modern history of the people. Their number increased after the 1970s, when roads were built into the region and schools began to be built in Kalash villages. Conversion to Islam leads to a severance of traditional ties, as one of the Kalash elders Saifullah Jan says: “If one of the Kalash converts to Islam, they can no longer live among us.” As K. Yettmar notes, Kalash Muslims look with undisguised envy at Kalash pagan dances and cheerful celebrations. Currently, the pagan religion, which attracts the attention of numerous European tourists, is under the protection of the Pakistani government, which fears the extinction of the tourism industry in the event of the final “triumph of Islam.”

Nevertheless, Islam and the Islamic culture of neighboring peoples have a great influence on the life of the pagan Kalash and their beliefs, filled with plots and motifs of Muslim mythology. The Kalash adopted men's clothing and names from their neighbors. Under the onslaught of civilization, the traditional way of life is gradually being destroyed, in particular, “holidays of merit” are disappearing into oblivion. Nevertheless, the Kalash valleys still represent a unique reserve that preserves one of the most archaic Indo-European cultures.

Religion

Traditional Kalash ideas about the world are based on the opposition of holiness and impurity. Mountains and mountain pastures have the highest holiness, where the gods live and “their livestock” - wild goats - graze. Altars and goat sheds are also holy. Muslim lands are unclean. Uncleanness is also inherent in a woman, especially during periods of menstruation and childbirth. Defilement brings everything related to death. Like the Vedic religion and Zoroastrianism, the Kalash religion provides for numerous cleansing ceremonies.

The Kalash pantheon (devalog) is generally similar to the pantheon that existed among the Nuristani neighbors, and includes many deities of the same name, although it is somewhat different from the latter. There are also ideas about numerous lower demon spirits, primarily female.

Kalash sanctuaries are altars built in the open air from juniper or oak boards and furnished with ritual carved boards and idols of deities. Special buildings are built for religious dances. Kalash rituals consist primarily of public feasts to which the gods are invited. The ritual role of young men who have not yet known a woman, that is, possessing the highest purity, is clearly expressed.

The pagan deities of the Kalash have a large number of temples and altars throughout the valley where their people live. They present them with sacrifices mainly consisting of horses, goats, cows and sheep, the breeding of which is one of the main industries of the local population. They also leave wine on the altars, thereby making a sacrifice to the god Indra, the god of grapes. Kalash rituals are combined with holidays and are generally similar to Vedic ones.

Like the bearers of Vedic culture, the Kalash consider crows to be their ancestors and feed them from their left hands. The dead are buried above the ground in special wooden coffins with ornaments, and rich representatives of the Kalash also place a wooden effigy of the deceased above the coffin.

The word gandau Kalash refers to the tombstones of the Kalash valleys and Kafiristan, which differ depending on what status the deceased achieved during his lifetime. Kundrik is the second type of anthropomorphic wooden sculptures of ancestors among the Kalash. It is a statue-amulet that is installed in the fields or in a village on a hill - a wooden pole or a pedestal made of stones.

Threat of extinction

At the moment, the culture and ethnicity of the Kalash are in danger of extinction. They live in closed communities, but the younger population is increasingly forced to assimilate by marrying into the Islamic population, this is due to the fact that it is easier for a Muslim to find work and feed his family. In addition, the Kalash receive threats from various Islamist organizations.

• Terentyev M.A. Russia and England in Central Asia. - St. Petersburg: Type. P.P. Merkulyeva, 1875. - 376 p.
• Metcalf D. Lost in the steppes of Central Asia. - Almaty: VOX POPULI, 2010. - 288 p.

Everything in the life of the Kalash living in the north of Pakistan in the Hindu Kush mountains is different from their neighbors: their faith, their way of life, and even the color of their eyes and hair. These people are a mystery. They themselves consider themselves descendants of Alexander the Great.

Who are your ancestors?

The ancestors of the Kalash are discussed again and again. There is an opinion that the Kalash are local aborigines who once inhabited vast areas of the southern valley of the Chitral River. And today numerous Kalash toponyms have been preserved there. Over time, the Kalash were forced out (or assimilated?) from their ancestral territories.

There is another point of view: the Kalash are not local aborigines, but came to the north of Pakistan many centuries ago. These could be, for example, tribes of North Indians living around the 13th century BC. in the south of the Urals and in the north of the Kazakh steppes. Their appearance was reminiscent of the appearance of modern Kalash - blue or green eyes and light skin.

It should be noted that external features are not characteristic of all, but only of some of the representatives of the mysterious people, however, this often does not prevent us from mentioning their proximity to Europeans and calling the Kalash the heirs of the “Nordic Aryans”. However, scientists believe that if you look at other peoples who have lived in isolated conditions for thousands of years and are not too willing to register strangers as relatives, then you can find “homozygous inbreeding (related) depigmentation among the Nuristans, Darts or Badakhshans.” They tried to prove that the Kalash belonged to European peoples at the Vavilov Institute of General Genetics, as well as at the University of Southern California and Stanford University. Verdict - the Kalash genes are truly unique, but the question of their ancestors remains open.

Beautiful legend

The Kalash themselves willingly adhere to a more romantic version of their origin, calling themselves the descendants of warriors who came to the mountains of Pakistan after Alexander the Great. As befits a legend, it has several variations. According to one, Makedonsky ordered the Kalash to remain and wait for his return, but for some reason he never returned for them. The loyal soldiers had no choice but to explore new lands.

According to another, several soldiers, due to injuries, were unable to continue moving with Alexander’s army, and were forced to remain in the mountains. Faithful women, naturally, did not leave their husbands. The legend is very popular among explorer travelers who come to visit the Kalash, and numerous tourists.

Pagans

Everyone who comes to this amazing region is required to first sign papers prohibiting any attempts to influence the identity of a unique people. First of all, we are talking about religion. Among the Kalash there are many who continue to adhere to the old pagan faith, despite numerous attempts to convert them to Islam. You can find numerous posts on this topic online, although the Kalash themselves avoid questions and say that they “don’t remember any tough measures.”

Sometimes, the elders assure, a change of faith occurs when a local girl decides to marry a Muslim, but this happens, according to them, infrequently. However, researchers are confident that the Kalash managed to avoid the fate of their Nuristani neighbors, who were forcibly converted to Islam at the end of the 19th century, only due to the fact that they inhabited the territory that came under the jurisdiction of the British.

The origin of Kalash polytheism is no less controversial. Most scientists consider attempts to draw analogies with the Greek pantheon of gods to be unfounded: it is unlikely that the Kalash supreme god Dezau is Zeus, and the patroness of women Desalika is Aphrodite. The Kalash have no priests, and everyone prays independently. True, it is not recommended to contact the gods directly; for this there is a dehar - a special person who brings a sacrifice (usually a goat) in front of a juniper or oak altar decorated with two pairs of horse skulls. It is quite difficult to list all the Kalash gods: every village has its own, and besides this there are also many demon spirits, mostly female.

About shamans, meetings and farewells

Kalash shamans can predict the future and punish sins. The most famous of them is considered Nanga Dhar - legends were made about his abilities, telling how in one second he disappeared from one place, passing through the rocks, and appeared with a friend. Shamans are trusted to administer justice: their prayer can supposedly punish the offender. Using the humerus of a sacrificial goat, a shaman-ashzhiau (“who looks at the bone”), who specializes in predictions, can see the fate of not only an individual person, but also entire states.

The life of the Kalash is unthinkable without numerous feasts. Visiting tourists are unlikely to be able to immediately understand what event they are attending: a birth or a funeral. The Kalash are confident that these moments are equally significant, and therefore it is necessary in any case to organize a grand celebration - not so much for themselves, but for the gods. You need to rejoice when a new person comes into this world so that his life is happy, and have fun at the funeral - even if the afterlife is serene. Ritual dances in a sacred place - Jeshtak, chants, bright clothes and tables bursting with food - all these are constant attributes of two main events in the life of an amazing people.

This is the table - they eat at it

Another special feature of the Kalash is that, unlike their neighbors, they always used tables and chairs for meals. They build houses according to the Macedonian custom - from stones and logs. They don’t forget about the balcony, while the roof of one house is the floor for another - the result is a kind of “Kalash-style high-rise building.” On the facade there is stucco with Greek motifs: rosettes, radial stars, intricate convolutions.

Most Kalash are engaged in agriculture and cattle breeding. There are only a few examples when one of them managed to change their usual way of life. The legendary Lakshan Bibi is widely known, who became an airline pilot and created a fund to support the Kalash. The unique people are of genuine interest: the Greek authorities are building schools and hospitals for them, and the Japanese are developing projects for additional energy sources. By the way, the Kalash learned about electricity relatively recently.

In vino veritas

The production and consumption of wine is another distinctive feature of the Kalash. Prohibition throughout Pakistan is not yet a reason to abandon traditions. And after preparing the wine, you can play your favorite game - something between rounders, golf and baseball. The ball is hit with a stick, and then everyone searches for it together. Whoever found it twelve times and returned first “to base” won. Often, residents of the same village come to visit their neighbors to fight in a gala, and then have fun celebrating - and it doesn’t matter whether it’s a victory or a defeat.

Search a woman

Kalash women are in secondary roles, doing the most “thankless work.” But this is where the similarities with their neighbors probably end. They decide for themselves who to marry, and if the marriage turns out to be unhappy, then divorce. True, the new chosen one must pay the ex-husband a “penalty” - a dowry of double size. Kalash girls can not only get an education, but also, for example, get a job as a guide. The Kalash have long had their own kind of maternity homes - “bashali”, where “dirty” women spend several days before the onset of childbirth and about a week after.

Relatives and curious people are not only prohibited from visiting expectant mothers, they are not even allowed to touch the walls of the tower.
And what beautiful and elegant Kalashkas! The sleeves and hems of their black dresses, for which Muslims, by the way, call the Kalash “black infidels,” are embroidered with multi-colored beads. On the head is the same bright headdress, reminiscent of a Baltic corolla, decorated with ribbons and intricate beadwork. Around her neck there are many strings of beads, by which you can determine the woman’s age (if you can count, of course). The elders cryptically remark that the Kalash are alive only as long as their women wear their dresses. And finally, one more “rebus”: why is the hairstyle of even the smallest girls five braids that begin to be woven from the forehead?