Kalasha Valleys

The Kalasha Valleys (Kalasha-mondr: Kaĺaśa Desh; Urdu: وادی کیلاش) are valleys in Chitral District in northern Pakistan. The valleys are surrounded by the Hindu Kush mountain range. All three Kalasha valleys are mainly inhabited by Kalasha people, along with Kho and Gujjar communities.^[1] There are three main valleys.^[2]^[3]^[4]

CountryPakistan

Elevation

1,800 m (5,900 ft)

TimezoneUTC+5 (PST)

Quick facts Kalash وادیِ کیلاش, Country ...

Kalash وادیِ کیلاش
Valley
The three remote valleys are home to the animist Kalash people
Kalash وادیِ کیلاش Kalash Valley
Coordinates: 35°42′2″N 71°41′29″E
Country	Pakistan
Province	Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
District	Chitral District
Elevation	1,800 m (5,900 ft)
Population (2026)
• Total	9,000
Time zone	UTC+5 (PST)

The inhabitants of the valleys are the Kalash people, who have a unique culture, language and follow a form of religion that is associated with their surroundings like the mountains and rivers.^[5]^[6]^[7]^[8]^[9] The largest and most populous valley is Bumburet (Mumuret), reached by a road from Ayun in the Kunar Valley. Rumbur (Rukmu) is a side valley north of Bumburet. The third valley, Biriu (Birir), is a side valley of the Kunar Valley south of Bumburet.

Kalash people

Gallery

Typical homes in the Kalasha Valleys
A school in the Kalasha Valleys
A Kalasha woman

References

[1]
Maggi, Wynne (2001). Our Women are Free: Gender and Ethnicity in the Hindukush. University of Michigan Press. p. 24. ISBN 978-0-472-06783-1. Although the center of each of the three Kalasha val-leys is primarily populated by Kalasha people, Chitralis (whom the Kalasha call pátua) and Gujar families also own houses and fields.
[2]
"The Kalasha Valleys". Kalasha Heritage Conservation. Archived from the original on 11 November 2014. Retrieved 8 September 2014.
[3]
Kalash Valley Archived 2019-07-27 at the Wayback Machine
[4]
The Invisible Landscape Archived 2015-09-24 at the Wayback Machine
[5]
West, Barbara A. (19 May 2010). Encyclopedia of the Peoples of Asia and Oceania. Infobase Publishing. p. 357. ISBN 9781438119137. Archived from the original on 11 May 2024. Retrieved 8 February 2024. The Kalasha are a unique people living in just three valleys near Chitral, Pakistan, the capital of North-West Frontier Province, which borders Afghanistan. Unlike their neighbors in the Hindu Kush Mountains on both the Afghani and Pakistani sides of the border the Kalasha have not converted to Islam. During the mid-20th century a few Kalasha villages in Pakistan were forcibly converted to this dominant religion, but the people fought the conversion and, once official pressure was removed, the vast majority continued to practice their own religion. Their religion is a form of Hinduism that recognizes many gods and spirits and has been related to the religion of the ancient Greeks, who mythology says are the ancestors of the contemporary Kalash… However, it is much more likely, given their Indo-Aryan language, that the religion of the Kalasha is much more closely aligned to the Hinduism of their Indian neighbors than to the religion of Alexander the Great and his armies.
[6]
Minahan, James B. (10 February 2014). Ethnic Groups of North, East, and Central Asia: An Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO. p. 205. ISBN 9781610690188. Living in the high mountain valleys, the Nuristani retained their ancient culture and their religion, a form of ancient Hinduism with many customs and rituals developed locally. Certain deities were revered only by one tribe or community, but one deity was universally worshipped by all Nuristani as the Creator, the Hindu god Yama Raja, called imr'o or imra by the Nuristani tribes.
[7]
"The Kalasha Valleys". Kalasha Heritage Conservation. Archived from the original on 11 November 2014. Retrieved 8 September 2014.
[8]
"Kalash Valley". Archived from the original on 2019-07-27. Retrieved 2014-09-08.
[9]
"The invisible landscape. Chapter 2" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2015-09-24. Retrieved 2014-09-08.

Kalash people

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