Culture
The Kalash community is striving to preserve its culture and traditions, with support from the Pakistani government as well as foreign assistance.
The Kalash community is striving to preserve its culture and traditions, with support from the Pakistani government as well as foreign assistance. The opening of the Lowari Tunnel has made access to the Kalash valleys easier for the general public. However, this has also raised concerns that, over the next 20 to 30 years, the Kalash religion and the region historically known as Kafiristan may gradually become a thing of the past. The Kalash region, also known historically as Kafiristan, is located approximately two hours from the snow-covered city of Chitral in northern Pakistan. It consists mainly of three valleys: Bumburet, Rumbur and Birir. According to local estimates, their combined population is around 4,000. The people follow a religion known as Kalashism.
The Kalash people, who believe in multiple deities, have a distinct language, customs and traditions. Many members of the community continue to follow practices that date back centuries, treating their traditional customs as an integral part of their religious identity. Their weddings, funerals, hospitality, social interactions, expressions of affection, religious ceremonies and annual festivals are therefore of considerable interest to tourists. These distinctive traditions attract visitors to Chitral, particularly the Kalash valleys, and large numbers of people gather to participate in the community's festivals. Among these celebrations, Chilam Joshi holds a particularly important place.
As spring approaches, preparations for Chilam Joshi begin in all three valleys. However, during the festival's main three days, men and women from the entire community gather in Bumburet Valley. Chilam Joshi is a celebration marking the arrival of spring. Local residents begin preparing for the festival well in advance. By the beginning of May, greenery spreads throughout the valleys and the air fills with the fragrance of flowers and plants. Clear water from melting snow flows through streams and rivers, while sunlight reflects off the remaining snow among the green forests covering the mountains.
The Kalash religion includes a concept of God, but it has no prophets or Holy Scriptures. According to a popular belief among the community, their ancestors remained in the region after Alexander the Great's army passed through it, and they are therefore of Greek descent. In Kalash tradition, a designated enclosure for women is known as the Bashalini. Women stay there during menstruation rather than remaining in their homes, and they engage in activities such as sewing and embroidery.
The practice is rooted in traditional beliefs about ritual purity. Women consider it inauspicious to remain among men during this period, believing that doing so could deprive their households of blessings and prosperity. Consequently, they leave their homes even during extremely cold weather. Food is brought to them from their homes, and they are not permitted to leave the enclosure during this time. Men are also prohibited from touching the enclosure's walls. According to another traditional custom, when a woman's husband dies, she remains confined to a room in her house for 40 days and does not speak to anyone.
Happiness holds a central place in the Kalash belief system. Community members regard death as an occasion for celebration, just as the birth of a child is considered a happy event. When someone dies, news of the death is conveyed to every village across the three Kalash valleys. If the deceased is a man, his body is kept in a community hall for two days; if the deceased is a woman, it is kept there for one day. People arrive from all the villages, sometimes numbering in the thousands. To provide food for the guests, between 70 and 80 goats and eight to ten cattle are slaughtered, and alcoholic beverages are served. The food is prepared using traditional local ingredients, including pure desi ghee. The funeral ceremonies are marked by communal celebrations involving food, drinks, dancing and music. In earlier times, the deceased were placed in coffins and left in designated burial grounds. Today, burial has become the common practice.
Like their funeral customs, Kalash marriage and childbirth traditions are also distinctive. Marriages are not traditionally arranged by families. Instead, a young man and woman choose each other, and the young man takes the woman to his home, effectively eloping with her. The young man's family then informs the woman's parents and village elders. They visit his home and ask the woman to confirm that she has not been forced to leave her family and has come of her own free will. Once her consent is established, the marriage is accepted.
A feast is then arranged, with the bride's family playing a particularly important role as guests. On the fourth day after the wedding, the bride's maternal uncle visits the groom's family, who traditionally present him with a bull and a gun as gifts. The exchange of gifts between the two families continues for several days. One unusual aspect of this tradition, according to the account, is that even a married woman may elope with another man if she falls in love with him. If she leaves of her own free will, her former husband has no right to object. However, he may claim reimbursement for the expenses incurred during the first marriage.
The birth of the first child is marked by a large feast, during which goats and cattle are slaughtered. The celebration is held at the bride's family's home, but the groom's family bears the expenses. The groom's family must also give each of the bride's relatives between 1,000 and 2,000 Pakistani rupees. If the next child is also of the same sex as the first, the entire ceremony and associated expenses are repeated. This tradition continues if successive children are all boys or all girls, and it ends only when a child of the opposite sex is born. According to the account, if a Kalash man or woman falls in love with a Muslim, marriage is possible only if the Kalash partner converts to Islam, regardless of whether the person is male or female.
In August, the Kalash community celebrates its annual religious festival, known as Phour. The festival marks the time when community members harvest their fruit, particularly grapes and walnuts, and store it for the winter. Before the festival, people are not permitted to harvest these fruits. Anyone who secretly picks them beforehand may be fined. During the celebrations, Kalash elders place flower-decorated caps on the heads of girls who have reached puberty or are approaching that stage of life. This ceremony symbolizes that the girls have entered, or are about to enter, adulthood. Under the community's traditional customs, they are then expected to stay in the Bashalini during menstruation rather than remain inside their homes.
On the final evening of the festival, Kalash women gather flowers and proceed from a designated location. The procession is led by a Kalash woman whose face is covered with a traditional cloak. Following her, the women move along a particular route, waving flowers in their hands and singing songs as they approach a place known as Charsu, where Kalash men and women perform traditional dances. When the procession reaches Charsu, the women scatter the flowers they are carrying over the people taking part in the dancing. Older women also wear flower-adorned caps during the festival, and both young and elderly members of the community participate in the celebrations.
