Few people know that one of the most mysterious peoples on the planet lives in the mountains in the north of Pakistan, in the Hindu Kush region, which borders Afghanistan and Tajikistan. Kalash are completely different from their Muslim neighbors. They profess paganism, speak their own language, observe unique customs. Scientists have been racking their brains for a long time - where did these blue-eyed and fair-haired beauties and beauties come from in the Pakistani mountains?
FOLLOWING ALEXANDER MAKEDONSKY
The origin of this people is a secret with seven seals. According to the most common version, the Kalash are the descendants of the ancient Hellenes. But how could they wander so far from their historical homeland? On the way to India, the great conqueror Alexander the Great left defensive detachments in the rear. Perhaps, without waiting for their leader, they settled in these parts? A more plausible hypothesis is that Alexander specially selected half a thousand of the healthiest and most beautiful Greek men and women and settled them in these hard-to-reach places to create a Greek colony on foreign territory. Indeed, if you look at the faces of the Kalash, it seems as if they came from antique vases, so similar to the ancient Hellenes.
The Kalash themselves firmly believe in this legend and pass it on from mouth to mouth. Still - modern Greeks have already had time to put their hand here. While the whole world is digging into the truth, the descendants of Homer and Socrates are actively helping their "brothers and sisters." In one of the villages they built a school and a hospital with their own money. And in the place where the Kalash celebrate the holidays, they installed painted columns - greetings from the historical homeland.
There are other, less common hypotheses. According to one of them, the Kalash are the descendants of a people who settled in the mountains of Tibet in the process of a large migration of peoples during the invasion of the Aryans into Hindustan.
FREEDOM ABOVE ALL
Promotional video:
Kalash believe in their pagan gods. According to them, there is a single creator god, who is called Dezu (among the ancient Greeks, Deos). The soul goes to him after death, and he is free to decide where it moves next - to hell or heaven. The Kalash's ideas about hell and heaven are rather vague, one thing is clear to them: heaven is something very good, hell is bad. Relations with other deities among the ancient people are rather complicated and confusing. According to some sources, among their gods you can find Apollo, Aphrodite and Zeus, familiar to us from childhood, while other sources say that they have nothing like this. And all because the Kalash, despite all the efforts of specialists, the people are still poorly studied. One thing is certain: the mountaineers are stubborn and self-sufficient. No matter how the Muslims tried to plant their order here, the Kalash resisted to the last. And they paid a great price for their stubbornness: in the 19th century there were 200 thousand Kalash, now - no more than 3 thousand. This is the result of the religious genocide.
Today nobody exterminates Kalash, relations between the two peoples are more than friendly. But willy-nilly, the Kalash are slowly mingling with the Punjabis, Pashtuns and other Pakistani populations. Kalash girls are of rare beauty and are highly valued as brides, so parents often cannot resist the big kalym that Muslim grooms promise them. However, local beauties are also distinguished by a very freedom-loving disposition, taming such a girl is like taming a mountain stream.
HE AND SHE
In families, gender equality reigns. Kalash marries and marries for love. The girl is free to choose her own mate. This usually happens in the spring, during the holidays. Several villages gather on the "dance floor" at once, so there is a wide choice. If both agree, the young man should kidnap the girl - purely symbolic. A couple of days later, the girl's relatives come to his house for a ransom. When both parties agree on a kalym, a wedding is celebrated.
A woman can leave her husband for another, but on one condition - the new spouse must pay the old one a large ransom. If the relationship between the spouses does not work out, the husband may also leave. In general, complete equality.
Kalash girls, unlike Muslim ladies, do not hide their faces behind Punjab. On the contrary, they emphasize their beauty. Each, starting almost from the cradle, wears beads and does intricate hairstyles. And the girls' clothes are just something from the realm of fantasy! Dresses are real works of art, over which local craftsmen conjure. Girls and women wear these outfits to a feast, to the world, and to good people. And the number of beads on their neck will tell every knowledgeable person everything about the age of a lady, her social status, wealth, etc. But in the life of every Kalash lady there are periods when such beauty has to be hidden behind seven locks. During menstruation and childbirth, women are isolated in a specially designated house. It is forbidden to communicate with the isolated, food is passed to them through a special window. Even touching the walls of this house is not allowed,so much he is considered unclean because of the ladies there. According to the Kalash, water, goats, wine and sacred plants are “clean”, while women, chickens and Muslims are “unclean”.
Perhaps this is the only oppression that mountain steals experience. And this is not an exaggeration. Proof of this is the biography of the famous representative of this people, Lakshan Bibi. She made a breathtaking career for her people - she became an airplane pilot. Can any Pakistani woman professing Islam dream of something like this ?! Taking advantage of her fame, Lakshan created a fund to help the Kalash people. But, oddly enough, there is no prophet in his homeland: local residents suspected Bibi of embezzling funds and began to avoid her. And not only her, but also correspondents and tourists. House Lakshan differs from village buildings, and this is another reason for discord between the famous Kalashka and her fellow countrymen. In general, the attitude of the Kalash towards foreigners is ambiguous. On the one hand, they bring money to the Kalash villages,on the other, they behave unceremoniously, take pictures without warning, break into homes. Therefore, not in every village the Kalash welcome guests with open arms.
EVERYBODY DANCE
Meanwhile, in the Kalash villages there is something to see, some holidays are worth something! Games are an essential part of any celebration. Gall is a favorite pastime. This is a cross between our rounders, golf and baseball. They play a game in winter, two people compete. They hit the ball with a club, then both are looking for this ball. Whoever finds it first is the winner. The score goes up to 12 points. Often battles take place between representatives of different villages.
The Rat nat holiday is popular not only among Kalash, but also among tourists. It takes place at night, in the light of stars and camera flashes. To the beat of the drums, the girls sing a rhythmic song, and the dancers circle around 3-6 people, putting their hands on each other's shoulders. When the dance ends, an old man enters the stage and begins his story. These are legends from the life of Kalash people. The old man's tale is interrupted by dancing, and so on until the morning. Now guys, then girls, then all together. There are no prohibitions.
Joshi is a spring holiday. It occurs when the Kalash are sowing grain, and the men have not yet gone to the mountains for pastures. Everyone rejoices in life and pray to their gods for a good harvest. In the summer, Uchao is celebrated - it is necessary to appease the higher powers so that they take care of the Kalash harvest. The main winter holiday is Chomus - animals are sacrificed, men go to the sacred mountain and ask for further grace to the Kalash. This small but proud mountain people, luck really does not hurt!
By the way
Kalash live in several villages scattered across three mountain plateaus in what Pakistanis call Kafiristan, the land of the infidels.
In a recent study - a joint effort of the Vavilov Institute of General Genetics, the University of Southern California and Stanford University - to collect and process a huge amount of information on the genetic relationships of the planet's population, a separate paragraph is devoted to the Kalash, which says that their genes are truly unique and belong to European group.
Lyubov SHAROVA