High in the mountains of Pakistan on the border with Afghanistan, in the province of Nuristan, several tiny plateaus are scattered. Locals call this area Chintal. A unique and mysterious people lives here kalash. Their uniqueness lies in the fact that this Indo-European people 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 numerous people with a separate territory and statehood, their existence would hardly surprise anyone, but no more than 6 thousand people have survived today - 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). The Kalash people 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 life. 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).

Kalash - envoys of Greece?

In Pakistan, it is widely believed that the Kalash are descendants of the soldiers of Alexander the Great (in connection with which the government of Macedonia built a center of culture in this area, see, for example, “Macedonia ќe gradi kulturen tsentar kaјnzi to Pakistan”). The appearance of some Kalash is characteristic of the northern European peoples, among them blue-eyedness and blondism are often found. At the same time, some of the Kalash also have an Asian appearance that is quite characteristic of the region.

The pantheon of gods among the Kalash people has a lot common features with the reconstructed ancient Aryan pantheon. The statements of some journalists that the Kalash worship " ancient Greek gods" are unfounded. At the same time, about 3 thousand Kalash are Muslims. The conversion to Islam is not welcomed by the Kalash, who are trying to preserve their tribal identity. Kalash are not descendants of Alexander's warriors Macedonian, 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 the refusal to mix with the alien non-Aryan population. Along with the Kalash, representatives of the Hunza people and some ethnic groups Pamirs, Persians, etc.

Scientists attribute Kalash to the white race - this is a fact. The faces of many Kalash are purely European. The skin is white, unlike Pakistanis and Afghans. And bright and often blue eyes are like the passport of an unfaithful 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 the Muslims of Pakistan and Afghanistan. Kalash always made for themselves and used furniture. They eat at the table, sitting on chairs - excesses that were never inherent in 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 Kalash from time immemorial used tables and chairs ...

Life

The life of modern Kalash can be called Spartan. Kalash live in communities - it's easier to survive. They live in houses that
built 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 about electricity and television only by hearsay. A shovel, a hoe and a pick - they understand and are more familiar. They draw their livelihood from agriculture. Kalash manage to grow wheat and other crops on lands cleared of stone. But leading role their livelihood is played by livestock, mainly goats, which give the descendants of the ancient Aryans milk and dairy products, wool and meat.

In everyday life, a clear and unshakable division of duties is striking: men are the first in labor and hunting, women only help them in the least labor-intensive operations (weeding, milking, household chores). In the house, men sit at the head of the table and make all significant decisions in the family (in the community). Towers are built for women in each settlement - a separate house where the women of the community give birth to children and spend time on "critical days".

A Kalash woman is obliged to give birth to a child only in the tower, and therefore pregnant ladies settle in the "maternity hospital" ahead of time. Where this tradition came from, no one knows, but there are no other segregation and discriminatory tendencies against women among the Kalash, which infuriates and makes Muslims laugh, who, because of this, treat Kalash as people not of this world ...

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

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 holiday of the gods of nature, when the Kalash ask the gods to send them a mild winter and good spring and summer.
During Choimus, each family slaughters a goat as a sacrifice, the meat of which is treated to everyone who comes to visit or meet on the street.

Closer to modernity

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

The first explorers and missionaries began to penetrate into Kafiristan after the colonization of India, but the English doctor George Scott Robertson, who visited Kafiristan in 1889 and lived there for a year, provided really voluminous information about its inhabitants. The uniqueness of Robertson's expedition is that he collected material on the rites 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, surviving materials and personal memories allowed him to publish in 1896 the book "The Kafirs of the Hindu Kush" ("The Kafirs of Hindu-Kush").

On the basis of Robertson's observations of the religious and ceremonial side of the life of the infidels, one can reasonably assert that their religion resembles transformed Zoroastrianism and the cults of the ancient Aryans. The main arguments in favor of this statement are the attitude towards fire and the funeral rite. Below we will describe some of the traditions, religious foundations, religious buildings and rites of the infidels.

The main, "metropolitan" of the infidels was a village called "Kamdesh". The houses of Kamdesh were arranged in steps along the slopes of the mountains, so the roof of one house was a courtyard for another. The houses were richly decorated with intricate wood carvings. The field work was done not by men, but by women, although the men had previously cleared the field of stones and fallen logs. Men at that time were engaged in sewing clothes, ritual dances in the countryside 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 exhibited in sanctuaries. The pantheon consisted of many gods and goddesses. The god Imra was considered the main one. Also highly revered was the god of war Gisha. Each village had its own petty patron deity. The world, according to beliefs, was inhabited by many good and evil spirits fighting each other.

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

“... the main temple of Imra was located in one of the villages and was a large building with a square portico, the roof of which was supported by carved wooden columns. Some of the columns were completely decorated with sculpted ram heads, others had only one animal head carved in a round relief at the base, the horns of which, wrapping around the column trunk and crossing, rose up, forming a kind of openwork net. In its empty cells there were sculptural figures of amusing little men.

It was here, under the portico, on a special stone, blackened from gore, that numerous animal sacrifices were made. The front facade of the temple had seven doors, famous for the fact that each of them had another small door. The large doors were tightly closed, only two side doors were opened, and even then on especially solemn occasions. But the main interest was in the doors, decorated with fine carvings and huge relief figures depicting the seated god Imru.

Particularly striking is the face of God with a huge square chin, reaching almost to the knees! In addition to the figures of the god Imra, the facade 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.

Kalash! This is the people in Pakistan. And not just the people, but the descendants of the ancient Slavs!

Relatively recently, ancient settlements of immigrants from Russian lands in the mountains of Pakistan were discovered to the world. We have long known that Muslims live in these southern regions. But what about among them, or rather autonomously, next to them lives a people who, even before the birth of Christ, supposedly came from the Tver lands of our homeland?

So. I'm talking about this amazing people - Kalash. There are only about 6 thousand of them.

Scientists, faced with the mysteries of history, nevertheless begin to come to the conclusion that it was from Russia that the people who built the Indian and Sumerian temples, the pyramids of Egypt came. Rather so. From the Russian lands came those who brought knowledge and experience of how to do it and why. And there is countless evidence for this. Let me remind you about the articles - History of Hyperborea, Russian and Sanskrit, Who invented the horoscope, etc.

And here is a new riddle. How, tell me how these got beautiful people with beautiful Russian faces on the border of Pakistan with Afghanistan?

It would be nice if only the resemblance is external. After all, Kalash are white-faced, gray-eyed, blue-eyed, unlike Pakistanis and Afghans.

They have preserved all the heritage of their ancestors - traditions, way of life, culture, practically intact. Moreover, this was traditional for the ancient lands of our northern ones - Tver and Vologda. But they do not speak the Dar languages, which are inherent in the area of ​​today's residence. And they say ... Or rather so. Almost half of the words of their language are the old dialect of the Vologda region.

The basic vocabulary of Sanskrit is very well preserved in the Kalash language, for example:

Another very interesting touch. Kalash is eaten only at the table, sitting on chairs - excesses that have never been inherent in local residents and appeared in Afghanistan and Pakistan only with the arrival of the British in the 18th-19th centuries, but never took root. And Kalash have used tables and chairs for centuries!

It is assumed that they came to these lands from the time of the prophet Zarashustra, i.e. 3500 years ago. The facts show that the prophet Zarashustra, who created the oldest religious teaching on earth, came from the Cimmerian (Cimry, ancient city Russia) of the family and the ups and downs of his biography are most directly related to the prehistory of Russia.

The English doctor George Scott Robertson, who visited the Kalash in 1889 and lived there for about a year, left materials about the life of the Kalash and their religion. According to his observations, it can be reasonably argued that their religion is reminiscent of the transformed Zoroastrianism and the cults of the ancient Aryans.

This people is also interesting in that it reveres the “Russian Cross” as a talisman, which from ancient times adorned houses, embroidered clothes and other household items of the ancient northern Slavs.

Kalash live next to Muslims. But, Kalash women do not wear a veil. They put on the face the image of the "Russian cross" in the form of a tattoo.

Starting from the 18th century, Muslims persecuted and exterminated Kalash professing paganism, taking away from them fertile lands and driving them into the mountainous areas of the Pamirs. Despite this, the Kalash managed to maintain their identity. They live in communities, closed. They are engaged in cattle breeding and agriculture.

It was very difficult for the Kalash to survive during the genocide. And even now it is not easier. To survive they have to assimilate with the local Muslim population.

The head of the Kalash family is a man. It is he who makes the most important decisions and always sits at the head of the table. There is no discrimination against women. She is the man's assistant. The only thing is that before giving birth, a woman moves to another community house - a tower, where she should give birth. Type of the current maternity hospital. Where this tradition of Kalash came from and they themselves do not remember.

Interestingly, the Kalash people make moonshine, a strong drink even by Russian standards. And what would you think? From apricots! That's right. There is no stool there to drive a stool.

By the way. The Kalash have a very developed art of woodcarving.

A special perception of the purity of nature and its conservation is a distinctive feature of this amazing people. In general, cleanliness is sacred for them, like the ancient Russians, who observed the cult of cleanliness. And for the desecration of land and water could receive a very cruel punishment. The biggest sin of our ancestors was to throw away the garbage. People who polluted the land or water were despised and could even be executed. And what are we doing now? How the Earth must love us in order to endure such a mockery ... Or rather, it can’t stand it anymore.

Apparently you still need to read the book of the researcher Gennady Klimov "The Birth of Russia", in which he tries to understand the tricky questions of history "Who and where did he go?". And as I understand it, it proves that the migration of peoples did not go from south to north, as venerable historians convinced us, but vice versa from north to south.

Here he, for example, describes that in the Tver region there are many remains of "vars" - ring-shaped structures like Arkaim on Southern Urals. Since the wooden structures had rotted long ago, only shafts remained of them. And local historians cannot imagine what the cities of antiquity were like. If we reconstruct the dwellings of the Kalash on these ramparts, then exact copies of the Proto-Slavic cities of the past will appear.

The researcher also believes that it is very likely that they are the descendants of the ancient Kimry. Kalash profess a kind of religion of Zoroastrianism. This means that they moved to the east after the defeat of the Kimry in the war with the Scythians. Most likely, they left Russia for Iran along with the prophet Zarathushtra.

It all started with the fact that one of our English acquaintances, to the question “Where is the best place to go in July?” Without hesitation, answered: “To the mountains of Pakistan”. We did not associate the mountains of Pakistan with something pleasant, especially since these places, located at the junction of the borders of three states - Afghanistan, Tajikistan and Pakistan, cannot be called the calmest on earth. "Where is peace now?" asked the Englishman. There was no answer to that.

And we also heard from him that there, in hard-to-reach valleys, the Kalash tribe lives, leading its history allegedly from the soldiers of the army of Alexander the Great, that the Kalash really look like Europeans and that very little is known about them, because recently they were completely isolated from outside world. “I don’t think, really, that you will be able to get to them ...” - added the Englishman. After that, we could no longer go.

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

But it was scary for a short time. After we were quite politely let through passport control, where Russian passports did not arouse any suspicion (although we were noted in some separate booklet), we realized that our fears were in vain - looking ahead, I will say that it is rare in any country the world treated us more openly and trustingly.

Peshawar surprised from the first minute. Coming out through customs to the airport building, we saw a wall of people dressed in exactly the same way - long shirts, hats on their heads, which we saw in films about the Mujahideen. And this whole wall is solid 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, as you know, do 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. Passing through their ranks, we were picked up by the guide and taken to the hotel. Throughout our journey through the Northwest Frontier Province, we never met a person dressed differently. Even in the mirror of the dignity of this clothing, ideal for the local climate, we appreciated the very next day. Differences appear only in the colors of matter, although there are few options - white, green, blue, purple and black. This uniform creates a strange feeling of equality and unity. However, our Pakistani friends assured us that the whole point was the cost - many would change into European clothes if it weren't so expensive. It was difficult for us to imagine the comfort of jeans in 40 degrees of heat and 100 percent humidity ...

When we arrived at the hotel and met its director, we learned that during the recent US military operations in Afghanistan, the hotel business experienced a brief era of the "Golden Age". Many journalists lived in Peshawar to break through to Afghanistan, or simply broadcast live from the city. This short period brought good money - toilets and bathrooms rented to journalists for $ 100 a day. The rest of the population received dividends by portraying militant demonstrations - there are situations when some event has already passed or was not colorful enough, but here 100, or better 200 dollars, is quite able to embellish it and even repeat it ... At the same time, the "Golden Age" served and bad service - television shots were distributed all over the world, and the civilians 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, the main 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 for many centuries was in ruins. 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 - and "Persian city", and the city of Purrus in honor of the forgotten king of the Indus, and the like. Peshawaris themselves like to think that they live in a city of flowers, especially since in the past it was really famous for the surrounding gardens. Today, the rhythm of life in Peshawar is largely set by proximity to Afghanistan - a huge number of Afghan refugees from the time 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 flourish, as well as the arms manufacturing business (we were even offered to go to film the production process of cheap Kalashnikov assault rifles, but we did not go). Although most, of course, are busy with quite peaceful affairs - agriculture and trade. The Pakistanis told us that they are not favored in Afghanistan, and when they have to travel there, they prefer to impersonate a resident of any other state.

And the Pakistani-Afghan cauldron continues to boil. The Afghans see the Taliban as Pakistani aggressors, not as liberators. The Pakistanis are seriously worried about the huge flows of Afghan refugees, whom their state is forced to provide assistance. 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, respectively, and 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 being in the best condition. Many houses in the center are abandoned, the streets are not always put in order. At the same time, people on the streets are quite optimistic and friendly. We never caught suspicious or hostile looks on ourselves, on the contrary, we were allowed to film almost everything. Distinctive feature Peshawar - huge old buses. Painted in all unthinkable colors, with black pieces of matter fluttering (to drive away evil spirits), they constantly honk and rush through the streets of the city like pirate ships. On the day we arrived, it was raining in Peshawar and rivers of water flowed through the streets - we had to take a taxi to get to the other side.

The food was delicious. For Russian citizens, there is only one problem - in Peshawar you can not buy alcohol, even for foreigners, even in the bar of a five-star hotel. A Muslim, on the other hand, 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 they began to bury 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, nothing reminds of that time here, except that lotuses still grow in its vicinity.

We had to go further. The Malakand Pass appeared ahead. Through it the road goes to the valley of the Swat River, and further - to the northern regions of Pakistan. Malakand gained worldwide fame in late XIX century, when the British, in order to have free passage to Chitral, at that time already under their control, occupied the pass. At the exit from it, one of the many, albeit former, English forts, bearing the name of Winston Churchill, is still located. As a 22-year-old second lieutenant, Churchill served here in 1897 when the fort came under attack by the Pashtun tribes. His articles, sent to the Daily Telegraph (at £5 a column, which was a lot) and praising the valiant British army, brought the future prime minister his first fame and self-confidence. Then, on the basis of these articles, Sir Winston Churchill wrote his first book, The History of the Malakand Field Army. The war was terrible. The local tribes declared a holy war against the British - jihad. Despite the gallant tone of newspaper editorials, in letters to his grandmother, the Duchess of Marlborough, Churchill wrote in a completely different way: “I ask myself if the British have the slightest idea of ​​what kind of war we are waging here ... The very word“ mercy ”is forgotten. The rebels torture the wounded, mutilate the corpses of the dead soldiers. Our troops also do not spare anyone who falls into their hands. During this war, British troops used a cruel weapon - explosive dum-dum bullets, which were subsequently banned by the Hague Convention of 1899.

After quite a spin on the pass (as a consolation, imagining how you would feel 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 studied. According to one version, it was here that the first Aryans came in the 2nd millennium BC. e. The river Swat (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 flowering of Buddhism (from the 2nd century BC to the 9th century AD, when there were 1,400 Buddhist monasteries in these places), and the struggle of the Great Moghuls, and much later - and the British with local tribes.

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

In a word, when we once again watched the scene when 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 roads ...

The road problem here is as old as the world. Many have tried to deal with it. The legendary ruler of the Mughal empire, Akbar, sent masons ahead of him to get to the mountainous regions. The British demanded that the local princes keep the main roads in order in order to be able to quickly transfer their troops. To which they responded with sabotage, according to their own considerations - in the event of a conflict, while the invading army will make its way through the gullies, you can have time to prepare for defense or go to the mountains ...

In the meantime, we entered another area. In the valley of the Paijkora River, near the city of Timargarh, we ended up in the onion kingdom. Onions were everywhere. It was sorted right along the road, put into bags that were piled on top of each other, adding new onion mountain ranges to the Hindu Kush. Sacks of onions hung from the cars, and why they didn’t fall was completely incomprehensible. Onions are very cheap here - about $ 2 for a bag of 50-60 kilograms. The second crop in that area was tobacco, but there was simply no time to take an interest in them.

Having passed the onion mountains and passing the city of Dir, we approached the most difficult section of the path - the Lowari Pass. By this time, the only thing that could save the weary 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 in its own way 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 cake, you need to drive for 6 hours in a car along a Pakistani road, and then go into a nice and clean hotel from nowhere...

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

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

A “truck” revival reigned at the pass - in 4 months it was necessary to have time to deliver food and goods for the half-million population of Chitral. Big 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 kind of junk fell in all directions, which turned out to be rusty, pressed metal cans and canisters, obviously 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 people of Chitral. Thanks to him, they would be able to travel from Chitral all year round. Now the life of the Chitrals is not easy. Although there is air communication with Peshawar in the winter season, in reality, planes may not fly for months, and in this case the population is cut off from many benefits of civilization, the main of which is medicine. Thus, the Lavarai pass for the Chitral people is literally the road of life. The long-awaited tunnel began to be built 30 years ago, but they did not manage to complete it, and the political and economic events of recent decades do not allow continuing what they started. True, now there is some chance - on the way we met two Austrian engineers who were studying the state of the tunnel. So it is possible that work on its construction will be resumed.

Finally, the Lavarai passage was left behind. The mustachioed (like the entire male population of Pakistan) policeman waved us a friendly hand and began to meticulously study our passports (this was nice, especially considering that the vast majority of the local population is illiterate). Once again, I note that everyone we met treated us with cordiality and openness.

Another two hours, and we drove into Chitral. At the entrance to the city, we met several former British, and now Pakistani forts. On one of them was written in large letters "We want to die more than you want to live" - ​​a phrase reminiscent of the first steps of Islam on earth.

As you know, in Pakistan, military service is considered the most prestigious job, and one of the most respected units of this army is the Chitral scouts. The day before our arrival, the President of Pakistan flew to Chitral to congratulate the intelligence officers on their holiday. The Chitral people are famous for being some of the best mountain shooters in the world. To do this, they train in any weather, as well as constantly go in for sports (the main and sacred sport for them is polo - playing ball with clubs on horseback). The Chitral scouts treated us with some suspicion and our attempts to enter into a conversation with them said that they had no right to answer foreigners. Deciding that this was the true professionalism of the scouts, we retreated to our pre-occupied positions, to the hotel.

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

The city has an ancient fort that belonged to the Chitral kings. It is still owned by their descendants as private property to this day. 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 old mosque. The main sports facility of the city is the polo stadium; football competitions are also held here. The climate in Chitral is radically different from Peshawar. It is incomparably easier to breathe in the mountains, and the air, despite the more than 30-degree heat, is cooler. The people of Chitral told us about their hard life in winter: about huge queues for planes (sometimes up to 1,000 people are waiting for a flight), about the fact that it is not easy to find medicines, that only 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.

Chitral people are proud of their history - in the past, Chitral was one of milestones on the Great Silk Road. Others important event in history there was a 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 the locals with Russian soldiers and actively built forts, and after the formation of the Turkestan region in the 1880s, they blocked the roads. The border Russian Empire passed very close - to Tajikistan from here only a few tens of kilometers.

…Our the main objective- 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 mountains of the Hindu Kush closed up, as if not wanting to let us into the Kalash valleys. In winter, driving along these roads is really a problem, and 20 years ago there was no road at all. The only way to get to the villages was on foot. Electricity was supplied to the Kalash only 7 years ago, and it is not always available, interruptions are especially frequent in winter. Finally, we reached the largest Kalash village, Bumboret, besides it there are two more large villages, Rumbur and Brir - in total, about 3,000 people live in them.

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 many 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 is in 8th grade at a local school and occasionally works as a tour guide. Zaina is a friendly girl, although she is too 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 dissimilar names, both Brun and Batrik, the same one we were in, is called Caracal. 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 so, 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 replied 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 five local dialects. Then we had to reconcile ourselves, although we were determined to get to the origins 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 the news, while girls only listen to music. This explanation suited us, but we still quietly asked what they teach 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 the school - a gift from 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 descended from the soldiers of the army of Alexander the Great. This old story has been passed from mouth to mouth for many years - the Kalash have no written sources.

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

Kalash have lived in isolation for many centuries. We asked about the recent history of their forced conversion to Islam - you can find articles on this topic on the Web. The young answered confidently that they had not seen anything of the kind, the answers of the elderly were more evasive, but they also assured that they did not remember any tough measures. The conversion to Islam occurs when a Kalash girl marries a Muslim, which happens infrequently. And although at the places of collection of Kalash we noticed the inscriptions "No entry for Muslims", purely worldly relations between the two peoples seemed to us more than tolerable.

Zaina's father also showed how they play the sport Gal, beloved by the Kalash. 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 look for this ball. Whoever found it first and ran back - he 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 a holiday. Residents of one village come to visit another - to play, and then the host prepares a treat for everyone.

And we also learned that during the month, just at this time, the annual Rat Nat holiday 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 ill-concealed joy, we assured that we would definitely come.

Zaina's grandmother proudly showed us the jewelry she makes. important detail women's toilet are beads. By the way a woman is dressed, you can find out how old she is and whether she is married. Age, for example, is indicated by the number of strands of beads. Kalash marry and marry for love. The girl herself chooses her future husband. 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 divorce procedure is no less original among the Kalash - 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 size. 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, gets to know each other. Joshi is a holiday between hard work - the grain has already been sown, and the men have not yet gone to the mountains to pasture. Uchao is celebrated in the summer - you need to appease the gods at the end of August to get 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 sure to happen during the week.

The Kalash have sacred places for dancing - Dzheshtak. Those that we saw are decorated in the Greek style - columns and paintings. The main events in the life of the Kalash take place there - commemorations and sacred rites. Their funerals turn into a noisy celebration, accompanied by a feast and dancing, which lasts several days and where hundreds of people from all villages come.

The Kalash have special rooms - "bashals" - for women in labor and "unclean", that is, women during menstruation. Everyone else is strictly forbidden to even touch the door or wall of this room. Food is transferred 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 "clean" while women, Muslims and chickens are "unclean". Women, however, constantly change their status, and they get into the “bashali” at the moment of the highest “impurity” (in this case, we are not talking about hygiene).

We managed to get to Rat Nat only in the evening next day. The day before, we went in search of dancers, but it started to rain, which was not very good for the holiday. In addition, our new friend Sef drowned a jeep in the ditch, or rather, part of it. And since we could not get the car out in the dark, we had to wait for the next day. At that 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 cook the main holiday dish- a goat. The feast was stormy, because the Kalash, not being Muslims, are distilling moonshine from apricots, a strong drink even by our standards.

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

Rat nat continues all night until dawn. Among the spectators, in addition to the Kalash themselves, sat Pakistanis from the most different districts countries and 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 closer to the morning, young men also joined them - there are no prohibitions here.

After everything we saw, we decided that it would be good to summarize our knowledge of Kalash life, and turned to the elder. He told us about the difficulties that accompanied the Kalash only 20 years ago, when they were in complete isolation. He said that the Kalash eat and is still very simple: three times a day - bread, vegetable oil and cheese, meat - on holidays.

The elder told us about the love of Kalash by 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 another. The second woman was very nice, but they fought all the time, and he left. They lived with the third wife for a long time, she bore him a son and a daughter, but she died. He gave each wives an apple - they were of great value, since earlier 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 if there is a heaven or not." Here he thought. We also tried to imagine a Kalash paradise, because we heard from Zaina that paradise is the place where rivers of milk flow, every man will receive beautiful girl and the girl is a man. It seemed that the Kalash had their own paradise for everyone ...

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

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

In parting, he said: “Where I came from, I don’t know. 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 with Bumboret, Rumbur. Rumbur is smaller than Bumboret, although this Kalash conglomerate also consists of many small villages. Upon arrival, we found that there is 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, using her popularity, created a fund to support the Kalash people - to help local residents and to promote their rare culture around the world. Things went quite well, and as often happens, some Rumburians began to suspect Lakshan Bibi of embezzling funds allocated by foreigners for their needs. Perhaps the inhabitants 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 rest of the buildings.

Rumburians are generally very reluctant to communicate with foreigners. But the latter are experiencing more and more interest in them. We met two Japanese people in the village. I must say that representatives of the Land of the Rising Sun are very actively involved in various projects 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 a Japanese woman lives in it, who married a local resident, her name is Akiko Wada. Akiko has been studying the life of the Kalash for many years from the inside and recently published a book about them and their customs.

In general, the coldness of the Rumburts towards foreigners, which happened this year, reflects the numerous contradictions in the life of all Kalash. Now in Bumboret, for example, there is an active construction of new hotels. On the one hand, the influx of any funds could change the difficult life of the Kalash for the better. On the other hand, tourists, as a rule, “blur” the local culture, and the Kalash cannot but see that they themselves are beginning to conflict with each other. Probably not very pleasant to be the object of research. Tourists are trying to photograph Kalash in the most unexpected places and at the most inopportune time.

By the way, in one of the scholarly books, “photograph fatigue” is called the reason, among other things, for the conversion 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 does not become easier. However, not everything is so bad. Somewhere from October to April, the Kalash in the valley remain alone - the roads are covered with snow, the planes, as we already know, fly from time to time - and they continue to live, left to themselves.

Kalash keep many mysteries - their origin is still unclear. Some researchers are inclined to believe that they appeared in the valleys near Chitral, having fled 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 the whole region in the Hindu Kush, “Kafiristan” (“Country of the infidels”), passed 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 trying to preserve their customs fled under the English protectorate.

Other scholars believe that the Kalash themselves were invaders and occupied the area somewhere in the mists of time. A similar version is widespread among the Kalash - they believe that they came from a distant country of Tsiyam, but it is unlikely that it will be possible to establish where this country was located now. Whether the Kalash are descendants of the soldiers of the army of Alexander the Great is also not known for certain. What is indisputable is that they are clearly different from the surrounding peoples. Moreover, in a recent study - joint efforts of the Institute general genetics named after Vavilov, the University of Southern California and Stanford University - on the collection and processing of 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 really unique and belong to the European group.

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

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

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

Kalash - a mysterious people from the past

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

Kalash girl
(photo from Wikipedia site)

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

A short video presentation about Kalash

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 like the peoples around them, but are 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 extraordinary beauty of Kalash women.

Old man-kalash

Here it is appropriate to talk about what kind of people they are and how they ended up in Pakistan, in the hard-to-reach region of the Hindu Kush, just a few kilometers from the borders with Afghanistan and Tajikistan, not far from the Pakistani district center 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, as a result, 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 most healthy Greek men and women and settled them in these hard-to-reach places in order to create a colony in 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 in the process of a large migration of peoples during the Aryan invasion of Hindustan. The Kalash themselves do not have a single opinion about their origin, but in conversations about this issue with strangers, they often prefer the version of Macedonian origin.

Kalash girl
(photo from silkroadchina)

A more accurate explanation of the origin of this people could be given by a detailed study of the Kalash language, which, unfortunately, is still poorly understood. It is believed that it belongs to the Dardic language group, but on the basis of what 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 the surrounding peoples. There are publications that directly state that the Kalash speak ancient Greek, but whether this is so is not known. The fact is that the only one who helps the Kalash today to survive in extreme high-mountain conditions is modern Greeks who financed the construction of a school, a hospital, Kindergarten and dug several wells.

A study of the Kalash genes did not reveal anything concrete. Everything is very incomprehensible and unsteady - they say that the Greek influence can be from 20 to 40%. (Why was research carried out if the similarity with the ancient Greeks is 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. Of the oppression of women, there is only 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.

Another interesting video presentation about Kalash

There is more to say about the location. The people of Kalash live in several villages scattered over three mountain plateaus in the area that the Pakistanis call Kafiristan - the country of the infidels (more on this in interesting article in MN). In this very country of the infidels, by the way, apart from the Kalash, several other equally exotic peoples live.

Cemetery (photo from indostan.ru)

Religious cults Kalash are sent to special places. The basis of the cult is animal sacrifice.

The Kalash of their dead are buried in the cemetery, while the coffins are not closed.

The most impressive, according to everyone who visited the Kalash villages, are the dances of Kalash women mesmerizing the audience.

Dancing

Like many small peoples today, this unique people is on the verge of extinction. Modern civilization, bringing temptations to the highland villages of the Kalash modern world, gradually washes away young people from their villages.

According to Kalash belief, the world will exist while Kalash women perform their dances. Who knows, maybe these little girls (see below) are the last ones who will be able to dance them in 30 years.

Kalash children are dancing

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Neighbors lies in the fact that a significant part of it still professes a pagan religion, which has 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 natives of the region. The Kalash themselves have legends that their ancestors came to Chitral through Bashgal and pushed the Kho people north, to the headwaters of the Chitral River. Nevertheless, the Kalash language is closely related to the Khovar language. Perhaps this tradition reflects the arrival in the 15th century. in Chitral of a militant Nuristan-speaking group, which conquered the local Dardo-speaking population. This group separated from the speakers of the Vaigali language, who still call themselves kalašüm, transferred 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 former times the Kalash inhabited a wider area in South Chitral, where many toponyms are still Kalash in nature. With the loss of militancy, the Kalash in these places were gradually forced out or assimilated by the speakers of the leading Chitral language Khovar.

Settlement area

Kalash villages are located at an altitude of 1900-2200 m above sea level. Kalash inhabit three side valleys formed by the right (western) tributaries of the Chitral  (Kunar): Ayungol with tributaries Bumboretgol (Kalash. Mumret) and Rumburgol (Rukmu), and Bibirgol (Biriu), at a distance of approximately 20 km south of the city of Chitral. The first two valleys are connected in the lower reaches, in the third through the Kalash ethnic territory there is a pass with a height of approx. 3000 m. Passes through the western ridge lead to Afghanistan, to the area of ​​​​settlement of the Nuristani people of the Kati.

The climate is quite mild and humid. The average annual rainfall is 700-800 mm. The average temperature in summer is 25 °C, in winter - 1 °C. The valleys are fertile, the slopes are covered with oak forests.

Racial type and genetics

Recently, the Kalash have become widely known not only due to their unique religion, but also due to their usual blond hair and eyes, which in ancient times gave rise to Kalash legends among the lowland peoples as descendants of the warriors of Alexander the Great, and today is sometimes interpreted in popular literature as a heritage " Nordic Aryans "and an indicator of the special closeness of the Kalash to European peoples. However, reduced pigmentation is characteristic of only a part of the population, most of the Kalash are dark-haired and show a characteristic Mediterranean type, which is also inherent in their lowland neighbors. Homozygous inbreeding depigmentation is characteristic to one degree or another for all surrounding peoples, living for thousands of years in isolated endogamous conditions of mountain valleys with a very weak influx of the gene pool from outside: Nuristanis, Dards, Pamir peoples, as well as non-Indo-European aboriginal Burishes. Recent genetic studies indicate that the Kalash exhibit a haplogroup set that is common among Indo-Afghan populations. Typical Y-chromosomal haplogroups for Kalash are: (25%), R1a (18.2%), (18.2%), (9.1%); mitochondrial: L3a (22.7%), H1* (20.5%).

Traditional economy and social structure

Nevertheless, cases of Kalash conversion to Islam occurred throughout the entire modern history of the people. Their number increased after the 1970s, when roads were laid in the region and schools began to be built in Kalash villages. Conversion to Islam leads to the severing of traditional ties, as one of the Kalash elders Saifulla Jan says: “If someone from the Kalash converts to Islam, they can no longer live among us.” As K. Jettmar notes, Kalash Muslims look with undisguised envy at Kalash pagan dances and fun festivities. 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 pagan Kalash and their beliefs, filled with plots and motifs of Muslim mythology. Kalash adopted men's clothes 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 are still a unique reserve that preserves one of the most archaic Indo-European cultures.

Religion

The traditional ideas of the Kalash about the world are based on the opposition of holiness and impurity. Mountains and mountain pastures, where the gods live and "their cattle" - wild goats, graze, have the highest holiness. Holy are also altars and goat-sheds. Muslim lands are unclean. Impurity is also inherent in a woman, especially during periods of menstruation and childbirth. Desecration brings everything related to death. Like the Vedic religion and Zoroastrianism, the Kalash religion provides for numerous cleansing ceremonies from filth.

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 differs somewhat from the latter. There are also ideas about numerous lower demon spirits, primarily female.

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

religious rites

The pagan deities of the Kalash have a large number of temples and altars throughout the valley where their people live. They offer them 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 the Vedic ones.

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

The word Gandau Kalash is called tombstones 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 the ancestors of the Kalash. It is a statue-amulet, which is installed in the fields or in the village on a hill - a wooden pole or a pedestal made of stones.

Endangered

On the this moment the culture and ethnicity of the Kalash is endangered. They live in closed communities, but the younger population is increasingly being forced to assimilate by marrying into the Islamic population, this is due to the fact that it is easier for a Muslim to find a job and feed a family. The Kalash also receive threats from various Islamist organizations.

Everything in the life of the Kalash people living in the north of Pakistan in the Hindu Kush mountains is not the same as that of their neighbors: both faith, and way of life, and even the color of their eyes and hair. This people is a mystery. They themselves consider themselves descendants of Alexander the Great.

Who are your ancestors?

The ancestors of the Kalash are argued over and over again. There is an opinion that the Kalash are local aborigines who once inhabited the vast territories 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 original territories.

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

It should be noted that external features are not characteristic of everyone, but only of a part of the representatives of the mysterious people, however, often this does not prevent them 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 been living in isolated conditions for thousands of years and are not too willing to record strangers as relatives, then Nuristani, Darts or Badakhshans can also find "homozygous inbreeding (related) depigmentation." They also tried to prove that the Kalash belonged to European peoples at the Vavilov Institute of General Genetics, as well as at Southern California and Stanford Universities. The verdict is that the Kalash genes are really unique, but the question of the ancestors is still open.

beautiful legend

The Kalash themselves willingly adhere to a more romantic version of their origin, calling themselves the descendants of the warriors who came to the mountains of Pakistan after Alexander the Great. As befits the legend, it has several variations. According to one, Macedonian ordered the Kalash to remain until their return, but for some reason he did not return for them. Faithful soldiers had no choice but to develop new lands.

According to another, several soldiers, due to injuries unable to continue moving along with Alexander's army, were forced to stay in the mountains. Faithful women, of course, did not leave their husbands. The legend is very popular with explorers who visit the Kalash and numerous tourists.

pagans

Everyone who comes to this amazing land must first sign papers prohibiting any attempts to influence the identity of a unique people. First of all, we are talking about religion. There are many among the Kalash who continue to adhere to the old pagan faith, despite numerous attempts to convert them to Islam. Numerous posts on this topic can be found on the net, although the Kalash themselves evade questions and say that they "do not recall 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 sure that the Kalash succeeded in avoiding the fate of their Nuristani neighbors, who were forcibly converted to Islam at the end of the 19th century, only because they inhabited the territory that fell under the jurisdiction of the British.

The origin of the polytheism of the Kalash causes no less controversy. Attempts to draw analogies with the Greek pantheon of gods are considered by most scientists to be unfounded: it is unlikely that the Kalash supreme god Dezau is Zeus, and the patroness of women Dezalik is Aphrodite. The Kalash have no clergy, and everyone prays on their own. True, it is not recommended to address the gods directly, for this there is a dehar - a special person who, in front of a juniper or oak altar, decorated with two pairs of horse skulls, makes a sacrifice (usually a goat). It is rather difficult to list all the Kalash gods: each village has its own, and besides this, there are many demon spirits, mostly female.

About shamans, meetings and seeing off

Kalash shamans can predict the future and punish sins. The most famous of them is 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 is supposedly capable of punishing the offender. On the humerus of a sacrificial goat, a shaman-ashzhiau (“looking at a bone”) specializing in predictions can see the fate of not only an individual, but also entire states.

The life of the Kalash is unthinkable without numerous feasts. Visiting tourists are unlikely to immediately be able to understand what event they are attending: a birth or a funeral. Kalash are sure that these moments are equally significant, and therefore it is necessary in any case to arrange a grandiose holiday - not so much for themselves, but for the gods. Should be happy when new person comes to this world so that his life is happy, and to have fun at the funeral - let the afterlife be serene. ritual dances in a sacred place - Dzheshtak, chants, bright clothes and tables bursting with treats - all this immutable attributes two major events in the life of an amazing people.

This is the table - they eat at it

A 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. Do not forget about the balcony, while the roof of one house is the floor for another - you get a kind of "Kalash skyscrapers". On the facade there is stucco molding with Greek motifs: rosettes, radial stars, intricate meanders.

Most Kalash are engaged in agriculture and cattle breeding. There are few examples when one of them managed to change their usual way of life. The legendary Lakshan Bibi, who became an air pilot and created a fund to support the Kalash, is widely known. 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 no reason to abandon traditions. And after making wine, you can also play your favorite gal - a cross between bast shoes, golf and baseball. The ball is hit with a club, and then they are looking for it together. Whoever found it twelve times and returned first "to the base" won. Often, residents of one village come to visit their neighbors to fight in a gala, and then have fun celebrating - and it doesn’t matter if it’s a victory or defeat.

Search a woman

Kalash women are on the sidelines, doing the most “ungrateful work”. But that's where the similarity with neighbors ends. They decide for themselves whom to marry, and if the marriage turns out to be unhappy, then divorce. True, the new chosen one must pay the ex-husband a "forfeit" - a double dowry. Kalash girls can not only get an education, but also, for example, get a job as a guide. For a long time, the Kalash have also had original maternity homes - “bashals”, where “dirty” women spend several days before the onset of childbirth and about a week after.

Relatives and curious people are not only forbidden to visit expectant mothers, they are not even allowed to touch the walls of the tower.
And what kalashki are beautiful and elegant! 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 - the same bright headdress, reminiscent of the Baltic corolla, decorated with ribbons and intricate beaded embroidery. On the neck - a lot of strings of beads, by which you can determine the age of a woman (if you can count, of course). The elders cryptically remark that the Kalash are only alive 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 weave from the forehead?