Photos of the Chitral and the Kalash Valley, Pakistan

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The Chitral and the Kalash Valley

Chitral, a town on the Chitral River in the north of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, is the capital of the district with the same name. It lies at the foot of Tirich Mir, the highest peak of the Hindu Kush (7,708 metres). Present-day Chitral District was a fully independent monarchy under a hereditary king, the “Mehtar”, of the Katur dynasty. In 1885 the British negotiated an alliance with the Mehtar, in which Chitral became a princely state, sovereign but subject to the suzerainty of British India. This agreement remained until 1947.

Chitral river river
 
Shahi Mosque, Chitral
 
Washing his feet
 
Elderly Pashtun men
 
Grilling kebabs
 
View over Chitral
 
View over Mastuj river
 
View over Chitral
 
Playing football, Shahi Mosque
 
Boys with slingshots
 
Jeep in Chitral
 
Chitral river, Ayun
 
Street in Ayun
 
Along the Kalash river
 
Kalash river
 
Bumburet, with Kalash people
 
Kalash woman
 
Kalash girl and man
 
School boys, Bumburet
 
Boys in class
 
Boy reading to his classmates
 
Three young boys, school
 
Woman with two children
 
Three little Kalash children
 
Kalash girls dancing
 
Women and girls dancing
 
Men drumming
 
Kalash girls
 
Kalash girl, headgear
 
Women and girls dancing
 
Kalash girl, headgear
 
Kalash women dancing
 
Kalash women and men
 
Dancing at a “Krakal” funeral ceremony
 
View in Bumburet village
 
Small Kalash girls
 
Drumming and dancing
 
Women dancing
 
Young women dancing
 
Women mourners
 
Elderly woman dancing
 
Women mourners
 
Back to the village
 
Meal after the ceremony
 
Benazir Hotel, Bumburet
 
Kalash girl playing a flute
 
Kalash girl spinning wool
 
View, Kalash Valley
 

At the time of the Partition of India in 1947, the Mehtar of Chitral, Muzaffar ul-Mulk, accepted accession to Pakistan, and in 1954 the State of Chitral became a federated state of Pakistan. In 1969 however, all frontier states were abolished: the Government of Pakistan took over the administration, and effectively the State of Chitral was extinguished. In 1972 all titles, styles and privileges of the rulers of the former princely states of Pakistan, including Chitral, were abolished.

Just south of the Chitral Valley are three narrow valleys, surrounded by the Hindu Kush mountain range. The inhabitants of the valley are the Kalash people, who have a unique culture, and speak their own Dardic Indo-Aryan language. Most are not Muslim and practice a unique religion, classified either as a form of animism or ancient Hinduism. Women wear long black robes and often cowrie-shell headdresses, but the men are indistinguishable from other Pakistani. There are different festivals and ceremonies. They celebrate a funeral ceremony, “Krakal”, as seen in the village of Bumburet (Mumuret in the Kalash language), where men and women dance, accompanied by drums and singing.