Other than wool...

As well as visiting Garam Cheshma I also went to see some Kalasha friends who were celebrating Joshi, their Spring festival. The Kalash Valleys were looking hyper-bucolic, and everyone seemed heathy and happy, especially all the young people who were glammed up in the knowledge that it is marriage season. Young men let off steam with hearty pursuits like rock lobbing and wrestling. 

I also spent some time with Scottish fashion designer Adil Iqbal who is currently running a very exiting project which links local embroiderers with tweed makes from the Western Isles of Scotland. Adil fixed up my trip to see shu being made at Garam Chesma, so I owe him some serious thanks for that.

Heavy Snow in the Hills

I got a text from a friend in Chitral earlier this week reporting four to five feet of snowfall.  When the snow gets this deep there is not much you can do except muck about in it. In the Kalasha Valleys clan lines up against clan to play the came of 'chitk gal' a sort of turbo-golf, where the ball keeps on getting lost in the snow, fights break out and the losers have to kill an oxen to feed the winners.

 

Images with kind permission of Matan Rochlitz.

Kalasha Style

The most iconic garments from Chitral are the heavily embroidered dresses of Kalasha women. The Kalasha are a minority within Chitral, non Muslims who live in three small valleys on the border with Afghanistan. Their religion which includes elements of animism and polytheism, but which acknowledges one god, was once practiced across the Hindu Kush, but now is limited to 3,000 or so adherents.

The Kalasha's unique religion, their beautiful valleys, their distinctive costume and certain practices like wine making and solstice festivals have long made them popular with scholars and more recently; tourists. Throughout Pakistan and abroad the Kalasha have come to be symbolised by the striking dresses worn by their women. These dresses start off life as a baggy black cotton shirt, which is then personalised with bright wool embroidery around the hems and collar. Interestingly these dresses are a recent innovation. Traditionally Kalasha women wore brown-black homespun woolen dresses, globalization and the introduction of a monetary economy to the region have provided women with access to cheap cotton and dyed wool from China. Ironically enough it is the availability of mass produced products which has given Kalasha women a new means to express their individuality.

The photos below are of our friends or their relatives in Kraka village (2011).

Photos reproduced with kind permission of Matan Rochlitz.