Ethnic mystery: Kalash - Pakistani people with a Slavic appearance

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Any traveler who went to Pakistan, at sight Kalash (a local nation numbering at most 6 thousand people) cognitive dissonance arises. In the very heart of the Islamic world, pagans managed to survive and preserve their traditions, who, moreover, look entirely like our Alenki and Ivans. They consider themselves the heirs of Alexander the Great and are confident that their family will exist as long as local women wear national dresses.

Kalash is a cheerful and resilient people. There are many holidays in their calendar, among which the main ones are birthday and funeral. Both events are celebrated with the same scope, they believe that both the earthly and the afterlife should be serene, and for this you need to properly appease the gods. During the celebrations, they arrange ritual dances, sing songs, demonstrate the best outfits and, of course, treat the guests deliciously.

The Kalash pantheon is difficult to correlate with the beliefs of the ancient Greeks, although they also have the supreme god Desau and many other gods and demon spirits. Communication with the gods occurs through a dekhara, a priest who makes sacrifices at a juniper or oak altar decorated with horse skulls.

Greek culture had a great influence on the Kalash: they stand at home according to the Macedonian custom of stones and logs, the facades of buildings are decorated with rosettes, radial stars and intricate Greek patterns. Greece today actively supports the nationality: relatively recently, schools and hospitals were built for the Kalash. And 7 years ago, with the support of Japan, local villages were electrified.

Kalash have a special relationship with women. Girls can independently choose their chosen one and even divorce if the marriage turned out to be unhappy (on one condition: the new lover must pay the ex-husband compensation in double the amount of the bride's dowry). Childbirth and menstruation are events perceived in the Kalash culture as "dirty", therefore, these days women are in special "Bashali" houses, which are forbidden to anyone to approach.

The Kalash's daily activities are farming and cattle breeding. Their daily food is bread, vegetable oil and cheese. These people zealously guard their faith and suppress all attempts to convert them to Islam (the only exception is for girls who marry other religions, but such cases are rare). Unfortunately, the Kalash lifestyle has recently been of great interest to numerous tourists, and local residents admit that they are already tired of constant photographing. They are most comfortable in winter, when the mountain roads are covered with snow and curious uninvited guests cease to be drawn to their villages in a row.

Culture is no less interesting the peoples of the Khanty and Mansi, the kings of the rivers, taiga and tundrawho worship bears and elks in the 21st century.