The Kalash, one of the most interesting cultures around the world, is a unique people hailing from three small valleys in the mountains of western Pakistan: Bumburet, Rumboor, and Birir make up the Kalash Valleys.
The Kalash people are unique in multiple ways. Some researchers believe they are descendants of the armies of Alexander the Great; some of his men stayed behind on the Indian subcontinent after his campaign through the region.
Although this is a common claim in Pakistan and India, the Kalash are the only people whose genes show an injection of European DNA around the time of Alexander’s campaign.
The Kalash follow various social customs and rituals. One of them that has been much discussed is the custom of sending menstruating as well as pregnant women to the ‘bashaleni’, a dorm-style building far from the main village.
Modern interpreters of culture often refer to it as a form of oppression. But according to Kalash people, it is the women who handle the bulk of everyday work; the time out in the bashaleni is to give the women rest from the daily chores.
The traditions continue even today but have been much influenced by the incursions of modern lifestyle as motorable roads (rough and dusty) have made the remote villages accessible. Shops have opened in the valleys which provide meat and other food items, consumer products, etc.
Electrification has made televisions, mobile phones, and computers accessible. While men of the Kalash community have long adopted Pakistan’s popular dress (shalwar kameez), the women still wear the traditional attire a colorful headgear over their intricately braided hair, a voluminous full-length black robe cinched at the waist, and loads of beaded necklaces.
Apparently, the embroidery seen on the women’s dress is of later vintage. Historically a goat herding and subsistence farming people, the Kalasha are moving towards a cash-based economy whereas previously wealth was measured in livestock and crops.
Tourism now makes up a large portion of the economic activities of the Kalash. To cater to these new visitors, small stores and guest houses have been erected, providing new luxury for visitors of the valleys.
People attempting to enter the valleys have to pay a toll to the Pakistani government, which is used to preserve and care for the Kalash people and their culture.
After building the first jeepable road in the Kalasha valleys in the mid-1970s the people are engaged in other professions like tourism and also joining services like military, police and border force, etc.
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