Footloose, NOS, The News International
Museum for the people
The exhibits placed in the wooden Kalash Dur Museum aptly tell the history of Kalash
By Moeed ur Rehman
I have travelled a lot to the northern areas of Pakistan but still I never miss a chance to see the natural beauty of Chitral. On every visit I witness another change in the area, which forces me to write again.
In the last leg of summer one of my friends Sara Khan, who works for an international NGO, wanted to show me a wooden museum near Kafiristan of Chital. She wanted to get some information regarding Kalash traditions for her forthcoming PhD thesis – and who could resist such an offer.
We started our journey from Islamabad by air since journey by road was not declared safe. We boarded PIA’s 40-minute long flight to Chitral at around 7:30 am. On arrival we had breakfast and soon after hired a jeep to reach the desired location. After about a 90-minute drive on a kacha road we reached Kalasha Dur (the house of Kalash people) near Bamorait valley of Kafiristan.
No doubt the place is a masterpiece of art and reflects the true picture of the lifestyle of almost 300-year-old Kalash civilisation which is losing its cultural identity gradually, due to rapid socio-economic changes worldwide. The museum supports about 3,500 Kalash who are one of the world’s endangered minority communities.
According to a survey, the Kalash population decreased from 10,000 in 1951 to 3,700 in 1998, motivating conservation experts, development workers and anthropologists to work for the preservation and protection of the Kalash culture. At present, almost 3,500 Kalash are living in adjacent villages namely Bamborait, Batrik, Kalash Grom, Balaguru, Achilga, Aspara, Sheikhandeh and Karakalin. All the villages are inside the lush green fertile valleys.
Greeks who claim that the Kalash people are the decedents of Alexander the Great are taking special interest in the betterment of the community and the area. The wooden Kalash Dur museum, which is a part of Kalasha Dur Institution, mainly funded by the Greek government, is located on the road leading to Bamborait valley from Chitral which shares a 80 kilometre border with Afghanistan and the Central Asian states of Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kirghizistan in the north and west, and to the east lies Gilgit, from where a traveller can reach China’s Xingjian autonomous region along the legendary Karakoram Highway. Here different communities live together peacefully. The oldest of them all is Kalash who live in the outskirts of Chitral. The exhibits placed in the museum aptly tell the history of Kalash.
The construction of the Kalasha Dur museum started in 2002 and was completed in 2004. It is an earthquake-proof structure that meets Greek standards. The concrete skeleton of the building is covered with a traditional wall made of stones and parallel wooden beams. The verandas are carved in wood.
The architecture of Kalasha Dur borrows elements from the local architectural tradition – the triangle pediment on the central roof is a symbol for the villagers of Hindu Kush; the “Kumbapur”, the hole on the central roof is a sacred symbol for the Kalash tradition and a peculiar roof design for many villages of north Pakistan; the wooden carved veranda without the use of a nail; the double ram horn symbol carved on the capitals of the columns is a sacred symbol for the Kalash and a fertility symbol for many societies whose economy is based on sheep and goatherds; the ‘shingchotr’ means the ‘goat home design’ carved on veranda’s 17 columns is a popular balcony design; the round solar designs, which decorate the verandas, are symbols of protection, health, and wealth and the geometrically carved design of the column body is the symbol of brotherhood; the mayiak, the stone shelves on the walls, are very useful in living quarters and in cattle houses.
Some 60 to 100 years old daily use items, wedding dresses, ornaments, bathroom items etc, collected from Kalash households, are exhibited in the museum. “These items are still in the daily use of Kalash people. The wooden dancing hall, seminar room, library and cultural racks are masterpieces,” says Summer Rafiq, a local building expert.
The NWFP Department of Archaeology and Museum is also extending financial support to the employees working in the museum. Director Archaeology and Museum NWFP Saleh Mohammad Khan, was of the view that the NWFP government with the help of the local NGOs has plans to extend the museum. “We have also constructed another museum in Chitral near PTDC Motel with tourist information centre which will definitely serve the purpose of attracting the tourists who want to get information about the Kalash civilisation. The government also plans to build a museum in Peshawar,” he says.
The NWFP government has now decided to boost the Kalash culture. Several steps like launching products, which they use in their daily life, like caps, dresses, ornaments and other items will be placed in the Chitral museum and also in the Peshawar museum. The funds generated will be spent on the betterment of Kalash.