Re: Wakhi People(Who they are)??Some Info.
HUNZA VALLEY
Hunza valley is situated in the Northwest of Pakistan.
Hunza is a subdivision of the Gilgit District within the Northern Areas.
The size of the Hunza territory is 11,695 Km (above one quarter of Switzerland).
Approximately 46,500 people live in the main-valley.
95% of people living in Hunza valley and 100% in Upper Hunza belong to Ismailism with The His Highness Prince Karim Aga Khan as a spirtual leader. 5% are members of Shia Imami and are concentrated in the village Ganesh and surrounding settlements.
Hunza valley itself is divided into three main parts, Where people speak different languages:
1) SHINA is spoken in lower Hunza (Approx 10-15,000 People).
2) BRUSHAWSKI in central Hunza (Approx 8-12,000 People).
3) WAKHI is spoken in Upper Hunza(Approx 15-20,000 People).
UPPER HUNZA:
Upper Hunza is quite different as compared to lower and central Hunza .
The people living here are Wakhis, an ethic group staying in the mountainous areas of the Karakoram and the Pamirs in the boarder land of Pakistan, China and Afghanistan.
The language and culture distinguish them from Brush and Shina speaking people, who live in central and lower Hunza.
The landscape is different as well. The valley becomes narrow and is framed by steep slopes. Huge glaciers like the Passu, Hussaini and Batura glaciers reach the KKH. Tourists visiting Gojal is mostly adventure tourists. They go hiking and tracking among the famous peaks and glaciers located here.
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Shishpar (7,611 metres) and Passu Glacier from Avdegar, Gojal.
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Tupopdan (6,106 metres)from Passu village, Gojal.
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Morkhun Village, Gojal Pakistan – home to Wakhi people,the area along the upper Hunza River between Hunza proper and the Khunjerab Pass, in the heart of the Karakoram mountains. Outside Baltistan, Gojal is the Karakorum's most extensively glaciated region, with a population of 14,700 people.
POPULATION IN CHINA,TAJIKISTAN,PAKISTAN & AFGHANISTAN:
Population total all countries 50,000.
About 20,000 Wakhis live in Pakistan including 8,500 to 10,000 in Gojal, 4,000 Ishkoman, 500 Yasin, 1500 Yarkhun (2005), plus refugees.Men and young people are fairly bilingual in Urdu. Fewer than half the women, and few older people in remote areas speak Urdu. Older people and those who live in mixed villages in Gojal can use Burushaski. Speakers have a positive language attitude toward Wakhi and Urdu. The people are called 'Guhjali' in upper Hunza, but call themselves 'Khik.' Valleys. Pastoralists: sheep, goats, cattle, yak, camels; agriculturalists: barley. Ismaili Muslim.
12,000 in Afghanistan.People are called 'Guhjali'. Literacy rate in first language is Below 1%. All are Ismaili Muslim.Almost all live in the Wakhan strip of Badakhshan province in the Northeast of the country,intermixed with the Kirghiz population of Afghanistan.
9,000 in China.Dialect intelligibility is not a problem, even with those in other countries. Most people are Bilingual in Chinese. They are Included under the Special Tajik nationality (mainly Sarikoli) in China. Most are pastoralists with sheep & cattle herders; Some are farmers and grow barley, wheat & peas. All are Ismaili Muslims.
9,000 in Tajikistan.Dialects are inherently intelligible. Tajiki is used as a literary language. Not a written language. Speakers are called 'Guhjali.' Ismaili Muslim.
SNOW LEOPARD:A NATIVE OF GOJAL IN HUNZA VALLEY & IN BALTISTAN:
Khunjerab National Park is home to the Community-Based Snow Leopard Conservation in Pakistan’s Northern Areas.Pakistan’s Northern Areas provide over 80% of the country’s available habitat for snow leopards. Recent studies suggest the population here might be as high as 400 animals, or as low as 250. Here, as elsewhere, the main threats come from retaliatory killing due to livestock depredation, illegal hunting for the cats’ valuable pelt, bones and body parts for traditional Chinese medicine (traded across the border into China), and depletion of the main prey, ibex and marmot.
Anthropologist-scholar Dr. John Mock and his wife, writer Kimberley O’Neil, visited Pakistan’s Northern Areas on behalf of the Snow Leopard Conservancy in 1993. Mock and O’Neil have worked in the region for many years, are experts on the culture of the local people, vital for any new conservation efforts in the region. Mock is a leading scholar of the Wakhi culture of northern Pakistan. He and O’Neil co-authored the Lonely Planet guidebook, Trekking in the Karakoram & Hindukush, which highlights Pakistan’s conservation concerns and efforts.
Special Note:
Dr. John Mock = John Mock,Ph.D is from the University of California at Berkeley. . His doctoral research, for which he was awarded a Fulbright fellowship, was on the oral traditions of the Wakhi people who live in Gojal along Pakistan's northern border. John's expertise includes the languages and cultures throughout northern Pakistan, and he speaks Urdu, Wakhi, Hindi and Nepali, among other languages. John is currently a Lecturer in Hindi and Urdu at the University of California at Santa Cruz. He has also worked in Pakistan as a consultant on national park management with the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF) and as a guide and translator for National Geographic magazine.
Kimberley O'Neil is a freelance writer of travel guidebooks specializing in Pakistan and California. She has been writing walking guides for Lonely Planet Publications for the past ten years.