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PHOTOJOURNALISM
NEW SUNDAY TIMES | PAGE XX
PHOTOJOURNALISM
BY AIZ UDDIN SAAD
Portraits
of
Kalash
The Descendants of Alexander The Great Soldiers My wife and I arrived at the Kalash valley in the Chitral District of KhyberPakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan on May 20, 2016, as part of our 35-days tour across three nations, China, Pakistan and India. The Kalash valley of Bumburet is located about 30km from the district of Chitral and our journey to the area took about two hours due to the very bad road conditions. The valley is inhabited by the Kalash people, and has become a popular tourist destination. The Kalash people are the only ethnic group in Pakistan who do not practice the teachings of Islam. They live in remote rural areas located in
the Hindukush mountain range in Pakistan and claim descent from ancient Macedonian soldiers associated with Alexander the Great. This can be seen from the similar facial features of the Kalash people with the Europeans, in contrasts to other Pakistanis. The Kalash women usually wear long black robes, often embroidered with colourful cowrie shells. The Kalash men, on the other hand wear Pakistani Shalwar Kameez. The men never wear beards or have moustaches, to inform the society that they are of the Kalash ethnicity. “Ishpata!�, which means hello and welcome is a Kalashi greeting used by the Kalash People to greet each other.
Aizuddin (2nd L) with Kalash boys.
MATA @ NSTP Images