WAKHAN & the AFGHAN PAMIR - Aga Khan Development Network

THE PEOPLETHE WAKHIFor more than 2500 years the Wakhan Corridor has beenthe homeland of Wakhi people, who refer to themselvesas Wakhik or Khik. Today about 10,000 Wakhi live inAfghanistan’s Wakhan District, with another 40,000 living inadjacent areas of Tajikistan, Pakistan and China. Wakhi live inyear-round villages extending from Qazideh (2800m) at thewestern end of Lower Wakhan to Sarhad-e Broghil (3300m) atthe eastern end of Upper Wakhan. Wakhi people are farmers,who cultivate wheat, barley, peas, potatoes and a few apricottrees at the upper limits of agriculture, where production israrely sufficient. Chinir, a festival celebrating the start of thebarley harvest, occurs around the first week of August. Wakhidepend on livestock to supplement their agriculture, andalmost all households have some animals. Wealthier familieshave many sheep, goats and yaks along with a few camels,horses and donkeys. Every summer, Wakhi people take theirlivestock to summer pastures as high as 4500m, where theanimals grow fat on abundant grass. Wakhi people speakWakhi, which they call Khikwor. It belongs to the Pamir groupof Iranian languages and is spoken throughout Wakhan. Mostmen also speak Persian, which is used as a link language tocommunicate with people from other parts of Afghanistan.Wakhi people are Isma’ili Muslims, whose spiritual leader isthe Aga Khan.Here could go a captionTrek to Tegermansu Valley.KUCHThe annual seasonal migration, or kuch, of Wakhi people andtheir livestock to and from summer pastures is a colorful sight.Yaks piled high with cauldrons, bedding and household goodsmove along the trail, while large mastiff-like dogs trot besidethem. Wakhi women, swathed in red scarves and shawls, rideon yaks and camels with young children clinging behind theirmothers. Infants ride in cloth-draped cradles perched on thebacks of yaks and the men walk alongside, leading the yaks, orride on horses.The spring migration usually departs from the villages inthe first week of June. During the summer, the kuch movesprogressively upvalley to higher grazing areas, and in autumnthey retrace their routes downvalley. The joyous returnmigration arrives in the villages in the second or third weekof October. Travellers may encounter these caravans in theAfghan Pamir, especially on trails leading to and from theLittle Pamir.© 2004 John MockTHE KYRGYZCentral Asia’s Altai mountains along the western border ofMongolia are the traditional home of the Kyrgyz, a Turkicpastoral nomadic group. Each summer, small bands ofKyrgyz would migrate from lower valleys in Central Asia tothe Afghan Pamir, but following the 1917 Soviet revolution,several thousand Kyrgyz settled permanently in the Big Pamirand Little Pamir. Their once wide-ranging migration becamea series of short, seasonal movements within the closedfrontiers of the high-altitude Afghan Pamir. Kyrgyz live in feltyurts or oey, which they move seasonally according to availablepasture, sunlight and shelter from wind. Their settlements liebetween elevations of 4000m and 4500m. The Kyrgyz tendherds of fat-tailed sheep, goats, yaks and Bactrian camels,and trade with Wakhi neighbors or travelling merchants forall their needs not supplied by their livestock. Following theSoviet-backed 1978 coup in Afghanistan, some 1300 Kyrgyz,led by Haji Rahman Qul, left the Afghan Pamir for Pakistan.In 1982 this group of Kyrgyz was resettled in the mountainsof eastern Turkey. Today, about 1400 Kyrgyz remain in theAfghan Pamir. Their language is also called Kyrgyz, which isfrom the Kipchak group of northwestern Turkic languages.Most Kyrgyz men also speak Wakhi. Like all Turkic people,Kyrgyz are Sunni Muslims.www.wakhan.org8“It was a delightfully cosy yurt, carpetedwith bright felt rugs. Plenty of embroideredcushions and other fineries attested theowner’s wealth and comfort.”Sir Aurel Stein