Kalash people
The Kalash (Nuristani: Kasivo) or Kalasha, are an ethnic group of the Hindu Kush mountain range. They live in the Chitral district of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. They speak the Kalash language, a member of the Dardic language family of Indo-Aryan.
 An ethnic Kalasha man wearing traditional hat. | |
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| ca. 10,000 | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Chitral District | |
| Languages | |
| Kalash, Khowar and Urdu | |
| Religion | |
| Majority: Kalasha religion Minority: Islam[1] | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Kho people and Nuristani people |
There are only about 10,000 Kalash people. The Kalash people live in three isolated valleys. They claim to have a Greek origin. The Kalash have a polytheist religion, while neighboring peoples are Muslims. The Kalash are also known for their human features. It can vary from someone with light brown skin, brown eyes, and black hair to someone with white skin, blue eyes, and blonde hair.
Kalash People Media
Kalashi people have different culture and different living style .. i took this picture in my last visit of Kalash Valleys; Pakistan
Celebrating Joshi, Kalash women and men dance and sing their way from the dancing ground to the village arena, the Charso, for the end of the day's festivities
Chilam Joshi festival celebrations
Kalash folk dance during celebrations
A drummer during the Joshi festival in Bumberet, Pakistan. Drumming is a male occupation among the Kalash people.
Rosenberg, Mahajan, et al. (2006) ran simulations dividing autosomal gene frequencies in selected populations into a given number of clusters. For 7 or more clusters, a cluster (yellow) appears which is nearly unique to the Kalash. Smaller amounts of Kalash gene frequencies join clusters associated with Europe and Middle East (blue) and with South Asia (red).
Related pages
References
- ↑ Ahmed, A.S., 1986. The Islamization of The Kalash Kafirs. Pakistan Society: Islam, Ethnicity and Leadership In South Asia. page 23-28.
Other websites
General Information
- Picturesque Pakistan Archived 2007-07-27 at the Wayback Machine Extensive, general Kalash information
- Site Shara Forum for Chitral and the Kalasha
- Kalash: The descendants of Alexander's soldiers Archived 2007-06-20 at the Wayback Machine
- Reaching out to Alexander’s sons The Kalash, Pakistan’s remaining pagans, find unlikely savior in British senior citizen
- The Kalash: The Lost Tribe of Alexander the Great
Resource
- Kalasha People Online Archived 2011-02-24 at the Wayback Machine A blog used by Kalasha and their New Alphabet to write Kalashamondr (Kalasha language)
- Frontier Language Institute Archived 2006-04-30 at the Wayback Machine Kalasha dictionary
Media
- Kalash Valleys Archived 2007-06-01 at the Wayback Machine A plethora of high quality pictures of the Kalash people and their homeland.
- Youtube: Kalash Image and video montage
- The Alphabet Book Trailer Archived 2007-03-12 at the Wayback Machine Promotional trailer for the feature documentary "The Alphabet Book" Archived 2007-02-08 at the Wayback Machine