The people of Kalash or white skinned with golden brown hair and blue eyes.The Kalashas live in three valleys of Chitral namely, Rumbur, Brumbret and Birir.

The Kalash Valley (also called Kalasha Valley) is home to the famous Kalash people, a unique people said to be dardic Indo Aryan indigenous people.based on genetic drift the kalash may be descendtants of migrants of north euro Asian stock, who were some of the earliest migrants from west Asia into south. The Kalash Valleys consist of three mountain valleys in the KPK province of Pakistan.and the area possesses a clebrated Temple of Imra renowned throughout all kafiristan. (Robertson, 1896:379-80) Robertson picked up a fair number of ethnic features concerning the nature and personal attributes of kafir kalash deities. such as  Sajijor, Mahandeo, Balumain, Dezalik, Ingaw, and Jestak.ch as the primal foundation of the universe by the sovereign deity Imra: the stealing of the sunlight and moon from demons, and their recapture by the the heroic god moni: or the warrior exploit of the martial deity Gish (robertson, 1896: 381-8,400-1).can easily be identified by their colorful robed and headdresses make their own wine, and have a plethora of other unique traditions and festivals.the kalash community of chitral is considered the most festive community of Pakistan as the kalash dastoor rotates around the festivals, throughout the year.one type is of purely religious festivals with rituals only, while other type is mixture of religious and cultural ceremonies, a combination of rituals, singing and dancing.

Below you can find a guide to the Kalasha Valleys, including information on Kalasha culture, which of the Kalash Valleys to visit, and much more about visiting the valley and spending time with the Kalash people.  Which Kalash Valley to visit:

 Bumburet – The most developed valley in terms of facilities, and most popular with domestic tourists. and has most hotel to choose from.  

1. Rumboor – Small villages in Rumboor is developing these days and more popular with foreign tourists.
2.  Birir – The least developed Kalasha Valley, and sees the least visitors

the culture events of kalash 

 Joshi:

 The Spring Festival The spring starts in moorlands of Chitral region of the Hindu Kush in May and to welcome the spring the Kalasha community celebrates the Joshi (also called Zoshi) festival for three days. The people start storing milk when elders of the community announce the dates for the festivals. They start to store milk in their barns before ten days of the festivals. Later, the collected milk is distributed among the tribe-fellows. The first preparing phase of Joshi festival consists of ten days; the shepherds live in goat-houses and do not visit their homes for nine days. During the said days the shepherds clean the goat-sheds and all utensils. After the first phase of (ten days) the festival, young boys and girls fetch yellow flowers (Sophora Mollis) from the pastures and branches of walnut to decorate their houses, doorways, walls and also decorate barns and the Jestak han; the temple of Jestak. Practically, this is the first day of the festival. On the said day the collected milk is distributed among the tribe-fellows to celebrate the festival. The ceremony of distributing and drinking the milk is called chirik pipi. On the first day men visit the shrine of Shingmou , they clean it, decorate it with new branches and offer some dried mulberries and walnuts to the shrine. During the Joshi festival the Kalasha women sing the melodic songs and they dance on the beats of the drums. Some songs are sung in the praise of Dramui who was a great hunter in past days while some songs represent affections and love. Second phase of Joshi represents the religious climax of respective festival. Many sacrifices are offered to Mahandeo deity and the Kalasha people pray for welfare of the community. With the start of second phase, celebrations of the festivals begin. During the second phase of the festival a ceremony called gulprik is celebrated in which all those babies who born after the last Joshi are brought to highlands in each village with their mothers. They all are allowed to go even the most sacred place of the Kalasha; goat sheds or barns and an onjesta suda throws milk on them as a ritual to purify them. In this way in fact all the babies become the part of the Kalasha tribe. At the end of the celebration, the Kalasha elders sing the songs and dance. “The girls enjoy the Cha, an up-tempo dance in which groups of girls clasp each other’s shoulders and dance in spinning circles. Joshi’s third stage is celebrated for two days in the valleys. Different types of songs are sung and dances are performed during these two days. The songs attributed to love, tragedies and wars are sung by the community. The songs of Joshi festival reflect themes ranging from Kalasha history to romance. At the last day of the festival, elders sing Gatch: a very secret song, and all participants wave branches of walnut and they pray for abundance of milk of goats. Kalasha believe that fairies come to participate in this ritual and they also wave walnut branches. the Joshi is very unique and fascinating festival which represents the religious and social behaviours of the community.

The Uchaw and Rat Nat Festivals

The thanks giving festival Uchaw (in Khowar spelled as Uchal) is celebrated in the month of August, each year. Before the celebration Uchaw another festival is celebrated for two months which is called Rat Nat, Rat denotes night while Nat the dance so, in this long festival, dance is performed in alternative nights. The final dates of the festival are announced by the elders of the community. The Uchaw is held to ensure good crops of wheat. The first ceremony of the festival is performed at the sanctuary of Sajigor, in Rumbur valley. The shepherds climb down to the sanctuary from high pasture. They bring abundant cheese with them. Other Kalasha from the villages also gathered at the sanctuary and after religious rituals bread and cheese is distributed among the attendants, the food can only be eaten by males. Wheat breads, walnut breads and cheese are not only given to family member and married females of clan but also to neighbouring Muslim families. After this the festival starts, and continues till late night or till the next morning. All the Kalasha community makes marry; they sing songs and dance at the open place, which is called Gri in Kalasha and Charsu in Kho language.

Pul Festival

 Pul (also spelled as Pho) the autumn festival is celebrated only in Kalasha valley of Birir in early October or sometimes in late September. The Budalak had been the key trait of the Pul festival. The Pul was associated to return of budalak and to mate with the Kalasha women of Birir valley. The budalak is a lost institution of the Kalasha community. According to history, Budalak had been used to gather his herd at the start of the summer season to left for the high pastures and returned in September/October at the time of Pul festival. The budalak, during the festival, was welcomed and he could choose any girl for himself. No doubt, the Pul festival is still celebrated in Birir, but without Budalak. It is held at the time of the grape and walnut harvest. The virgin boys crush the grapes, this ceremony has a prominent place in local customs. A. Raziq Palwal unveiled that after the harvesting and collecting all the grains, a male goat is sacrifice to Mahandeo. Another trait of this festival is fruit-picking rites; he said, “during my field visit in Birir Valley Uchaw (in mid of August), fruit picking is forbidden, for forbidding the term nagha is used. The nagha is lifted before the commencement of the Pul festival. The nagha is applicable on walnut, peach, grapes and pear, but not on apple because they grow apple in bulk. The watch-men are appointed to monitor and to prevent fruit picking before Pul until the nagha is called off. When nagha is called off a goat is sacrificed and all the people start fruit picking.

Biramor Festival

The Biramor is rare and optional type of festival of the Kalasha people which is celebrated in winter, especially in the months of November or December. During winter, the Kalasha people have nothing to do, so, they celebrate festivities. Only a male Kalasha member can offer the Biramor. Biramor is, in fact, a feast of merit; it is very important feature of the Kalasha society. Although this feast of merit is expensive and feast giver has to spend expensive commodities: like goats, cows, wine, cheese etc., and sometimes feast giver gives the dowry or gifts to relatives, even Biramor has important place in the Kalasha culture. The status of the feast of merit giver rises, the feast of merit is a symbol of the prosperity and generosity. If a Kalasha tribe fellow wants to offer a Biramor, he has to publicize it in any festival or at any great gathering; he shows his intentions sometimes couple of years before and even sometime a decade before the Biramor. Usually he shows his intentions in a Biramor organized by any Kalasha member. Before publicizing the Biramor, the host obtains the consensus from his clan fellows for economic and moral support for the whole festival. Loude & Lievre describes the criteria for the host of Biramor Wealth is generally inherited….But wealth is not all that is needed to be a giver of feasts, and a “rich man’s son” is not necessarily a “distinguished man”; he must prove his worth. He must have the dynamism to produce surpluses,… In addition to this talent for developing his material heritage, he must prove his virility: engender sons,… He must also be able to impose his authority on his family and his ascendancy over his lineage brothers, from whom he will expect economic assistance. There are three types of Biramor in the Kalasha society as  The small type of Biramor is such a way only male goats are sacrificed; one goat is divided among four families, but this time only males have privilege to eat the meat not females of the families. And in a smaller Biramor the performer does not keep malery symbol at Sajigor temple. In the second type of Biramor, both male and female goats are sacrificed for all the Kalasha members; males and females, but the goats which are sacrificed at Sajigor are only for male members while the goats sacrificed in village are for both sexes; one goat is distributed among four families. It is a bigger Biramor and this time malery is installed at Sajigor as ritual.The third type of Biramor is common like second one, but in this Biramor dowry is given to jamili of the feast giver. The goats are sacrificed and distributed among tribe fellows. During the festival, food is distributed, the feast giver is praised by elders of the clan as Loude & Lievre pronounced that praise giving is an art of the Kalasha community and during the event each participant tries his level best to express himself and praise the feast giver in a different way. In praise giving speech, the participants recall the local history, social values of the tribe and virtues of the feast giver. The Kalasha people seek chance to enjoy life, so, during the Biramor they dance enthusiastically on the drum beats and they sing the songs of different verities. The rituals of Biramor are performed at Mahandeo and sometime during performing the rituals (i.e. to burn holy juniper, sacrifice goats etc.) dehar enters into trance and “The god now spoke through the mouth of the shaman and dehar predicts the future. Biramor is a socio-religious festival having some religious rituals and social aspects. Therefore, different games like tug of war, tambuk, salom chatik and shil are included.

The Chawmos Festival

 According to Akiko Wada the Chawmos is the longest, the most complex and religious festival of the community as it is held in the month of December each year. The festival lasts for fourteen days, during this period the community makes merry while dancing and singing and many religious rituals are performed along with the sacrifices of goats and sheep. The community believes that the god Balumain visits the Kalashdesh during the festival from Tsyam, an unknown place in eastern Afghanistan. This festival is a symbol of the end of the year's fieldwork and harvest; now people have nothing to do but celebration. People store cheese, fruits, vegetables and grains in bulk for this festival, because there are many stages in Chawmos and it requires many offerings. It is the last festival of the year, which is celebrated for two weeks. The festival has a long series of ceremonies, phases and rituals.

The Inauguration of Chawmos

The Chawmos starts with the celebration of Sarazari. In this celebration the young boys and girls of Bumburet valley under the leadership of elders go to the high scared place, which are considered the dwelling of gods, where this celebration is always celebrated, there they lit fire at two places, one for women and one for men,37 but in Rumbur valley fragrant juniper branches are burnt on the roofs of the villages which is a consideration of purifying the villages. Then the ceremony formally begins with the offerings and one of the participants washes hands for rituals and sacrifices. The boys and the girls sing different types of songs Socio-Cultural Life of the Kalasha People of Chitral: A Study of their Festivals of the festival, while singing and dancing they go house to house. They are offered fruits and food by the tribe-fellows. This ceremony is celebrated for two days in some of the villages. Goats are slaughtered, while the men pray in this ceremony. Each day ends with a dance, during which dry fruit is distributed. Only songs are sung, however drum beating is forbidden in whole celebration.

The Ritual Clash

 “The Third day Chuwinari is characterized by a ritual clash fought with insults, often a sexual nature, between nubile girls of the two sections of the community: up-valley and down-valley. In this ceremony the Kalasha young boys and girls fetch the reeds from nearby mountains and draw pictures of sheep, goats, human etc. on the walls of Jestak Han. Meanwhile girls move towards river bank for singing competition and the Kalasha men cook beans in bulk, inside the Jestak Han for distributing among the all families in the valley. However, Cacopardo and Cacopardo claim that, to cook the bean is exercised on the fourth day which is called dau Pacek.  All these activities show that they have nothing to do and they are returning to their leisure life. In fact in first four days of Chawmos, social ties are consolidated and strengthened. In these days the Kalasha society starts to turn into onjesta state from pragata state

Rite of Fertility of Livestock: 

 The ceremony of Kutramu ensures the fertility of domestic livestock and wild game (hunting). For this ceremony the people grind the wheat and at night men make sculptures of goats and sheep with dough (of wheat), these animals are called Sharabirayak while women bake walnut bread. Next morning, the Kalasha people wake up early and perform the ceremonial ritual of driving their animals away for mock hunting. Then the models of sheep and goats are given to the cows some time and sometimes given to Muslim children to play with them. According to Cacopardo brothers, drawings and paintings on the wall of temples interpret the memory of a distant past when human beings, fairies, deities and animals were living altogether, but later on, there held a separation among them for some unknown reasons.

A Ritual Tribute to Dead One’s:

The Mandaik is the sixth day of the great festival, Chawmos. Mandaik is time to recall the souls of the dead people of the community. On the day of Mandaik: the Kalasha women bake walnut bread and pumpkin. As Akiko Wada writes, the Mandaik is communicational ritual among Kalasha with their ancestors’ souls. The Kalasha believe that during the ritual the dead come back to share their meals. The celebration of this day starts at the evening when all the food is amassed along with fruit in the Jestak Han, the doors of all the houses are kept closed while an elder calls loudly to the souls of the dead saying “Come and eat” Some food is placed outside of the temple for ancestors and rest of the baskets full of food are put inside the Jestak Han for rest of the people. Akiko Wada observes that a signal of fire is lit to attract ancestors for sharing the food.

A Ritual of Turn into the Purified Life

 The next day, everyone from the community washes him/herself to get purification for the whole year. The rite Shishao Sutchek to purify the women performed with walnut bread, water and fire. The walnut breads are baked by men. The hands of men should be clean and men should not touch anything, even themselves. Each woman and girl receives five breads. The day of the purification is considered as the most sacred time of the year. At this point the Kalasha society has to follow some obligations and restrictions. The kitchen utensils and other articles are replaced with new ones. The milk or tea is forbidden and imported goods are also illegal and not allowed to use. The Kalasha who have converted to Islam must leave the village and further sexual intercourse is banned for a week.

Purification of the Kalasha Men

 Istongas is a rite of purification of the Kalasha tribe men, and this rite is performed on the tenth day of Chawmos. The men purification ceremony is held late in the evening at the goat sheds. This ritual is dedicated to Dezau: the Creator. On the terraced roofs a fire is lit and burning juniper braches are circled over the heads of the contributor. A lamb is also sacrificed and its blood drops are sprinkled on the faces of men present there. This ceremony is held on the roofs of goat shed to ensure the fertility of the herds and unbeaten hunting. The same day the Kalasha men gathered on the open air sanctuary of Sajigor (in Birir valley) and sacrificed forty goats to Balumain, but these sacrifices are presented to Pushao an assistant of Balumain as on this stage the Kalasha society is not completely purified, so Balumain is supposed to visit the valley yet. These goats are offered for prosperity and good health. 

Ritual of the Initiation

 The most sacred element of the winter festival is goshnik. The Kalasha community does not consider a Kalasha kid as the member of the Kalasha society until or unless goshnik ritual is done for the specific kid. This ceremony is done when a boy becomes seven years old and a girl becomes four years old. Goshnik in fact is rite of initiation or rite of passage. Rite of passage, in fact, is an important ritual which is performed when an individual (most probably a kid or young) from specific community enters from one phase of age to another, generally when he or she enters to adulthood.Goshnik: the rite of passage of the Kalasha community, is held at Jestakhan, where all kids of about four years are brought and are given dresses to become the member of the community. Boys are given a white cap, while the little girls are given black woven dress and head-gear: the kupas.  Without their goshnik the kids are not believed to be a part of the tribe.

Tradition of Census of the Kalasha  Tribe This ceremony takes place at the shrine of Sajigor; the Kalasha deity. Sajigor is open air sanctuary, which is situated outside the village, where only men and boys can go. The Kalasha, in old days, were instructed by great Nanga Dehar to take a willow branch in hands which would help Balumain to count them, according to tradition.This ritual of counting of tribe-fellows by Balumain is called chettai adua. During the whole ceremony of chettai adua no sacrifice of sheep or goat is offered to Sajigor. However, juniper smoke and loafs of bread are offered as sacrifice while back at the village men and women sing the songs, they dance, and exchange sometimes crude sexual jokes and improvised teasing songs. The people keep dancing until dehar or the Kalasha elders start to make a pile of branches about 12 feet high for Chanja Rat and get back to home for a brief rest.

The Night of Torches

 The above mentioned dance persisted in until the dehar68 and other elder members of the Kalasha society have started heaping up the wood on the ground and mound of branches, which reaches at the level about twelve feet. This was for the huge bonfire of the approaching of the Chanja Rat. During this ceremony, the night prayers are attributed to the Balumain. The Balumain is a god who lives in Bashagul, in Afghanistan. Some Kalasha traditions refer that Balumain lives in Tsyam: an unknown place in Afghanistan. He comes in the Kalasha valleys only for two days, once in a year. All the offerings are made for this divine; all the songs are sung for him like: Balimain is descending, he is arriving. Make the males spread like shadows. Balimain is descending, he is arriving. Bring joy, multiply the people like stars in the heavens. Chawmos is the feast of the gods. We are going to meet the great Sajigor. After you have brought us health, you can leave again. Give us health, Balimain, we beseech it of you.You Balimain, give us cascades of milk. Late at night qazi leads a slow-paced procession while singing ritual songs. Each person holds a torch (chanja), several feet long. Indeed it is Balumain’s returning time, who is god of fertility. He stays with Kalasha for two days. The changa night is the most amazing picturesque scene of the winter festival in the Kalashdesh.  

The Frightened Fox 

 When the guest god Balumain leaves the valley for Tsyam (in Bashagul Valley of Kafiristan, present Nuristan in Afghanistan), the Lawak Biik ceremony starts in the next morning. According to Loude & Lievre, French anthropologists) the Lawak Biik is practiced in one village of Bumburet valley. The people from village shout out and considered that the fox (virtually) is frightened. It is said if the fox comes back in the village alive, it is sign of good luck for the New Year. However, in Rumbur valley, on the same day, the Kalasha people dance while men putting on the dress like women and vice versa. Wada writes, “It does not have religious significance because Balimain is gone.”  In fact this activity is extension of the Chawmos, it is not an integrated part of it. Secondly, it is not celebrated unanimously in all three Kalasha valleys.

 The Forward March for Beans

 The meaning of dau tatu is “forward march for beans.” In this ceremony or custom the girls gather beans from all houses while singing songs, then the boys cook them at Jestak Han. The girls also collect dry fruits and thank the giver by singing the song and pray for abundant food for the household.  The Mythical Crows  The kagayak ceremony is also an extension of the winter festival. The ceremony of kagayak is considered the final activity of winter solstice; the night of the white mythical crow. The Kagayak songs are sung by the community, songs in fact are like prayers, in which the people ask the crow to bring them the things they need. Traditionally, it is believed that the white mythical crow carried their wishes to gods.They sing the songs for the abundant maize, for good earning, for the coming guests and the great increase in their goats. 

Conclusion 

The Kalasha festivals are a source of unity of the Kalasha tribe fellows and they are celebrating these festivals for centuries. These festivals are not only source of amusement, but have socio-cultural, socio-religious and socio-economic impacts for the community. These festivals and performing rituals enhance the Socio-Cultural Life of the Kalasha People of Chitral: A Study of their Festivals sense of belonging for culture, religion, society and for their own people. These festivals are the best source of sharing and learning the culture. The Kalasha festivals and cultural events have potential economic impacts, many of the Kalasha fellows earn handsome amount during the festival seasons. The festivals fascinate and attract the world, and thousands of international tourists visit the valleys. During the festivals the young Kalasha boys and girls come closer and in this way they select their life partners according to their likeliness. These festivals also serve as the platform to perfume the rites of passage. The feasts are also offered during festivals and the frequency of the feasts determined the rank of the feast giver.