For two weeks in December, the Kalasha tribe of the Kalash valley in remote valleys of the Hindu Kush mountains of northwest Pakistan in Chitral area, join together for Chaumos, their most important festival and last surviving Indo-European pagan tradition.
The Kalash valleys are very hard to get to and remote. Difficult jeepable roads into the area, combined with remote location keep most outsiders away, allowing for only a small number of people to enter.
The Kalasha women wear black dresses with striking embroidered colors. A long colorful tapestry head-dress was worn, decorated with cowrie shells and buttons. It’s one of the most striking and beautiful images of the people there.
The best way to experience Chaumos is to stay with a Kalasha family. They are very welcoming to foreigners and some local-run guesthouses will let you stay with them during this time, as long as you perform certain ceremonies with them.
All men and women, including any foreigners that stay with the Kalasha, must undergo purification rituals for the festival, especially for the three most sacred days called “ditch”, when sex is prohibited and no contact is allowed with any non-purified persons. Locally made wine is important, and not just for the merriment of drinking and dancing, but as it is considered the sacred drink of the spirits.
During the men’s purification, a virgin boy washed his hands in a sacred spring, or some wine, and sacrificed a goat, sprinkling the blood on the heads of those in attendance. At the same time, juniper branches were burnt to invoke and invite the spirit world.
For the women’s ceremony, the men baked sacred bread that only the women are allowed to eat, which symbolizes the earth, grain, and fertility.
Food was shared in peoples’ homes between families and strangers alike. In one ritual, Sawelik Hari, baskets were made and filled with fruits and bread to give to close blood relatives.
Folk dances were held every day and each one was a prelude to specific rites that go on behind the scenes. All the dances were entertaining to watch and were one of the highlights of the festival.
In one dance, two groups from the same village competed with each other on how fast they could weave a basket together, taunting each other in the process with chants like: “You couldn’t make a basket in 100 years! Give up now and join us for a dance with our basket.”
