Rumboor: Citadel of the Kalasha

Of the three Kalash Valleys of Chitral, Rumboor is perhaps the most overlooked one. Rumboor is located parallel to the largest valley Bumborait and the streams of both these valleys meet at a point called Dubaaj above Ayun. Unlike Bumborait, Rumboor has not been commercialized and thus few tourists visit the valley: the percentage of Kalash to Muslims is also higher in Rumboor and it is now the only Kalash Valley to have a Kalasha majority. I visited Rumboor earlier this month to document the Kalasha religious and cultural heritage unique to it.

The road that leads to Rumboor and Bumborait diverges at a point called Dubaaj, meaning the meeting point of two streams, where a check post of the Chitral Levies is located. All visitors from outside of Chitral are required to register at that point. Just a few kilometers ahead of the checkpoint, the villages of the Rumboor Valley start. Rumboor is a narrower and somewhat drier valley than Bumborait it was also the last of the Kalash Valleys to have road access. Because of this, it is not visited by tourists and the Kalash of Rumboor are more conservative than their savvier brethren in Bumborait. Rumboor has also been home to the Kalasha political leadership, with the valley producing notable leaders of the community including Bashara Khan and Katar Singh. The latter was a district council-level politician and is famous for being one of the few Kalashas in modern times to complete the ritual of Tich-Kushi where a Kalasha headman shows off his wealth by throwing a feast in which a thousand male goats are sacrificed and then cooked in large cauldrons. The current minority member of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Assembly from the Kalash community, Wazirzada, is also a native of Rumboor.

My host for the day was Sarawat Shah, a former Union Council Nazim and a resident of the most traditional village in Rumboor, Kalashagram. To reach Kalashagram you have to cross the stream and climb up several hundred feet on a steep path. Waiting for us at the bridge was Mir Singh a nephew of the famed Katar Singh a close associate of mine who accompanies me on my fishing expeditions in Ghizer. After an exhausting hike we reached the house of Sarawat Shah where the women of his household welcomed my little procession in the traditional Kalasha manner by throwing walnuts on us. After this they presented me with the customary silk robe and ceremonial belts and we sat down in the garden. Sarawat Shah informed me that my late father had camped in that very village after he had trekked over from Chitral Gol to Rumboor via the Chimirsan Pass as a teenager in the 1960s. As we waited for the mutton to cook I asked the locals about the main ceremonial altars in the valley. Given its warmer climate as compared to Bumborait, Rumboor is also known for its agriculture and especially the quality of its grapes and the red wine of Rumboor is said to be the best Kalasha wine. The two most famous two most famous religious sites are the Altar of Mahadev on a hill above Grom and Balanguru and the isolated temple of Sajigor in Mir Singh’s hamlet, Sajigor Thhan. Sajigor is one of the most interesting Kalasha deities. Apparently the worship of Sajigor was borrowed from the neighboring Bashgal Valley of Nuristan as the Kalasha say that “Sajigor came from Bashgal.” Sajigor may be the Kalasha version of the Bashgali war god Geesh – he is both a warrior and a trickster who has many attributes in common with the Hindu deity Krishna. After lunch it was time to head further up the valley to see the temple of Sajigor.

Rumboor is also known for its agriculture and especially the quality of its grapes and the red wine of Rumboor is said to be the best Kalasha wine

The road above the village of Balanguru is horrible, even by Chitrali standards! It is extremely narrow and constantly dips and ascends like a roller coaster. Once the Kalash hamlets are crossed you reach the final village, Shaikhanandeh. This village was established by Bashgali refuges from what was then known as Kafiristan following its conquest by Afghanistan. The tribesmen who sought refuge in Chitral in 1895 slowly converted to Islam until only the elderly were left practicing their traditional beliefs. The last of the Bashgal Kafirs died out by the 1940s and their converted offspring were called Shaikhs, thus the village came to be known as Shaikhanandeh or, Village of the Shaikhs. There is also a village with the same name inhabited by the same ethnic group at the head of the Bumborait Valley.  The altitude slowly rises as one proceeds up the vale and the flora changes from forests of Oak to deodar and fir.

After aborting the attempt to head to the end of the road we let the cars go ahead to find a suitable point to turn back and walked downstream towards Mir Singh’s village, Sajigor Thhan. The village is an extremely picturesque one with thick groves of poplar and walnut trees, which were just starting to change colors as the weather was cooling down. The temple itself lies at the very end of the village within a grove of large oak trees. It is composed of a wooden building in which the sacred icons are housed as well as an open air altar adorned with the common Kalasha animal-headed idols. It is in this spot that you can find links between the religion of the Kalash and other ancient Indo-European practices. Sacred groves, open air altars and the practice of applying the blood of sacrificial animals upon idols are all attributes that the Kalash faith shares with other ancient Indo-European religions, most of which have gone extinct.

Rumboor has also been home to the Kalasha political leadership, with the valley producing notable leaders of the community including Bashara Khan and Katar Singh. The latter was a district council-level politician and is famous for being one of the few Kalashas in modern times to complete the ritual of Tich-Kushi where a headman shows off his wealth by throwing a feast in which a thousand male goats are sacrificed and then cooked in large cauldron

The Kalash people are a diverse looking group. Most of the people of Rumboor are quite dark skinned by Hindukush standards and can easily be confused for Punjabis. Genetic analysis has revealed that about half of the Kalash men have the Haplogroups H and L which are markers that indicate direct paternal ancestry from the native peoples of South Asia so although the Kalash culture and religion is Indo-European a large percentage of their blood is Aboriginal South Asian. The long held fairytale of Greek origin has no scientific basis.

Rumboor is a fascinating place to visit. If you want to experience the traditional lifestyle of the Kalash people it is a better option than Bumborait with its noisy hotels and museums full of tourists and local merrymakers alike. The people of Rumboor are extremely proud of their heritage and it is this pride that has resulted in them becoming the most politically organized of the Kalashas. Their neighbors in Bumborait and Birir can learn a thing or two about preserving their unique society from the people of Rumboor. The narrow and wild valley of Rumboor is indeed the last Citadel of the Kalasha.

The author is the ceremonial Mehtar of Chitral and can be contacted on Twitter: @FatehMulk