PROJECT PROPOSAL

BIRIR MIDDLE SCHOOL FOR GIRLS - YEAR TWO CLASSROOM

Birir is one of the three Kalash valleys and is the least spoiled and the least developed. There is a Middle School in central Birir but it caters mostly for boys. Their new building to replace the old one destroyed by fire is still under construction and there are only a few Kalash children in the primary section. The Kalash School at the other end of the valley is overfull. There is also no high school for either boys or girls. No family wishes for their off-spring to leave Birir and go to school in Chitral. 

The completed first classroom

In Grubinasar, where I live, there is a community based school with three teachers which, initially, was helped by the Ahga Khan Education Programme and then latterly, the teachers were paid by the Greek volunteers. When they pulled out of Bumburet where they had concentrated their work, they also cut out the payment of the teachers’ salaries from community based schools. We have now filled the gap by taking responsibility for the salaries.

We have already built one school room large enough to seat 25 pupils. The room is now ready to take the first Girls for Middle School education. We already have 12 pupils booked in for further education. Now we need to build a second classroom for year two by the end of 2013 ideally. The detailed costings for this are given overleaf.

COSTING FOR SECOND CLASSROOM

NOTE 1: Additionally a minimum of 12 desks and chairs will be required at a cost of £15 each. Two new computers will also be required costing £250 each.

NOTE 2: By the end of 2013 our very limited ‘school’ funds will be totally depleted. The ongoing teacher costs will be £2500 per annum. Unless the Government of Pakistan takes this on or we are able to raise these funds both Junior and Middle schools will have to close.

It is my great pleasure again to be able to report to all our friends and supporters on the excellent progress of HKCA. In particular I would like to refer to the truly outstanding efforts of Maureen Lines who even during illness has provided us all with a paradigm of toughness and resilience that is difficult to match. She continues to astonish. However Maureen’s work and that of HKCA can only go ahead if the trustees and supporters continue to offer all the support they can, in whatever way they can. I know that we all do this.

Maureen Lines with her adopted family.

We may be a very small charity but what follows is to give you a picture of what goes on behind the scenes. In particular I would like to focus on what we have to do yearly in submitting documentation to the Charity Commissioners – this is legally binding and is the responsibility of the trustees. The Charity Commissioners require an annual statement of income and expenditure. This is has to be certified by an independent Chartered Accountant. Both the trustees and the independent Chartered Accountant give their services free, including travel costs to trustees meetings. This is of great benefit to HKCA. The trustees also have to submit to the Charity Commissioners an Annual Return on line. The Annual Return provides a summary of income and expenditure, a list of current and new trustees with their addresses and dates of birth. In the Annual Return we also have to provide a formal Charity classification that has to identify what the charity sets out to do. Amongst the list of twenty four items provided by the Charity Commissioners, we have identified “educational training”, “advancement of health”, “overseas aid and famine relief”,

Famine relief by HKCA at the time of the 2011 floods.

“accommodation and housing”, “environmental conservation and heritage”, “people of a particular ethnic or racial origin” (for us the Kalasha).  Many of these overlap as you will realise. However they do provide a vital backdrop for those who wish to know more about HKCA. The Annual Return also requires the trustees to identify how HKCA operates. Out of the ten options provided in the Annual Return we have identified “making grants to individuals” (Maureen Lines) and “providing human resources”.

I would also like to comment on the Trustees annual report for 2012 – 2013. This is again required by the Charity Commissioners. I quote from parts of the annual report as follows, to give you a flavour of how we see things. As you know, the objectives of the charity are to support rural communities in the Hindu Kush, especially the Kalasha, and are centred  on improving community education, health, and living conditions. They also include responding to natural and man-made catastrophes, and ensuring the environmental sustainability of the region – especially the forests and associated fauna and flora.

The trustees’ expertise covers a wide range of experience including law, business, journalism, the environment, and education in the HE sector. It also includes considerable experience of working in developing countries – especially Pakistan. This provides an excellent basis for the conduct and regulation of the charity. The trustees’ gender balance is currently one female and five male, and one ethnic minority. The present trustees are actively investigating the potential for greater gender equality and ethnic minority equality. A medically qualified trustee and a trustee who has school-teaching qualifications and experience are also needed. Friends and supporters please let us have any ideas here.

We maintain close contact with Maureen Lines. There is weekly and often daily email contact between her, the President and Chairman of the trustees. This concerns short term or emergency items – as in the recent 2010 and 2011 floods, and longer term activities and planned developments such as the building and staffing of the new school. The year 2012-2013 has been less prone to natural disasters than 2011-2012 year. However the environment of the Hindu Kush and particularly that of the Kalash Valleys in Chitral is always challenging. Earthquakes and flash floods are common events, and the trustees are aware of the need for quick action when required. In Chitral and especially the Kalash Valleys, flash floods destroy homes, erode valuable agricultural land, and destroy roads and bridges. The trustees are very much aware of these issues, and several of them have direct experience of the area and the Kalasha, while Maureen Lines has a unique long term record in the area.

During the 2012-2013 year the charity has continued to financially support the transport and medical treatment of ill and injured members of the Kalasha from the Kalash Valleys either to Chitral Town or to Peshawar. This is organised and supervised by Maureen as an on-going and important part of the work funded by HKCA. The construction of a school for the Kalasha children in Birir valley has also been a prime objective of the trustees. Maureen Lines is playing a central role in overseeing the planning and construction of this much needed facility. The majority of the building is now completed although additional building work is needed. There is also an urgent need for basic facilities including chairs and tables, books and other teaching materials. The trustees are delighted with the progress of the school building, and sincerely thank the many donors who have made this progress possible in particular Heather Madine.

Working with other charities has great potential and actual benefits to a small charity such as HKCA. For example during the 2010 – 2011 floods, Maureen worked in the Kalash valleys with local people operating very successfully with the UN World Food Programme. The trustees are very much aware of the benefits of arrangements such as this, and are continuing to provide every encouragement to Maureen to widen her collaborative ventures with relevant NGOs, governmental and international organisations. Experience elsewhere strongly indicates that collaborative ventures of this sort will have immediate and sustainable benefit for the Kalash communities and their environment, as well as for the wider area of Chitral and the Hindu Kush.

Risk management is of vital importance in a geographical area such as Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. It includes management of risk associated with natural disasters of various sorts – earthquakes landslides, flash floods – and risk associated with local insurrections. Both of these risk elements occur periodically and can cause problems. During the current year 2012-2013, risk management in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and especially in Peshawar and the Kalash Valleys has become more important.

Maureen Lines and some of the Trustees have long term on­-the-ground experience of these issues. The risk levels are regularly monitored and acted on by Maureen, where necessary with advice from the trustees.  Security guards are needed in property in Peshawar and often in the Kalash Valleys, and security during travel by road between Peshawar and Chitral is assessed before and during each trip. Flights between Peshawar and Chitral are also sometimes used because they are sometimes safer than travel by road.

As in previous years, the trustees have continued to have due regard to the guidance on public benefit published by the Charity Commission. So we feel that we are providing the support that Maureen Lines needs to continue to develop HKCA’s work for the Kalasha, their environment, and their unique way of life. Now over to Maureen for her detailed and much more interesting account of up-to-date developments.

Peter Meadows, Chairman

Maureen Lines writes:

Dear Friends,

I have been overwhelmed by the generosity of HKCA supporters in contributing almost £2000 towards my recent operation and rehabilitation costs. I was at the end of my tether not knowing which way to turn to pay for an operation which I knew I simply had to have done. In the end I decided to say nothing, face up to the operation and hope everything would turn out for the best. Well thanks to all of you who contributed it has and I hope by the time you receive this you will have received a snail mail letter of thanks from me. Mail from Pakistan is notoriously unreliable (a cheque I sent to my old vet in the UK recently never arrived) so please forgive me if you have not heard.

The operation went well and within a week I was largely out of pain. Then began the obligatory physiotherapy which has gone well and whilst I’m not yet able to throw away my crutches I am able to get around, get into the car etc and even more important am getting back my old ‘get up and go’ spirit which the continuous back pain had begun to knock out of me.

So what has been happening here since I last wrote? Leaving out bombs exploding just around the corner and our need to take on an extra security guard, quite a lot.

THE SCHOOL IN BIRIR 

Pakistan has suddenly woken up to the fact that its health and education systems need over hauling and that more money must be spent on developing these sectors.  Ghost schools and truant teachers must be a thing of the past.

Recently, the famous public school in Chitral, started by six bright dedicated young women from the UK, subsequently taken over by the American linguist, Elena Bashir, and then by the famous army major who ‘stayed on’ after Partion – Major Langlands, has seen yet another dedicated person, again from the UK, Carey Schofield, taking the helm.

The school is dedicated to quality education for all.  That is what we are working for in Birir.

There was more to come. As you all know my plan was for High School Classrooms as a follow on to the middle school. I had not appreciated that the Middle school only took boys so education of girls ceased at the end of Primary School. The villagers came and asked if our new classroom which was then nearing completion could be used exclusively for girls so they could enter the middle school. You can imagine how delighted I was and 12 girls are now enrolled. It is thanks to Heather Madine that the classroom could be finally completed and equipped with desks, benches and two computers.

All this makes our plan for a second classroom even more important but this will cost money that we don’t at present have. We have costed it out in detail and it comes to £5980 (the detail is available on request) at the current rate of exchange plus 12 desks and chairs at £15  per student and two more computers at £250 each.

UPDATE ON OTHER MATTERS

It is thanks to Neil Kreitman, our perennial generous donor that we have managed to keep three dispensaries running (the others have been taken over by the Pakistan Red Crescent) and most of our patient programme.  Last year saw a number of serious patients; some needing operations down in Peshawar. So all in all we are doing well. As usual, though, we do need your help! I am eager to return to Birir and have received the other day my new Pakistan Origin Card. My lawyer is hoping to have my NOC (non objection certificate) to return to Birir within the next day or two.

And, lastly, I have already purchased a few text books which are excellently produced. Although I have to keep to the books which have been set, there is nothing stopping me from adding from another book.  Yes, if you are wondering, I am planning to do some teaching myself! We are also introducing such basic things as keeping registers.  I also have a wonderful hand bell and the right person to use it to announce the beginning of school early in the morning.  Discipline, with a little TLC is essential to learning.  Gul Akthar and her four children whom I have adopted know this already and their English has improved dramatically.  We want the same for all the pupils.

Please continue to help us…..

Maureen

So many of HKCA’s supporters are personal friends of Maureen’ s that we thought you should have a short update on what she has been going through personally and a brief outline of activities in the Kalash valleys. A full newsletter is planned for around mid-April following the Trustees meeting on 30th March.

Many of you will know that Maureen has suffered from back problems for some years.  This has not been helped by the diabolical roads in the Frontier and in the valleys. During the autumn the problem got worse. She had tried a number of treatments, including ozone therapy, but to no avail; physio worked well for a number of years, but spondalosis is an on-going disease and only surgery can really rectify the matter.

Finally, Maureen took that step and without saying anything to anyone she took herself to the Combined Military Hospital in ‘Pindi. Friends and staff in Pakistan rallied around. The operation was a success. After such a serious operation there is need, of course, for rehabilitation. She was told it would be four to six weeks before she would be able to walk again. It is now five, and she has taken her first steps with the help of a walker. By the time you read this, she will be aiming to graduate to using crutches.

Although this is all good news, it has, however, left Maureen in a black financial hole. The operation itself (very expensive as can be imagined), medicine, physio, night nurse etc have been very costly for her, and, remember, we do not pay Maureen a salary!  Maureen is sounding remarkably upbeat and cheerful about it all and already planning her return to the valleys in the spring.

Despite Maureen’s health problems, she has managed to keep things moving along in the valleys where the big news is that the Greek Government has pulled out of funding the school teachers of the Primary School in Birir, which shares its site with the new HKCA school. The news coincided with our receiving a legacy from the mother of our supporter Heather Madine. The annual salary cost of the teachers is £1600 and whilst we have only committed ourselves to one year, we will be looking to raise funds to cover this in the future. The legacy has also enabled us to complete the first classroom of the HKCA school and equip it ready for use in April. It has also reduced the cost of building the second classroom and a washroom to £6000 for which we are currently looking for the funds.

The first classroom

Finally, if any of Maureen’s personal friends would like to send any help directly to her you can send cheques made out to HKCA and I will transfer the funds out to her personal a/c in Peshawer. Please make it clear that they are for her personally.

Keith Howman

The second phase is the second classroom, again to seat 25 pupils. This one will be a la Kalash which I had instructed the other one to be, but while the Taliban were being active over the horizon and the police were chasing me, I lost control of everything going on under my very eyes!!!  Most of the wood has already been purchased for this, although rumour has it some got lost in last summer’s flood in the gol. At the moment we have secured two thousand pounds. Someone over here, a British lady, may donate us a further one thousand, leaving at least another two thousand for this year’s work.

The status of the school will be discussed on my return to the valleys next month.  I shall go to Chitral as requested and meet with the EDO and his assistant whom I met last autumn.  They are very enthusiastic, but we need to sit down and discuss all the nitty gritty and sign the final MOU. The other signed papers were with the government people, but we must also sign with the LOCAL education authorities.

Shakil Durrani, former DC of Chitral, who then became Culture Secretary, Commissioner of the Malakand, Chief Secretary before then going on to become federal secretary in Islamabad also became the Main board member of the KALASH ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION SOCIETY, in 1993. Before that, however, in 1990, he and the Canadian Government asked me to supervise and monitor the first Kalash Govt school. This was a primary school with a Kalash teacher. The Canadians also funded me to start health education in Bumburet which I then took on to Birir. Although there was no problem making it into a Govt school, there was a big one when it came to actually constructing a building.  Although I was in charge, I did not have the purse strings, as, at that time, I was a person without an organisation.

Although the village community and the school teacher were fine people, I did not trust the contractor who came from outside the valley. I was sure there was going to be rank corruption and told Durrani and the Canadians they should not build the school. They took my advice, and the school continued in a rented building. Then the Greeks came and filled the vacuum. My teaching had finished in Bumburet so I was not aware of what was happening in the valley as I had no vehicle at that time and communications were poor.

The Greeks built the school and Bumburet ended up with two good buildings for two Govt schools and then the Greeks went on to build a small one in Rumbur which was also taken over by the government. Many people, and I am one of them, did not like most of the things the Greeks did, but they did improve the education.

During the nineties there were people, including Hungarian Anna, who were trying to make a written language out of Kalasha with a Latin script. This had been pioneered by some Australian missionary linguists. I tried to raise funds for the venture, but it was too costly, or rather the proposal was including westerners coming to Pakistan. In the event the Kalash themselves were doing very well with the script, until Election or Lection Bibi as she was known later, pirated the book and published it under her own name and dedicated it to Musharraf!

 The new school in Birir under construction.

That brings us up to the present time. In all three valleys there is only one High School which is in Bumburet. In Birir, the people also wish for another Middle school.

The biggest problem is the quality of teaching. I am of the firm belief one of the future things HKCA should do is to select worthy candidates, say three or four, and fund them for teaching training.

Maureen Lines

The classrooms would be built just above the village of Grubinasa in central Birir. This is the village where our Field Director lives in the summer so it will be easy to constantly monitor construction. The idea is to have a natural (a la Kalash) building similar to the community school, which is situated in the same site. The land belongs to one of the three brothers of the Field Director’s Kalash family.

For a High School to be accepted by the government it has to be built to certain standards and criteria. In this case there have to be six classrooms, library, staff room, kitchen/chowkidar house, washing and toilet facilities. One classroom can double as a lab and art room.

Both our Field Director and our Kalash engineer, who we have worked with before and who owns the land on which we wish to build the school, immediately thought of using the existing facilities of the community primary school as a base, as there are already four classrooms, a small office, four latrines and a small kitchen. While we are building the two classrooms etc, the school can continue and again if the community desire, we can turn it into a middle school.

It is proposed that we build the new facilities over three seasons. This year, we can start on the first and main classroom and kitchen/chowkidar house. Already KEPS (Kalash Environmental Protection Society) is engaged in building a retaining wall, with government money (see funding) for protection of the school and, in 2009, with its government funded pipeline project, provided good clean drinking water for the school.

Proposed site with one of the primary school classrooms in the background.

Due to inflation and the time scale, the buildings have been costed on the high side particularly in the case of timber.

Note: The Kalash Environmental Protection Society is a Pakistan registered NGO which works in close association with HKCA. 

      Costs and building plan

Background Notes

1: In 2009 KEPS installed a clean water supply – Cost £200 funded by the Government of Pakistan

2: The existing primary school was at risk due to erosion so HKCA/KEPS put a project to the Government of Pakistan for the building of retaining walls to protect the site. This was accepted and work started in June 2011. Cost £7,300 funded by the Government of Pakistan

The Nullah alongside the site subject to flooding and erosion where the retaining walls will be built.

New school build plan

Year 1:          Dig trenches and build foundations for first classroom. Cost including collection of stones, masonry work etc £2,500 already funded.

Build walls of first classroom etc. Cost £2,500 required by September 2011.

Year 2:          Build second classroom. Cost £5,000 required by April/May 2012.

Year 3           Build washroom, teacher’s staff room etc. Cost £5,000 required by April/May 2013

Grand total: 1914223 Rupees (£13,973)

Note: At the time this estimate was prepared the £ Stirling/Pakistani Rupee rate of exchange was 135Rs to £1. A detailed breakdown of the costs that make up this project are available on request.

The start of the foundations for the new classrooms in July 2011.

Maureen has been travelling back and forth to the Kalash Valleys and to Birir in particular finalising plans for the school buildings. On her first visit the local people were calling her their “Leader” remembering the great work she did in getting food aid into the valleys last autumn after the floods.

HKCA has been able to provide a small budget of £1000 for spending on special needs patients mainly to cover transportation to the hospital in Chitral. She currently has four patients requiring help including a 12 year old boy with a badly broken thigh who fell from a tree in Birir. He had an operation on 21 July to have a pin inserted and now his upper leg is in plaster. He will be here for quite a while.

Other patients needing assistance include Gul Nisar, an elderly woman who has a blocked heart and needs a goitre operation; Kata Sing, a famous Kalash elder who cannot walk as his knees are so bad and a young woman with gyny problems who we have to bring down for a minor op. Faheem is keeping a tally and we shall send details when we have something concrete to report. We are telling all patients they must pay for their own food.

The patient’s budget is over and above the Dispensary Project funding. Funding of the schools project is being treated as a special ring fenced project for which at the time of writing, £2500 has been specifically raised and we need to raise a further £2,500 by the end of September.

We have been very aware from comments in emails from Maureen and others in Asia of the rocketing inflation that has been taking place over the past two years and asked Maureen to do a short piece on this for the newsletter. She did not think you would believe her! She therefore asked her office manager Fahim Badshah to do it.

S.No

YEAR

Project Name

Amount

(In Pak Rs:)

Funded By

Location

52

2008-09

Retaining Wall Project

21,56,000

Govt. of Pakistan

Birir

51

2008

HKCA MEDICAL PROJECT

5,91,900

HKCA UK

Three Kalash Valleys

50

2007-08

Medical Project

16,95,200

Finnish Govt.

For Kalash Valleys

(under process)

49

2007-08

Medical Project

3,39,471

HKCA/Australian High Commission

Medicines for five dispensaries

48

2006-07

Govt Latrine Project

52,62,000

Govt. of Pakistan

Rumbur and Bamburet

47

2007

HKCA MEDICAL PROJECT

5,35,602

HKCA UK

Three Kalash Valleys

46

2006-07

Medical Project

5,96,885

HKCA/KCC – Finland, Australia and UK

Birir, Bumbur, Shekhanandeh

and Jingeret Ku

45

2006

HKCA MEDICAL PROJECT

5,20,602

HKCA UK

Three Kalash Valleys

44

2006

Bashali House Project

7,05,456

Finnish Govt.

Birir

43

2006

TB Survey Project

1,81,000

British High Commissioner

Three Kalash Valleys

42

2005

HKCA MEDICAL PROJECT

5,46,971

HKCA UK

Three Kalash Valleys

41

2005

Jeshtak Han

5,88,200

Finnish Govt.

Rumbur and Balanguru

40

2005

Irrigation Project

6,56,000

Finnish Govt.

Birir

39

2005

Medical Project

7,10,233

KCC, Finland, Australia

Birir, Bumbur, Shekhanandeh

and Jingeret Ku

38

2005

Jeshtak Han

5,88,200

Finnish Govt.

Rumbur

37

2005

Irrigation Project

6,56,000

Finnish Govt.

Birir

36

2005

Medical Project

7,10,233

HKCA, Finnish Govt. & KCC (Kalash Coordinating Committee, Islamabad)

Birir, Bumburet and Rumbur

35

2004-05

Latrine Project

6,62,400

Australian Govt.

Birir

34

2004-05

Australian Govt. Latrine Project

6,62,400

Australian Govt.

Birir

33

2004

HKCA MEDICAL PROJECT

5,42,347

HKCA UK

Three Kalash Valleys

32

2004

Medical Project

6,25,347

HKCA

Birir, Bamburet and Rumbur

31

2004

Drinking Water Pipe line Project, Bini Nisar

6,31,921

Finish

Birir

30

2004

Medical Project

6,25,347

HKCA

Birir, Bumburet and Rumbur

29

2003

Medical Project

5,15,000

HKCA

Birir, Bumburet andRumbur

28

2002

Medical Project

6,00,000

HKCA

Birir

27

2002

Rebuilding a Bashali House

3,36,740

Dutch Govt.

Birir

26

2002

Playing field for School

1,45,000

Finnish Govt.

Birir

25

2001

The Opening of a Community in Birir

50,000

KEPS

Birir

24

2001

An Engineering Survey of Birir for Irrigation

1,30,000

Finnish Govt.

Birir

23

2001

Pilot Project for Pour Flush Latrines

3,59,480

Canadian Govt.

Birir

22

2001

Medical Project

5,92,572

HKCA-KEPS

Birir

21

2000

A Small water Pipeline

40,000

HKCA

Muscor

20

2000

CBO Training and to View Projects – SWISS Programme

Swiss Govt.

Rumbur / Birir

19

2000

Medical Project

4,41,774

HKCA

Birir

18

1999

A Water Pipeline

4,14,000

Finnish Govt.

Jingeret Ku

17

1999

Medical Project / Bashali House

2,20,000

HKCA

Birir/Bumburet

16

1999

SWISS Training Programme

Swiss Govt.

Three Kalash Valleys

15

1998

A Second “KOT” restored by the FINNS

3,21,000

Finnish Govt.

Jingeret Ku

14

1998

Access Bridge In Rumbur

1,50,000

Australian Govt.

Rumbur

13

1998

Environmental, Educational And Health Project

3,70,600

UNESCO

Birir/Rumbur

12

1997

Conversation Training

20,000

WWF

Three Kalash Valleys

11

1997

Selected Guides Trained As Medical Worders And Improve Environment

2,03,600

Australian Govt.

Three Kalash Valleys

10

1996

RETAINING WALL (in partnership AKRSP) For Guru Village

10,00,784

ODA

Guru/Birir

9

1996

Water Pipeline for Birir Bashali House

39,000

Austrian Govt

Guru/Birir

8

1996

Bashali House Built

1,61,860

Australian Govt.

Rumbur

7

1996

Guide Programme Adopted By The Local Administration

Local Adm.

Three Kalash Valleys

6

1996

Restoration of Kalash Defence Tower

1,66,640

Finnish Govt.

Jingeret Ku

5

1994-1995

The First Programme of Training Kalash Guides

1,76,550

Australian Govt.

Three Kalash Valleys

4

1994

Building a Bashali House

1,65,000

Dutch Govt.

Birir

3

1992-1994

Pilot Stove And Pit Latrine Project

1,00,000

British Govt

Bumburet/Birir

2

1991

Monitored Project For First Kalash School

Canadian Govt.

Bumburet

1

1986-1991

Medical Project – Self Funded

46,995

Self Funded

Birir

Published by Rhodos, Denmark (www.rhodos.dk). ISBN 8772459743. 498 kroner (approx £50 plus postage.)

Mytte Fentz has written the definitive book on the Kalasha. The publishers and the author are to be congratulated. The book is magnificent, and like Maureen Lines recent book “From Disaster to Catastrophe” is compulsive reading. Both books will stand as paradigms of their genre for years to come. It is therefore a pleasure to note that Mytte Fenze uses some of Maureen’s photographs in her book. These are on pages 188 and 189. Mytte Fentz’s book is almost 550 pages long, and has a coffee-table format and weight – but it is much more than that. There are superb colour photographs with accounts of all aspects of the Kalasha, including their history, villages, social structure and environment. Mytte Fentz lived in the valleys for a number of years during the 1990’s, and has the academic credentials to lift her account to a level that will ensure her book’s long-term importance. As Mytte writes in her introduction “The present book may be regarded as a continuation of an internationally recognised tradition of Danish research into Central Asia that began as early as the final decade of the 19th century with Lieutenant Ole Olufsen, who in 1896–97 and 1898-99 led the first and second Danish Pamir Expedition. It is my hope that this contribution can add to existing international research about the Kalasha in the Hindu Kush mountains.” Her hopes have been amply fulfilled.

Kalash Valley in winter – Photo: Maureen Lines

The book is divided into three major sections: ‘Introduction’, ‘The Valley’ and ‘The High Pasture’. There are also seven appendices, followed by a glossary, bibliography, a list of photographers, and an index, all of which are first rate. The three main photographers are Mette Fentz, John Harrison, and Torben Stroyer, with seven additional names including Maureen Lines who has a unique knowledge of the area. These photographs are acknowledged on page 530. There are a number of interesting topics with comments in the book. We very much enjoyed the general account at the beginning of the book on Chitral and Chitral Town which we know well. Earlier foreign workers in the area are also given due recognition, including Georg Morgenstierne, Karl Jettmar, Alberto and Augusto Cacopardo, Jean Loude and Vivian Lievre, Peter Parkes and Max Klimburg. There are one or two minor errors in the bibliography. For example on page 481, Parkes 1993 and Foster 1965 are not in the bibliography at the end of the book. But this inevitably happens in any major contribution to the literature.

Photo: Maureen Lines

The author provides us with a detailed account of Kalasha cultural ideas on religion and the relative roles of women and men in society.  She also identifies the important leadership role that women play in irrigation agriculture and water milling to produce flour, together with the part that locally brewed wine and the sacrifice of goats play in society. There is also detailed discussion of the role of legends in the culture and history of the Kalasha is fascinating, and the author discusses and comments on these. The old architecture of the Kalasha is impressive, and is constructed on steep mountain slopes using techniques and positioning that withstand earthquakes, land-slides and flash floods. The high pastures are discussed in some detail. These are relatively high altitude grazing areas that men and goats inhabit during the summer months. Migrations are made to and from these areas in Spring and Autumn, with appropriate rituals. So the story is well told.

All in all, the Kalasha are an extraordinary and endangered group of people and theirs is an extraordinary story.  Mytte Fenze’s book together with that by Maureen Lines do the Kalasha the fullest justice. The two books will stand as major achievements for many years to come. Anyone interested in the origins and culture of the Kalash people and in their environment really has to have a copy of both books.

Peter and Azra Meadows. July 2010.