Animism, ancestor worship, and Indo-Iranian religion While the majority of the Kalash have converted to Islam, minority of the Kalash people have remained following their traditional Kalasha religion, which is a form of
animism and
ancestor worship mixed with elements from ancient
Indo-Iranian religion and mythology. According to
Witzel, the Kalash religion contains both pre-Vedic and Indo-Iranian elements, but very little post-Vedic influences. Elements of the Kalash mythology and folklore are closely related to the
Vedic mythology, and its religion has also been compared to that of
ancient Greece. Kalash culture and belief system differ from the various ethnic groups surrounding them, but are similar to those practised by the neighbouring Nuristanis in northeast Afghanistan before their
forced conversion to Islam. The neighbouring Nuristani people of the adjacent Nuristan (historically known as Kafiristan) province of Afghanistan once had the same culture and practised a faith very similar to that of the Kalash, differing in a few minor particulars.
Conversion to Islam and persecution The Kalash of Chitral have maintained their own separate cultural traditions. while they themselves are first attested in 1339 during
Timur's invasions. Nuristan had been forcibly converted to Islam in 1895–96, although some evidence has shown the people continued to practice their customs. During the Muslim rule in Chitral in the 14th century most of the Kalash gradually converted to Islam, except a small number of them who up-hold their religion and customs, but they were restricted to the Kalasha Valleys of Bumburet, Rumbur and Birir. Being a very small minority in a Muslim region, the Kalash have sometimes been targeted by proselytising Muslim and
Christian missionaries. The challenges of modernity and the role of outsiders and NGOs in changing the environment of the Kalash valleys have also been mentioned as real threats for the Kalash. The Kalash people are often referred to as Kalash Kafirs by the local Muslims, and there have been incidents of killings, women kidnapping and seizure of their lands by Taliban and extremists. As per the Kalash, forced conversions, robberies, and attacks endanger their culture and faith. In one incident, Kalasha gravestones were desecrated and the symbolic carved horses on Kalasha altars were destroyed after a dispute between Kalash and their Muslim neighbours.
Deities Noted linguist and Harvard professor Michael Witzel summarises the faith practised by the Kalash with this description: ;Mahandeo Mahandeo is a deity whom the Kalash pray to and is known as
Mahadev in other languages of the Indian subcontinent in modern Hinduism. ;Imra Certain deities were revered only in one community or tribe, but one was universally revered as the Creator: The ancient Hindu god
Yama Râja called imr'o in Kâmviri. There is a creator god, appearing under various names, no longer as Father Heaven, but as lord of the nether world and of heaven: Imra (*
Yama Rājan),
Māra 'death' (Nuristani) He (Yama rajan) is a creator deity called
Dezau (ḍezáw) whose name is derived from Indo-European *dheig'h 'to form' (Kati Nuristani dez 'to create', CDIAL 14621); Dezauhe is also called by the
Pashto term
Khodai. There are a number of other deities, semi-gods and spirits. ;Indr Michael Witzel claims there is an
Indra-like figure, often actually called Indr (N., K.) or Varendr (K., waræn, werín, *aparendra). As in the
Veda, the rainbow is called after him. When it thunders,
Indra is playing Polo. Indra appears, however, in various forms and modern 'disguises', such as Sajigor (Sajigōr), also called Shura Verin. The shrine of Sajigor is in
Rumbur valley. Warén(dr-) or In Warīn is the mightiest and most dangerous god. Even the recently popular Balumain (baḷimaín, K.) has taken over some of Indra's features: He comes from the outside, riding on a horse. Balumain is a culture hero who taught how to celebrate the Kalash winter festival (Chaumos). He is connected with
Tsyam, the mythological homeland of the Kalash. Indr has a demon-like counterpart, Jeṣṭan, who appears on earth as a dog; the gods (Devalog, Dewalók) are his enemies and throw stones at him, the shooting stars. ;Munjem Malék Another god, Munjem Malék (munjem 'middle'; malék from Arab. malik 'king'), is the Lord of Middle Earth and killed, like the Indra, his father.
Mahandeo (mahandéo, cf. the Nuristani Mon/Māndi), is the god of crops, and also the god of war and a negotiator with the highest deity. ;Jestak
Jestak (jéṣṭak, from *jyeṣṭhā, or *deṣṭrī?) is the goddess of domestic life, family and marriage. Her lodge is the women's house (Jeṣṭak Han).
Dezalik (ḍizálik), the sister of "Dezau" is the goddess of childbirth, the hearth, and of life force; she protects children and women. She is similar to the Nirmali (Indo-Iranian *nirmalikā). She is also responsible for the Bashaleni lodge. ;Suchi, Varōti and Jach There also is a general pattern of belief in mountain fairies Suchi (súči), who help in hunting and killing enemies, and the Varōti (called vātaputrī in Sanskrit), their violent male partners of Suchi, reflecting the later Vedic (and typical medieval Kashmiri) distinction between
Apsaras and
Gandharva. They live in the high mountains, such as
Mount Kailash like
Tirich Mir, but in late autumn they descend to the mountain meadows. The Jach (j.ac.) are a separate category of female spirits of the soil or of special places, fields, and mountain pastures. The Kalasha people believe in one God (
Dezao) with reverence to minor 'gods' (
Maloths) or more aptly known as celestial beings. They also use some Arabic and Persian words to refer to God. ;Krumai Krumai is the goddess of the mountain
Tirich Mir. She appears in the form of a wild goat, and she is associated with childbirth.
Rituals These deities have shrines and altars throughout the valleys, where they frequently receive goat sacrifices. In 1929, as
Georg Morgenstierne testifies, such rituals were still carried out by Kalash priests, "ištikavan" 'priest' (from ištikhék 'to praise a god'). This institution has since disappeared but there still is the prominent one of shamans (dehar). Witzel writes that "In Kalash ritual, the deities are seen, as in Vedic ritual (and in Hindu Pūjā), as temporary visitors." Mahandeo shrines are a wooden board with four carved horse heads (the horse being sacred to Kalash) extending out, in 1929 still with the effigy of a human head inside holes at the base of these shrines while the altars of Sajigor are of stone and are under old juniper, oak and cedar trees. Horses, goats and sheep were sacrificed. Wine is a sacred drink of Indr, who owns a vineyard (Indruakun in the Kafiristani wama valley contained both a sacred vineyard and shrine (Idol and altar below a great juniper tree) along with 4 large vates carved out of rocks)—that he defends against invaders. Kalash rituals are of the
potlatch type; by organising rituals and festivals (up to 12; the highest called biramōr) one gains fame and status. As in the Veda, the former local artisan class was excluded from public religious functions. There is a special role for prepubescent boys, who are treated with special awe, combining pre-sexual behaviour and the purity of the high mountains, where they tend goats for the summer month. Purity is very much stressed and centered around altars, goat stables, the space between the hearth and the back wall of houses and in festival periods; the higher up in the valley, the more pure the location. By contrast, women (especially during menstruation and giving birth), as well as death and decomposition and the outside (Muslim) world are impure, and, just as in the Veda and
Avesta, many cleansing ceremonies are required if impurity occurs. Crows represent the ancestors, and are frequently fed with the left hand (also at tombs), just as in the Veda. The dead are buried above ground in ornamented wooden coffins. Wooden effigies are erected at the graves of wealthy or honoured people.
Festivals , 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 festival celebrations The three main festivals (khawsáṅgaw) of the Kalash are the
Chilam Joshi in middle of May, the
Uchau in autumn, and the
Caumus in midwinter. The pastoral god Sorizan protects the herds in Fall and Winter and is thanked at the winter festival, while Goshidai does so until the Pul festival (pũ. from *pūrṇa, full moon in Sept.) and is thanked at the
Joshi (joṣi, žōši) festival in spring. Joshi is celebrated at the end of May each year. The first day of Joshi is "Milk Day", on which the Kalash offer
libations of milk that have been saved for ten days prior to the festival. The most important Kalash festival is the
Chawmos (cawmōs,
ghona chawmos yat, Khowar "chitrimas" from *
cāturmāsya, CDIAL 4742), which is celebrated for two weeks at winter solstice (c. 7–22 December), at the beginning of the month
chawmos mastruk. It marks the end of the year's fieldwork and harvest. It involves much music, dancing, and goats killed for consumption as food. It is dedicated to the god Balimain who is believed to visit from the mythical homeland of the Kalash,
Tsyam (Tsiyam, tsíam), for the duration of the feast. At
Chaumos, impure and uninitiated persons are not admitted; they must be purified by waving a fire brand over women and children and by a special fire ritual for men, involving a shaman waving juniper brands over the men. The 'old rules' of the gods (Devalog, dewalōk) are no longer in force, as is typical for year-end and carnival-like rituals. The main Chaumos ritual takes place at a Tok tree, a place called Indra's place, "indrunkot", or "indréyin". Indrunkot is sometimes believed to belong to Balumain's brother, In(dr), lord of cattle. The men must be divided into two parties: the pure ones have to sing the well-honored songs of the past, but the impure sing wild, passionate, and obscene songs, with an altogether different rhythm. This is accompanied by a 'sex change': men dress as women, women as men (Balumain also is partly seen as female and can change between both forms at will). At this crucial moment the pure get weaker, and the impure try to take hold of the (very pure) boys, pretend to mount them "like a hornless ram", and proceed in snake procession. At this point, the impure men resist and fight. When the "nagayrō" song with the response "han sarías" (from *samrīyate 'flows together', CDIAL 12995) is voiced, Balumain showers all his blessings and disappears. He gives his blessings to seven boys (representing the mythical seven of the eight Devalog who received him on arrival), and these pass the blessings on to all pure men. In myth, Mahandeu had cheated Balumain from superiority, when all the gods had slept together (a euphemism) in the Shawalo meadow; therefore, he went to the mythical home of the Kalash in Tsiyam (tsíam), to come back next year like the Vedic Indra (
Rigveda 10.86). If this had not happened, Balumain would have taught humans how to have sex as a sacred act. Instead, he could only teach them fertility songs used at the Chaumos ritual. He arrives from the west, the
Bashgal valley, in early December, before solstice, and leaves the day after. He was at first shunned by some people, who were annihilated. He was, however, received by seven Devalog and they all went to several villages, such as Batrik village, where seven pure, young boys received him whom he took with him. Therefore, nowadays, one only sends men and older boys to receive him. Balumain is the typical culture hero. He told people about the sacred fire made from junipers, about the sowing ceremony for wheat that involved the blood of a small goat, and he asked for wheat tribute (hushak) for his horse. Finally, Balumain taught how to celebrate the winter festival. He was visible only during his first visit, now he is just felt to be present. ==Economy==