Kalash People PTV Documentary 1976

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THE HIMALAYAN JOURNAL
HIMALAYAN JOURNAL 08
EARLY EXPLORERS OF KAFIRISTAN
authored by Lieut.-Colonel B. E. M. GURDON | published in April 1, 1936
During the summer of 1935 the columns of The Times contained interesting information, furnished by their Simla correspondent, regarding the activities of a German expedition which was then ex­ploring Kafiristan or Nuristan (Land of Enlightenment), as the Afghans apparently call that region since the forcible conversion of the people to Islam by Amir Abdur Rahman Khan.
The correspondent stated that, according to Captain Cobb, formerly Assistant Political Agent in Chitral, little now remains of the pagan beliefs and rites formerly practised except among the small settlements of Bashgal Kafirs, who, in 1895, to avoid religious perse­cution, fled to the Bumboret, Rumbur, and Urtsun valleys on the Chitral side of the watershed.
During my five years' service in Chitral as Assistant Political Agent I visited these settlements on several occasions, so I was naturally much interested.
The Simla correspondent also stated that so far as is known a great part of Nuristan had never been explored by a European. This last statement led to Mr. H. O. King's letter in The Times of 18th July 1935, in which he pointed out that Mr. W. W. McNair of the Indian Survey Department had visited Kafiristan in 1883 and that he was awarded the Murchison grant of the Royal Geographical Society, before whom he read a paper on his exploit, on the 10th December 1883.Help Preserve Kalash Page from Face Book Presents KALASH Tribe in NEED immediately,