Notes from Roof of the World: the unknown and untold story
The Kyrgyz of Pamir fighting for survival in the mountainous trap
A 7 year old girl, Marbet, casually gazes at me. One color prevails around her: ethnic robe, silk cloth of the headwear and her chapped cheeks are all scarlet red.
"No, it's not make-up, and it's not retouched. Her cheeks burned by the bitter cold" says Matthiew Paley in the description of the photo. Her portrait was published in National Geographic and millions of internet users watch a little girl of extremely exotic looks through the screens of their computers, tablets and smartphones, unaware that she and her community might be doomed.
Little Marbet is an ethnic Kyrgyz girl, living in Afghanistan. But not in a regular province. She lives in the Wakhan Corridor — a narrow piece of land in the Afghan Pamir mountains between Pakistan and Tajikistan. Centuries ago, fleeing from constant territorial wars in Central Asia, Kyrgyz tribes escaped to the height of more than 14.000 feet, cutting themselves from enemies, as much as from the rest of the world.
The Kyrgyz of Pamir were able to keep centuries-old nomadic traditions and lifestyle. But severe natural and weather conditions affected the population size. The absence of medicine and sanitary intensifies death rates: even easily treatable diseases like bronchitis or appendicitis lead to fatality. The closest doctor up to 7 days away by animal-drawn transportation: there are no roads, so only yaks can walk on mountain slopes.
And the worst: population growth was zero last year. Mortality rates are high then anywhere else in the world: half of all children do not survive and third of the women die when giving a birth. The latter created a certain gender ‘inequality’, meaning imbalance.
There are less than a 1500 of Kyrgyz left in the Pamir. And the number keeps decreasing.
The rise and fall
At the the joint of famous Himalayas, Hindu Kush and Tian-Shan there are Pamir mountains, historically and traditionally referred as Bam e Dunya — Roof of the World. Here, nomadic tribes of Kyrgyz coexist with nature being the most isolated high-altitude community on the planet, exceeding even Tibetan monks.
Living in portable dwellings — yurts — the Kyrgyz move seasonly 3-4 times a year from open valleys and pastures in the summer, deep in the mountains, seeking shelter from the cold winds during winter. In addition to traditional livestock like horse and sheep, Kyrgyz of the Afghan Pamir breed yaks and camels: animals able to survive in high altitudes.
Only few ethnographers studied the Kyrgyz of Pamir. According to Eduard Kubatov, the their history dates back to the 15th century and moving to the region continued till 19th century. Throughout this period, territorial conflicts with neighboring khanates were usual thing in the region, but Kyrgyz tribes were able to reach the peak of their life activity in the 18-19 centuries: the area of settlements broadened till Hindu Kush and population was 85.000 people, 5.500 of which were living in Wakhan Corridor of Afghanistan.
But in 1893-1895, the history of Pamir Kyrgyz reached its crisis point in times of demarcation. Two great empires, playing political intrigues decided the destiny of Afghanistan: British Kingdom established the ‘Durand line’ in the south of Afghanistan to Pakistan, while Russian empire put the border to the north through the Pamir mountains. Ever since, Kyrgyz tribes in Afghanistan were separated from the rest of their ethnic group and got trapped in the mountains.
Captured by the past
For over a century, Kyrgyz tribes lived in a complete isolation. They even were unaware of the Kyrgyz Republic, not to mention historical changes in the world. "We came here a 100 years ago, but we don’t know where we came from" says Osmon Ajy to the Crosslink Development International.
Amazingly or not, but future, or better saying present, never reached the settlement. "Travelling in Wakhan is like traveling in time" says Louis Meunier, long rider and documentary film-maker. "They live out of time, untouched by civilization, like their forefathers used to do centuries ago".
Moving with yurts and breeding yaks, Kyrgyz of the Afghan Pamir remain to live in tribal hierarchy. The leader of the community is khan, who solves internal issues along with the council of elders. With muslim clergy and absolute patriarchy, women play a primeval role: the cook, who brings offspring.
Louis Meunier, who lived along with the Kyrgyz tribes for a year, describes Afghanistan incredibly modern even without electricity. Living next to three developed worlds of China, Tajikistan and Pakistan, Kyrgyz cannot cross the borders: most of them have no official documents.
Be our guest
Even though the Kyrgyz lived unaware about civilization, civilization found out about prisoners of Afghan Pamir. As the old saying goes "if the mountain won't come to Mahomet then Mahomet must go to the mountain" — alpine inhabitants did not come down, so people climbed on the roof of the world.
In 2007, Kyrgyzstan country director at Crosslink Development International (CDI), Jeff Waalkes, made a first trip through Wakhan Corridor reaching the settlement. In the video report, Waalkes points that "they still spoke Kyrgyz, hold Kyrgyz traditions", meaning the community did not integrate with other ethnicities of Afghanistan and stayed in their own circle. "We have all the customs form our fathers. Here is no other nationality. Just us", explains Osmon Ajy.
Since then CDI has conducted and filmed four expeditions, presenting a broad understanding about the Kyrgyz of the Afghan Pamir. Providing humanitarian aid and supplies, CDI also made statistical research of the population, which brought worst results in the world according to Waalkes. One out of three women dies when giving a birth, while half of all the born children die before the age of 5. For the record: the nearest doctor is 5-6 days of hiking.
In the same 2007, another fascinating guest arrived to the settlement. Being an experienced horseback rider, mountaineer and explorer of all corners and heights of Afghanistan, Louis Meunier came across the Kyrgyz tribes while guiding a group of tourists for a trek through the Wakhan Corridor. This way, Meunier found a new activity: to explore the nomadic tribe.
Despite the miraculous, exotic, and almost ancient lifestyle, Meunier too was concerned about welfare of the community. "I bumped into a British doctor, who had moved to the area with his family to help the people. He explained that he had offered the Kyrgyz to vaccinate their kids, and thus greatly increase their chances to survive. The Kyrgyz took some time to ponder over the proposition and finally asked for a hundred dollar for each child before they could get their vaccines. In the end, only a couple of children were inoculated. What an irrational behavior for a people at the brink of extinction".
Values in the Pamir are different. Neglected by history and development, people are lost. Louis Meunier wanted to share their life and fate, hopes and fears with the world. So, in three years he came back to the Kyrgyz with a talented and adventurous movie crew to film a documentary.
Voices and stories
"Prisoners of the Himalayas" directed by Meunier, captured the Kyrgyz in both winter and summer seasons. It shares the story of Wali who is trying to arrange marriage of his children. In the place, where women die young, their price is weight in gold, or more precisely, in sheep. "Life is hard here. But the hardest thing is to be rich enough to get married", says Nemahtullah, Wali’s 20 year old son. "You need a hundred sheep to buy a wife".
But Wali found the way out: "I am a poor man. I cannot spend one hundred sheep to buy each of my sons a wife. That’s why I am going to make a trade-off. I give my girl to a man, and I get another one in exchange for my son". His 18 year old daughter Wulluq Bu will marry a man she does not know and meet him for the first time at the wedding.
The role of female is limited mostly due to traditions and norms. Woman must sacrifice herself for the sake of communion. Girls are not allowed to access education, even though it is represented by two schools in yurts, which work 2-3 months a year. "Our fathers don’t let us. Education is shameful for girls", shares a 13 year old Sapiya with CDI.
According to Bubuhajy, woman is always busy and carries an important duty: "We make breakfast in the morning, and at 11 o’clock too. After 2 PM, we make some more food because the day is long and schoolboys get hungry. Then we make dinner. So, in one day we make food four times". However, the cook is an executable task, unlike giving birth. To illustrate, Bubuhajy gave birth to 11 children and many of them died: "now one son and two daughters are left".
— How many children do you have?
— I don’t have a child.
— How many have died?
— Four.
A young man Rayatullo also lost all his kids and most men had to bury their wives. Here, man struggles no less than woman. Since early adulthood, they must think of survival. Ayatullo wants to study but he is the only boy at home. "I’m busy caring for the yaks, horses, camels and sheep", he explains.
Prisoners of… opium
Setting caravans, few of the Kyrgyz go for a 250km hike in the winter to the outside world. They need to bring food supplies such as sugar, salt, flour. With the spring trade arrives to the Pamirs, but bring poison that’s killing people.
"Here you don’t have a doctor or a hospital. Opium is good for you. It’s your only medicine" easily sells the good merchandiser. Wali calls him a ‘demon’, though he smokes himself. Many people smoke opium, both males and females. His brother Aziz is addicted for years: "I started smoking because I was sick. I was in bed shape back then. There was no medication… So I smoked. That’s all there was".
Second home
In the place, where life expectancy does not reach 40 and death comes to every yurt, people have to think of survival. Options are limited. An attempt to repatriate tribes to Kyrgyzstan has not been implemented due to many factors. Playing on ideological strings of unity, officials politicized the issue. Moreover, socio-economic situation got shaky from two revolutions.
The forgotten Kyrgyz reached the peak of mentioning in local news only in 2009-2013. According to the Ministry of Labour, humanitarian aid is provided ‘constantly’. Even an expedition was planned in February of 2016, the aim of which is to bring first 5 families to Kyrgyzstan. However, since then there are no news about Kyrgyz of the Afghan Pamir. For the record: there was another expedition planned for August of 2012, which never happened.
"If these trips were indeed planned, the fact they have not happened reflects the fact the Kyrgyz government has bigger priorities than saving the Kyrgyz of the Afghan Pamir", comments on the situation Chris Rickleton, the Central Asian analyst. "There has been little movement, mostly because solving this problem creates a new one — resettlement and all the social economic costs it entails". On the other hand, continuing war reflected on the role of Afghanistan in the region: "Central Asian states view Afghanistan as a basket case whose instability could spread into their own countries", portrays Rickleton. So, how can the endanger people survive?
Chris Rickleton shared his thought on that: "In an ideal world the Afghan Pamir Kyrgyz would be integrated into the wider Afghan population at their own consent although this is unlikely to happen because doing so would dilute the community power structure and particularly the influence of local leaders".
Integration as a solution is justified by the fact of inbreeding. "We don’t receive girls from others, and we don’t give our girls to others", said Osmon Ajy to CDI. Now imagine 1.200 people with women decline — correct, inbreeding is inevitable. But the Afghan Kyrgyz are a very proud community: they have no will to share relations with other ethnicities of Afghanistan. Understanding this, Rickleton believes that "the best solution would be for another country to solve this problem". But who could possibly help them?
Concerning the issue, not many consider beyond the region. Thus, let’s look at the origins again: "In the past, when the world was being divided by a few countries, maps were drawn, borders were set", says Roshan, current khan of the Kyrgyz. So, what if to ask Great Britain and Russia to help? In the end, these countries "settled the community's fate" points Rickleton.
Unknown and untold
In the meantime, captured by a photo camera Marbet still looks at me. But I do not know how does the real Marbet do. Is her mother still alive? Is she dreaming about school? Is she sitting next to the smoke of opium?…
I will never know.
