Kalash Culture to Figure as UNESCO Heritage
ISLAMABAD: In order to preserve endangered living
culture of Kalash Valley, the government documented it for inscription in World
Heritage List of Unesco.
A one-day workshop was organised on Wednesday at Lok
Virsa on preparation of the nomination dossier for inscription.
In his opening remarks as chief guest, Federal Secretary for National Heritage and Integration Faridullah Khan informed the participants that his ministry had come up with a plan to safeguard the endangered heritage property.
In his opening remarks as chief guest, Federal Secretary for National Heritage and Integration Faridullah Khan informed the participants that his ministry had come up with a plan to safeguard the endangered heritage property.
In this connection, it has been decided to
immediately launch preparation of the nomination dossier, he said.
“This necessitates full involvement of all
stakeholders including local governments, NGOs/INGOs, provincial and federal
governments,” he maintained.
The discussions revolved around certain measures to
be taken to safeguard Kalash cultural heritage including devising an inventory
of endangered elements of tangible and intangible culture; efforts for
documentation and preservation of Kalash culture in model Kalash villages of
Bamborate, Birir and Rambur; safeguarding Kalash language from outside
elements; protecting Kalash religion; seeking ways and means to preserve the
music of Kalash in its original form; and protecting Kalash nomenclature.
Talking to media, Lok Virsa’s Executive Director
Khalid Javaid said Lok Virsa had established a creative diorama at the National
Heritage Museum to depict living culture of the Kalash people.
Lok Virsa has also published a book on Kalash which
can facilitate students and researchers to undertake further cultural studies
on this neglected area, he added.
The present Kalash community is restricted to three
parallel valleys of Chitral district i.e. Bomboret, Birir and Rambur.
In Birir and Rambur, Kalash people outnumber the non-Kalash while in the more picturesque Bamboret valley the non-Kalash people are in a slight majority.
In Birir and Rambur, Kalash people outnumber the non-Kalash while in the more picturesque Bamboret valley the non-Kalash people are in a slight majority.
These three narrow V-shaped valleys are situated in
the South-West of Chitral town, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.
In 2007, the local government department created a
separate union council of Bamboret for the Kalash valleys.
The word Kalash bears three meanings: Kalash is a
name of the tribe; name of pagan religion and name of endangered language.
According to historical references Kalash were
majority population in Chitral who ruled the area in 12th century. The recent
history shows that Kalash population is on the decline.
In 1951 Census, the Kalash population was 10,000.
During the last 60 years, the population of the Muslims in Chitral is
increasing at the rate of 2.5 per cent per annum and the population of Kalash
has decreased from 10,000 to 3,700.
Source: http://www.dawn.com/2012/03/01/kalash-culture-to-figure-as-unesco-heritage.html
No comments:
Post a Comment