Kalasha Village Gateway: An Elapsed Tradition
This historical photograph of a traditional village gateway in Birir Valley, Chitral, is reproduced from Kafirs and Glaciers: Travels in Chitral by Reginald Charles Francis Schomberg, published in London in 1938 by M. Hopkinson Ltd. The photograph belongs to an early period of documentation of Kalasha society; the fieldwork is dated to 1930 in the present account.
Constructed from timber, stone and carved wooden figures, the gateway marks the entrance to a village and reflects the distinctive architectural and cultural landscape of the Kalasha valleys. Such gateways can be understood as more than physical boundaries: they mark the transition into a community’s inhabited space, where local traditions, collective identity and cultural memory are rooted.
Although many decades have passed since this photograph was taken, the tradition of erecting gateways at village entrances continues in the Kalasha valleys, albeit with changes in design and materials. Comparable traditions of village gateways and carved wooden figures are also associated with Nuristan, across the border in Afghanistan, reflecting a wider cultural heritage of the Hindu Kush region.
This photograph therefore offers a valuable historical record of a tradition that has not entirely disappeared. It connects the material heritage documented in the early twentieth century with the living cultural landscape of the Kalasha people today.
