Daud Khattak, a correspondent with RFE/RL’s Radio Mashaal, visited one Kalash village to witness some of their unique traditions, in life and death, and the scale of threats they face.
With The ‘Fairy People’ Of Pakistan
High in Pakistan’s Hindu Kush mountains, scattered villages hold one of the world’s most imperiled religious minorities, the Kalash.

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The road to the Kalash villages winds through a mountain range known as the “Hindu Killer,” where snow leopards can occasionally be glimpsed, and radical Islam poses a lurking threat to tourists and locals alike.

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The Kalash are a fair-skinned, bright-eyed ethnic minority, with some of them claiming to be descendants of Alexander the Great’s invading warriors. (Photo by Tariq Sulemani, Creative Commons).

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Kalash friends chatting inside a village. The Kalash religion is a complex mix of ancient customs, and includes a belief in fairies who flit through the high mountain peaks before settling onto the alpine meadows in autumn.

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While Kalash men dress in a style almost indistinguishable from Muslims of the region, the clothes of the women and girls jingle with shells and gems that they weave into their clothing.