They speak an ancient Indo- Iranian language, Dardic, which conserves very ancient features. They took refuge in the mountains of Chitral a long time ago, surviving many waves of invaders. One of the last of these named them Kafir Kalash, “Black Pagans,” after the black robes of the women, and their refusal to convert to Islam. The individual tribes call themselves by older names: Kati, Kom, Vasi, Presun.

• The United States and its partners continue to face a growing number of global threats and challenges. The CIA’s mission includes collecting and analyzing.
• Get the latest slate of new MTV Shows Jersey Shore, Teen Wolf, Teen Mom and reality TV classics such as Punk'd and The Hills. Visit MTV.com to get the latest episodes.
• Discussion Navigation: Hotel Bed Bugs (pg 1) · Hotel Bed Bugs (pg 2) · Hotel Bed Bugs (pg 3) · Hotel Bed Bugs (pg 4) chris: My husband and I and 2 other couples.

Kafiristan, shown in lower center. A neighboring group of Kalash people speak a different Indo- Iranian language but shared many cultural ideas and deities. In 1. 89. 5- 9. 6, the Afghan emir Abdur Rahman Khan led an attack on the country, declaring “that either the Kafirs would be converted to Islam or be wiped off the face of the earth.

The largest of the seven emirates by area, Abu Dhabi accounts for over 80% of the total land area of the United Arab Emirates. This emirate combines tranquil beaches.

Only several hundred Kati Kafirs (the Red Kafirs of the Bashgal Valley) managed to flee across the border.” . Three valleys, with about 3.

They have a saying, “Our women are free” (homa istrizia azat asan), and they assert that Kalasha women have “choice” (chit). Wynne Maggi’s fine book, Our Women Are Free: Gender and Ethnicity in the Hindukush, gives a detailed portrait of the culture. She explores the contradictions between that affirmation and the patriarchal aspects of the culture, which are considerable. Instead, this article concentrates on the Kalasha goddesses.

A key source on Kalash religion is The Kafirs of the Hindu- Kush (1. George Scott Robertson, who traveled in Kafiristan five years before the forced conversions began.

Irish oral tradition associates the Cailleach with many ancient hilltop monuments that date to the neolithic era. Some passage graves are called by her.

He listed 1. 6 principal deities, writing “The gods are worshipped by sacrifices, by dances, by singing hymns (L? They were the god- callers; they would call the gods. They recited history. Imro’s praise is this.

Mone’s praise should be this.’ A person’s — uh, what was her name? That woman’s — she was a holy woman. Another — she ? One of our peoples’ gods was Disa. The rest were males, for instance, Gish and Mone, and whoever else. You know them all; you’ve written them down, right?” . He endowed other gods such as Moni, Gish, Satar.

Placing her in the palm of his hand, Imr. She alighted in a lake, and was there concealed and released. By other accounts, she is his sister. Dizane. Shrine of Disane, northeast Afghanistan. Dizane is the great Mother Goddess of the Kalasha. Variants on her name are Disani, Disni, and she is also called Dezalik (“sister of Dezau,” another name for the creator god).

This sister- brother pairing is a deep matriarchal pattern in many cultures around the world. Disani “is important; she is the goddess of the hearth and of life force; she protects children and birth giving women. Hers was the greatest festival of the Kalasha, which Muslims described as “the Kafir Eid.”“In the evening and throughout the night there were feasting and rejoicings in most houses at. Bringing torches to Disane at dawn on New Years Day, at K. At the first glimpse of dawn on the morning of the 1.

The blaze was increased by ghee being thrown on the fire. This one, sung in early spring when the flocks are taken up to the mountain pastures, calls to mind Avestan paeans to the milk- giving Iranian goddess Anahita: O Disni, you are the protector of the gates of God and moreover you have eighteen grades: Keeper of the temple Giver of milk to human beings, Protector of infants, Well- wisher of man- kind . Robertson had collected a “good story” about this tree, “but the record of this story was lost in a mountain torrent.” . Some Kafirs affirmed that Dizane was the daughter of Satar. She may have been originally the goddess of fruitfulness. She usually shares a shrine with other deities, but at K. There, at the Munzilo festival, those Kanesh who live in the upper village have to sleep in the open.” .

The tree was so big, that if any one had attempted to climb it, he would have taken nine years to accomplish the feat; while the spread of the branches was so great that it would occupy eighteen years to travel from one side of it to other. Satar. On his near approach he was suddenly seized with a mighty trembling, and the huge tree burst asunder, disclosing the goddess Disane in the center of its trunk.

While she was engaged in this occupation, a devil observed her. He had four eyes, two in front and two behind. Rushing forward, he seized Dizane, while she bent her head to her knees, quaking with terror. The fiend tried to reassure her, saying, . He took the name Baghisht, given him by a man who asked for his name.

This son of Dizane was one of the Kalash gods. If a birth is difficult, they offering walnuts to her, praying, “Oh, my Dezalik of the bashali, make her deliver quickly, bring the new flower into her arms, don’t make things difficult; your eating and drinking.” And again: “Oh, my Dezalik of the bashali, one has come under your care. Bring health, set the flower in her arms, your eating and drinking,” as the women throw more walnuts to the goddess.

The gods wanted to get control of the House of the Sun, inhabited by a wealthy demon. His death will mean the healing of the world. The god Mandi gathers a company of the gods, including the goddess Disni, and leads them up the hill.

They find the house, and an old woman is there. Mandi goes to ask her about it. But when he goes back to relate this to the gods, he forgets what she told him. This happens three times. Another god has to follow him and report back her instructions.

The gods’ first attempt, by shooting arrows, fails because the house is made of iron and the cords holding it up are invisible.“They ask Disni to sow seeds, which ripen quickly, and are threshed. The chaff attaches itself to the thread and it is visible in white.” Then Mara is able to shoots arrow through the cords, bringing down the house. But its door will not open. Disni tells Mandi to look at her white, full thighs. He becomes excited and is able to jump against the door with enough force to break it. He kills the seven demons. The seven brothers are called Dizano, which seems to relate them to Disane and the seven branches of her tree in the earlier story; though here they are demonized, and Disni works against her sons.

In Presungul is “a great irrigation channel” “which it is affirmed that Dizane herself constructed. There is also a good bridge in the same district called by her name.” . But a much closer parallel exists among the Dards of Ladakh, where the goddess Gan- si Lha- mo “is especially associated with irrigation and the building of water canals.” The Darnishi (fairies) also aid people in these tasks. Snoy 1. 97. 5: 5. Her hymn goes something like this: . He wrote that while the men were away on a raid, the women leave off their field work and gather in the village.

For most of the day and all night long they do nothing but dance and feast. These three persons direct the revels, and contribute greatly to the feasting. Kan Jannah’s wife is carried from one place to another as a .

The little party staggers over the narrow shaking bridge, and then starts off at a run, to the outspoken delight of the onlookers. Occasionally the women dance on some convenient house- top.

In the afternoon they invariably feast and dance under the big mulberry tree in the east village, and use the east or west vllage dancing- place according to the position of the sun. During the night all congregate at the east village dancing- place. To watch them at night, when the majority are obviously tired, leaves no double in the mind on this point. One young woman, shrugging her shoulders in time to the music, had streams of perspiration rolling down her face, although she was all muscle apparently. The exertions these women undergo are astonishing to see. Many of the very old women have to give up from sheer exhaustion, but the midde- aged and the young work away singing and dancing 6. Stlll the great majority of the dancers at all times attend strictly to the dancing.

I could read as much in their faces and in their gestures.“All wore horned caps except the little girls. A large number carried dancing axes, and not a few had daggers.” One old woman flourished her dagger before Robertson’s eyes for a few minutes, to the delight of the other dancers.

She is worshipped everywhere probably. Struggling out of the water, Krumai ran diagonally up the steep rock, leaving the marks still visible in a vein of mineral of a color different from the rest of the rock. When she got to the top she began kicking down showers of stones on to the gods below, to their great annoyance. Ukrainian Marriage. On hearing this they all adjured Krumai to behave better.

She thereupon assumed her proper shape, came down amongst them, and subsequently entertained them all at a sumptuous banquet which she brought from Tirich Mir and served on silver dishes.” . She flees from a giant, hiding in a tree, but is impregnated when he urinates on the tree. Krumai then gives birth to the god Mande. The title C^omo stands for queen .

She has a little shrine on the top of the village tower, and a second near the mouth of the Pontzgul She is also worshipped in the Bashgul Valley.” . She takes care of women and children, and protects lying- in women. The women’s retreats, the . As the time for sowing approaches, goats are sacrificed in their honor, in order that crops may be ample and the earth beneficent.” .

A fire is lit in the center of the growing crop, juniper- cedar, ghee, and bread are placed upon it, and a certain ritual intoned. No animal is sacrificed. At the time that the ceremony to the fairies is being prepared, certain thick bread cakes have to be offered to Yush the devil. So also when Dizane is being invoked to protect or improve the wheat, Yush has to be simultaneously propitiated.” But no one dances for him. Cheese and other offerings were left there unguarded, since no one would be foolish enough to steal from this tree.

The mischievous fairies like to carry off the basket of flour from sacrifices, and torment the priest in other ways, tearing his robes, or setting upon him. But they “are more benevolent than malicious.

On the night preceding the Dizanedu festival .