Tach Sharakat Kalash (born Taj Kalas ) belongs to an endangered Indigenous culture and language community Kalasha (an Indigenous people group) living in the wilderness of Hindu Kush Mountains in the Chitral district of Pakistan . Kalasha are the last remaining pagan tribe numbering 4000 people speaking the ancient Indo-Aryan language Kalasha-mondr . They practice a polytheistic ancestral belief system and Pre-Islamic culture dating back to 3000 B.C.
13-669: The Kalasha Valleys ( Kalasha-mondr : Kaĺaśa Desh ; Urdu : وادی کیلاش ) are valleys in Chitral District in northern Pakistan . The valleys are surrounded by the Hindu Kush mountain range. The inhabitants of the valley are the Kalash people , who have a unique culture, language and follow a religion similar to the Historical Vedic religion . There are three main valleys. The largest and most populous valley
26-573: Is Bumburet (Mumuret), reached by a road from Ayun in the Kunar Valley . Rumbur is a side valley north of Bumburet. The third valley, Biriu ( Birir ), is a side valley of the Kunar Valley south of Bumburet. Kalasha Valley is located at an elevation of over 6,500 feet above sea level, and is characterized by steep slopes, narrow gorges, and rocky terrain. The area is home to a diverse range of flora and fauna, including rare species such as
39-580: Is a side valley of the Kunar Valley south of Bumburet. There are only about 3000 Kalash people, a small religious and ethnic minority of Pakistan. The Kalash religion is polytheist faith similar to paganism and ancient forms of Hinduism and the people offer sacrifices for their gods. Their culture is interlinked with their religion and includes several unique festivals and celebrations. The people generally do not intermarry or cohabit regions with local Muslims but neither are they hostile towards them. The people are under legal and constitutional protection of
52-479: Is also writer of first hand report on "Kalasha Mythology, herbs and Shamanic practices". Tach has been a spokesman for Kalasha with his exceptional linguistic skills speaking four Asiatic and three European languages besides his mother tongue. Working in close collaboration with various international researchers and linguists Taj organized first Kalasha Orthography Conference 2000 in Islamabad, Pakistan. In 2004 he
65-437: Is likely the most conservative, along with the nearby language Khowar . In a few cases, Kalasha is even more conservative than Khowar, e.g. in retaining voiced aspirate consonants, which have disappeared from most other Dardic languages. Some of the typical retentions of sounds and clusters (and meanings) are seen in the following list. However, note some common New Indo-Aryan and Dardic features as well. The Kalasha language
78-647: Is one of the first literates among Kalasha People to have received a BA in Political science and Law at Edwardes College Peshawar Pakistan, a 2nd BA in English Literature and Linguistics at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and MA Human Rights from Central European University Budapest, Hungary. Tach has made first Kalasha indigenous documentary film Kalasha about his people as part of anthropological documentation and advocacy for Kalasha people's linguistic rights in education and cultural autonomy. He
91-815: Is phonologically atypical because it contrasts plain, long , nasal and retroflex vowels as well as combinations of these (Heegård & Mørch 2004). Set out below is the phonology of Kalasha: As with other Dardic languages, the phonemic status of the breathy voiced series is debatable. Some analyses are unsure of whether they are phonemic or allophonic—i.e., the regular pronunciations of clusters of voiced consonants with /h/. The phonemes /x ɣ q/ are found in loanwords. The following table compares Kalash words to their cognates in other Indo-Aryan languages. Examples of conservative features in Kalasha and Khowar are (note, NIA = New Indo-Aryan , MIA = Middle Indo-Aryan , OIA = Old Indo-Aryan ): Taj Khan Kalash Tach
104-509: The snow leopard and the Himalayan black bear . The inhabitants of the valleys are the Kalash people , who have a unique culture, language and follow a form of religion that is associated with their surroundings like the mountains and rivers. The largest and most populous valley is Bumburet (Mumuret), reached by a road from Ayun in the Kunar Valley . Rumbur (Rukmu) is a side valley north of Bumburet. The third valley, Biriu ( Birir ),
117-477: The 20th-century linguist Georg Morgenstierne . More recently, studies have been undertaken by Elena Bashir and several others. The development of practical literacy materials has been associated with the Kalasha linguist Taj Khan Kalash . The Southern Kalash or Urtsun Kalash shifted to a Khowar-influenced dialect of Kalasha-mun in the 20th century called Urtsuniwar . Of all the languages in Pakistan , Kalasha
130-658: The Nuristanis of Waygal, who for a time expanded up to southern Chitral several centuries ago. However, there is no close connection between the Indo-Aryan language Kalasha-mun (Kalasha) and the Nuristani language Kalasha-ala (Waigali), which descend from different branches of the Indo-Iranian languages . Early scholars to have done work on Kalasha include the 19th-century orientalist Gottlieb Wilhelm Leitner and
143-502: The State of Pakistan as a scheduled tribe. Kalasha-mun Kalasha ( IPA: [kaɭaʂaː] , locally: Kal'as'amondr ) is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Kalash people , in the Chitral District of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan . There are an estimated 4,100 speakers of Kalasha. It is an endangered language and there is an ongoing language shift to Khowar . Kalasha should not be confused with
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#1732791752970156-646: The nearby Nuristani language Waigali (Kalasha-ala). According to Badshah Munir Bukhari, a researcher on the Kalash, "Kalasha" is also the ethnic name for the Nuristani inhabitants of a region southwest of the Kalasha Valleys, in the Waygal and middle Pech Valleys of Afghanistan's Nuristan Province . The name "Kalasha" seems to have been adopted for the Kalash people by the Kalasha speakers of Chitral from
169-564: Was able to raise funds to publish first alphabet book of Kalasha language based on Roman script designed by an Australian linguist Gregory R. Cooper. Tach's struggles for survival and development of Kalasha language are featured in a recent documentary film called The Alphabet Book produced by Pattern films. He is currently working on developing Kalasha Literacy Project that involves documentation of Kalash language and Oral historical data by compilation of textbooks and literacy materials in Kalasha language. This biographical article about
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