Matthieu Paley
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Homepage Slideshow

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  • It is late June and two of the Khan's daughter's venture outside their mud hut after a hailstorm at the family's autumn camp beside the Aksu river. The nomads sometimes stop here for a few weeks between migratory seasons if grass for their herds is too scarce at the summer or winter camps...Daily life at the Khan (chief) autumn camp (called Teramo Jai - place of Autumn), beside the Aksu river...Trekking through the high altitude plateau of the Little Pamir mountains (average 4200 meters) , where the Afghan Kyrgyz community live all year, on the borders of China, Tajikistan and Pakistan.
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  • Kyrgyz herders adore their smartphones, which they acquire by bartering and keep charged with solar panels. The gadgets, which first appeared in the Afghan Pamir in 2010, are useless for communication?cellular service doesn't reach the isolated plateau?so they're used to play music and take photos. Phones, like all imported goods in the Pamir, are brought on the back of yaks or horses...Wedding celebration at Kitshiq Aq Jyrga...Trekking through the high altitude plateau of the Little Pamir mountains (average 4200 meters) , where the Afghan Kyrgyz community live all year, on the borders of China, Tajikistan and Pakistan.
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  • Nomads by necessity, the Kyrgyz move seasonally across Afghanistan's Pamir, a high altitude plateau stuck between China, Tajikistan and Pakistan, where the world's highest mountain ranges converge..Today, the Khan's family is leaving for their summer camp. Everything they own needs to be tied to the back of yaks, including a dozen teapots, a cast-iron stove, a car battery, two solar panels, a yurt, and 43 blankets...Moving with the Khan (chief) family from the Qyzyl Qorum camp to the summer camp of Kara Jylga, on the south side of the wide Little Pamir plateau...Trekking through the high altitude plateau of the Little Pamir mountains (average 4200 meters) , where the Afghan Kyrgyz community live all year, on the borders of China, Tajikistan and Pakistan.
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  • The yurt of a newly married couple lit by full moon, on the night before a trip down to the lower valley..A few years ago, envoys from the government in faraway Kyrgyzstan have offered help to the Afghan Kyrgyz community, proposing them to relocate in a valley in Kyrgyzstan? For most, it remains a difficult decision, logistically and psychologically, to abandon their homeland...Young couple - Nemat Ullah and Woolook Bu's yurt..Daily life at the Khan (chief) summer camp of Kara Jylga...Trekking through the high altitude plateau of the Little Pamir mountains (average 4200 meters) , where the Afghan Kyrgyz community live all year, on the borders of China, Tajikistan and Pakistan.
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  • Bibi Zohra is 15 years old. On her wedding night, she is kept hidden away from the gaze of the people coming into the celebration yurt. Marrying a man twice her age, she is soon expected to become pregnant. She faces a risky future. The mortality rate among Kyrgyz women during childbirth is unmercifully high, estimated at 30% - almost 500 times greater than in the developed world...Wedding celebration at Kitshiq Aq Jyrga...Trekking through the high altitude plateau of the Little Pamir mountains (average 4200 meters) , where the Afghan Kyrgyz community live all year, on the borders of China, Tajikistan and Pakistan.
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  • With 8 months of winter and no direct links to the outside world, the Kyrgyz face months of boredom and any possible distraction, like throwing the family cat in the air, is welcome..At the Qyzyl Qorum camp. It is the camp of the now deceased Khan (Abdul Rashid Khan, died in December 2009), and headed by the self proclaimed young Haji Roshan Khan (his son). Opium addicted Haji Roshan was never officially stated Khan and is therefore not accepted as leader by the entire Kyrgyz community. Near the Afghan-China border...Trekking through the high altitude plateau of the Little Pamir mountains, where the Afghan Kyrgyz community live all year, on the borders of China, Tajikistan and Pakistan.
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  • A caravan leader looks for water under the thick sheets of ice covering the Wakhan river. No luck: he will have to melt snow for his tea...Shepherd place names Kher Metek...Going back down to Sarhad village with a yak caravan led by 2 Wakhi traders: Shur Ali and Roz Ali...Trekking down the Wakhan frozen river, the only way down to leave the high altitude Little Pamir plateau, home of the Afghan Kyrgyz community.
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  • Fifteen year-old Ikhbal has been married for two months. Today is the veil ceremony, where she will exchange her childhood crimson veil for a married woman's white headdress. She struggles and cries as the older women around her get ready to fasten the white veil on her head..The Kyrgyz settlement of Ech Keli, above Chaqmaqtin lake, Er Ali Boi's camp...Trekking through the high altitude plateau of the Little Pamir mountains, where the Afghan Kyrgyz community live all year, on the borders of China, Tajikistan and Pakistan.
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  • Aziz's daughter gets angry at her brother for not wanting to help her bring the water back to camp. Khan's summer camp of Kara Jylga...Daily life at the Khan (chief) summer camp of Kara Jylga...Trekking through the high altitude plateau of the Little Pamir mountains (average 4200 meters) , where the Afghan Kyrgyz community live all year, on the borders of China, Tajikistan and Pakistan.
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  • Sickness and diseases, especially amongst livestock, are being dealt with in ancient ways: the affected area is burned off with a hot iron..Summer camp of Muqur, Er Ali Boi's place...Trekking through the high altitude plateau of the Little Pamir mountains (average 4200 meters) , where the Afghan Kyrgyz community live all year, on the borders of China, Tajikistan and Pakistan.
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  • Kyrgyz girls slide large plastic jerry cans back to their family's camp after hacking a hole in the frozen river to fetch water. Men handle herding and trading; much of the hard labor of daily life falls to the women...The Kyrgyz settlement of Tchelab, near Chaqmaqtin lake, Haji Bootoo Boi's camp...Trekking through the high altitude plateau of the Little Pamir mountains, where the Afghan Kyrgyz community live all year, on the borders of China, Tajikistan and Pakistan.
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  • Six-year old Susaï is fetching water near camp in a spring claimed as one of the sources of the Oxus, also known as Amu Darya, Central Asia's largest river. Its waters define most of Afghanistan's borders with other nations to the north..Summer camp of Muqur, Er Ali Boi's place...Trekking through the high altitude plateau of the Little Pamir mountains (average 4200 meters) , where the Afghan Kyrgyz community live all year, on the borders of China, Tajikistan and Pakistan.
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