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PAMIR AND WAKHAN (8 stories) All Galleries

Pamir, Summer 2012

264 images Created 10 Feb 2021

Part 2 - Summer

Afghanistan’s Kyrgyz nomads survive in one of the most remote, high-altitude, bewitching landscapes on Earth. It’s a heavenly life – and a living hell.

Summer expedition through the Wakhan Corridor and into the Afghan Pamir mountains, to document the life of the Afghan Kyrgyz tribe, one of the remotest high altitude communities in the world.

Full story here:
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/article/wakhan-corridor
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  • Twice a day, young Ayeem Khan milks the family's yaks in Afghanistan's Pamir mountains. Some of the milk curd will be dried for use in winter, when yaks give less.
    97_Afghanistan_Pamir_0719_MM8120_120...jpg
  • 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...
    97_Afghanistan_Pamir_0585_MM8120_120...jpg
  • The interior of a yurt with a man drinking tea..Blankets filled with yak and sheep wool pile up against the inside wall of the yurt to insulate it from the constant winds. The floor carpet - bartered against 2 sheep - was acquired by Toorsoon in the lower valleys of Pakistan, a 10 days round trip leading over a 5000m pass. The wooden poles - over hundred years old - are handed over, generation after generation...
    97_Afghanistan_Pamir_0542_MM8120_120...jpg
  • 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...
    97_Afghanistan_Pamir_0738_MM8120_120...jpg
  • Women often wear several watches. "I was given a watch for my wedding - it broke. Then my mother in law gave me a new one, so now I have 2 on my wrist" says Rosman's wife. Khan's summer camp...
    97_Afghanistan_Pamir_0617_MM8120_120...jpg
  • 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..
    97_Afghanistan_Pamir_0686_MM8120_120...jpg
  • The Khan family on horse back. 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...
    97_Afghanistan_Pamir_0589_MM8120_120...jpg
  • 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...
    97_Afghanistan_Pamir_0650_MM8120_120...jpg
  • Kyrgyz men fight in a game of Buzkashi, a competition akin to polo?except a headless goat carcass takes the place of the ball. .Buzkachi is almost exclusively played during weddings..Probably one of the great pleasures in the life of a Kyrgyz man, Buzkashi is Afghanistan's national sport. The Kyrgyz call it ulak tartysh, or ?goat grabbing.?.At the wedding celebration
    97_Afghanistan_Pamir_0746_MM8120_120...jpg
  • It takes about five days by jeep from Kabul to reach the end of the road in the Wakhan corridor visible below in the distance on this picture. Another five or six days, crossing over three high passes takes you to the edge of the Afghan Pamir plateau and the first Kyrgyz camp. A further four-day trek takes you to the China border and the last Kyrgyz camp...Trekking up and along the Wakhan river, the only way to reach the high altitude Little Pamir plateau, home of the Afghan Kyrgyz community.
    97_Afghanistan_Pamir_0508_MM8120_120...jpg
  • Woolook Bu is happy to have a new yak for the family herd. This young calf is just 1 day old. ..
    97_Afghanistan_Pamir_0622_MM8120_120...jpg
  • 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..
    97_Afghanistan_Pamir_0717_MM8120_120...jpg
  • Aziz's father has dilapidated most of his wealth (his livestock), bartering it against opium. Now, the family has only a few yaks left and a horse that young Juma is especially fond of it...
    97_Afghanistan_Pamir_0623_MM8120_120...jpg
  • Making dry curd, named Kurut. Once dry, this hard as stone cheese is used in winter when the animals do not give milk...The Kyrgyz settlement of Tchelab, near Chaqmaqtin lake, Haji Bootoo Boi's camp...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.
    97_Afghanistan_Pamir_0555_MM8120_120...jpg
  • After shearing the sheep, the wool of the sheep is cut in smaller pieces. It is then used to make felt which are essential as covers for the yurts, saddles, blankets, carpets etc...At the Kyrgyz settlement of Ak Chyktash (Mullah Abdul Kassim's camp, aka Mullah Bachik)...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.
    97_Afghanistan_Pamir_0551_MM8120_120...jpg
  • A Kyrgyz man starts fire to cook salty milk tea. Trekking up and along the Wakhan river, the only way to reach the high altitude Little Pamir plateau, home of the Afghan Kyrgyz community.
    97_Afghanistan_Pamir_0516_MM8120_120...jpg
  • Two young Afghan Kyrgyz play in the grass in spring...The Kyrgyz settlement of Tchelab, near Chaqmaqtin lake, Haji Bootoo Boi's camp...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.
    97_Afghanistan_Pamir_0557_MM8120_120...jpg
  • A Wakhi men uses a leaf of Rhubarb as hat to protect himself from the sun. Trekking up and along the Wakhan river, the only way to reach the high altitude Little Pamir plateau, home of the Afghan Kyrgyz community.
    97_Afghanistan_Pamir_0532_MM8120_120...jpg
  • Juma Boi is trying to catch a fish that he banged up by throwing stones in the water. Even though the Pamir has a lot of fish in summer (so many that you can hope to hit one just by throwing a stone in the water!), Kyrgyz are not especially talented with catching them using a line and a hook - seeing it as a pointless excercice. They don't particularly like it either....Near the 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.
    97_Afghanistan_Pamir_0722_MM8120_120...jpg
  • A yak caravan making its way up a dangerous pass. Trekking up and along the Wakhan river, the only way to reach the high altitude Little Pamir plateau, home of the Afghan Kyrgyz community.
    97_Afghanistan_Pamir_0521_MM8120_120...jpg
  • A white horse. Trekking up and along the Wakhan river, the only way to reach the high altitude Little Pamir plateau, home of the Afghan Kyrgyz community.
    97_Afghanistan_Pamir_0531_MM8120_120...jpg
  • A herd of animals, yaks are lifting dust. At the Kyrgyz settlement of Bozoi Gumbaz, before Chaqmaqtin lake, Amon Boi's camp...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.
    97_Afghanistan_Pamir_0545_MM8120_120...jpg
  • Wild onion picked up and eaten raw. Trekking up and along the Wakhan river, the only way to reach the high altitude Little Pamir plateau, home of the Afghan Kyrgyz community.
    97_Afghanistan_Pamir_0529_MM8120_120...jpg
  • An Afghanistan Border Police soldeir is patrolling the borders between Tajikistan and China. His equipment is carried by a donkey...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.
    97_Afghanistan_Pamir_0570_MM8120_120...jpg
  • The Khan family has just emptied out their winter mud house. They are on their yearly migration to the southern part of the Plateau where they will stay in yurts for several months...At the Qyzyl Qorum camp, the Khan's (chief) winter camp...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.
    97_Afghanistan_Pamir_0578_MM8120_120...jpg
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