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PAMIR AND WAKHAN (8 stories) All Galleries

Pamir, Winter 2012

269 images Created 10 Feb 2021

Part 1 - Winter (3rd winter expedition)

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.

A winter 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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  • 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...
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  • Nemat Ullah, one of the Khan's grandsons brings the herd back. Being a shepherd on the Bam-e Dunia (meaning ?Roof of the world? - the term historically used to describe this region) is probably the hardest job in the Afghan Pamir, an environment at the very cusp of human survivability..
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  • The yak herd returns. Though paper money is almost nonexistent, many camp's herds like this one include hundreds of valuable animals - Butu Bai, the leader of the camp, is in fact a rich man. The basic unit of Kyrgyz currency is a sheep. A cell phone costs one sheep. A yak costs about 10 sheep. A high-quality horse is 40. The going rate for a bride is 100...
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  • In this high, barren plateau, survival depends on livestock. Red-robed Kyrgyz girls corral sheep for milking, while dung dries atop the walls for use as fuel. The sheep, along with goats, yak and camels provide milk, meat and wool.
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  • Khairuddin's father hopes that shaving his son's head?and putting the hair in a ?clean place,? such as a frozen river?will cure the boy's persistent headaches. Although the Kyrgyz are Sunni Muslims, their rituals also reflect other ancient traditions. They believe that evil spirits cause many medical problems...
    97_Afghanistan_Pamir_0303_MM8120_120...jpg
  • Kher-u Din throwing his hairs outside near his house, in a clean place (as opposed to throwing them in the garbage or in the oven), a Kyrgyz tradition..Although the Kyrgyz are Sunni Muslims, their rituals also reflect other ancient traditions. They believe that evil spirits cause many medical problems...The young Kher-u Din is getting a haircut: his head will be shaved to "cure" a persistent headache...
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  • Under the gaze of President Karzai, a lazy morning at the Khan's winter house. The Kyrgyz are notoriously fractious and independent-minded. They don't often rally around a leader. A Kyrgyz joke goes that if you put three people in a yurt and come back an hour later, you'll find five Khans. They respect President Karzai's authority but hold little hope that the central government can help them improving their living conditions...
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  • Khaltcha and Abdul Muttalib smoke opium several times a day - like approximately 20% of the Kyrgyz. ?We started smoking when we lost our first child? says Abdul, ?Every year, one of our children would die? - often from diseases easily treatable elsewhere. Only one, a son, survived to age five. Then he, too, passed away. ?We lost 11 children, we are unlucky?. In the Pamir, it is not unusual for parents to lose six or seven children. Most Kyrgyz are extremely unsentimental about death and dying and accept it as an unavoidable part of life. In 2007, Alex Duncan, a British doctor, collected data in the Afghan Pamir and established that child-under-five mortality there was 520 deaths per 1,000 live births (52% mortality), the world's highest rate. Main reasons to this are the intense isolation, the high altitude environment and no access to doctors or health clinics...
    97_Afghanistan_Pamir_0317_MM8120_120...jpg
  • 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..
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  • Ikhbal (15, on left) has been crying off and on for two days. Recently married, she is both sad to leave her family nest and anxious about her future at her husband's camp. .The veil celebration: before moving to her new husband's camp, Ikhbal, a recently married Kyrgyz girl, will exchange the red veil of the unmarried girl for the white veil signifying that she is now a married woman..
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  • The best man takes a picture of the bride. After a two-day horse journey, Ikhbal will soon arrive at her husband's camp, near the China border, escorted by the groom's best man. The majority of women have never been more than a few miles from where they were born. This is Ikhbal's biggest journey..With Ikhbal, the recently married woman  moving for the first time to her husband's camp..
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  • Ikhbal (right) arriving at Tash Seri camp, her husband's camp, and kissing on the lip her future mother in law. .With Ikhbal, the recently married woman  moving for the first time to her husband's camp..She just exchanged the red veil of the unmarried girl for the white veil signifying that she is now a married woman...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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  • Taking a rare break in their day, women gossip at the Khan's camp. The origin of the word Kyrgyz is believed by scholars and Kyrgyz alike to derive from two words - kyrk (forty) kyz (maidens) - a reference to the mythical progenitors of the Kyrgyz people..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.
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  • Night shot. View over the central Little Pamir.
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  • Crossing a pass during the 5 day winter journey out of the Pamir plateau, down to the lower valley..Up and over the Shower pass..Between Zang Kuk and  Zard-e Bar shepherd house..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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  • 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.
    97_Afghanistan_Pamir_0449_MM8120_120...jpg
  • Kids are happy with the only football in the Afghan Pamir, brought by an anthropologist in 2010...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.
    97_Afghanistan_Pamir_0420_MM8120_120...jpg
  • Wakhi men having diner of salty tea and bread, in a winter shepherd house. Chirog don.
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  • A Kyrgyz man, Abdul Basir, bringing the trader's horses back for the night. At the Andemin 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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  • Caravan traffic. Passing a small caravan going down from the Pamir plateau : a man has attached a sick lamb on top of his yak, leading it down from the winter pasture of Chap Dara valley...A Wakhi caravan coming down from the winter pasture of Chap Dara valley...Trekking up the Wakhan frozen river, the only way up to reach the high altitude Little Pamir plateau, home of the Afghan Kyrgyz community.
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  • Karim, helper for Er Ali Boi, with a caravan of Bactrian camels..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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  • On the Pamir plateau, at 4200m, a horseman is swept off his feet by the constant wind called "Bad-e Wakhan", which blows East most of the year, on the Afghan Pamir plateau..In camp of Ech Keli (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.
    97_Afghanistan_Pamir_0467_MM8120_120...jpg
  • A Snow leopard track..Snow leopards are rare in the Pamir Plateau, but more present in the lower valleys...Trekking up the Wakhan frozen river, the only way up to reach the high altitude Little Pamir plateau, home of the Afghan Kyrgyz community.
    97_Afghanistan_Pamir_0252_MM8120_120...jpg
  • Cooking diner over a fire in a shepherd place named Zang Kuk ("Sulphurus spring" in Wakhi)...Trekking up the Wakhan frozen river, the only way up to reach the high altitude Little Pamir plateau, home of the Afghan Kyrgyz community.
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  • Ikhbal (15, Right) with her younger sister..The veil celebration: before moving to her new husband's camp, Ikhbal, a recently married Kyrgyz girl, will exchange the red veil of the unmarried girl for the white veil signifying that she is now a married woman...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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