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Where Modernity Meets Tradition - Pakistan's Karakoram mountains.

180 images Created 8 Jan 2021

Inside one of Pakistan’s Remote Region - Where Modernity Meets Tradition

Text ©Matthieu Paley
Over the years, a mountainous region in Pakistan has become my second home. I’ve seen firsthand how global events have hurt locals’ livelihoods and how technology has challenged the meaning of tradition.
PASU, Pakistan—Sajid Alvi is excited. He just got a grant to study in Sweden.
“My Ph.D. is about friction in turbo jet engines,” Alvi says. “I will work on developing new aerospace materials—real geeky stuff!”
Alvi’s relatives have come to bid him farewell as he prepares to leave his mountain village and study in a new country, some 3,000 miles away.
“We will see you again,” one of them says as they hang out in the potato field in front of Alvi’s house. “You know you won’t get far with a long beard like that. You look like Taliban!”
Alvi, dressed in low-hanging shorts and a Yankees cap, is far from a fundamentalist: He’s Wakhi, part of an ethnic group with Persian origins. And like everyone else here, he is Ismaili—a follower of a moderate branch of Islam whose imam is the Aga Khan, currently residing in France. There are about 15 million Ismailis around the world, and 20,000 live here in the Gojal region of northern Pakistan.
I’ve been visiting Gojal for 17 years, and I’ve watched as lives like Alvi’s have become more common here. Surrounded by the mighty Karakoram Mountains, the Ismailis here have long been relatively isolated, seeing tourists but little else of global events. But now, an improved highway and the arrival of mobile phones have let the outside world in, bringing new lifestyles and opportunities: Children grow up and head off to university, fashions change, and technology reshapes tradition. Gojal has adjusted to all of this, surprising me every time I return by showing me just how adaptable traditions can be.
Full story here: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2016/10/gojali-pakistan-islam/
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  • Above the village of Passu, a teenager checks his Facebook. Many residents here are Ismaili, followers of a moderate branch of Islam. A sign on the mountain slope commemorates the time in 1987, when the Ismaili imam, the Aga Khan, visited the remote region.
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  • Girls play a game of cricket during school break. In the distance, a high-altitude trail leads into Afghanistan’s Pamir Mountains.
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  • At a school assembly in the Zood Khun village, the boys' class discusses an upcoming excursion to the edge of Chapursan Valley.
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  • The school in Zood Khun village. Education is a cornerstone of Ismaili culture, especially for girls.
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  • A boy plays on the wall of the family’s mud house in Kermin village, in the Chapursan Valley.
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  • The recently repaired Karakoram Highway has inspired more and more tourists from the heated plains of Pakistan to take road trips through Gojal to the Pakistan-China border. Selfies in front of the stunning, mountainous Cathedral Ridge are practically mandatory.
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  • Punjabi tourists getting off a tourist boats in a wind storm.<br />
Around Attabad lake, upper Hunza.
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  • Zahir and Mariyam wedding celebration (love marriage), Zood Khun village, Chapursan valley.
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  • A shepherd returns from picking a stray sheep, in Moorkhun village.
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  • She is blind and he takes care of her—a Wakhi couple poses in Darkot village.
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  • Men and women’s chores are often interchangeable in Wakhi culture. Here, a mother and daughter from Hussaini village walk to their summer pastures to collect fodder for their animals.
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  • A bride and bridesmaids laugh at a selfie.
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  • The remote Shimshal village, with its incredible hiking territory, once saw many tourists. But after 9/11, the number of tourists to northern Pakistan dwindled.
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  • Fruit trees, potatoes, wheat, and barley surround most Wakhi homes. The crops can grow in the short summer.
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  • Sost is a village in Gojal, Upper Hunza, Gilgit–Baltistan, Pakistan. It is the last town inside Pakistan on the Karakoram Highway before the Chinese border. The town is an important place on the highway for all passenger and cargo transport because all traffic crossing the Pakistan-China border passes through this town; the Pakistani immigration and customs departments are based here. Pakistan and China have opened border for trade and tourism at the Khunjerab pass.
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  • Shah Bul Masoom practices songs on his Rubab, a traditional instrument similar to a lute. He is a student of the Bulbulik music school in Gulmit village, and he’s working on mixing traditional Wakhi music with modern influences.
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  • Years ago, marriages in the area were arranged by the bride and groom’s parents. Now, most couples tell their parents whom they should pick for a partner.<br />
Woman’s name is Aliya Waheed , man’s name is Salman Alam , they met in college in Gilgit city.
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  • Robina, in scarf, tries her cousin’s motorcycle. She wants to learn how to ride, so she can be more independent.
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  • A young guest. Zahir and Mariyam wedding celebration (love marriage), Zood Khun village, Chapursan valley.
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  • A young Wakhi girl. Stories abound that Wakhis are descendant of Alexander the great.
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  • A man from the Hussaini village returns home after playing a cricket game. On his forearm, he wears a sleeve that doubles as sunburn protection and fashion accessory.
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  • Passu village, cricket player.
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  • A full moon rises over the Passu village and its glacier, and the Karakoram Highway snakes its way through the landscape.
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  • View over Attabad lake, upper Hunza.
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  • In Chapursan valley, a boy is collecting wild Rhubarb, to eat it.
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