The most unique nation of the work Kalash community celebrating their annual festival of Chatarmas.
CHITRAL: The most rare and unique nation of the work Kalash tribes dwelling in the three tucked away valleys Rumbor, Birir, Bumborate of Chitral district are celebrating their winter religious festival the chitr Mas also known as the chow mas. The festival will continue into the next weeks climaxing on the day of the winter solstice. Wikipedia describes the festival as:
The most important Kalash festival is the Chaumos (cawmÅs, ghona chawmos yat, Khowar "chitrimas" from *cÄturmÄsya, CDIAL 4742), which’s celebrated for two weeks at winter solstice (c. Dec. 7-22), at the beginning of the month chawmos mastruk. It marks the end of the year’s fieldwork and harvest. It involves much music, dancing, and the sacrifice of many goats. It’s dedicated to the god Balimain who’s believed to visit from the mythical homeland of the Kalash, Tsyam (Tsiyam, tsíam), for the duration of the feast. Food sacrifices are offered at the clans’ Jeshtak shrines, dedicated to the ancestors.
At Chaumos, impure and uninitiated persons aren’t admitted; they must be purified by a waving a fire brand over women and children and by a special fire ritual for men, involving a shaman waving juniper brands over the men. The ‘old rules’ of the gods (Devalog, dewalÅk) are no longer in force, as’s typical for year-end and carnival-like rituals. The main Chaumos ritual takes place at a Tok tree, a place called Indra’s place, "indrunkot", or "indréyin". Indrunkot’s sometimes Kalash Damsel believed to belong to Balumain’s brother, In(dr), lord of cattle.
Ancestors, impersonated by young boys are worshipped and offered bread; they hold on to each other and form a chain and snake through the village.
The men must be divided into two parties: the pure ones have to sing the well-honored songs of the past, but the impure sing wild, passionate, and obscene songs, with an altogether different rhythm. This is accompanied by a ‘sex change’: men dress as women, women as men (Balumain also’s partly seen as female and can change between both forms at will).
Kalash young man Qaid e Azam told scribe that after 17 Dec, outsider men will not be allowed to join the festival because of exercising special religious practices of Kalash community.
Narrated from chitralnews.com
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