Despite the increasing Muslim population that converted the majority of the Kalash to a minority even in these valleys as well, their survival with their ancient religious and cultural traditions is a matter of significance.

[2] This specific group, the topic of this article, lives in three isolated mountain valleys located in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan: Bumburet (Kalash: Mumuret), Rumbur (Rukmu), and Birir (Biriu).

Wheat, maize, grapes (generally used for wine), apples, apricots and walnuts are among the many foodstuffs grown in the area, along with surplus fodder used for feeding the livestock.

According to one tradition, their ancestors migrated to Chitral Valley from Nuristan or a location further south,[web 2][12] called "Tsiyam" in their folk songs and epics.

[17] A study by Li, Absher, et al. (2008)[18] with geneticists using more than 650,000 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) samples from the Human Genome Diversity Panel, found deep rooted lineages that could be distinguished in the Kalash.

The study, however, found that they shared a significant portion of genetic drift with MA-1, a 24,000 year-old Paleolithic Siberian hunter-gatherer fossil and the Yamnaya culture.

The researchers thus believe they may be a drifted Ancient Northern Eurasian stock from which some of the modern European and Middle Eastern population also descends.

Due to their uniqueness, the researchers believed that they were the earliest group to separate from the ancestral stock of the modern population of the Indian subcontinent estimated around 11,800 years ago.

[39] During the 1970s, local Muslims and militants tormented the Kalash because of the difference in religion and multiple Taliban attacks on the tribe lead to the death of many, their numbers shrank to just two thousand.

The threats caused outrage and horrified citizens[failed verification] throughout Pakistan and the Pakistani military responded by fortifying the security around Kalash villages,[42] the Supreme Court also took judicial intervention to protect the Kalash under both the ethnic minorities clause of the constitution and Pakistan's Sharia law penal code which declares it illegal for Muslims to criticise and attack other religions on grounds of personal belief.

[46][47][48] In November 2019, the Kalash people were visited by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, as part of their Pakistan tour and they saw a traditional dance performance there.

Kalasha was formerly spoken over a larger area in south Chitral, but it is now mostly confined to the western side valleys having lost ground to Khowar.

Wife-elopement may lead in some rare cases to a quasi-feud between clans until peace is negotiated by mediators, in the form of the double bride-price paid by the new husband to the ex-husband.

[citation needed] Kalasha traditional music mainly consists of flute-like instruments (usually high in pitch), singing, poetry, clapping and the rhythmic playing of drums, which include the: During the Muslim rule in Chitral in the 14th century most of the Kalash gradually converted to Islam, except a small number of them who up-hold their religion and customs, but they were restricted to the Kalasha Valleys of Bumburet, Rumbur and Birir.

Despite the increasing Muslim population that converted the majority of the Kalash to a minority even in these valleys as well, their survival with their ancient religious and cultural traditions is a matter of significance.

Kalash culture and belief system differ from the various ethnic groups surrounding them, but are similar to those practised by the neighbouring Nuristanis in northeast Afghanistan before their forced conversion to Islam.

He noted the following about the pre-Islamic Nuristani religion: Before their conversion to Islâm the Nuristânis practised a form of ancient Hinduism, infused with accretions developed locally.

[66][67] The neighbouring Nuristani people of the adjacent Nuristan (historically known as Kafiristan) province of Afghanistan once had the same culture and practised a faith very similar to that of the Kalash, differing in a few minor particulars.

[69] During the Muslim rule in Chitral in the 14th century most of the Kalash gradually converted to Islam, except a small number of them who up-hold their religion and customs, but they were restricted to the Kalasha Valleys of Bumburet, Rumbur and Birir.

Despite the increasing Muslim population that converted the majority of the Kalash to a minority even in these valleys as well, their survival with their ancient religious and cultural traditions is a matter of significance.

[73] Noted linguist and Harvard professor Michael Witzel summarises the faith practised by the Kalash with this description: In myth it is notably the role of Indra, his rainbow and his eagle who is shot at, the killing of his father, the killing of the snake or of a demon with many heads, and the central myth of releasing the Sun from an enclosure (by Mandi < Mahān Deva).

There are echoes of the Puruṣa myth, and there is the cyclical elevation of Yama Rājan (Imra) to sky god (Witzel 1984: 288 sqq., pace Fussman 1977: 70).

Importantly, the division between two groups of deities (Devalog) and their intermarriage (Imra's mother is a 'giant') has been preserved, and this dichotomy is still re-enacted in rituals and festivals, especially the Chaumos.

[75][76] There is a creator god, appearing under various names, no longer as Father Heaven, but as lord of the nether world and of heaven: Imra (*Yama Rājan), Māra 'death' (Nuristani)[63] He (Yama rajan) is a creator deity called Dezau (ḍezáw) whose name is derived from Indo-European *dheig'h 'to form' (Kati Nuristani dez 'to create', CDIAL 14621); Dezauhe is also called by the Pashto term Khodai.

Indr has a demon-like counterpart, Jeṣṭan, who appears on earth as a dog; the gods (Devalog, Dewalók) are his enemies and throw stones at him, the shooting stars.

Purity is very much stressed and centered around altars, goat stables, the space between the hearth and the back wall of houses and in festival periods; the higher up in the valley, the more pure the location.

It is dedicated to the god Balimain who is believed to visit from the mythical homeland of the Kalash, Tsyam (Tsiyam, tsíam), for the duration of the feast.

[63] In myth, Mahandeu had cheated Balumain from superiority, when all the gods had slept together (a euphemism) in the Shawalo meadow; therefore, he went to the mythical home of the Kalash in Tsiyam (tsíam), to come back next year like the Vedic Indra (Rigveda 10.86).

[citation needed] Historically a goat herding and subsistence farming people, the Kalasha are moving towards a cash-based economy whereas previously wealth was measured in livestock and crops.

After building the first road which could be driven on by 4wD vehicles in the Kalasha valleys in the mid-1970s the people are engaged in other professions including tourism and joining the military, police and border force.