Check out the eyes on these two women! Absolutely beautiful and bizarre at the same time! Just not what one would expect...the world is a truly amazing place!
I am sure that I have seen the pictures before and I am sure I thought, wow! Yet, I had never been inspired to seek out any information about who the people in the pictures are and what their stories are. While wasting time surfing the Internet and instead of doing the work I should have been doing, I came across the pictures I have added here and a little bit of background on the Kalash people.
The Kalash consider themselves to be the direct descendants of Alexander the Great. Now, whether that is true is subject to some debate. What is not subject to debate is that they are the descendants of the men in the armies of Alexander the Great.
The tribe is an ancient one and is referred to as being pagan in nature. This is not that surprising when one considers they are living in some of the remotes areas of the world in the Hindu Kush and in a small area known as Birir in the North West Frontier of Pakistan. Kalash means "wearers of black"! However, by the look of the pictures, black is the base colour but there is plenty of bright colours on show in these outfits. The Kalash now number some 3,500 and the encroaching civilization and the pressure to convert to Islam is likely to reduce that number over time and slowly wear down their unique culture.
The post is not supposed to be an in depth analysis but rather just an eye-opener. If any one wants to learn more about the Kalash it is as simple as clicking on the links...the pictures were borrowed from here.
4 comments:
those are really magnificent eyes.. reminds me of a national geographic cover long ago of a girl with the same kind of eyes. the photo became a legend (so did the photographer-dont remember the name) and then a couple of years ago i think he found the girl who is now a woman, and took another picture of her in the same pose.
beautiful eyes!
Hey Rima...
That's what it reminded me of as well!
Stunning picture though!
Was this the group that Kipling wrote about in "The Man Who Would Be King"? If I'm not mistaken they considered themselves to be descendents of Alexander or Iskander as well. As you have pointed out the world is truly an amazing place.
PJBali...
Indeed it is!
These are the same Kalash people that Kipling wrote about in "The Man Who Would Be King".
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