June 2023

Meherban Shah: The Unsung Hero During my teenage years I very well remember the time when I first visited Shimshal village in Hunza. It was a rainy afternoon when we left for the dangerous Shimshal road in an orange jeep. We had to get off…

The Diamond Jug Part 1 Imagine that there is a jug made of diamonds And full of life-giving fluids sitting on a table. Now, imagine that someone comes along And says: This jug and everything in it is mine. The owners of the jug reject this…

Hunza’s importance as a strategic area ascended during the Great Game, when rivalry between the British Lion and Russian bear was on the rise.

Shandur is a mystical place, In Khowar folklore the high mountains are home to fairies. These fairies can be both benign and evil.

Both of the Non-Islamic tribes who at that time dominated the Western and Southern flanks of Chitral had an intense sense of loyalty to the Katoor Mehtar.

The Buddhist history of Chitral was long forgotten before the esteemed archaeologist and well known orientalist Sir Aurel Stein paid several visits to the valley in the early 1900s and uncovered this hidden story.

In his research article , ‘Fence of Peristan – The Islamization of the “Kafirs” and Their Domestication’, published in 2016 in the Italian scientific journal "Archivio per l'Antropologia e la Enologia " Alberto Cacopardo suggests ‘Peristan’…

On Graveyards in Dardistan By Uwe Topper Introductory Note The following account of special art and traditions conserved at graveyards of the Indus-Kohistan region had been written to be published in ‘Aspects of Tribal Life in South Asia,…

Introduction  This report based on a research study on the state of education in Swat-Kohistan; and is a part of an education improvement campaign in Swat-Kohistan called Improving Quality, Retention and Access (IQRA)—this initiative is…