Aziz Ali Dad

Only by becoming part of the nature, the natural beings reveal and speak to the humans. To see the creatures of sacred nature, including ibex, the hunter has to purify his eyes and soul. Eyes are the reflection of soul. If eyes are dominated from human perspective than the soul cannot experience and converse with sacred being of deities.

Yacholo/Phuthh is a hairy creature, but his hair is not deemed as a dirty part of the body. In fact, they are considered as a key to wealth. Whoever posses a bundle of Yacholo/Phuthh’s hair he or she becomes rich.

Jardhang’aaylo: A Mythical Creature of Gilgit-Baltistan By: Aziz Ali Dad     In addition to other dimensions of life, the indigenous cosmology of Gilgit-Baltistan and Chitral grapples with the mystery of death as well. It is this attempt to explicate the unfathomable phenomenon of death that gave birth to an explanatory schema and creatures associated with it. Like other societies, death was a dreaded thing in the culture of Gilgit-Baltistan. It is not only the physical decay or causes that are feared, but the process of…

Youdhaini and the Supernatural Delirium: Series in the mythical creature of Gilgit-Baltistan. By: Aziz Ali Dad The domain of mystical moments provides peeps into the processes where divine delirium drives them into ecstatic states. It is such an ecstatic trance that enables one to dig deeper into the human soul by overcoming the hurdles posed by consciousness. Shamans are one of the psychological types who manifest the kind of mentality or worldview build upon the solid rocks of passions and ecstasy. Despite all the claims…

Liminal State of Shaman: A Subjective Account--Part 1 It was a bright sunny day in the spring season when I experienced something totally alien to me. There were strange voices, images and feelings. Initially, I thought these were figments situated only in my mind. I felt that there was another person who is already present within me and wanted to emerge from the confines of my mind into the presence of the physical world. That voice was like a call from very distant place in my village. In the villages of Gilgit-Baltistan,…

Mito/Phanis: An Uncanny Character in Mythical Cosmology Although the mythical cosmology of Gilgit-Baltistan is populated with beautiful, good spirits and amicable creatures, it also populated by creatures and spirits that are deemed evil, ugly and vile. Among the evil creatures of mythical cosmology, witch is the most prominent. In the whole sociology of witchcraft, a male character enacts an important role in functioning of rituals associated with witches. He is called Mito in Shina and Phanis in Brushaskhi language. The…

Hargin: A Mythical Creature of Gilgit In the imaginary creatures in popular folktales of Gilgit, Hargin is quite famous. Hargin is basically a giant snake, python, or anaconda like creature. In the mythical sense it resembles to the dragon in Chinese mythology or culture. Though people apply this name to refer to a giant snake, a close reading of the content of folktales and mythical accounts about leads us to the conclusion that it is a mythical creature. According to Mazhar Ali, a researcher of Shina language and lexicon,…

Book: Delusional Sates: Feeling Rule and Development in Pakistan’s Northern Frontier Author: Nosheen Ali Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2019. ISBN 978-1-108 total pages: 304 pp.   The very subtitle of book “Delusional States: Feeling Rule and Development in Pakistan’s Northern Frontier”, points towards a new way of exploring a particular political issue from the perspective of sociology of feelings. Nosheen Ali’s book is an excellent addition to ever increasing academic research about socio-politics of…

In July 2019, four people of Ghizer district were abducted by a Kohistani tribal leader from a meadow in Hundarap valley in Gilgit-Baltistan. The valley borders with Kohistan district of Khyber Pukhtunkhwa.  Later, a FIR was lodged against the abducted persons in Kohistan. The issue was resolved by intervention of different stakeholders. However, on Feb 22, 2020, the judge of sessions court of Ghakuch cancelled the bail of abductor Malik Afreen, and  handed him over to police for physical remand. This has elicited angry…

The Nation and Marginal Imagination  History is the cruelest of all the events in the annals of human civilization because it lives within us despite the fact that it occurred decades, centuries, or even millennia ago. Not only this, it also underpins our notions related to truth, identity, culture, and self. Owing to its permeation in the present, history is considered not only as a study of the past, but also of the present. Seen in this way, humans, unlike animals, appear to be more a product of history than biology for…