Traditional Dress of Kalasha Women
……Most Pakistanis as well as foreign tourists in Pakistan easily recognize Kalasha women’s dress, although they are likely to know little else about Kalasha culture. The Kalasha themselves recognize that their dresses are strikingly beautiful and original—possibly the most beautiful way of dressing in the world, women often add.
The word costume carries implications of exotic otherness, of “dressing up” and of fixed, unchanging, tradition bound forms. None of these connotations is appropriate for Kalasha women’s clothing, which is a dynamic and personal expression of both individual and collective identity. The word fashion (with its connotations of fashioning or making, its associations with self expression) better captures Kalasha women’s sense of personal investment in the clothes they create and wear.
Susan Bordo has offered a powerful critique of what she has called the “general tyranny of fashion” in the lives of Western women— “perpetual, elusive, and instructing the female body in a pedagogy of personal inadequacy and lack” (1993:254). Kalasha women do not seem to suffer from the sort of body image tyranny that Bordo describes. They are not marketed to, so inspired changes in women’s clothing really do represent a form of “self-fashioning.” Also, one wonderful thing about Kalasha women is that their standards are not impossibly high, so they are relieved of the perpetual inadequacy many Western women feel. Kalasha fashion therefore offers more room for play, for “fashion” in the sense of process, of crafting However much fun, the game of Kalasha fashion is also serious. Women’s elaborate clothing and jewelry are central markers of Kalasha ethnicity, both within and beyond the community. While many other aspects of their traditional culture—rules about marriage, merit feasting (Darling 1979), religious rituals, and so on—seem to be relaxing, women’s dresses are becoming ever more elaborate and central to the Kalasha identity as a unique people. While her clothes may all look the same to outsiders, in fact each woman’s dress is both an important expression of her individual identity and a manifestation of important cultural values. Her choice of colors, combinations, and patterns, the amount of decoration and careful attention to detail allow for her creative expression of self. Yet the result is a constellation of features that is also an evocative symbol of the identity of the Kalasha collective. Through their continual attention to and elaboration of their dress, Kalasha women are not simply “wearing” ethnicity but are actively involved in making culture.
The process of identifying “Kalashaness” with Kalasha women’s clothing begins at birth…..1
1. The Old Dress of Kalasha Women Cheo (Cew)
….The traditional dress of Kalasha women cheo was a black woolen robe-like garment, tucked around the waist with a long woolen belt or paTi, with almost no or little decorations at the neck, sleeves or hem.
Interestingly about the use of color black in their dress. Black is also a symbol of equality that is practiced in Kalash society. It is an egalitarian society without any social stratification on the basis of lineage, dress, status or economic prosperity.
Similar black woolen dresses for women are also reported among some other mountain communities like Merag in Bhutan (Karchung 2011: 23).
Talking about old Kalasha women‘s dress, Maggi (2001) notes, twenty years ago, women wore heavy woven woolen dresses that they made from the wool of black sheep, carded and spun over the long winters, called cheo, then a dramatic change in women‘s dress came in the late 1970s when a group of young Kalasha women were taken to Karachi to dance in a folk festival, and due to the heat felt in their heavy woolen dresses, they bought lighter cotton material and sewed replicas of this lighter material. On their return they continued wearing these very comfortable dresses and soon they became popular throughout the valleys and according to Maggi (2001) only two to three women were keeping up custom,‘ by wearing woolen dress in Rumbur Valley at the time of her research (1973-77).
Not a single Kalasha woman was seen wearing a traditional woolen dress, during my visit to Kalasha Valleys on joshi festival of May 2011. It has almost disappeared from the Kalasha Valleys and has become a collection piece.
The first one is given to a little girl, at the initiation ceremony during the winter festival, when she receives her first ku'pas. It is often made from white wool with many soumak borders on the top. The next ones will be made from the dark wool with decorations only on the back above the middle hem.
Sperber‘s study also supports this change in dress. But she states that the woolen dress ―is still considered special and very beautiful, ‖ (Sperber 1996: 385). And in 1983 she notes many of the old and a few of the young women were still wearing the woolen dress in the summer time, and about 80 percent during winter festival (chaumos) whereas in 1987 winter festival only about 20 percent of the women were wearing the woolen dress (Sperber 1996:385). The woolen dress cheo was very simple and had almost no or little decoration at the hem neck or shoulders. The dresses worn by the Kalasha women in the 1960s show almost no decoration at hems, shoulders or necks as is clear from the photographs by Graziosi (1964) and the dress collections at the Kalasha Dur Museum and the Folk Heritage Museum in Islamabad.
About the labor involved in weaving of the woolen dress, Sperber (1996) notes, the woolen dress due to spinning and weaving, needed six huge balls of fine dark woolen yarn and two to three months of work, but it could also survive at least two years of hard daily use (383-4).
Unfortunately at present, due to total abandonment of the old dress, specimens of traditional black woolen dress of Kalasha women are only found in the museum collections for further study and documentation. To observe women wearing cheo in reality in the Kalasha Valleys cannot be envisioned any more.
2. The New Dress of Kalasha Women: Piran
The new cotton and mixed material dresses called piran are in vogue now and worn by almost all Kalasha women; older, younger and even little girls. Pirans, like the old woolen dress cheo have always been black as well, as noted by Sperber. The word Piran probably derived from the Persian word for dress perahan and is very colorful and elaborates having decorated hems of ten inches and more of chot (cot) or decoration. According to Maggi this trend started in 1993, when on spring festival joshi two of her respondents, who claimed to be the first one, decorated the hems of their dresses with a solid ten inches or so of decoration (Maggie 2001: 9). The decorative patterns (floral or geometrical) on a piran, are primarily embroidered designs in bright colors using knitting yarn, available in valley shops, made by hand on manual sewing machines. Piran takes a lot more yarn and skill to make exquisite designs and motifs with expense on various cloth materials, hence shows a woman‘s creativity, skill and wealth, highly prized among the Kalasha Kafirs.
As noted by Sperber (1996), with some initial criticism the new style of dress piran became very popular throughout the valleys (383-4), and looks like the trend is on the rise, with more and more innovations and embellishments added each passing year, observed on major festivals.
After the first use of the piran dress in 1974 it swept across the valleys and has almost taken over the place of the traditional woolen dress cheo completely. A May 2011 participation in joshi festival showed almost every woman was wearing a piran with beautifully designed floral and geometrical hems, necks and shoulders in brilliant colors.
When compared the durability of the piran as a dress with the old dress cheo, it is not very durable. According to Sperber (1996), pirans are less heavy and more comfortable during the hot summers (384-7). They can be much more heavily decorated, and are made in only three to five days, but after about four months of daily use, they need to be renewed-perhaps with other decorations. That way piran as a new dress promotes changes, and reinforces new fashion sensibilities among Kalasha women than the simple cheo dress of the bygone times. Pirans cost more money, so they give higher status to their owners than the old home made woolen dress of the past (Sperber 1996: 383). Earlier, following local custom, Kalasha women would only make a new dress before Joshi festival, now many women make new pirans also for the other big festivals, like Uchao and Chaumos. A two piece piran dress; a loose black-robe with baggy pants, requires five to six meters of cloth in any material, readily available from the nearest market in Chitral town.
The changes in traditional Kalasha women‘s woolen dress cheo and the newly added decorations on piran dress are truly indicative of more opportunities that are brought to the valleys with increased accessibility to all-season roads, education, economic opportunities, tourism and effects of globalization. I would like to quote Sperber, who traces the complete history of how the new dress piran came into existence:2
How the cotton dresses came:
…Washlim Gul tells:
"When I was about 16-18 years old (ca 1974), there was a folklore festival in Islamabad arranged by President Bhutto.
We Kalash were invited to come and show our dances. Prom Kalashadesh came Kata Singh, Shah Jehan, 4 men from Birir, 2 women from Bomburet, 3 from Birir and from Rumbour came myself and another woman, who now has died.
We came down to Islamabad in our woolen dresses, and it was far too hot for us to wear them there Then one of the women from Birir made pirans (the cotton dresses) for all of us.
As we came back, everybody thought, the pirans were ugly, but gradually more and more women had them made. Previously we had them made only before Joshi (the spring festival). Now many women make new pirans also for U'tjao and 'Chaomos (the other big festivals)."
In 1983 many of the old and a few of the young women were still wearing the woolen dress in the summer time.
In photographs from the winter festival 1983 show that about 80% of the girls and women were wearing them then.
Gradually the woolen dress has gone out of use in the summer period.
In photographs from the winter festival 1987 show that at that time about 20% of the women were wearing the woolen dress and that the small girls receiving the ku'pas now were dressed in cotton pirans.
The piran has always been black. The first of them were decorated with thin machine borders in red and green cotton thread. six or seven years ago, skeins of fine synthetic yarn in vivid colors came to the shops in the valleys, and they were very soon used, as bottom thread, because the synthetic thread repels dirt and does not absorb dye from the cotton cloth. She further notes, recently, color-fast polyester cloth has come into use. Five or six years ago various ribbons reached the shops and began to be used as decorations on the pirans.
Then two to three years ago, thick knitting yarn reached the shops. It was machine-stitched onto the material with fine thread. The introduction of this soft thick thread inspired the women to make more gently curved designs, like flowers above the hem (Sperber 1996: 385)
Pati - the woman's belt:The long woolen belt with borders and long fringes is wound around the hips letting the long dress hang baggy.
The loose dress and the tight belt are used as "pockets': The dress has got room for walnuts and apples that can be distributed through the sleeves. In the belt may be the naswarin - the mirror-box with snuff or needles, thread, hair-pins etc.
Every woman wears the belt whenever she is not in her bed. Before going to sleep, she takes off her belt and sleeps in her dress.
Taking off the belt is a very private thing - never to be done in public. 'She puts on her pati" is another way of saying: Now she is well after her illness."
Before a birth both the woman to be confined and the two midwives take off their belts - hard work is to be done and everything must be loose. The pati for the adult women is woven in the third hole of the loom and so has a length of about 360 cm plus 2 x 45 cm fish-bound fringes at the ends. Its width is 13-16 cm. For small girls it is adjusted to their size.
The warp is made from fine single thread, whereas the weft is made from double twisted thread. So it becomes warp faced. The weaving is 6-rowed twill alternating with 1-2 wefts of double threaded plain weave.3-4 broad colored borders are inserted - the brighter colored, the better. So the home dyed yarn has been replaced by synthetic yarn for the borders. Typical is the pati-design in kelim technique (maybe combined with soumak) surrounded by triple stripes of kaoshelak, which are still made from home dyed yarn in indigo, green and dark brown. Sometimes a shield design is placed inmost.
The fringes are used as decoration hanging down. A few of them are used for attaching the belt: When the bell is put on. The woman lifts up the breast part of the very long dress and may keep it between her teeth. Then she holds some of the fringes in her left hand, while she winds the belt around herself clock wise from the front as many times as she can. Finally some of the fringes at the other end are thrust into the belt and the rest of the fringes remain loose.
For the traditional men’s dresses patis are also made and used traditionally in red color.
The women's shawls
During the winter, at festive occasions in particular, the women may wear the traditional shawls. Two traditional types exist: The Tja'rushdi and the Djil.
The Tja'rushdi
The tja'rushdi shawl is made from one length of white woolen cloth - at each end are broad colored soumak borders and fringes bound in lish. The cloth is cut in two parts that are joined together by a middle seam.
The tja'rushdi can be worn by every woman. According to Peter Parkes it is specially made before Chaomos by the mother of a little girl, who is going to receive her first ku'pas. The tja'rushdi is worn around the body covering the left shoulder and attached by a pin.
The Shaddar:
If they do not have a traditional shawl, or if it is not too cold, the women wear 4 pies of cloth from the shop - the brown woolen shaddar also used by the men during the winter, or just a piece of patterned cotton cloth round the body tied on the left shoulder.
Sometimes a woman without the ku'pas can be seen with a cloth wound around her head and shoulders and maybe around her baby too - a cloth made into a bundle in one corner:
The woman then has probably started bleeding. She is on her way to Bashali - the menstruation house. She is wrapped in the shaddar sheet; she is going to sleep upon.
The shaddar is tied around some flour for the bread; she is going to eat there. Maybe she has also got yarn tied in the shaddar, as many women weave shu`manns, during their stay in the Bashali.
The Djil
The djil shawl is rarer as it can only be worn by the daughters of a big _man. (Feast giver, who made a BiraMor). The Kalash have very strict rules for exogamy (marriage inside the fathers clan is first allowed after 7 generations, and inside the mother’s clan after 5 generations). So the women marry into other clans.
Anyhow she keeps her strong identity as a member of her father’s clan. She is always considered a "member" (djamili=clan daughter) by her father's clan: To show her, she is remembered; she receives presents of bread, goat’s cheese and maybe shu'mans at each of the big festivals.
So it is the honor of the father and not that of the husband, which is reflected in the dresses she wears - whether she can wear the djil and whether she could wear the Tshish and the shield design with the inner circle made from cowries (before these began to be used by all women).
The jil is made in one very long piece covered with a special combination of transverse stripes in indigo and dark green and with fish-bound fringes at the ends (weft faced weave). The stripes are narrower in the middle part, which can be folded inwards. The edge on one side is made into a middle seam, and so the jil can be worn as a big hood, which I have seen some young women do.
The elder women though say that it is not the way for decent women, who respect the traditions:
Either the "hood triangle has to be folded inwards and the shawl worn like the tja'rushdi or it can be worn double as a shorter shawl…3
1Maggi, W. 2001 Our Women are Free: Gender and ethnicity in the Hindukush. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.2 Shabnam Bahar Malik, 2015, Traditional Costumes of the Kalasha Kafirs of Chitral,
3 Sperber Glavind, Brigitte, 1990. Kalash: Dresses, Body Decorations and Textile Techniques. In Proceedings of the Second International Hindu Kush Cultural Conference, pp 30-31
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