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C h a p t e r 1 The Ethnic Landscape Many outsiders think we are one race. But we are not, we are many peoples. —Afghan Uzbek parliament member Faizullah Zeki, Mazar i Sharif, 2005 Centuries of history contributed to the political and cultural landscape of Afghanistan today. The legend of the Kalash people of Pakistan is a good place to begin to understand that history. High in the snowcapped Hindu Kush Mountains on the AfghanPakistani border lived a Dardic-Vedic people who claimed to be the direct descendants of Alexander the Great’s troops, who had once occupied the land as a distance outpost of empire, only to be erased by succeeding waves of invaders. While the neighboring Pakistanis in the Punjab and Sindh were darker-skinned Muslims, these isolated mountain people had light skin and blue eyes. Although the Pakistanis proper converted to Islam over the centuries, the Kalash people retained their pagan traditions and worshipped their ancient gods in outdoor temples. Most important, they produced wine much like the Greeks in antiquity (although this is no proof of a link to the Greeks)—this, in a Muslim country that forbade alcohol. In the nineteenth century most of the Kalash—or Kafirs (Infidels) as they were formerly known—were brutally conquered by the “Iron Amir of Afghanistan,” Abdur Rahman. Their ancient temples and wooden idols were destroyed, their women were forced to burn their folk costumes and wear the burqa or veil, and the entire people were converted at sword-point to Islam. Their land was then renamed Nuristan, the Land of Light. Only a small pocket of this vanishing pagan race survived across the border in three isolated valleys in the mountains of what would become Pakistan in 1947. I had never visited the pagan Kalash tribe but had always hoped to. After we discussed the Kalash in one of my history classes, a student 12 The Basics challenged me to follow the advice I gave my classes, which was to get out and see the world. In June 2010 my colleague Adam and I set out to travel into the Hindu Kush on the Afghan-Pakistani border to see this ancient race for ourselves. But when we arrived at our Pakistani host’s house in Lahore after flying through Abu Dhabi, he cautioned us regarding our goal of visiting the lost descendants of Alexander the Great: “It’s a dangerous two-day journey off-road into the mountains,” Rafay warned us. “But that’s not the most important obstacle you’ll have to overcome. To get to the remote homeland of the Kalash you need to cut through the Swat Valley.” Rafay then pointed to our intended route on a map, and Adam and I groaned. Our dream was falling apart. We both knew that the Swat Valley was a stronghold of the Pakistani Taliban. In 2007 the Taliban brutally conquered this beautiful valley and forced a puritanical version of Islam on the local people. The Taliban also used it as a springboard for sending suicide bombers through Pakistan. “But all hope is not lost,” Rafay continued. “The Pakistani army just reconquered most of the valley this winter and have opened the main road through it. If you don’t stray from the road and there is no fighting, you just might be able to pull it off.” Nervous about the prospect of adding a journey through a war zone to our trip to the Kalash, Adam and I then traveled to the capital, Islamabad . There, after much searching, we found an ethnic Pashtun driver who claimed to have once traveled to the remote homeland of the Kalash. He not only knew the route but had a tough SUV to get us there. After haggling over the price of the trip, we set out driving across the plains of Pakistan, where the heat soared to 120 degrees. Finally, after traversing the country from the Indian border to the Afghan border, we arrived at the mountains. And what mountains they were. The Hindu Kush are an extension of the Himalayas and soar to twenty-five thousand feet. As we drove into the tree-covered mountains, the temperatures blissfully began to drop. And although we found respite from the heat, everyone grew tense. Saki, our driver, warned us that we were now in Taliban territory. We had entered the Swat Valley. We did not travel far before we were stopped at the first of many Pakistani army...

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