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This paper challenges the thesis that mountain areas are regions of refuge. The refuge conce
attributes irrelevant exchange and limited communication to isolated mountain habitat
which mainly depend on production for home consumption. In contrast, it is shown tha
exchange relations in all walks of life have been affected not only recently but for near
two centuries in Central Asia, although the continued importance of subsistence strate
gies in the agricultural sector can be observed. The Pamirian Knot provides the moun
tainous interface between South and Central Asia for case studies of two ethnic communities
- Wakhi mountain farmers and Kirghiz pastoralists - in order to exemplify socio-political
developments in similar mountain environments. Examples are presented from
Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Pakistan, and the People's Republic of China. The territories have
been separated since the late nineteenth century by international boundaries conceived
as the result of the imperial 'Great Game'. Emphasis is placed on developments in the
livestock sector and it is shown that adaptation to changing socio-political frameworks
has affected the livelihood strategies of nomads and mountain farmers alike.
KEY WORDS: Pamir, Central Asia, survival strategies, ethnicity, colonialism and
post-colonialism, mountain pastoralism, Kirghiz, Wakhi
K Fea
Kunduz ... _za-bad gDa52_
.Q.z..Riba....t.. wlaa
0._
STaxkorgan Guma * Targakakti Dawan Dawan ___ .Qizi
Si ANPePesnawa ...K
ma... esaal] -!.': aca S(
& K annegar
lena " (
...-'........i ".......
150 km PAKISTIAN ". I ", .\ "::..:.. .. .'.':::::.. ::. .: ? . _z _ -- -54 T-ag
ha70
Shughnan Pik Karla 80
MakShaLangMarksa
EPA..STAN. 674 iE: :. 6320 . . Bozai
oh-ePamir arGumbaz
.-
Pam
ha Pik Majaakovkogo Yamg angZ O Rawcun sarhadWakhan M
IIAd-A 6035 .Q.. . . Panja ,... ...AiiC, .
....I ..-k..Pag " .... 5xX\\ q ./ """tn '" ...
K"a...kh...n Ba .ghhmhl
". """
Uw '_"" - 'Irshad K/
.. i.ns a aB.K hi56 8 x tagu .. . . .. .r hZ h-- n .
I =\
Nsha . ..:.::::.::. -..:\9 ..:
wMia~5~ .....:. an hu 'Ps
.B r ghl::. --n,)( Baah n-~a
--- international boundary .. jeepable track 7485 peak (altitude in m) pass Source based o
owners. The affluent leaders and rich households the 'Great Game' as well as the Islamization and
profited from the system of renting (amanat) the theirexpansion programme of the Afghan Amir
livestock to shepherds (cf. Shahrani 1979). Kirghiz
threatened the autonomy of the small principalitie
communities formed their own microcosms in the in the Hindukush, Pamir and Karakoram. Wakhan
Pamirian pastures with generally strong relation-was one of the principalities whose rulers were
ships with their neighbours. Common goals were taken hostage or threatened. In 1883, the Mir o
the defence of grazing grounds and the avoidance Wakhan, Ali Mardan Shah, organized a preventive
of interference by outsiders. exodus for his family and about one-quarter of the
Wakhi and Kirghiz represent communities population took refuge in his father-in-law's terri-
competing for the same resources. Competition tory in Chitral. Subsequently his fears materialized
was ubiquitous and relations between neighbouringand Wakhan was divided into two parts as were
groups was not always amicable. Both were other principalities along the Amu Darya (Oxus).
involved in a power struggle for survival where
The northern part was controlled by Russia while
threats came from direct and distant neighbours the as southern part became an extension of the Amir
much as from raiders, slave traders, representativesof Afghanistan's territory. The Wakhan strip (cf.
of administrations, conscriptors and tax officials. Figure 1) was created as a buffer zone between
Russia and British India as the superpowers of the
time had decided that they should not have
Demographic trends affected by external
common boundaries. The demarcation took place
developments
at the end of the nineteenth century and it remains
An analysis of population changes among the the current international boundary. The division of
Wakhi indicates fluctuations in space and time.
Wakhan led to a refugee crisis and the population
of Wakhi decreased by one-sixth (Kreutzmann
Demographic trends show an increase in popula-
1996, 136). The low point in the population was
tion from the nineteenth to the twenty-first century
almost everywhere in High Asia. An early popula- reached by 1900 and since then demographic
tion peak of the Wakhi people was reached around trends have been upwards. Currently 50 000
1880 when the population in the mirdom of Wakhi reside in Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Xinjiang
Wakhan was estimated at 6000. Shortly afterwardsand Pakistan (Figures 1 and 2). Each of these
a major crisis occurred. The geopolitical confronta- populations exhibit demographic patterns that are
tion between British India and Tsarist Russia duringlinked to the countries and mobility. The twentieth
AF G H AN IS TAN PAKISTAN
T'4'4
OW'j
1'xa~ 99~:~T .
NOr ~ ?~o~~:
?, f"':`";~% ~ 000
.rpza,
?-l~~sT1?~~r r:r~46
rI
Plate 1 The
south of K
Source: Hermann Kreutzmann
4:b5
Go Gojal @)h Wakha(Shache)
vanch , i XINJIANG
GORNO - BADAKHSHAN Ulugh Robat (PRof China) Posgamrn
38N Roshan (Tajikistan) Murghab (Zepu
their entire agricultural system was devoted byfor this sudden change. Most are gradu-
prepared
decree to animal husbandry. Other food ates
supplies
of the most sophisticated education system in
Western High Asia and they lack experience in
were imported from outside. Even high-protein
fodder (about 50 tons each year) was brought in
stock breeding and farming because of the profes-
from Sary Mogol in Kyrgyzstan to sustain asions
herd they
of adopted during the Soviet era. The
450 yaks year round on the Pamirs. present socio-economic transformation has forced
With the independence of Tajikistan and theits
majority of Kirghiz and Wakhi to follow an
subsequent transformation, individual ownership agricultural
of subsistence strategy based on crops
land and cattle was re-introduced between 1996 and livestock. It appears to many to be a return to
and 1999. Yak herding is organized through the
their parent's survival strategies, though the global
farmers' association, and the shepherds keepand 70%regional conditions are different. The present
of their production while the rest belongs to income
the levels are far below previous ones and it
association. The Wakhi of Ishkashim still control a remains to be seen if this resource-based strategy
herd of 300 yaks as well as 15 700 sheep and will be sustainable. The local levels of economic
goats. In neighbouring Kirghiz-dominated Rajon depression and household income deficiencies are
Murghab, nearly 14 000 yaks and 38 000 sheep high and as a consequence young people have
and goats are kept today (cf. Herbers 2001; migrated and are seeking low-level employment i
Lambertin 2001; Mamadsaid and Bliss 1998). The Russia and Pakistan. During fieldwork in 2001
majority of herds are controlled by diminishing established that on average 75-90% of all house
state-run enterprises or dominant private farmers' holds in Gorno-Badakhshan had a migrant in
associations - the organizations that have Russia. Close to 300 Wakhi were seeking employ-
succeeded kolchoz and gozchoz (state farms). mentThein Moscow with a smaller number looking for
adverse economic conditions of the current trans-
work in Pakistan. Out-migration currently seems to
formation period have impoverished the Kirghiz be the most successful strategy to alleviate the
herdsmen because remaining herds are too smallsevere
to local cash deficiency.
sustain a household. Food supplies are meagre and
additional food bought from the markets is expen-
Competition between nomads and mountain
sive. As a consequence, the vast majority of
agriculturists in the Pamirs (Sarikol, Tajik
agriculturists in Gorno Badakhshan are currently
Autonomous County)
dependent on humanitarian aid, although the
degree of local self-sufficiency seems to have The Taxkorgan or Sarikol (the former name of the
increased from 25% in 1996 to 69% in 2001 (Aga principality) area comprises three different ethnic
Khan Development Network 2002). The level ofgroups: the Sariqoli, Wakhi and Kirghiz (which
self-sufficiency seems high compared with otherhere are <5% of the population). The first two
mountain regions if we take into account that in groups, which comprise more than 80% of the
mountainous areas of industrialized countries less inhabitants, practice combined mountain agricul-
than half of the goods consumed are produced ture composed of crop cultivation and animal
locally. This was also the case in the mountain husbandry with seasonal utilization of Pamir
regions of the Soviet Union and China where 40- pastures, while the Kirghiz specialize in livestock.
90% were imported from other regions, while in All three groups traditionally move their flocks
the Hindukush-Karakoram-Himalaya - with some within the Taghdumbash Pamir and have been
regional exceptions - subsistence levels are higher tributary to the Mir of Hunza who exercised control
(Aga Khan Rural Support Programme 2000, 37; over these pastures until 1937. While the Kirghiz
Kreutzmann 1996, 219; 2000, 496; 2003; Streef- lived at higher elevations, the Sariqoli approached
land et al. 1995, 84-5). This is a global feature asthis area from the northern low-lying villages. The
it corresponds to higher self-sufficiency levels in Wakhi, who were stranded as refugees from
poorer regions while affluent mountain areas tendAfghanistan about a century ago, founded the
to import substantial amounts of basic food. settlement of Dafdar at 3400 m.a.s.l. in the heart of
After the failure of the Soviet model of modern-
the Taghdumbash Pamir with the consent of the
ization the area experienced a reversal in its Chinese authorities (Kreutzmann 1996). All three
development path. Two to three generations ago groups compete for the fodder resources within the
the Kirghiz nomads and Wakhi mountain farmers Taghdumbash Pamir (Figure 4).
were expropriated and their property was collect-Since the Chinese Revolution in 1949 and the
ivized. Subsequently they became workers information of the Tajik Taxkorgan Autonomous
cooperatives and state employees. Now their County in 1954, collectivization has taken place
resources and their property have been returned,and
at rural communes (gungshe) were established in
least in part. However, the people were ill- the villages. The role model, from the neighbouring
i Taxkorgan 75'30'E
N 5700
o Kulumalik x
' SSazekejilga
x5871
5871 Tulikejilga
I Piilg
\ Pislng ? Dafdar
5262 -
ChatJ p
p iTikakurghanaf
Tsehka
Changjailan un sChukur
Tula
Paik
SAtajaila x 5470
x 5487 Mazar
Sikhtikae
[ permanent settlement
summer camps with yurt
Plate 2 Wakhi women preparing ijin (felt) as a side product during their stay in the high pasture, Kashgasu, D
County, Xinjiang, China (5 August 1991)
Source: Hermann Kreutzmann
republics, was implemented by Chinese revolution- gungshe) have been equipped with a veterinary
aries and their Soviet advisors. Basic infrastructural
station supplying vaccines and extension services
assets such as schools, police stations, post offices,
to the farmers. Experiments with fat-tailed sheep
health posts and barefoot doctors, commune (dumba, dumbash) have been executed and their
administrations, shops and mosques have been proportion in the regional flocks has increased. A
provided in all communities of the Taghdumbash veterinary station specializing in yak breeding was
Pamir. established in Mazar in the heart of the Taghdum-
In post-revolutionary times the number of live-bash Pamir, which utilizes the local knowledge of
stock increased by a factor of 4.75 to reach Sariqoli, Wakhi and Kirghiz shepherds who are
128 800 head in 1984. During the following decade employed there. About 400 people live at the
growth slowed down and in 1994, the number of Mazar breeding station which accommodates
livestock (Bactrian camels, horses, donkeys, yaks, about 5000 sheep and 500 yaks. Much bigger
cattle, sheep and goats) was 147 586. Natural herds of yaks are kept by the Wakhi (Plate 2) and
grazing provides the most important local re- Kirghiz of the Kara Chukur Valley which drains the
source for animal husbandry: the area covered by westernmost Taghdumbash Pamir. This side valley
grasslands extends to 6.09 million mu (1 mu = has become the only Kirghiz-dominated pasture
0.067 ha of which 97.6% is natural grazing region in Taxkorgan County. Recently livestock
while 0.13 million mu are irrigated meadows). production has become more profitable and has
More than two-thirds of the overall economic found a ready regional market at Taxkorgan bazaar.
turnover of Taxkorgan County is derived from
Modernization has reached the Wakhi and
animal husbandry. Kirghiz here in a 'Chinese' way. Economic lib
In 1960, self-sufficiency in food and fodder ization and political authoritarianism remain
production was achieved in Taxkorgan Countyconceptual bases. Consequently both groups r
(Xinjiang) for the first time since the Chinese ing in Xinjiang cannot profit from their locat
Revolution. Since 1982 the majority of the 11 a border region. Although positioned along
townships and former people's communes (renmin Karakoram (KKH) or Pak-China Friendship Hig
5000
3000
Figur
Kirg
Tu
nomth
beco
19
In A
so
Anat
m
Dorag
wasof
menho
hous
th
thre
fu
Plate 3 Once a year Kirghiz shepherds drive down their sheep flocks from the Kara K6l Pamir to Kashgar via
Highway, Bulunkul, Kizil Su, Xinjiang, China (7 September 1995)
Source: Hermann Kreutzmann
opium dealers
from Jurm, Wakhi
Warduj, Zebak Wakhi -- (Baroghil)
*.A
Sfrom
hu n Kirghiz Hunza
amerchants
Kabul
bazaar
(abridged on the basis of Shahrani 1979:197)
itinerant (Chitral
traders I Hunza
merchants
****... ******................;* Kirghiz ******>from Hunza
international boundary
district border
Plate 4 Kirghiz women in the Kichik Pamir (Little Pamir) discussing whether to leave their pastures for an
Kyrgyzstan, Kara Jilga, Little Pamir, Afghanistan (10 June 2000)
Source: Hermann Kreutzmann
and Afghanistan. High mountain farmers in Locally the situation is characterized by production
Wakhan (Afghanistan) follow a strict subsistence strategies which have been known for a long time.
strategy and are barely able to survive on the basis The exchange partners for barter trade (cf. Figure 6)
of their fields (Plate 5) and pastures. The old are missing due to interrupted and declining ex-
capital of the Wakhi, Qala-i Panja, is located in change relations. Thus the population of 1050 house-
Afghan Wakhan within the agricultural fields (cf. holds and 9300 people (1999) is currently heavily
Figure 1). The ruined fort symbolizes the declining self-dependent and subsistence-orientated. Conse-
autonomy and there is currently little state author- quently a very important component of Wakhi live-
ity. For example, local warlords still expropriate lihoods - the non-agrarian part of the household
livestock and food grains from local farmers, whilst income - is absent in the present political and
simultaneously profiting from the barter of opium economic conditions, thereby critically endangering
against livestock. Before the Afghan crisis bureau- subsistence livelihoods. People from here regularly
crats from Kabul were sent to Khandut, the admin- cross the border into Pakistan to offer livestock and
istrative centre of Wakhan. Nowadays, however, the their personal services as wage labourers in exchange
spiritual authority of Wakhan, Pir Ismail Shah, has for basic necessities like flour. Here mobility again is
replaced outside players and is only accountable used as a coping strategy. Without these opportun-
to the secular commander-cum-warlord of Eastern ities and strategies survival could not be guaranteed
Badakhshan, Sador, and his sub-commander Jan in isolated and remote Wakhan.
Mamad from Warduj. Pir Ismail Shah represented To a lesser degree we find poor Wakhi commu-
Wakhan in the Loya Jirga in Kabul in 2002. Hisnities in Pakistan: in Baroghil (Yarkhun Valley,
representation was enabled by UN interventionChitral), in Darkot (Yasin) and Ishkoman (Figure 1);
and not by regional support of the armed self-but in Gojal (Hunza) levels of development are
appointed mujahedin rulers. very different. The Wakhi living here have profited
Plate 5 Wakhi farmers have harvested their staple food grains in a predominantly subsistence economy in
Woluswali, Afghanistan (12 October 1999)
Source: Hermann Kreutzmann
Plate 6 Wakhi mountain farmers have assembled to defend their pastoral property rights against the neighb
Gulmit, Gojal, Hunza, Pakistan (29 April 1990)
Source: Hermann Kreutzmann
Curzon G
capitalist or communist - were implemented inN 1896 The Pamirs and the source of the Oxus The
the name of development and improvements in
Geographical Journal 8 15-54, 97-119, 239-64
living conditions. In the face of these external
Dor R 1987 Return to Karagunduz. With the Kirghiz in Turkey
Central
influences, the Wakhi and Kirghiz seem to stick toAsian Survey 6 61-72
elements of their pastoral traditions whileDor R and Naumann C M 1978 Die Kirghisen des
at the
same time exploring new opportunities. afghanischen Pamir (The Kirghiz of the Afghan Pamir
The positions and experiences of Wakhi Akademische
and Druck- und Verlagsanstalt, Graz
Kirghiz in Western High Asia are fragmented
Dunmoreas Earl of (Murray C A) 1893 The Pamirs: being a narra-
the boundaries between the scattered community
tive of a year's expedition on horseback and on foot through
territories indicate, but they have never been a Western Tibet, Chinese Tartary, and Russian Centr
Kashmir,
Asia
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both
Lahore 1996)
communities to adjust frequently to altered circum-
Ehlers E and Kreutzmann H eds 2000 High mountain pastora
stances and they have developed coping strategies
to do so. The observation that the effects of inter- ism in Northern Pakistan Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart
national politics reach deep into the peripheral
Felmy S 1997 The voice of the nightingale. A personal accou
valleys and plateaux of remote high mountainof the Wakhi culture in Hunza Oxford University Press, Oxford
Friederich M and Kreutzmann H 2000 Oytagh - Sozio-
regions might be surprising for some, but confirms
that the concept of security survival overrides theokonomische Transformationsprozesse in der Peripherie:
idea of these areas as refugia. Their struggle for Produktion und Gesellschaft im westlichen Kun Lun Shan
survival appears to be in pursuit of territorial(Oytagh - socioeconomic transformation processes in the
control. The search for security takes place in periphery:
a production systems and society in the western Kun
Lun Shan mountains) Unpublished report to the Deutsche
familiar mountain habitat and pastures they claim
to be their own. Forschungsgemeinschaft Erlangen, Germany
Funnell D and Parish R eds 2001 Mountain environments and
communities Routledge, London
Acknowledgements
Gordon T E ed 1876 The roof of the world, being the narrative
The author gratefully acknowledges the generous of a journey over the high plateau of Tibet to the Russian
support of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft frontier and the Oxus sources on Pamir Edmonston and
(German Research Council, DFG) and Max-Planck- Douglas, Edinburgh
Gesellschaft (MPG) for past and present fieldworkHerbers H 2001 Transformation in the Tajik Pamirs: Gornyi-
in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and China. Badakhshan - an example of successful restructuring? Central
Locally we are indebted to Pir Ismail Shah (Qala-i Asian Survey 20 367-81
Panja, Wakhan), Abdurrashid Khan (Kara Jilga, Humphrey C and Sneath D ed 1999 The end of nomadism?
Little Pamir), Ghulam-ud-din (Gulmit, Gojal, Hunza), Society, state and the environment in Inner Asia Duke Uni-
Mamadsaidov Mamadsaid (Khorog), Alimamad versity Press, Durham NC
(Murghab), Tash Bai (Karakul, Kizil Su) and SabzHuntington E 1905 The mountains of Turkestan The Geograph-
Ali (Dafdar, Taxkorgan) representing numerous ical journal 25 22-41, 139-158
other supporters and informed persons. Huntington E 1907 The pulse of Asia. A journey in Central Asia
illustrating the geographic basis of history A. Constable, London
Notes
Huntington E and Cushing S W 1924 Principles of human
geography John Wiley, London
1 Kirg. refers to the Kirghiz names, Pers. to the Persian names.
Jaworskij J L ed 1885 Reise der russischen Gesandtschaft in
2 Administratively, the Kara Kil grazing zone forms part of Afghanistan und Buchara in den Jahren 1878-79 (Journey of
Aqto County, which is one of the four sub-units of the Kizilthe Russian Embassy to Afghanistan and Buchara during
Su Autonomous Oblast. 1878-79) Costenoble, Jena
Kreutzmann H 1994 Habitat conditions and settlement proc-
esses in the Hindukush-Karakoram Petermanns Geogra-
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