Three -day Uchau festival kicks off in Kalash valley

CHITRAL: Locals thronged the Rambur and Bamburet valleys in Upper Chitral on Tuesday as the three-day Uchau festival kicked off with young boys and girls gathering at the community hall in Rambur to sing songs and dance to beat of the traditional drums.

Foreign and domestic tourists who have arrived to attend the festival visited a museum in Kalash.

The festival move to different locations within the valley, including Rambur, Bamburet Anish, Broon Karakul and other small villages.

The festival celebrates the annual barley and wheat harvest in the region with singing, dancing and paying homage to nature for blessing them with a bounty of grain and fruits. The people of Kalasha community prepare cornbread, buttermilk and cheese to celebrate the festival.

A Kalasha girl walks across a bridge. PHOTO: EXPRESS

The Kalash women and girls decorate their houses while they wear their traditional black robes, ornate cowries shelled headdresses and coloured necklaces and dance in a circle.

During the festival, prayers and processions are held at a high plateau outside the village in Balangkuru where the long night of dancing begins.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 21^st, 2019.