I was born in a family affiliated with agriculture, herding livestock and observed my parent enjoying their
lives in the wakhi traditional style. In a few year of my childhood the modern lifestyle took away this
lifestyle of my family and even vanished from my village. I was much more involved in my new lifestyle
different from my parents and my childhood. After long time I got an opportunity to visit Batura pasture
one of the tourist attraction location in Hunza Pakistan. Herding livestock is still alive in one or another
way in the life of people of Hussaini. The trail along the Batura Glacier is not too longer, tougher but not
as danger as other pasture in the area. There are two tracks to reach Batura. I followed the trail of Sekr
Wush e Zdur starts from Karakoram Highway at Passu along the Batura Glacier at western side. I
selected the trail because it is shorter way to reach there and the tracks were made by the local donors
with the help of volunteers. The donors have provided only food to the volunteers for construction of
these trails. No payment is given to any one while constricting the tracks from Passu to the end of the
pastures.
I left my village Hussaini early in the morning and start tracking at Passu and reached at first pasture
called helga. After two and half hours track I was in Batura consists of two summer pastures Mulungin
and Maidun. The villagers were settled in Maidun where they live for about 3 months with their
livestock in the summer. They herd thousands of ships and goats. In the morning they take the animals
for grazing after milking. The turn of grazing comes to each family and they are responsible for the day
of their turn. They must go with animals otherwise snow leopard and beasts hunt their animals. In the
evening they bring back the animal to the cattle-shed for milking and taking care of them near the
human settlements gathered in an area with boundary walls. Caring of animals is duty of young people
and milking is the duty of elder women. The elder women are also responsible for producing other dairy
products. They transform milk in to yogurt and guide young women shacking yogurt in a wooden
machine called Sēghu to separate butter from the lassi. The elder women continually check the process
till it is ready to separate butter from the dhiḡh (lassi). This all process is called dhiḡh xhak. As butter is
separated from the lasi then the lasi is cooked almost for 8 hours to transform it into qērūt. When the
liquid is condensate then it is kept on the roofs of the houses for drying. This dried substance is called
qērūt and kept in stores for future used. It is mixed with many Wakhi foods e.g. Molida, Dghov,
Ghalmēndi etc. during my journey to Batura Pasture I also enjoyed all these local and traditional foods
prepared by dairy products.
Pasture and pasturing in Hussaini is related to a local calendar called Diqun Hisob, they adjust their living
in low lands in winter and high lands in summer. In mid of May the villagers leave village for pastures.
They start grazing from Mulungin, which is a low altitude pasture and then move to Maidun at about
3,300 matters high above sea level. As autumn appear on that altitude they come back to the lower
pasture to avoid harsh weather. They have special rules for grazing of both the pastures. If they are in
Maidun they do not allow anyone to take animals to Kirgaswashk for grazing, the same if they are in
Mulungin they do not allow grazing in Maidun. This control is mostly exercised by the oldest women in
the pasture. Rest of the people in the pasture has to be obeying the lady considering her the most
experience women in Cheqar (the pasture settlement). Free grazing is strictly prohibited in both the
pastures. The elders of the Chēqar have to decide on grazing areas of the pastures on daily bases and to
monitor the grazing schedule. There are some part in both pastures, which are kept for the days when
snow covers the grazing lands. On those days elder people leave in the Cheqar and young people take
animals to the low lands where it is raining not snowing. As the weather turns to favorable condition
they come back they control the animals and each family member check if all the animals came back.
They count animals in pairs. For one pair they say Jeft. Each family member knows how many Jeft animal
they have. If some animals are missing, in the next day some young people especially male volunteer for
searching the missing animals. All the system is designed on voluntary services. No one is paid for any
kind of services. The custom allows, if someone is physically week, elder, child or alone in the house,
they are exempted from all kind of work or others volunteer for their turn.
They have different kind of celebration in the pastures eg Kuch (shifting from one pasture to other),
C̄hēnir (celebrating harvesting) etc. these all are celebrated by offering vichpay ( taking yogurt out for
the community) for example if they are celebrating kuch, as they reach from one pasture to another
they bring out yogurt in a common place and enjoy together after offering thanks to God for successful
movement and praying for good health and unity of the community
The nature of Batura Pasture taught me several things not only pasture and pasturing, I also observed
several kinds of fauna and flora.
I was born in a family affiliated with agriculture, herding livestock and observed my parent enjoying their
lives in the wakhi traditional style. In a few year of my childhood the modern lifestyle took away this
lifestyle of my family and even vanished from my village. I was much more involved in my new lifestyle
different from my parents and my childhood. After long time I got an opportunity to visit Batura pasture
one of the tourist attraction location in Hunza Pakistan. Herding livestock is still alive in one or another
way in the life of people of Hussaini. The trail along the Batura Glacier is not too longer, tougher but not
as danger as other pasture in the area. There are two tracks to reach Batura. I followed the trail of Sekr
Wush e Zdur starts from Karakoram Highway at Passu along the Batura Glacier at western side. I
selected the trail because it is shorter way to reach there and the tracks were made by the local donors
with the help of volunteers. The donors have provided only food to the volunteers for construction of
these trails. No payment is given to any one while constricting the tracks from Passu to the end of the
pastures.
I left my village Hussaini early in the morning and start tracking at Passu and reached at first pasture
called helga. After two and half hours track I was in Batura consists of two summer pastures Mulungin
and Maidun. The villagers were settled in Maidun where they live for about 3 months with their
livestock in the summer. They herd thousands of ships and goats. In the morning they take the animals
for grazing after milking. The turn of grazing comes to each family and they are responsible for the day
of their turn. They must go with animals otherwise snow leopard and beasts hunt their animals. In the
evening they bring back the animal to the cattle-shed for milking and taking care of them near the
human settlements gathered in an area with boundary walls. Caring of animals is duty of young people
and milking is the duty of elder women. The elder women are also responsible for producing other dairy
products. They transform milk in to yogurt and guide young women shacking yogurt in a wooden
machine called Sēghu to separate butter from the lassi. The elder women continually check the process
till it is ready to separate butter from the dhiḡh (lassi). This all process is called dhiḡh xhak. As butter is
separated from the lasi then the lasi is cooked almost for 8 hours to transform it into qērūt. When the
liquid is condensate then it is kept on the roofs of the houses for drying. This dried substance is called
qērūt and kept in stores for future used. It is mixed with many Wakhi foods e.g. Molida, Dghov,
Ghalmēndi etc. during my journey to Batura Pasture I also enjoyed all these local and traditional foods
prepared by dairy products.
Pasture and pasturing in Hussaini is related to a local calendar called Diqun Hisob, they adjust their living
in low lands in winter and high lands in summer. In mid of May the villagers leave village for pastures.
They start grazing from Mulungin, which is a low altitude pasture and then move to Maidun at about
3,300 matters high above sea level. As autumn appear on that altitude they come back to the lower
pasture to avoid harsh weather. They have special rules for grazing of both the pastures. If they are in
Maidun they do not allow anyone to take animals to Kirgaswashk for grazing, the same if they are in
Mulungin they do not allow grazing in Maidun. This control is mostly exercised by the oldest women in
the pasture. Rest of the people in the pasture has to be obeying the lady considering her the most
experience women in Cheqar (the pasture settlement). Free grazing is strictly prohibited in both the
pastures. The elders of the Chēqar have to decide on grazing areas of the pastures on daily bases and to
monitor the grazing schedule. There are some part in both pastures, which are kept for the days when
snow covers the grazing lands. On those days elder people leave in the Cheqar and young people take
animals to the low lands where it is raining not snowing. As the weather turns to favorable condition
they come back they control the animals and each family member check if all the animals came back.
They count animals in pairs. For one pair they say Jeft. Each family member knows how many Jeft animal
they have. If some animals are missing, in the next day some young people especially male volunteer for
searching the missing animals. All the system is designed on voluntary services. No one is paid for any
kind of services. The custom allows, if someone is physically week, elder, child or alone in the house,
they are exempted from all kind of work or others volunteer for their turn.
They have different kind of celebration in the pastures eg Kuch (shifting from one pasture to other),
C̄hēnir (celebrating harvesting) etc. these all are celebrated by offering vichpay ( taking yogurt out for
the community) for example if they are celebrating kuch, as they reach from one pasture to another
they bring out yogurt in a common place and enjoy together after offering thanks to God for successful
movement and praying for good health and unity of the community
The nature of Batura Pasture taught me several things not only pasture and pasturing, I also observed
I have just released your post from the Spam Filters. I would like to apologize for your post being marked as spam. Our filters run 24/7 and they can be a little harsh at times.
You may be new to Connect or writing to share a post for your Connect Live application. If you’re applying to Connect Live be sure to share a link to a new Connect post responding to this year’s application prompt. You can find everything you need to know about writing a post for Connect Live 2019 here.
P.S.: I will merge this post to the other one, since they are the same.
