ISLAMABAD, April 11: French anthropologist Georges Lefeuvre who has lived with Kalash people for 25 years has dismissed as myth the popular theory that they were descendants of the soldiers of Alexander the Great’s army trapped in the valley.

Prof Lefeuvre said in a lecture arranged by the Asian Study Group and the Alliance Francaise in Islamabad on Wednesday that the greater truth was that the Kalash tribe had been driven to their present abode from Iran by Aryan hordes around 1500 BC.

The history and origin of Kalash people is shrouded in the mist of history.

The first point he made during his well illustrated talk was filled with recorded tapes of melodious songs from Kalash women. Obviously there had been changes in the Bhanburet Valley as well as in the life pattern of the tribe.

However, their language is the most ancient of the Indo-Aryan languages, and is of utmost interest to the historians.

Mr Georges Lefeuvre, a former director of the French Culture Centre in Islamabad (Alliance Francaise), who has studied and documented Kalasha’s socio-cultural norms, said the tribe has the greatest social organisation. They cooperate with each other in performing daily chores.

Mr Lefeuvre retold about the visit of the former Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto to the area. According to the French historian ZAB sat down with two elders and heard the geology of the tribe. The former prime minister told them that they knew more than a Qazi, or learned judge.

The name ‘Kalash’ has been invoking interests of the historians, sociologists and anthropologists for over a century- and-a-half when the British came across this tribe in the extreme north-west of the South Asian Subcontinent.

The isolated Kalash tribe has managed to preserve their unique life-style against the odd of being a small isle in a sea of Muslim world around them.

But now the population has reduced to about 600 people after forced conversions to Islam during Gen Ziaul Haq’s despotic rule. The unique lifestyles and culture of Kalash tribe is in great danger of extinction, said the first woman pilot-turned-social activist Lakshan Bibi.

She urged the government and civil society to take steps for preservation and protection of this peaceful community.—JI