Visit Chitral and you will find ‘Gior bisi Shanduro te’ written on the back of vehicles and on the walls of hotels and restaurants.

It is an invite in local language to youths to visit Shandur, the venue of an annual festival at an altitude of more than 10,000 feet above sea level.

It was really an uphill task for the people of Chitral to go to the far-flung Shandur until 1982 when a jeepable road was built to connect Chitral with Gilgit.

Later, the lush green pasture was made the venue of the three-day festival.

Shandur also gets a special mention in Chitral’s folk songs, which not only connote its inaccessibility and remoteness but also admire the people crossing over it for valour.

Shandur festival has assumed an important position in the life of Chitralis, who eagerly wait for it all through the year.

Not only is the event popular among local youths but it attracts elders from across the valley in large numbers as well.

Shandur is the pasture of Laspur valley and separates Chitral from Gilgit-Baltistan.

People take their yaks there to graze in the summer season as it remains covered with snow for five months of the year. The two miles natural lake with mountains on two sides and polo ground one the third makes the landscape eye-catching and highly panoramic.

Major event of the festival is the nail-biting polo match between the teams of Chitral and Gilgit-Baltistan. Besides providing entrainment to the region’s people, it is also a good opportunity to showcase local culture to visitors. The vast field of the pasture turns into a tent village a day before the festival begins. A makeshift market is also set up to cater to the needs of visitors.

According to the district administration’s record, more than 1,000 stalls were established during the 2008 Shandur festival and thus, creating employment opportunities for around 4,000 local people.

As smalltime traders doing business in the length and breadth of Chitral regularly set up stalls at the festival venue, some leading restaurants and tent service providers are also encouraged by the tourism department to serve visitors, especially those well-situated financially.

Hazrat Noor, who owns a restaurant in Chitral city, said he had never missed the Shandur festival since 1987 as he took home a little less than what he earned throughout the year.

He said he closed his restaurant in the city a week before the festival began to prepare for the event.

Regularly started in 1982, the festival was included in the calendar of events by the government in 1990s and the date of July 7 was fixed for its commencement and it has been held regularly except in 1999 when it was cancelled due to the highly number of casualties in the Kargil sector as every village of Chitral and Gilgit received the coffin of a fallen solider of NLI or Chitral Scouts.

There are individuals who have never missed the festival right from 1982 and there are local organisations who promoted it including Aga Khan Rural Support Programme and Sarhad Rural Support Programme, while Chitral Scouts has also contributed for it as most players of Chitral polo team belong to it.

Terrorist attacks in Malakand division didn’t hinder the festival. And by continuing to hold the event, the government showed to the outer world that the country has a place, Chitral, where ideal peace and tranquility prevails.

Foreigners are really amazed to see the event happen every year.

Yousaf Shahzad, a former information director based in Chitral, said Shandur festival had so far attracted many heads of states and heads of governments, notably General Zia, General Musharraf, Farooq Leghari and Benazir Bhutto.

According to him, the festival provides guests with an opportunity to address around half a million visitors. All major projects including Lowari tunnel development were announced during the festival.

Yousaf said the event promoted tourism in the area with thousands of people showing up from across the country and abroad. He said the festival promoted tourism and sports in the area.

Shandur pasture is part of Chitral, so the event has been arranged by the district administration since the Gilgit- Baltistan administration laid claim to it two years ago. Chitralis has been thronging the festival since.

Mohammad Shahabuddin Shad, a lawyer and social activist of Laspur valley, told Dawn that the people went to Shandur to picnic and watch polo match.

“The festival provides the people of Chitral and Gilgit with a chance to tour the high altitude place once a year. Also, the polo match between rival teams is a good source of leisure for them. The match takes place even if the GB administration boycotts it,” he said.

He said Gilgit-Baltistan administration might repeat the boycott of the event scheduled for the first week of August this year but the preparations in Chitral for it were in full swing.

Published in Dawn, July 18th, 2015

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