CHITRAL: Preparations for the Kalash spring festival, Chilim Jusht, have begun in Bumburate, Birir and Rumbur valleys.

The five-day event will begin on May 13.

A large number of Kalash people, mostly women folk, can be seen in the city markets shopping different items for the festival, which are mostly related to the dresses for women folk and children during the festival.

Kalash woman Parimas told Dawn in Atalique Bazaar that the festival provided an opportunity to the Kalash people to exhibit their affluence by providing the maximum cloths, jewellery, shoes, and items of decoration to their women.

She said preparations for the festival began a month before its occurrence in the form of renovation of houses, repair and replacement of different items of houses pertaining to beds, furniture, crockery and decoration.

Tourists reaching region to attend five-day event

The woman said milk was lavishly used during the festival’s inaugural ceremony called chhir peyek (offering of milk) at mohallah level.

Meanwhile, the tourists have begun reaching here after booking rooms in hotels of the valleys.

The manager of the PTDC hotel told Dawn that all rooms of the hotel were reserved by foreign tourist for a week and therefore, not a single room was available.

The rooms of other hotels of the valley have also been booked.

While ‘camping hotels’ are being established to accommodate tourists, some residents have turned additional rooms of their houses into guestrooms for the festival.

The Tourism Corporation Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has made arrangements to facilitate the Kalash community and tourists during the festival.

An official of TCKP told Dawn that a tent village was being put up in Bumburate valley to ensure no tourist remains without shelter after the booking of all hotel rooms.

Meanwhile, the elementary and secondary education department of Chitral hasn’t collected the grade IV books of Islamiyat from schools, which don’t have chapter on the finality of the Prophethood.

Also, offices of the district education officers (male) and (female) have yet to ensure the supply of the new KP Textbook Board book carrying the deleted chapter to the region.

When contacted, DEO (male) Ehsanul Haq said he had ordered the sub-divisional education officers to carry out book collection.

“It is an ordinary matter. I don’t need to keep myself informed about the progress of book collection from schools,” he said, adding that the job was to be done by his subordinates.

He said there was no harm in teaching the old book until its revised version arrived.

Deputy DEO (female) Mehrun Nisa, the focal person for distribution of free textbooks, expressed ignorance about the process and said 50 per cent of the books would have been collected in the sub-divisional offices of Drosh, Mastuj and Mulkhow.

Published in Dawn, May 12th, 2019