History of Hunza and Buckwheat Sowing
Description
I am Ejaz Ullah Baig from Hunza and my age is above 50. I am working as a curator of the Hunza Baltit Fort Museum. We all understand that Hunza in northern Pakistan next to the boundary of the Chinese province of Xinjiang and along the Wakhan Corridor of Afghanistan is a strategically important area because from here you can enter to Xinjiang, China, to Wakhan, northern Afghanistan, and Tajikistan.
In Hunza Valley and in Nagar across the Hunza River, people belong to the Burusho ethnicity. In addition to Burushaki speaking people, we also have Wakhi speaking people from northern Afghanistan as this is [culturally] part of Afghanistan. We also have Shina speaking people in Hunza who belong to the Xin tribes south of Gilgit from the Kohistan and Diamer valleys. Last, there are the Dumaki speaking people, a small tribe known as musi-cians and blacksmiths. Hence, there are in total four ethnicities living in Hunza and we understand that the first settlers of this valley were the Burushaki speaking people who started the cultivation and agriculture. Our ancestors were very familiar what and when to plant, how to cultivate, how to construct the water channels and how to build the settlements with a fortified village right in the middle containing the fort of the ruler of Hunza State, fortified walls, a village water reservoir, a polo field and several wells. It was a well-organized civic society. We were not food gatherers. We were people who knew how and when to grow food.
Our ancestors believed in the supernatural and superpowers which were invisible and influencing the weather patterns, human life, and the production of fruits, plants, and vegetables. Our people ensured not to offend these invisible powers. To this end we should celebrate festivals from time to time and also while doing the plantations or ploughing initiations, people ensured to burn plants to smell good. For this purpose, also a medicinal plant was always taken and poured on burning coal to generate good smells. During these agricultural ceremonies, butter and pieces of bread were distributed before the proper ploughing season started. Also, our people always avoided to pollute the water resources because it was understood that if you polluted the glacier or spring water the invisible forces might be very unpleased and will harm your plants. Thus, during early spring, people took some good food to their gardens where it was distributed to the children. The children would be very happy in response and the trees will have more flowers and more fresh fruits in the summer.
Apart from these beliefs let me now share some stories with you.
Once upon a time Mir Sultan, king of Hunza, wanted to cultivate a new piece of land at Karimabad for himself. Once cultivation started, much of the water was diverted towards the new gardens. This deprived many people of the water, causing much drought in the valley from which they really suffered. Eventually the people said that as the king has forced us to divert all the water to the new gardens of Karimabad, let"˜s migrate and escape this strict system. As the people of Karimabad started to run away, Mir Sultan felt very sorry and requested the people to return pledging that from now on he would not take all the water for the irrigation of his garden at Karimabad. He assured them that he would not bother them further. The people accepted this and they returned, but one tree remained behind somehow and it was a newly grafted, newly planted tree and which fetched nice, tasty apricots on a barren piece of land known as Suryas at the time. As people realized how sweet these fruits were and how deliciously they tasted, everyone took scions from that tree for grafting. Thus, that tree became very famous in Hunza as the suryas sumju which means the apricot tree from Suryas. Suryas is now a piece of land at Karimabad that is used as a village cemetery.
Similarly, we have a tale of buckwheat which as you know is also called trumba [in Tibetean language and baru in Burushaski]. In Urdu, I think, it is referred to also as black wheat or black barley which is also growing a lot in Baltistan.
The legend goes that it was actually a hunter who had discovered it the first time. He was on a hunting expedition for a while and one day he was looking for some food and started to check whatever was potentially edible as he found some cakes of bear dung. Once he had dismantled the dung, he discovered grains of buckwheat in it. He decided to not eat them but rather grow them on a new piece of land in his garden.
Once he had scattered the buckwheat seeds they grew and yielded a fresh crop that was really appreciated by the people as this plant grows everywhere without much efforts, it almost grows like grass. You don't need to look after it as for wheat or for corn. In the past in Baltistan, Hunza, and Nagar and also in Yasin I guess, people were growing much more buckwheat and I think it is nowadays known to be a health food able to prevent diabetes and cancer.
Constructing a channel was a very demanding job for which you needed people with skill and a lot of dedication. Before people went for constructing a new channel or a settlement, they were doing some offerings. They offered bread with butter and also sometimes also they cooked a goat and the meat was distributed among the people anticipating that the invisible forces will be happy now and everyone will be blessed with success rather than [complaining and] shouting around. Shouting and screaming in the mountains or unnecessary toileting or littering around was believed to be bad. Our ancestors thought that doing such would offend the invisible forces such as angels and related human endeavours would fail.
not here
2.4.10.1
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