Role and History of Apricot in Shimshal
Description
If we think about the origin of apricot, of which I'm not an expert, we have to take into account that we didn't find any wild apricot forest in our area. So, we are told that apricot trees were brought by the Burusho tribes who travel as far west as Macedonia or even Turkey. So, as they travelled, they also brought apricot with them [...] to the state, the small empire they had created [here in Hunza]. And of course, because they didn't reach in a few years, they travelled along and they also took some samples from Central Asia. So apricot has a history and it's very interestingly linked with the Central Asian origin. The second myth is that there are also other apricots which came from the Tibetan Plateau. When the Tibetan empire was trying to dominate here, apricot also got linked with Baltistan, Ladakh and some other areas. So, apricot has a long history with the people, particularly the Burusho tribe and later became part of our many social, economic, even part of our religious activities. In Hunza, apricot was one of those commodities that received formal support promoted by some of its rulers. And particularly in upper Hunza where most of the people were Wakhi, coming from Wakhan, a Pamirian group, who were mainly shepherds. They didn't have much of agriculture [experience], as we [in Shimshal] also are half pastoralist, half agro-pastoralist people. When the Mir of Hunza realized the importance of apricot, he encouraged to propagate it to the upper part of the valley. [...]
As a tree, apricot is a very good fuel wood, a very, very good [source of] heating. Second it is a good fruit, and when we dry it, we make soup of it, you can also make, you know, the kernel oil. In our area, one of the major medicines was bitter apricot kernel, which we still use [...]. I remember in our house, my grandmother used to have a special jar of bitter apricot. During winter, I don't know what was the reason for it, she used to force us to take at least one [tea spoon of] bitter apricot every day. When I was a child, I always had this problem with my grandmother. [...] So one of our major food items was apricot soup.
In our village, when winter finished and spring came, we have a celebration called vich-e hosh [the festival of hot soup], meaning making a big soup. That day, every household would make an apricot soup, bring it, share it, drink it, and celebrate. [During winter] half of my village remains under shadow [the western mountains block the sunlight during winter], so, when we have sun everywhere, we celebrate it and apricot was very much part of our [daily] life. Even religiously, apricot oil has been used for many of our religious ceremonies. It has become a sacred thing, you offered apricot oil when you visited a shrine or for lighting a lamp. The Mir of Nagar used to levy a major tax on apricot oil. They used to collect the oil and store in a big underground tank. Those who attended the wedding of the Mir of Hunza's daugther, they were given gifts of a big pot of apricot oil.
There is also one interesting tale which I always tell even if I do not know, whether it is true: We Hunza people were once (in-famous) raiders of caravans moving from China to Kashmir, India and back along what was called the "žApricot Route". My village [Shimshal] was at the epicenter of those raids. When we raided a caravan we used to bring all items to the Mir of Hunza which would make him happy as this was his major source of income. Once upon a time one of my grand-grand-grandfathers decided that he should raid for himself and he took a friend with him. As a traveller came along reading a book they decided to attack and eventually killed him. In the book there was a piece of some very valuable cloth into which something obviously important was wrapped. So, my ancestor said to his friend, okay, this book shall be yours, whereas I will take this special thing. As here is my village, the first choice is mine, to which they agreed. Finally, the book was given to the Mir of Hunza and my ancestor secretly brought that piece of cloth with the most valuable thing to Shimshal. When he reached the village, he secretly opened one layer, a second layer, a third, a fourth, a fifth layer, and many more layers. When he finally reached [to the innermost layer], he found a small piece of dry apricot. [This tale shows] that dry apricot had always been of very high value in this part of the world from where it was widely traded.
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