Wakhi People of Upper Hunza: Culture and Customs

The Wakhi people are the community of Gojal, upper Hunza, from the villages around Gulmit and Passu up to Sost, Shimshal and the Chipursan valley. They call themselves Khik, speak Wakhi, an Eastern Iranian language unrelated to the Burushaski of central Hunza, and trace their roots to the Wakhan valley of what is now Afghanistan. Anyone driving the Karakoram Highway north of Attabad Lake is in Wakhi country.

This guide covers who the Wakhi are, how they came to Gojal, their language, the traditional house and its winter festival, and where a visitor can respectfully see this culture.

Who are the Wakhi?

The name Wakhi comes from Wux̌, the local name for Wakhan, itself from an old name of the Oxus river. Neighbours have their own names for them: Burushaski speakers call them Guyits, and in Pakistan they also call themselves Gojali or Pamiri.

The Great Game of the 19th century split the Wakhi between four countries. A 2018 estimate put the total at about 72,000: some 24,000 in Tajikistan, 22,500 in Pakistan, 17,500 in Afghanistan and 8,000 in China. In Pakistan the largest community is in Gojal, with smaller ones in the Karambar valley and Imit in Ishkoman, around Darkot in Yasin, and in Broghil at the head of the Yarkhun valley in Chitral.

How the Wakhi came to Gojal

Gojal was settled over centuries from several directions. Kyrgyz nomads once used its upper valleys as winter pasture, and Wakhi families crossed from Wakhan to settle Chipursan, Sost and other upper villages. Local tradition in Passu traces most families to a man called Qul Muhammad, or Quli, who came from Wakhan in the 15th century, and many Hussaini families trace their origin to a village in Wakhan.

The link with Wakhan ran into the ruling family of Hunza itself. Mir Shah Salim Khan, who ruled from 1790 to 1824, was raised by a foster mother from Gulmit, the daughter of the Qazi of Wakhan, and he developed Gulmit and Ghulkin. Local history credits him as the first Ismaili Mir, after meeting an Ismaili missionary at Gulmit. Until Hunza state was dissolved in 1974, Gulmit served as its summer capital, and the Mir's old summer palace still stands at the edge of its polo ground.

The upper valleys were not always peaceful. In the narrow valley that climbs from Murkhun towards the Qarun pass, Wakhi families lived in fortified houses as protection against Kyrgyz and Shighni raiders. Two forts there, Pasth Qlha and Wuch Qlha, are still partly in use, and old watchtowers survive at Avgarch and Boibar; see our Avgarch guide.

The Wakhi language

Wakhi belongs to the Pamir group of Eastern Iranian languages and is thought to descend from the old Saka language of the kingdom of Khotan. It has nothing in common with Burushaski, spoken in central Hunza; see our Burushaski language guide for the contrast.

Wakhi was traditionally unwritten. Scripts now exist in Arabic, Cyrillic and Latin letters; in Pakistan, writers use a Nastaliq script that borrows letters from Urdu for sounds Persian lacks, though no single standard has taken hold across the four countries. UNESCO lists the language as definitely endangered.

Gojali Wakhis set up the Wakhi Tajik Cultural Association in 1990 to record and publish their culture, produce textbooks and hold festivals, and Radio Pakistan's Gilgit station has carried a Wakhi programme named for the "roof of the world". You hear the language in the landscape too. Distaghil Sar, the highest peak in Shimshal, has a Wakhi name meaning "above the inner ranch".

The five-pillar house and Kitdhit

The traditional Wakhi house is a stone and timber building around one large room with a central hearth, raised platforms for sitting, sleeping and storage, and a skylight above the fire. Five wooden pillars hold up the roof. They are read as the Panjtan: the Prophet Muhammad, Ali, Fatima, Hasan and Hussain.

That smoky ceiling gives the best-known Wakhi festival its name. Kitdhit joins the Wakhi words for roof and smoke. When the long winter ends, families clean the soot of a winter's wood fires off the pillars and beams, then decorate the beams with floral patterns in wheat flour. Villages gather for a feast and games such as tuksuri, the local gilli-danda. Lower Gojal usually marks Kitdhit in the first week of February; upper villages hold it later, when their winter ends. Pamir Times reported the festival in Sost in February 2017.

Gojal also shares the festivals of the wider valley, including Nauroz and the Ginani harvest festival. In Shimshal, the move of yaks up to the high Pamir pastures has its own celebration; see our Shimshal Kuch festival guide.

Music and herding

Much Wakhi folk music is as endangered as the language. In Gulmit, the Gulmit Educational and Social Welfare Society runs Bulbulik, a school set up to teach and preserve Wakhi and Pamiri folk music; the name means nightingale. The anthropologist Sabine Felmy used the same image for her 1996 book on Wakhi culture in Hunza, The Voice of the Nightingale.

Herding still shapes the year. Wakhi life has long depended on herds, yaks above all, and many families keep two homes, one for winter and one for summer at the pastures. The pattern is strongest in Shimshal, at about 3,100 metres the highest settlement in Hunza, which has also produced many of Pakistan's best-known mountaineers. The remote Chipursan valley keeps a similar way of life.

Where visitors can see Wakhi culture

• Gulmit. The old village, the polo ground and the Gulmit Cultural Museum are the easiest introduction. About 4,000 people live in Gulmit, almost all Wakhi speakers. Our guide to things to do in Gulmit covers the rest.
• Ghulkin and Hussaini. Ghulkin sits a short climb above the highway and Hussaini straddles it, both with old houses and fields; see our Ghulkin glacier guide.
• Passu. Wakhi village life under the Passu Cones.
• Shimshal and Chipursan. Remote valleys where herding and older houses are most intact, each needing at least a night.

Our Gojal valley guide and three-day Gojal itinerary help fit these into a trip.

Visiting respectfully

Gojal villages are lived-in communities, not open-air museums. If you would like to see a traditional house, ask through your guesthouse or driver; some families welcome visitors, others don't. Ask before photographing people, especially women, and dress modestly. Jamat Khanas are community and prayer spaces, so don't walk in unless invited. Buying local produce and handicrafts from village shops is a direct way to support the community.

Frequently asked questions