Tribes of the Hindoo Koosh

The languages and social customs including the marriage customs of the many tribes that inhabit the Hindu Kush are the subject of this book. Included are tribes in Northern Pakistan, Eastern Afghanistan and India and to some extent Tajikistan. This amazing and under appreciated book covers a vast area not just limited to the present and agreed upon boundaries of the Hindu Kush, but well into the Himalayas in places such as Hunza and Ladakh. We now think of the Hindu Kush as being a range of mountains in North West Pakistan and Eastern Afghanistan and with the Himalayan Mountains starting in Eastern Pakistan including Kashmir and crossing Northern India, Nepal and Bhutan. This book discusses not only those tribes residing on the South side of these mountain ranges but also on the North side as well, covering such areas as the Oxus River Basin, now called the Amu Darya, the river that flows into the Aral Sea through such places as Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Going West, the book discusses not only Hunza but also Ladakh. This book is one of the few sources of information about that area, because Ladakh is entirely under Indian Control and outsiders are discouraged or prohibited from visiting. Interestingly, the women of Ladakh wear black robes somewhat similar to the black robes worn by the Kalash Women of Chitral, suggesting that there may be a historical connection between them. We learn a lot of amazing facts from this book. For example, in some tribes, the marriage night is spent in the home of the family of the bride. Only after some days is the groom allowed to take his new wife to their new home. In other tribes, the family of the bride takes her to her new husband's home and leaves her there. In yet other tribes, the bride is 'driven' from her family home to the home of her new husband and she is told not to return to her parent's house. The purpose of this is to insure reproduction as the wife is allowed no complaints.