Responsible department: Foreign and Commonwealth Office
The Kalash or Kalasha, are an ethnic group of some 5000 people found in the Hindu Kush mountain range in the Chitral district of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province (Formerly the North-West Frontier Province) of Pakistan.
Although quite numerous before the twentieth century, this non-Muslim group has been partially assimilated by the larger Muslim majority of Pakistan and has seen its numbers dwindle over the past century.
The Kalasha are an ancient tribe with their own way of life, their own religion, language, rituals, culture and identity. This part of Pakistan is considered to be a well preserved ethnic and cultural museum. The Pakistan Government and UNESCO have been appoached on numerous occasions for the Kalasha area and culture to be protected as a World Heritage Site.
“I call on the UK Government to support the creation of the Kalash area as a World Heritage Site before their culture disappears forever.”
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