HUNZA CULTURE: Eid ul Adha

HUNZA CULTURE: Eid ul Adha

Eid ul Adha

Kurbani Means "The Ultimate Sacrifice" and The Core Ritual of Eid ul Adha to Muslims
This lens will focus on a simple guide through what kurbani eid/ eid ul adha means. This lens will be helpful to everyone who has little to no knowledge on this ritual.

Hundreds of years ago Prophet Abraham (Ibrahim in Arabic) was in the ultimate test to sacrifice his only son "Ismael" -it was a tough decision to make, as Abraham had only one son. Abraham was 86 when Ismael was born (yeah because that time human lived hundreds of years and were much taller than human in today's world)

Satan tried to trick Abraham in sacrificing Ismael's life "...if he (God) likes you, he will save Ismael's life." Abraham went to sacrifice Ismael; Ismael accepted his fathers decision. When Abraham put the knife on Ismael's throat and cut him, Ismael was replace with a Lama/goat like animal, and the Lama was sacrificed instead of Ismael.

Thus the "Ultimate Sacrifice" has been made and after that for thousands of years, until now Muslims are sacrificing animal annually on the Eid ul adha.

Eid ul adha is the ritual to memorate the example of Abraham.

SAVE GOJAL

Gulmit, May 10: Around eight hundred people from villages across the Gojal valley gathered today at Gulmit for a collective sacrificial ceremony. The villagers collectively prayed for God’s mercy and offered “Qurbani”, sacrifice, in the name of Allah, in line with the Islamic Sharia.

Later on the volunteers started removing power pylons from the endangered areas and erecting those at safe, higher, altitude. The villages are without electricity.

Novroz Festival

Novroz Festival is being celebrated with simplicity this year in most of the valleys of Gilgit-Baltistan. In Hunza-Nagar, the festival is observed with great zeal. Nevertheless, due to natural disaster of landsliding and its negative implications faced by Upper Hunza has overshadowed the the celebration. The day will start with special prayers in mosques, Jamat Khanas for world peace, prosperity and good time in future; and will mark the very first day of the natural calender of year lasts as a legacy of ancient Persian and central Asian tradition. According to the thinkers, the day itself brings a message to contemplate over nature for man is an important part of nature; emphasizes upon tolerance, patience and brotherhood among the human kind in the world. It also elucidates a philosophy that every autumn is followed by a spring; every difficulty is followed by ease; darkness is destined to light later. It is pertinent to mention here that majority of the areas in country in general and rest of the world in particular do not know about this festival for either they are deprived of diversity of seasonal manifestation(have only two seasons like summer and winter) or did not realized the change manifested in every living being on this world. May Lord bring the whole year with happiness, peace, solidarity and mutual love among human beings and eliminate hatred in our hearts for the others.On this occasion, we, the team of Voice of Hunza would like to extend our wishes for all our readers and pray for a good year with happiness and peace.

HUNZA PEOPLE

The fair skinned and light-eyed Hunzakuts claim to be descendants of soldiers lost from Alexander's army as he invaded India. Their language, Burushaski, provides linguists an enigma as it is unrelated to any other language known to man These people are known world over for their amazing longevity and health.
They live well beyond 100 years and have commonly been known to still father children at the age of 110. The Hunza has no known incidence of cancer.

culture of hunza velley

Culture developed right from human birth billions of years ago, gradually people have divided into families tribes. Then Regions and slowly into countries, because of their basic needs they started new search and new inventions in a result the societies have build up, and the economic needs posted wars among countries divided the ethnic groups with this the culture existed throughout the planet. The new electronic invention has changed Rapidly the human life, nothing has been left from to post, when we are talking about culture that still existing in some parts of the world including Pakistan and specially North Pakistan, where many Ethnic group are existing with their life style the life style of the mountain people are completely different them in the big town, innocent simple, smiling faces, with simple local dresses, simple houses made by wood and stones , with carved pillars, with smoked ceilings .



Bultit Fort Karimabad Hunza













Altit Fort Hunza Valley

cooking in hunza

aste has a strong effect on our sense of well-being and our social identity. Food informs us who we are, how well we are, and even how far we are from home. Few things are more intimately linked, more closely implicated, and more sweetly (or bitterly) sensed in our life’s journey than food. Just how closely food resonates with other changes in a society is, therefore, an intriguing issue.
In northern Pakistan, in the high valley of Hunza, food practices have changed profoundly during the last 50 to 60 years. For decades, access to Hunza, in the heart of the Karakoram mountains (Western Himalayas), was quite difficult. But following its secession in 1947 from the maharajah’s government of Jammu and Kashmir, Hunza shifted from an indentured agricultural economy, anchored by local hereditary rule (mirdom), to a state-driven national and global market economy. A benchmark of these changes was the completion in 1978 of the international Karakoram Highway. Traversing the valley, the highway became a thoroughfare between Islamabad and Beijing, and it opened Hunza to a variety of extraordinary changes. The changes in food and foodways reflect much of what happened and bring to view a new awareness of what “traditional” means.
It is actually something of an irony to document this cooking as “traditional” because most Hunza households are still making the dishes reproduced here. The difference is that older people knew a time before the construction of the Karakoram Highway when rice, chutneys, curries, processed sweets and other delectables were rare. Now they are commonplace in local bazaars, and younger people accept the various national and global products as ordinary. Yet with the opening of Hunza to outside influences, local women saw Pakistani foods privileged over their local dishes. They saw the time-honored fare that they offered as young brides relegated to sideshow events at community celebrations. They recognized that, as the new and tasty foods from beyond the valley became popular, part of their own identities was being diminished and marginalized

Overlooked by the shining slopes of Rakaposhi, which rise nearly 6000 meters (19,200') from the valley floor, the apricot orchards and wheat fields of the Hunza Valley wind along the Hunza River. Top: Over less than a generation, Hunza foodways have adopted many imports that come via the Karakoram Highway that runs through the valley, connecting Islamabad to the south with China to the north.
MAP: MARIELLE PALEY




Left: A woman uses a wood-fueled stove inside her home in the town of Karimabad. Right: Rice does not grow at Hunza’s altitude, but wheat thrives, and it provides the staple grain of Hunza cuisine.
So it is that the “traditional” underlies life-shaping experiences. The Karimabad women thus added something of their life histories to the recipes we collected through their fierce labors of love, which have made generations of women and their fathers, husbands, brothers, sons and daughters happy and well-nourished. We, in collecting these recipes, and you, in recreating them, honor the cultural heritage of the unspoken heroes and heroines of Hunza.
—Julie Flowerday