Hunza is an agricultural city. Miles and miles of fruit orchards can be seen as the tourist approaches Karimabad. Apricots are the major diet in summers and are stored throughout the winters. Some wonderful green fields with trees in them.


Remote and grown on precarious slopes, surrounded by high peaks - the chances of this tree crop reaching an export market a continent away may seem as remote as the mountain farms they come from. Yet the succulent, deep orange, dried apricots from the Hunza valley in northwest Pakistan have become highly respected by consumers many thousands of miles from the bazaars where they were traditionally traded. "The apricots are precious wealth for the people of this area", says Sher Ghazi, Director of Mountain Fruits Company (MFC), the thriving business which advises farmers on production and buys, grades and exports the fruits. "Production is 6-10,000 tonnes in the northern area. It's a huge amount." Unfortunately, due to seasonal gluts in production, most of the apricots - along with other tree crops such as apples, cherries, mulberries - is wasted. A significant proportion rots before it is consumed or marketed. However, the rising international popularity of dried fruits in the 1990's offered a new, and very lucrative, market to the tree croppers of Pakistan provided, that is, they could compete with much larger-scale apricot orchards of Turkey and the USA.
Apricots have long been an important crop in these valleys and an essential source of income. Growing between 1,800-3,200 metres above sea level, below peaks that reach 8,000 metres high, the orchards of apricots, intercropped with alfalfa and forest trees, are irrigated by spring water or glacial melt waters brought in by complex systems of canals over great distances to the carefully terraced slopes. Rich in minerals and vitamins, for many centuries the sun-dried fruit has been renowned regionally for its taste. The long-living Hunza people attribute their longevity and many health-giving properties to their apricots.
Adding value - and nothing more
Altitude, long summer days and soil type give these fruits their unique, intense flavour. Traditionally, farmers laid the apricots on rooftops or mats to dry in the mountain air. With the support of the Aga Khan Rural Support Programme (AKRSP) Adam Brett, an international fruit-drying specialist and trader with UK-based Tropical Wholefoods, was brought in to train MFC staff and the farmers in minimising microbiological contamination of the crop at every stage from farm to the MFC packhouse in the regional town of Gilgit. "I realise that farmers want to feel they are progressing and may wish to invest in electric driers," explains Brett, "but in these valleys power supply is intermittent and expensive."
As an effective alternative, Tropical Wholefoods (which imports dried banana, pineapple and mango from Uganda and Burkina Faso and dried mushrooms from India, Colombia and Zambia) has introduced advanced solar driers to farmers that, if well-managed, dry consistently to an international marketable standard, with greatly improved stability and food-safety compared with traditional drying techniques. "It is often assumed that contamination is most likely to occur on farm", says Brett, "when in fact microbiological tests showed apricots were most at risk during later handling in the inadequate packhouse." To reach the standards, and maintain

consistency in quality and safety required by international buyers, it was evident that a new factory - with washable walls, sealable floors and safe storage- was required.Hunza is an agricultural city. Miles and miles of fruit orchards can be seen as the tourist approaches Karimabad. Apricots are the major diet in summers and are stored throughout the winters. Some wonderful green fields with trees in them.

HUNZA IN SUMMER

The British General and soldiers arrived in the summer during the 1870s as did everyone who traveling to Hunza. This was the harvest season for the grains, fruits and vegetables from the gardens, and much of the food was consumed raw. Because fuel for cooking was saved to be used in winter for boiling meat and providing some heat for the stone dwellings, very little meat was consumed in summer and vegetable were eaten raw.

Curious visitors who followed the British soldiers to Hunza Valley years later naturally arrived in summeralso, and the summer diet of the people led visitors to assume they were mainly vegetarian and ate very little meat. This was typical of the summer harvest season. Many primitive cultures including cavemen lived in a similar manner, gorging themselves on available fruit during the short season and eating mostly meat for the rest of the year. The people of Hunza differed in that they never had an abundance of anything except rocks. They did not have enough animals to provide abundant meat during the winter because of the lack of fodder. They did not want to kill female animals that were milk producers unless the animal was old or lame.The Hunzakuts are said to have cultivated plants included barley, millet, wheat, buckwheat, turnips, carrots, dried beans, peas, pumpkins, melons, onions, garlic, cabbage, cauliflower, apricots, mulberries, walnuts, almonds, apples, plums, peaches, cherries, pears and pomegranates. John Clark did not find green beans, wax beans, beets, endive, lettuce, radishes, turnips, spinach, yellow pear tomatoes, Brussel sprouts or parsley. Cherry tomatoes and potatoes are thought to have been brought in by the British. The long list of currently grown plant varieties should not be a consideration when discussing the longevity of the Hunzakuts and their past diet.


Apricot trees were very popular, and the fruit was eaten raw in season and sun dried for winter. The pits were cracked to obtain the kernel that was crushed to obtain the oil for cooking and lamps. The hard shell was kept for a fire fuel. The kernel and oil could be eaten from the variety of apricots with a sweet kernel, but the bitter kernel variety had an oil containing poisonous prussic acid. Click the picture to see an enlargement.The apricot trees were allowed to grow very large in order to obtain the maximum yield. Picking the maximum amount of fruit was more important than the difficulty in picking. The children would scamper to the higher branches to pick or shake off the fruit. Planting new trees required several years of growth before any fruit was produced. The special garden silt or glacial milk did not contribute to the age or size of the trees as is commonly claimed. Our modern orchards are not managed that way because we have abundant space and picking is expensive. Our trees are cut when the size makes them difficult to harvest, not because they fail to live as long as those in Hunza.




Mulberries, which resemble blackberries in size and shape, are a favorite fruit. When fully ripe, their flavor is sweet-sour but somewhat bland. The variety grown in Hunza was most likely a golden color.A large variety of indigenous wildlife including markhors sheep, Marco Polo sheep, geese, ducks, pheasants and partridge provided the early Hunza hunters with meat in addition to their sheep, goats and domesticated Yaks. Chickens were also raised for meat and eggs until sometime in the 1950s when they were banned by the Mir.The Queen and her children traveled on Yaks while the King and other men rode horses. The Yak is a strong wild animal which they domesticated for for traveling in the mountains as a beast of burden pack animal. In addition to Yaks, which provided milk and meat, the Hunzakuts also had goats, sheep, cows and horses. However, there were very few cows or horses in Hunza in 1950 because they consumed a lot of fodder compared to goats and sheep. The Yaks, goats and sheep were herded in the summer to areas just below the snow line for feeding on sparse grasses and plants.

They were milked by the herders who made butter that was delivered back to the people in the villages below. The herders had plenty of milk to drink that valley people lacked. The Yaks were also milked. Cows and horses could not be herded to the higher elevation because the vegetation there was simply to sparse.The picture is of the Cathedral Peaks as viewed from the village of Ghulmit 23 miles (37 km) upriver from Baltit near the northern end of Hunza. Summer grains are seen growing in the foreground. The Mir's main Palace was in Baltit, but since firewood was more abundant in Ghulmit, he chose this location for his winter residence. Click the picture to see an enlargement.

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.