Khowar Ishlogh

Every cultural group, small or large, has its own folklore, which includes, besides material part of it, songs, proverbs, anecdotes, fables and stories. A piece of folktale is not the work of a specific author, reflecting his own world view, but is the product of a soc iety’s combined effort during long courseofits evolution. Thus, these stories are built around the people’s collective imaginations, ideals, and values. People receive these from the older generation and transmit to the next generation with certain modific ations in line with needs of the age. This continuous addition of contents makes the folklore an archive of the values and ideals, held by previous generations. Khowar is the languageof KhowEthnic People living in Chitral and Gilgit-- Baltistan regions in th e Northern Mountains of Pakistan. Khows are an ancient people belonging to Dardic branch of the Indo Arian Race. Khowar language has many features common with its near relatives in the group like Kashmiri, Shina, Kohistani, Kalasha, Dameli and many others. However, it has been strongly influenced by Persian and Turkic languages from the North. Khowar has a rich folklore, which like the language itself, has its basics in the Dardic traditions, but bears clear marks of Central Asian influnces. Story telling is deep rooted in Khow traditions. Story tellers used to be main source of entertainment and pastime in homes and gatherings. Local rulers kept story tellers with them who entertained the audience till late night. Likewise, story tellers were invited to pe rform inthe homes of the nobility. Stories narrated in these gatherings were lengthy ones, either translated or adopted from Persian and Arabic Dastanslike those of Amir Hamza or Alf Laila (The Thousand Nights). There were other stories of local origin, wi th true Dardic flavor.Adventurous princes, villainous demons, beautiful fairies and indifferent kings were the main characters in these stories. The drama in these stories was grand yet it was set in the narrow world of mountain valleys. There was yet anot her type of stories, those told to small children by grandparents and other elders. These were either fables with animals playing human roles or otherwise funny stories of caricature like characters. Khowar children’s stories always have some morale attach ed to it. These were meant to educate the coming generation in values and norms of the society. These stories develop a sense of morality in the children by helping themdifferentiate between good and evil and to identify with the good.
Khowar Folk Tales
Farid Ahmed Raza
Zuhur Ul Haq Danish