Every May, the three Kalash valleys of Chitral – Rumbur, Bumburet and Birir – fill with drums, song and the scent of fresh walnut leaves. Chilam Joshi (also written Chilim Jusht, Joshi or Zhoshi) is the Kalash spring festival: a welcome to the new season, a blessing for the herds and crops, and the last great gathering before many families take their animals up to the high summer pastures.
When and where
The festival falls in mid-May; accounts commonly give 13 to 16 May, though reports describe it lasting anything from three to five days. It moves from valley to valley: in 2024 it began in Birir, reached Rumbur the next day and Bumburet the day after. The closing day draws people from all three valleys to the charsu, the central dancing ground in Bumburet.
Kalash festival dates follow the community's own luni-solar calendar, kept through Suri Jagek, the traditional practice of observing the sun, moon and stars against the mountain skyline. UNESCO added Suri Jagek to its list of intangible cultural heritage in need of urgent safeguarding in 2018.
Milk, flowers and walnut leaves
Preparations start before the festival itself: milk is saved for around ten days so that it can be offered and shared. Young people climb to the higher pastures to gather wildflowers and walnut leaves, and goat stables are decorated with them. On the milk days, fresh goat milk is collected from the sheds, drunk, shared and sprinkled as a blessing on the goat sheds, the community hall and on mothers and newborn babies.
Other rites mark new lives. Dried mulberries and walnuts are handed out in a ceremony for babies born in the past year, and young children are dressed in Kalash costume for the first time. Throughout, people pray for the safety of their herds and crops.
The great dance
The final day, Ghona Zhoshi – 'the big Joshi' – is given to singing and dancing from morning to evening. Women and girls in brightly coloured dresses and elaborate headdresses dance in turning circles around the drummers; the drum and voices are the only music. Dancers wave walnut branches, form long lines that pull one another along, and finally process to the charsu waving freshly picked apricot twigs for hours of shared dancing.
After the festival, farming begins and many people move to the pastures with their cattle for about four months.
Chilam Joshi is also a season for marriages: Dawn reported 21 during the 2024 festival.
Visiting respectfully
The festival now draws large crowds – Dawn reported more than 600 foreign visitors from 11 countries in 2024, alongside many from across Pakistan – and Kalash residents have spoken out about visitors photographing people, especially women, without asking. Posters in Bumburet ask visitors to get permission before taking anyone's photograph, and some Kalash women have started covering their faces to avoid cameras.
- Ask before photographing anyone, and accept a no.
- Watch the dancing from the edges rather than walking into it.
- Book accommodation early: hotels in the valleys fill up well before the festival.
- Follow the guidance posted by local authorities, who publish codes of conduct for the festival.
Exact dates are announced locally each year, so check them before you plan your journey.
