ETHNOFLORENCE
INDIAN AND HIMALAYAN
FOLK AND TRIBAL ARTS
November 15, 2021
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AN INTERDISCIPLINARY POINT OF VIEW
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WOODEN EFFIGIES
GANDAOUS OF KALASH CHITRAL
AN EXPLICATED ICONOGRAPHY
Kalasha man in front of model Gandaus, photographed by Capt. J.P. Sulley 1915-6 photo credit of Royal Geographical Society
We have already dealt with the Kalash culture – in particular in the page dedicated to document the reorganized hall of the Florence museum, which exhibits the Graziosi collection.
Two videos and a selection of bibliographic’s publications on the subject has recently been updated on the page (link below)
Alti Sentieri d’Asia vita, cultura e miti dei Popoli dell’Hindu Kush
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https://ethnoflorence.wordpress.com/category/kafiri-nuristan-tribal-art/
The photos of some artifacts exhibited in the Chitral Hall – Gandhara National Museum in Peshawar – are here flanked by some explanatory descriptions of the iconographies of these particular and unique effigies, accompanied by quotes and drawings from ‘The Kafiris of Hindu Kush’ by Sir George Scott Robertson (London 1869). The research of Sushma Jansari (Making myth a reality – British Museum Magazine Spring / Summer 2014) regarding a group of 11 small-sized Gandaus present in the British Museum, according to which (analogous) funerary carvings from northern Pakistan were transformed to meet the demands of foreign visitors, is reported in it’s interesting main arguments.
The local words to designate the effigies or the terms used in the funeral rituals are given in capital letters.
Photo Credit of Renat Shafikov
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CHITRAL HALL
at the Gandhara National Museum in Peshawar
WOODEN EFFIGIES – GANDAW OF KALASH CHITRAL
Photo Credit of Renat Shafikov
The Kalash people living in the three Valleys of Chitral have different rites in their traditional culture, among them of particular note are the funeral ones, especially because compared to other cultures they did not bury the corpses of their dead.
Commemorative Effigy of a Male Horse rider from the Kalash Valley, Chitral, are made on the occasion of funeral rituals – to symbolize the significant features of the worldly life of the dead body.
Photo Credit of Renat Shafikov
Extract from ‘The Kafiris of Hindu Kush’ by Sir George Scott Robertson (London 1869)
Called
DASTUR
the funeral ceremony is practiced for both males and females. The only difference between the two ceremonies is the use of the drum used only for males.
Photo Credit of Renat Shafikov
The dead body is locally known with the term of KHOL which is taken to the religious place locally known as JASTAKHAN for two days and share grief and pay homage to the departet person.
Male (left) and female (right) effigies – Gandaw
After two days the KHOL is placed on a rough coffin named TOHUN and taken to cemetery or MADAWJAW and left in the open air on slab or placed in the TOHUN. With these activity the DASTUR is concluded.
Two Male (on the left and center) and one female (on the right) effigies – Gandaw
After the death of a Kalash of an adult age, an effigy / GANDAW is created in the memory of the departed soul.
We can define these effigies in the following way:
the Gandaus are life-size and sometimes larger than life male and female effigies carved from wood by the Kalasha people, who live in Chitral District.
The wood used for these figures is traditionally the DEODAR, a kinf of light color fragrant Himalayan cedar.
Extract from ‘The Kafiris of Hindu Kush’ by Sir George Scott Robertson (London 1869)
The somatic features of the face of the effigies – Gandaus have an archaic character, characterized by the typical T-shaped pattern of the eyes and nose – a detail that can also be found in some particularly archaic figures from the western region of Nepal. From an iconographic point of view they are not exact portraits of the deceased, but generally uniform stylized and typical representations of the face in the archaic style above mentioned. Round, white stones can be inserted into the eye sockets.
“The faces of the effigies are carved precisely like the idols, and similarly white round stones are used for the eyes, and vertical cuts for the mouth, or rather the teeth.” (The Kafiris of Hindu Kush -Chapter XXXIV Page 645).
From a general examination of the photographic materials we can conclude that there are three types of effigies: standing, sitting and equestrian.
In the frontal part of the body of the effigy some daily life traditional and typical instruments are reproduced- carved in high relief (see photos below) such as locks, bows, arrows, axes and dagger while an ornament in the shape of a cart wheel can be present in the center of the back.
“The effigies are provided with matchlocks or bows and arrows, axes and daggers, carefully but grotesquely carved, and commonly have a cartwheel -shaped ornament in the middle of the back.” (The Kafiris of Hindu Kush – Chapter XXXIV page 645).
Traditional tools are carved in high relief on the clothing of the commemorative effigies – Gandaw
The effigy gandaous of male have a turban DASTUR carved on the head – they are generally carved standing or on horseback, with the horse having one or sometimes two heads (representing in the latter case the highest status that can be accorded through a gandau’s effigy to a Kalasha individual)
A male commemorative effigy – Gandaw – with the turban / DASTUR
A standing male commemorative effigy – Gandaw with the turban DASTUR – typical of male figures
while those of female have a peculiar head dress which is rough imitation of a horned cap, more rarely standing, they are instead depicted seated on richly sculpted chairs
The following drawing taken from ‘The Kafiris of Hindu Kush’ by Sir George Scott Robertson, is an explanation of type of headdress of the kafire’s women, then taken up with four horns in the relative wooden effigies:
” All wore horned caps except the little girls, and, with the same exceptions, nearly all wore gaiters and soft leather boots or dancing-shoes.” (The Kafiris of Hindu Kush – Chapter XXXIII – page 622)
Extract from ‘The Kafiris of Hindu Kush’ by Sir George Scott Robertson (London 1869)
These horns refer back to the belief among the Kalasha that a goat born with four horns was an auspicious omen.
On the right – Coiffure de femme a double cornes (Chitral) Photo Credit of Musee Ethnograpique d’Oslo
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Despite the information gathered by the author that female effigies were never depicted on horses, some exceptions seemed to exist.
“Kafirs repeatedly assured me that women’s images were never placed on horses ; but I have myself seen an outrageous figure of a woman seated astride a couple of horses.” (The Kafiris of Hindu Kush – Chapter XXXIV page 646).
The author’s intuition seems confirmed by the photo of Capt. J.P. Sulley published on this page, in which 3 female models of commemorative effigies on horseback also appear to be present alongside male models.
But for an evaluation of these ‘models’ it is important the research carried out by Sushma Jansari (Making myth a reality – British Museum Magazine Spring/Summer 2014) relative to a group of 11 similar (small) figures present in the British Museum collection, in which it is noted that if on the one hand the Gandaus are traditionally sculpted in life size, those of the collection are between 40 and 56 cm in height.
The Kalasha sculpted for sure smaller human figures to be placed on the posts of the sanctuary (see below for a description) , but after a careful examination no indication that the objects in the museum had ever been part of a post-sanctuary was possible to find.
From a letter found among the photographs donated by Sulley we learn how “Three authentic replicas of funerary effigies from Kafiristan, perhaps no longer available – made for me by Kafirs of Bomboret Chitral in 1915/16” while one his photo, now in the Royal Geographical Society (posted above), portrays a man wearing a traditional Kalasha wool cap in front of eight gandaus models that closely resemble those in the Museum.
It therefore seems likely to the author of the interesting article on the British Museum Magazine that the Kalasha “made them specifically for sale to eager British customers. Thus the distinct culture of the Kalasha, including material culture, gave rise to a market for their cultural artifacts, which caused a question-driven transformation of how they themselves interacted with these objects. ” (Making myth a reality – British Museum Magazine Spring / Summer 2014).
As concluded by Sushma Jansari nowadays alongside the surviving traditional production of gandaus commissioned for their original purpose with a style that continues to change and develop; the other form of production, started by soldier-collectors in the 19th century, it continues to feed abroad, increasingly touristy, market.
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Gandaw – means statue, only rich people makes statues in the memory of the departed soul, being an expensive ceremony few Kalasha people have the means to organize this ancient ritual.
Another male commemorative effigy – Gandaw with the turban DASTUR is reproduced here
Male commemorative effigy – Gandaw with the turban DASTUR
An interesting notation – observed by George Scott Robertson, tells us how the commemorative wooden effigies were decorated:
“The images are often decorated with wisps of cloth bound round the head, and, where the juniper-cedar is easily obtainable, by sprigs of that tree fastened to the brows. The Kafiris of Hindu Kush – Chapter XXXIV page 646).
The effigy that follows is a female one, shown on a throne decorated with geometrical patterns, wearing a two horned cap and a necklace round her neck while another one hangs on her breast.
The figure is carved in a single piece of oak wood.
“Women as well as men are glorified after death by pious relatives, and in this way may be placed on an equality with men by being given a throne to sit upon”(The Kafiris of Hindu Kush – Chapter XXXIV – page 646)
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The effigy along with others were donated to Peshawar museum during the British period.
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“A very common way of commemorating the dead is by the erection of small effigies on the end of poles, which are supported on a pedestal some three feet high and two feet square. The poles are also squared, and bear on their front surface a number of horizontal notches which correspond with the number of homicides the man committed in his lifetime. Such memorials seem to be exclusively erected to the memory of warriors, and I cannot remember seeing them anywhere except in the lower part of the Bashgul Valley, in the Dimgiil Valley, and in the Kalash village of Utziin.
Extract from ‘The Kafiris of Hindu Kush’ by Sir George Scott Robertson (London 1869)
A very elaborate monument is a gateway standing by itself in a more or less isolated position- tliat is to say, away from houses. It consists of two square masonry pillars between five and six feet high, connected together by a wooden door frame. The wood-work is embellished
with carving. From each pillar springs a squared pole surmounted by a small effigy, represented as seated in a chair or on a horse, and furnished with weapons carved in the ordinary way. The poles are notched horizontally, for the reason already stated. Between the two effigies
a figure of a mannikin is often placed on the top of the doorway, playing some musical instrument to amuse the dead hero. Such monuments can only have been erected after the expenditure of much labour. They are very effective in appearance. ” (Chapter XXXV page 651).
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RELATED PAGES ON ETHNOFLORENCE
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Alti Sentieri d’Asia Vita, Cultura e Miti dei Popoli dell’Hindu Kush
Visit the page at the link below
Alti Sentieri d’Asia vita, cultura e miti dei Popoli dell’Hindu Kush
Photo Ethnoflorence
https://ethnoflorence.wordpress.com/category/kafiri-nuristan-tribal-art/
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ETHNOFLORENCE INDIAN AND HIMALAYAN FOLK AND TRIBAL ARTS 