Hindu Kush | mountains, Asia | Britannica.com
Hindu Kush
Afghanistan
Hindu Kush, great mountain system of Central Asia . Broadly defined, it is some 500 miles (800 km) long and as wide as 150 miles (240 km).
The Hindu Kush is one of the great watersheds of Central Asia, forming part of the vast Alpine zone that stretches across Eurasia from east to west. It runs northeast to southwest and divides the valley of the Amu Darya (the ancient Oxus River) to the north from the Indus River valley to the south. To the east the Hindu Kush buttresses the Pamir range near the point where the borders of China , Pakistani-controlled Kashmir , and Afghanistan meet, after which it runs southwest through Pakistan and into Afghanistan, finally merging into minor ranges in western Afghanistan. The highest peak is Mount Tirich Mir , which rises near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border to 25,230 feet (7,690 metres).
The Hindu Kush and the Karakoram Range.
It was through the high passes of the Hindu Kush in about 1500 bc that invaders from Central Asia brought their Indo-European language—a forerunner of the Indo-Iranian languages spoken throughout the region today. Historically, the passes have been of great military significance, providing access to the northern plains of India for such conquerors as Alexander the Great , the king of Macedonia; the Mongols Genghis Khan and Timur (Tamerlane); and their descendant Babur, the first Mughal emperor. During the period of British rule in India, the Indian government was keenly concerned with the security both of these passes and of an associated physical feature to the south, the Khyber Pass . The Hindu Kush range has rarely constituted the frontier between major powers but has usually formed part of an intermediate buffer zone. The name Hindu Kush derives from the Arabic for “Mountains of India.” Its earliest known usage occurs on a map published about ad 1000.
Physical features
Zagros Mountains
The eastern limit of the Hindu Kush is difficult to determine because of a locally complex topography , although the Karambar Pass (14,250 feet [4,343 metres]) between the valleys of the Konar (called the Kunar or Chitral in Pakistan) and Gilgit rivers may be tentatively accepted as the boundary. The western limit also is uncertain, as the mountains lose height and fan out into minor ranges in Afghanistan. Geologists, however, consider the Hindu Kush range to extend much farther west to the Iranian border.
Physiography
The Hindu Kush may be divided into three main sections: the eastern Hindu Kush, which runs from the Karambar Pass in the east to the Dorāh (Do Rāh) Pass (14,940 feet [4,554 metres]) not far from Mount Tirich Mir; the central Hindu Kush, which then continues to the Shebar (Shībar) Pass (9,800 feet [2,987 metres]) to the northwest of Kabul ; and the western Hindu Kush, also known as the Bābā Mountains (Kūh-e Bābā), which gradually descends to the Kermū Pass.
In its extreme eastern section, between the passes of Karambar and Baroghil (Barowghīl; 12,480 feet [3,804 metres]), the eastern Hindu Kush is not very high and has mountains that often take the form of rounded domes. Farther to the west the main ridge rises rapidly to Baba Tangi (21,368 feet [6,513 metres]) and becomes rugged, after which, within the space of about 100 miles (160 km), are concentrated the highest mountains of the entire region—about two dozen summits of more than 23,000 feet (7,000 metres) in elevation. A first cluster of high peaks around Urgand (23,094 feet [7,039 metres]), in Afghanistan, is followed farther south by the massif (principal mountain mass) of Saraghrara (24,111 feet [7,349 metres]). Another line of imposing mountains, which includes Mounts Langar (23,162 feet [7,060 metres]), Shachaur (23,346 feet [7,116 metres]), Udrem Zom (23,376 feet [7,125 metres]), and Nādīr Shāh Zhāra (23,376 feet [7,125 metres]), leads to the three giant mountains of the Hindu Kush, which are Mounts Noshaq (Nowshāk; 24,557 feet [7,485 metres]), Istoro Nal (24,242 feet [7,389 metres]), and Tirich Mir. Most major glaciers of the Hindu Kush—among them Kotgaz, Niroghi, Atrak, and Tirich—are in the valleys of this section.
Britannica Stories
Sir Isaac Newton
Forests cover many southern slopes of the eastern and central Hindu Kush, where there is abundant snowfall in the winter and intermittent precipitation from the summer monsoon. In the northernmost mountains in Pakistan’s Chitral district and the Gilgit district (Pakistani-controlled Kashmir), precipitation on lower slopes is sparse; hence forest vegetation is limited to occasional juniper and birch. Large stands of deodar cedar and blue pine cloak the eastern and central spurs of the Hindu Kush in Pakistan and Afghanistan. In the western Hindu Kush, forest is almost absent, and cultivated fodder trees such as poplar, willow, and Russian olive predominate. Other planted trees in irrigated mountain oases include plane trees and economically valuable species such as mulberry, jujube, and walnut. Meadowland is intermittent, depending on sunny and shady exposure, with substantial pastures found on slopes where snow accumulates; these pastures are occasionally cultivated in the summer by local and transhumant (seasonally migrating) populations. The valleys of the Swat and Dir districts, as well as parts of Chitral, support rice cultivation.
Wildflowers blooming in the Hindu Kush in the Chitral district of northern Pakistan.
© Brian A. Vikander
Undulating grassland, called pamir , occurs above the tree line in the eastern Hindu Kush, while in the deep valleys barren rock walls are punctuated by brilliant emerald-green oases irrigated by glacial and snowfield meltwater. On the northern slopes, vegetation generally is sparse and limited to summer grazing by valley-dwelling inhabitants. In the inaccessible reaches of Nūrestān , deodar forest is still substantial, but in the western portion of the range, where precipitation is less abundant, the higher slopes support grazing.
Animal life
Well-adapted species of wildlife are found throughout the mountains. The Siberian ibex and the markhor (both wild goats) negotiate the high crags, while Marco Polo sheep and urial (another wild sheep) occasionally are found in the high pamir. Black and brown bears still exist in isolated valleys, and the Chitral valley wildlife preserve is a domain of the rare snow leopard. The rich birdlife of the mountains includes vultures and eagles. The streams of the northern slope contain brown trout in abundance.
Human depredation has reduced the variety and distribution of wildlife throughout the Hindu Kush, although efforts to create wildlife preserves in unpopulated areas have met with some success. The display of horns at pagan and Muslim religious sites demonstrates the cultic importance of the ibex. A vestige of this cult persists in domesticated animal husbandry, where, by custom, only males may milk goats.
People
A long and tormented history, together with fragmented topography, has produced a veritable mosaic of peoples in the region. The lower parts of the Vākhān and the higher parts of the Sanglīch and Anjoman valleys, all on the northwestern slopes of the Hindu Kush, are sparsely inhabited by the so-called Pamir or Mountain Tajik , most of whom are Ismāʿīlī Muslims. Other Tajik (who are Sunni Muslims), Uzbek , and some Ḥazāra (Persian-speaking peoples of Central Asian origin) live in the valleys of the central and western parts of the Hindu Kush. Kyrgyz nomads formerly occupied the high pamir but migrated to eastern Turkey in the 1980s during the Afghan War . Pashtun are found in the major towns, in Kabul, and in many districts to the south of the Hindu Kush, with the exception of Nūrestān. Pashtun nomads range over the western hills and into northern high pastures in Afghanistan. Some Indic Gujar nomadic herders seasonally penetrate the valleys of the southern slopes. On the southeast (Pakistan) side of the Hindu Kush, most people are Kohistani, an ethnic group that shows a marked cultural unity from Kashmir to Kabul.
The Kafir of Chitral are an exceptionally interesting people. Their name means “Infidel” or “Non-Muslim” and seems to have been used since the 11th century. Traditionally, they are divided into two groups—the kalasha (“black”) Kafir of Chitral and the kati (“red”) Kafir of Nūrestān. In the past, the Kafir inhabited a much larger area of the Hindu Kush. The Kafir of Nūrestān were forcibly converted to Islam in 1896.
Physically, the Kafir do not seem to differ much from their neighbours; they speak a language classed by some as Dardic . It is in their religion that their ethnic individuality is most strikingly expressed. They practice a form of polytheism; worship consists mainly in the sacrifice of animals. Dancing is important, and shamans practice divination. Prior to modern legal prohibition of the custom, the dead were disposed of, unburied, in heavy wooden coffins. Large wooden statues of ancestors, often on horseback, traditionally stood near graveyards; many of these works now reside in museums. Housing in Chitral and Nūrestān consists of strong rectangular wooden buildings. The economy is based on agriculture and the raising of goats and oxen.
Economy
Resources
Forage, timber, and water are the most heavily exploited resources in the Hindu Kush. Human settlements occur where land can be irrigated. Large seasonal migrations of livestock, driven by herders, fully utilize the pasturelands of remote mountain areas. Each year thousands of sheep and goats from the high pastures of Badakhshān travel through the Anjoman Pass down to the markets of Kabul.
Small hydroelectric power plants generate electricity for mountain villages in Pakistan. In the north, hydropower is generated at Pol-e Khomrī and Kondūz. Many of these are dual-purpose dams, with large downstream irrigation facilities.
Small irrigated plots of wheat, barley, millet, corn (maize), potatoes, and peas and beans constitute the region’s agriculture. Orchards of mulberry, walnut, almond, jujube, apricot, and apple are valuable sources of food during drought. Migrants, refugees from Afghanistan, and loggers have depleted much of the tree cover on the southern slopes, with the high forests of Nūrestān and the Hindu Raj remaining inaccessible.
Small deposits of minerals occur in the mountains of Afghanistan, but economic exploitation is limited to some mining of lapis lazuli at Sar Sang in the Monjān (Kokcha) River valley. Some beryl is mined in the Konar River valley. Ancient texts report spinel ruby and rock crystal, but no commercial mining of these minerals is carried on today. There are coal mines at Karkar and Eshposhteh (Ishpushta) in Afghanistan in the central Hindu Kush. The northern plains adjacent to the western Hindu Kush supply natural gas for export to Uzbekistan, while the Bābā Mountains to the south near Hājjī Gak and Paghmān (west of Kabul) and in the north near Feyẕābād contain iron ore deposits.
Transportation
Motor vehicle roads and tracks serve all the inhabited valleys of the Hindu Kush. Every village in the Pakistan portion of the mountains can be reached by jeep; tracks over such high passes as Shandur and Lawarai in Gilgit and Chitral districts have reduced the isolation of these valleys. Of major importance is the all-weather road through the Sālang Tunnel linking northern and southern Afghanistan. Rough vehicle tracks penetrate the northern valleys, including the Vākhān region, from Feyẕābād in Badakhshān. Short-takeoff-and-landing aircraft intermittently serve remote locations and provide daily service to Chitral and Gilgit. Air service to the Vākhān region and the western Hindu Kush in Afghanistan is infrequent.
Study and exploration
General descriptions of the Hindu Kush valleys are found in the ancient records of such pilgrims as the Chinese Buddhist monk Xuanzang , who exited South Asia through the Hindu Kush in the mid-7th century ce, and from scribes who accompanied invaders from Central Asia. Many local toponyms are Turkic in origin. The Venetian traveler Marco Polo and his group is said to have passed along the Hindu Kush through the Badakhshān and Vākhān regions in the 13th century. The central section of the range, known as Kābul Kūhestān (Kohistan), was famous in antiquity as the location of the triodon, three great transmontane routes. The first of these was either the Khawāk Pass in the Panjshēr River valley, over which Alexander the Great passed northward, or the adjacent Thalle Pass, used by Timur; the second was the Kushān Pass (slightly to the west of the present-day Sālang road tunnel), which Alexander crossed southward; and the third was the Kipchak Pass, used by Genghis Khan in the early 13th century and by Babur in 1504.
In the 19th century, political control of the Hindu Kush was contested by tsarist Russia and imperial Britain. With the establishment of Afghanistan in the early 1880s, these two combatants were essentially banished from the territory; hence it was left to other Europeans, especially the Germans, to study and explore the central ranges of the Hindu Kush. The Germans and the French conducted major scientific and archaeological expeditions in Afghanistan in the 1930s.
By the end of the 19th century, the British had subdued the dissident principalities in the eastern Hindu Kush. There followed the precise topographical measurement of what became the northwestern frontier of British India. Further extensive topographic suveys of the Hindu Kush were carried out in the second half of the 20th century by the Soviet Union, the United States , and Pakistan, leading to the production of highly detailed maps. War disrupted activity in the region during the 1980s and 1990s.