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Description

Cloth doll with embroidered facial features. She is wearing a belted black dress and pants. Doll has a beaded headdress and multi-strand necklace; necklace is done in yellow and orange. The headdress consists of a ring and long woven train covered in horizontal bands made up of beads, buttons and bells; twisted fringe along bottom edge. Bells are silver, buttons are white and beads are done in orange, white, yellow, dark blue, pink, light green, and silver. Band designs consist of alternating vertical stripes, chevrons and plain horizontal stripes. Collar, cuffs and bottom edge of dress are decorated with yarn geometric designs; done in orange, yellow, light blue, pink, and white. Additional wavy silver ribbon trims bottom edge of dress. Opening of pants are bordered with wide green ribbons with heart-like designs throughout; ribbon trimmed in orange yarn, designs done in silver. Doll is attached to a wooden base.

Narrative

Donor acquired the doll in a village in the Kalasha Valleys when she was staying in the area around 1991.

History Of Use

The Kalasha or Kalash people are Indigenous people who live in the Hindu Kush mountain range, in the three sub-valleys of Kalash; Bumboret, Rumbor and Birir, in the Chitral District of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province. In predominantly Muslim Pakistan, they have been forced to convert or intermarry, and the population has declined significantly, and has only about 3,800 people. This doll was likely made for tourists but the headdress represents one worn by women. UNESCO listed a tradition of the Kalash people on the list of intangible cultural heritage in need of urgent safeguarding in 2018.