Food, Houses and Agriculture
FOOD:
The food of an average Pukhtoon (tribesmen) is simple. He has two principal meals a day, taking lunch between 11 and 12 O' clock and supper at sun-set. It consists of whole-meal bread called `Dodai' or `Teekala', vegetables and meat. Bread is usually made of wheat or maize flour. It is baked in an oven called `Tanoor' or made into a loaf on a flat iron pan called `Tabakhay' or `Taighna'.
Wheat is the staple food grain and it is in common use but maize is also consumed, mostly by the poor in winter. The use of forks and knives is alien to their nature and they partake of their meal with the right hand.
Pukhtoons are fond of Chapli Kabab and Pullao is considered essential on festive occasions. Supping Qahwa after delicious meal is also common.
The diet and other habits of the Pukhtoons are changing due to the spread of education, rise in living standards and constant contacts with the people of urban areas. Now dinner and tea sets, chairs and tables have found their way into the houses of the well-off tribesmen.
The Pukhtoons live in fortified villages and hamlets. Their houses, in a village, lie close together in a compact block, only streets separating them into Mahlats (Muhallahs). Usually made of clay, wood and stone, the houses consist of two or three rooms with no windows or ventilators (for security reasons), a courtyard called "Gholay" and a Veranda. A Tanoor (Oven) for baking loaves, a matting corn bin for storage of grains, a cattle pen or an enclosure made of bushes called `Shpol' for cattle and a hand mill called `Maichan' can also be seen in most of the houses. Every house is thus built to shelter the family, cattle and poultry alike. The outer sides of the walls of the houses are generally used for plastering cow dung cakes for drying, which are used as fuel. The charpaee (bedstead) is the most familiar piece of furniture in a house for sleeping and for sitting.
Houses are decorated in oriental fashion and a clay shelf about three feet high and two feet wide is constructed inside a residential room for keeping crockery etc. Tables and chairs are also used in the houses of well-to-do families.
The tribal life has undergone a change since Independence. Blood feuds and tribal hostilities have largely ceased to exist and tranquil conditions prevail which have greatly benefited the tribesmen. The comparatively peaceful conditions have ushered in an era of peace, progress and prosperity and changed the face of the hills and valleys. The old mud houses are now being replaced by pucca houses with proper ventilation and other hygienic requirements.
Agriculture is the main occupation of the tribesmen and they support themselves by extensive cultivation of their lands in the plains, river beds and mountain. It is supplemented by cattle breeding. Incidentally Waziristan is famous for Sheep breeding. Wheat and maize are the two principal crops but paddy, barley, mustard and even poppies are grown as alternative crops. Cultivation is done by conventional methods. Oxen are generally used for agricultural purposes in the plough, thrashing ground and sometimes used as beasts of burden.
Fruits are found in abundance and vegetables are also grown. The Golden Delicious variety of apples of the Kurram Agency are well known for their flavour and sweetness. Malakand Agency is famous for its highly prized Malta and North and South Waziristan are known for the good quality of plums and pine kernels (Chalghozas). Apricots, pears, peaches, pomegranates and valnut trees are also grown in Kurram, Tirah and other fertile tracts of the tribal areas.
The tribal area is rich in forest wealth. Timber is available in abundance as Ilex, pine, deodar and the edible blue pines grow on the mountains with altitude above 6,000 feet. The inner hills are thickly wooded with olive, sloe gurgura and wild bushes like mazri which is used for making bedsteads, mats, chaplis and baskets.
Since Independence there has been a steady increase in the cultivated area. A great deal has been done to bring more and more land under cultivation and a lot more is in the process of accomplishment to make the tribal area self sufficient in food.
The Khyber, the Nawa and the Gomal are the most important passes of this mountainous region which provided communication between the South Asian Sub-Continent and Central Asia, even in the distant past. These passes, particularly Khyber, stand testimony to countless events in the history of mankind and watched with great interest the march of the Aryans descending on the fertile plains of the Sub-Continent. Successive waves of Persians, Greeks, Bactrians, Scythians, White Huns, Kushans, Mongols, Turks and Mughals rode through these passes and changed the course of history in this part of the world.
The Persian explorers and adventurers under Darius and the Greek conquerors under Alexander the Great, passed through these passes with an ambition to conquer the land known as "Repository of gold" and thus assuage their thirst for gold and conquest. Free booters from Central Asia made use of these gate-ways, particularly the Khyber Pass, to satisfy their lust for fame, wealth and power. Muslim conquerors like the famous Mahmud of Ghazna, Shahabud Din Mohammad Ghori and Zaheerud Din Babar traversed the celebrated Khyber Pass several times which ultimately resulted in the setting up of a mighty Muslim Empire in India.
The historic Khyber Pass which holds some of the most checqered and fascinating romances of the past stands out prominently in recorded history. Around its name gleams a halo un-rivalled in the history of mankind. No other pass in the world has, perhaps, enjoyed such strategic importance and historic association.
There are three roads in the Khyber Pass, including the old caravan route for mules and camels, the fascinating zig-zag road with many bends and curves for vehicular traffic and the well engineered railway extension, completed in 1925. The Railway line, considered to be a feat of modern engineering, threads its circuitous way through 34 tunnels before terminating at Landi Khana, the last Railway Station near the Pak Afghan border at Torkham.
The ancient caravan route of the Khyber Pass has been a passage of destiny since times immemorial. Kings and conquerors troded this route through the centuries and trade between the South Asian Sub-Continent and Central Asia was carried on through it. Such, in short, is the splendour of this gate-way to South Asia which is inhabited by Afridis and Shinwaris, Wardens of the Marches of the North West Frontier of Pakistan.