Forgotten on the Roof of the World – The Story of the Kyrgyz of Afghanistan

SILK ROAD LECTURE SERIES, WINTER 2011-12

Ted Callahan Ph.D. Candidate in Anthropology, Boston University

At over 14,000 feet, in the wildest, most remote corner of Afghanistan, live the Kyrgyz of the Wakhan Corridor. Their home, the Bam-e Dunya or “Roof of the World,” lies along a branch of the Silk Road traversed by the Chinese pilgrim Xuan Zang, the Venetian merchant Marco Polo and various figures from the 19th century’s “Great Game” between England and Russia. The Kyrgyz were the subjects of numerous ethnographic studies and films prior to 1978, when, presciently fearing a Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, a large number of them fled to Pakistan. While the story of the Kyrgyz who remained in Pakistan and were eventually resettled in eastern Turkey is well-known, the fate of those who remained behind, who lament having been “forgotten on the Roof of the World,” has largely remained unexamined. This talk will look at the current situation of the Afghan Kyrgyz in historical and ethnographic perspective: their tortuous past migrations to avoid state encapsulation; their survival strategies to subsist in an extremely harsh environment, boxed in by international borders; the modus vivendi they have reached with the current Afghan government, as the Kyrgyz balance their desire to receive state aid while maintaining their autonomy; and the future threats they face with the looming withdrawal of international military forces from Afghanistan in 2014. Ted Callahan has conducted ethnographic research among Kyrgyz communities in Turkey, the Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, China and Afghanistan. He lived with the Afghan Kyrgyz of over a year between 2006 and 2008 and was most recently there in 2010. He received his BA from Middlebury College and MA from Stanford University (CEAS). His PhD dissertation, which he will defend this spring, is titled, “To Rule the Roof of the World: Power and Patronage in Afghan Kyrgyz Society.”