The culture of the Kafirs (the ‘unbelievers’ or ‘infidels’) survived in vast valleys of the southern Hindu Kush mountains until the end of the 19th century. They had their own languages, religion, vineyards and other specific features. In the winter of 1895/1896, the ‘pagan’ Kafiristan region in Afghanistan was forcefully Islamicised, and thence the region has become known as the Nuristan (‘land of light’) province of eastern Afghanistan. Part of the subgroup of the Kati Kafirs fled to neighbouring northern Pakistan in 1896. The Kalash Kafirs had already settled in North Pakistan, in the region near Chitral. They remained untouched by the conversion to Islam in 1895/1896 and, at least in part, still live after to their old customs today.
The Kafirs bury their dead above ground, in large wooden coffins. One or two years after the actual burial, the relatives would then place memorial or ancestor figures for important men (and women), such as the present one, either near the dead or along the paths leading to the cemetery. This occasion was marked by feasts in the whole village. The present equestrian sculpture depicts precisely such an important person, a ‘great man’. He sits on his horse, holding the reins in his right hand and what is probably a dagger in his left hand, on his hips. The tall, pointed cap and the sketched ear pendants denote the high rank of the deceased person. The back of the sculpture features a sun wheel symbol in relief, as it typical of the ancestor figures of the Kafirs.
The sides of the massive, cubic plinth are adorned with deep chip-carving decorations: a further sun wheel on the right side, a blossom on the back, as well as the ‘endless knot’ motif, winding bands and linear geometric patterns. The plinth features a continuation of smaller size on its underside (H: 6 cm). This section of the figure was placed on another plinth, or on a post, in order to give the riding ancestor a stable, definitive position. The present object is almost entirely carved from one single piece of cedar wood. Only the ‘hat’ was separately manufactured and subsequently placed on the figure’s head. The robustly expressive, compact, roughly carved style characterises the present sculpture as the work of a carver from the Kati or Kalash Kafirs in northern Pakistan. With small age-related damage (tears and some minor pieces broken off).
First half of the 20th century; H: 91 cm (in total), L.: 34 cm (plinth), W: 18 cm (plinth).

Provenance: Alexander Posch Collection, Graz. Alexander Posch was a camera operator. In this professional, he travelled with journalist and documentary filmmaker Harald Lechenperg throughout Pakistan and Afghanistan in 1966. (ME)

Lit.: 'Nuristan' by Klimburg & Janata, catalogue, fig. p. 19; 'The Kafirs of the Hindu-Kush' by Sir George Scott Robertson 1896, fig. p. 17, 647, 649.

additional picture:
Kafir figures from Robertson’s 1896 book.
Photo: Illustration from Robertson’s ‘The Kafirs of the Hindu-Kush’, 1896.