Barmanou - The Laghar People

The Laghar People

Which according to Wali is in the K.P regions of upper and lower Dir and Swat District situated 35° North Latitude and 72° and 30° East Longitude. Wali stated that they are not wild people and they have been known to the local population till 1932. They worship pre-historic religions and wear garment consisting of two very small sheets of unhemmed cloth, and that is why they would be known as lagahr people (means the naked one). In 1931, the ruler of the princely state of Swat Wale-e-Swat Miangul Golshahzada Abdul-Wadud Badshah Sahib signed an agreement with the laghar people and a demarcation of an area latter known as the Pat-Rak area. Pat-rak means" the place where stones were lead"; it was the place of the demarcation between the lands of the Prince and the laghar people. The agreement was that no member of the laghar people will come to prince’s state side as: "laghar women makes our (Swat’s) women un-pure and due to your (laghar’s) women our women become/tented to vulgarity. No person from our side will come to your side, you are free in your own land, with your own law. The laghar people are free to nominate their own Sardar (king)." The situation took a bad turn in 1932 when the entire laghar population came under epic diseases and there was a big death toll. The laghar people never asked the Swat Prince for help, it is believed that the entire population has vanished. When the prince knew about the situation on the other side of the boder(beyond Pat-Rak) he was very upset with the situation and sent many teams of doctors but they did not find a single laghar person, the entire villages of laghar people were deserted. It is said that few fragments from that population still exists today. As They follow centuries old traditions to honour the agreements therefore even after 80 years they are still unknown. These people adapt themselves to the Jungle environment. As they are so culturally different from the local Dir / Swat societies to the people of Swat and Dir laghar people seems non-human to them, even though they are.

The laghar people live in the alpine climate. The alpine climate where laghar people live are at high elevation. Alpine climate is where the plant community and alpine tundra grow together. It is also said that the laghar people live in the alpine climate or above alpine climate but at night and specially during the winter months they move down to lower altitudes probability to find food. According to locals the took hours and hours of trekking as if they are just a few steps. Some local say they did followed them but at a point when they were getting closer to them Laghar people ask them to stop though they were not aggressive. Some local says that they follow old swat buddhism and it is them who frequently carve the Buddha paintings in the mountains at high altitudes.