Hunza Valley (Urdu: ہنزہ) is a valley near Gilgit and Nagar vallies in the Northern Areas of Pakistan. The Hunza valley is situated at an elevation of 2,438 metres (7,999 feet). Karimabad is the main town which is a popular tourist attraction in Pakistan because of the spectacular scenery of the surrounding mountains like Rakaposhi 7,788 m (25,551 ft), Ultar Sar (7,388m), Bojahagur Duanasir II (7,329m), Ghenta Peak (7,090m), Hunza Peak (6,270m), Darmyani Peak (6,090m) and Bublimating (Ladyfinger Peak) (6,000m
The story of Hunza is thought to have begun with Alexander III or Alexander the Great (July 356 BC to June 10, 323 BC), son of King Philip of Macedon (Ancient Macedonia west of Greece). Alexander was a brilliant warrior, more capable than his father. After his father's murder, Alexander set out toward the east to conquer neighboring kingdoms. He conquered Greece in short fashion and continued toward Persia where he eventually burned the capital and the national library in a great defeat of the Persians.
Three generals in Alexander's army are said to have married Persian women. The generals betrayed Alexander by giving the Persians his plans. When Alexander heard of the betrayal he sought to take revenge, but the generals, wives and a band of many soldiers fled. The valley of Hunza is thought to have been their valley of refuge because of its remote and secure location.
It is likely that the Hunza valley was already sparsely inhabited when the Macedon generals arrived. Certainly these tough fighting warriors made quick work of slaughtering the ancient inhabitants of Hunza. Though this is purely speculation, it is highly probable. The desolate rocky valley could not have supported the Macedonians unless some farms had been slowly built by others over the preceding centuries.
Hunza became an independent kingdom with a monarchy. The King used the title of Mir. The British disrupted the ruling organization of the Hunza people.
"The Mir, or ruler, of Hunza believed his tiny kingdom to be the equal of China, and likened himself to Alexander the Great from whom he claimed descent. When the British turned up in the 1870s he took them for petitioners seeking to make Queen Victoria his vassal. Not wishing to waste time arguing, the colonial officials had him deposed, replacing him with an amenable brother whom the Mir had carelessly neglected to murder on his way to the throne."
A Kind of Kingdom in Paradise.
The British reported a population of about 8,000 people who were in good health and lived long lives, although their ages could not be verified since the Hunza people had no written records. The people were relatively healthy, especially when compared to the citizens in England where obesity, diabetes, cancer and heart disease ravaged the British due of their high carbohydrate diet of grains, bread, sugar, honey, fruit and potatoes. The Hunza people were slender, healthy and athletic in comparison to relatives of the British solders at home in England who were fat and sickly.
The Hunza tribesmen are shown in the picture. Click the picture to see an enlargement.
The Hunzakuts had lighter skin than the neighboring tribes and appeared to be of Caucasian origin. John Clark reported in 1950 seeing children with black, brown and blond hair and an occasional redhead. They probably chose the Hunza River Valley because of its sheer isolation, but the men took wives from neighboring peoples. Hunza women were said to have been beautiful. This is highly probably since the Persian women taken as captives were likely the best looking. See John Clark's book page 69.
The Hunza people were land poor since there was never enough space to provide plenty. Shortage was always present and people lived in fear of the springtime starvation when food ran desperately low.
Hunza had no soil as such. The river and glacial silt that formed the terraced gardens was simply ground rock. All of the animal manure was spread on the gardens to fertilize the crops and trees. The people defecated directly on the garden, and the soil was deficient in lime and phosphates causing the trees and plants to suffer. The garden yield was considerably less than in the United States and elsewhere where good soil is available. The nitrate fertilizer from animal and human excrement was quickly flushed from the silt by the weekly flooding with glacial water.
The Hunzakuts called this "the land of just enough." The truth is Hunza was always a land of never enough, and everything was in short supply including the usable land which was limited to five acres (20,000 sq. m) per family. Animals were limited because of the lack of grazing pastures in the lower valley. The goats, sheep and Yaks were moved to the higher mountains in summer in search of the sparse vegetation. The herdsmen had an excess of milk while the people in the valley suffered a shortage. This is the reason summer visitors to Hunza see a people eating a low-fat, near-vegetarian diet. The winter diet was vastly different.
The Primary Books Written About Hunza.
John Clark (1909 - 1994) earned his doctorate in geology at Princeton University in 1935. As an officer in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Clark explored nine thousand miles of roads and trails in Kansu and Sinkiang, China. Clark decided to help the people of Hunza because of his wide geological experience and some medical expertise. He went to Hunza in 1950 and 1951 and wrote the book, Hunza - Lost Kingdom of the Himalayas, in 1957. University in 1935. He traveled by horseback over the rugged and dangerous trail for 70 miles from Gilgit and found the people to be strong, intelligent and proud of their independence. In his 20 month stay, he got to know the Hunza people on a personal level, and with his 20 years experience in first aid as a field geologist, he ran a free dispensary where he treated 5,684 patients with sulphas, penicillin, paludrines, atabrine, undecylenic acid and other drugs. His reference medical books were Cutting's Manual of Therapeutics, the Merck Manual, Gardiner's Handbook of Skin Diseases and Medical Council practice papers. See page 75 in the 1957 first edition of the book. The pages in the pdf file below do not match the pages in the book.
Download book text in pdf format. Hunza - Lost Kingdom of the Himalayas.pdf
Download book pictures in pdf format: Hunza - Lost Kingdom of the Himalayas Pictures.pdf
Clark traveled to investigate the geology of the entire region searching for natural resources such as minerals or metals. He brought in new vegetable seeds and taught basic carpentry and crafts to a school of boys. Clark's book is exciting reading and describes the Hunza people in great detail. It is an excellent resource.
This picture shows the Hunza River in winter near Aliabad with Mountain Rakaposhi in the background. The stream and canyon entering the valley from the left is Hasanabad Nullah. This is one of the many ravines that Clark explored. The valley does not get much snow in winter even though temperature falls below zero degrees Fahrenheit (-10 C). Click on the picture to see an enlargement.
On his first trip through Hunza Clark reported he acquired almost all of the same misconceptions as others: "the healthy Hunza, the Democratic Court and the land where there are no poor." He soon found the actual situation to be much different.
Dr. Allen E. Banik and Renee Taylor wrote the book, Hunza Land, in 1960. They describe Hunza on the front inside of the dust jacket. "They have no money, no poverty, no disease, no police and no jails." All of these claims are false. Their money was the Pakistan rupee as they were a part of Pakistan. They had poverty. Those who could not grow their own food simply starved to death. Family groups were staunhly independent and did not help others as Dr. Banik claims. They had considerable disease and often flooded into John Clark's dispensary for treatment. They had a ruling organization in each village with men serving in security positions. The Mir had armed body guards that kept out of sight of the visitors. They had a penal colony at Shimshal Valley in the north end of the valley where inmates attended to flocks of sheep owned by the Mir. It was a dreadful sentence to be banished to Shimshal. The winters were icy cold and the high winds blew continuously. The claims in this book about the diet, health, longevity, and honesty of the Hunza people are false.
Renee Taylor, a lecturer, linguist and world traveler, wrote the book, Hunza Health Secrets For Long Life and Happiness, in 1964. She traveled to Hunza during the summer of 1960 over a Jeep road that had just been built a few years previously. Taylor lived a couple of months as a guest of the Mir at his palace in the Hunza capital of Baltit. She traveled very little and did not get the opportunity to develop any close personal relationships with the common Hunzakut. Taylor heard only filtered information presented by the Mir, his staff and selected individuals. Unfortunately Taylor did not learn the truth while in Hunza. She never ventured out alone to live with the people and learn the truth behind this facade. Her movements were strictly controlled by the Mir, and she was presented an orchestrated view of Hunza that the Mir wanted her to pass on to the world.
Scarcely two consecutive sentences in Taylor's book can be read without finding errors, distortions and blatant untruth. The Hunza people certainly did a good job of deceiving her. Renee Taylor appears to have ventured to Hunza with an agenda to proclaim the Hunzakuts to be the most healthy and long-lived people on the earth while subsisting on a low-fat, mostly vegetarian diet. These claims are false.
The Original Hunza Summer Diet.
The British General and soldiers arrived in the summer during the 1870s as did everyone who traveling to Hunza. This was the harvest season for the grains, fruits and vegetables from the gardens, and much of the food was consumed raw. Because fuel for cooking was saved to be used in winter for boiling meat and providing some heat for the stone dwellings, very little meat was consumed in summer and vegetable were eaten raw.
Curious visitors who followed the British soldiers to Hunza Valley years later naturally arrived in summer also, and the summer diet of the people led visitors to assume they were mainly vegetarian and ate very little meat. This was typical of the summer harvest season. Many primitive cultures including cavemen lived in a similar manner, gorging themselves on available fruit during the short season and eating mostly meat for the rest of the year. The people of Hunza differed in that they never had an abundance of anything except rocks. They did not have enough animals to provide abundant meat during the winter because of the lack of fodder. They did not want to kill female animals that were milk producers unless the animal was old or lame.
The Hunzakuts are said to have cultivated plants included barley, millet, wheat, buckwheat, turnips, carrots, dried beans, peas, pumpkins, melons, onions, garlic, cabbage, cauliflower, apricots, mulberries, walnuts, almonds, apples, plums, peaches, cherries, pears and pomegranates. John Clark did not find green beans, wax beans, beets, endive, lettuce, radishes, turnips, spinach, yellow pear tomatoes, Brussel sprouts or parsley. Cherry tomatoes and potatoes are thought to have been brought in by the British. The long list of currently grown plant varieties should not be a consideration when discussing the longevity of the Hunzakuts and their past diet.
Apricot trees were very popular, and the fruit was eaten raw in season and sun dried for winter. The pits were cracked to obtain the kernel that was crushed to obtain the oil for cooking and lamps. The hard shell was kept for a fire fuel. The kernel and oil could be eaten from the variety of apricots with a sweet kernel, but the bitter kernel variety had an oil containing poisonous prussic acid. Click the picture to see an enlargement.
The apricot trees were allowed to grow very large in order to obtain the maximum yield. Picking the maximum amount of fruit was more important than the difficulty in picking. The children would scamper to the higher branches to pick or shake off the fruit. Planting new trees required several years of growth before any fruit was produced. The special garden silt or glacial milk did not contribute to the age or size of the trees as is commonly claimed. Our modern orchards are not managed that way because we have abundant space and picking is expensive. Our trees are cut when the size makes them difficult to harvest, not because they fail to live as long as those in Hunza.
Mulberries, which resemble blackberries in size and shape, are a favorite fruit. When fully ripe, their flavor is sweet-sour but somewhat bland. The variety grown in Hunza was most likely a golden color.
A large variety of indigenous wildlife including markhors sheep, Marco Polo sheep, geese, ducks, pheasants and partridge provided the early Hunza hunters with meat in addition to their sheep, goats and domesticated Yaks. Chickens were also raised for meat and eggs until sometime in the 1950s when they were banned by the Mir.
The Queen and her children traveled on Yaks while the King and other men rode horses. The Yak is a strong wild animal which they domesticated for for traveling in the mountains as a beast of burden pack animal. In addition to Yaks, which provided milk and meat, the Hunzakuts also had goats, sheep, cows and horses. However, there were very few cows or horses in Hunza in 1950 because they consumed a lot of fodder compared to goats and sheep. The Yaks, goats and sheep were herded in the summer to areas just below the snow line for feeding on sparse grasses and plants. They were milked by the herders who made butter that was delivered back to the people in the villages below. The herders had plenty of milk to drink that valley people lacked. The Yaks were also milked. Cows and horses could not be herded to the higher elevation because the vegetation there was simply to sparse.
The picture is of the Cathedral Peaks as viewed from the village of Ghulmit 23 miles (37 km) upriver from Baltit near the northern end of Hunza. Summer grains are seen growing in the foreground. The Mir's main Palace was in Baltit, but since firewood was more abundant in Ghulmit, he chose this location for his winter residence. Click the picture to see an enlargement.
A great celebration was held to commemorate the barley harvest, the first harvest of the early summer to break the spring starvation period. The barley was ground, mixed with water and fried to make a pancake style bread called chapatis, and hot stones were used for cooking the bread prior to the availability of steel plate or cast iron griddles. The bread recipe would change to whatever grain was available. Wheat was harvested later in the summer. The Hunza bread recipe found in books and on websites is nothing whatsoever like the various breads of the Hunzakuts. The primitive Hunzakuts ground grains between two rocks much like the North American Indians. They had constructed a water wheel powered stone grinder by the time John Clark had arrived, but many people still ground the grain by hand.
To their credit, the Hunzakuts did developed a double-crop farming method. Barley was the first crop harvested, then replaced by millet. Wheat was harvested later in the summer followed by winter buckwheat. The double-crop planting method was done to make the maximum use of the valuable land, not because grains matured faster in Hunza as often claimed.
In summer meat was conserved for very special occasions and festivals. Livestock were much too valuable to be killed indiscriminately, so animals became a major source of food only during the cold winter when other foods ran out.
The Original Hunza Winter Diet.
The Hunza people sun dried fruit in the summer and stored grain for winter consumption. They also had some meat. They consumed all parts of the animals, not just the flesh. They ate the animal's brain, lungs, heart, liver, tripe, flesh and everything else except the hide, wind-pipe and genitalia. They cleaned bones to a polish and broke them to eat the marrow. The fat was highly favored for cooking, and a stew was made by boiling meat and grains.
Mountain Karakoram as seen from Aliabad village. Click on the picture to see an enlargement.
The Yaks, goats and sheep were bred each year for the meat and to keep the milk production flowing. The females were kept for breeding and milk production until reaching a non productive age when they were also slaughtered for food. Any lame animal was slaughtered to prevent the loss of meat. The food supply was critical and springtime starvation was always a concern for hungry children.
The Hunzakuts had a major flaw in their method of raising animals. They kept equal numbers of male and female, which reduced the productivity. If a Hunza farmer had six sheep he would have three ewes and three rams. The ewes would have three lambs each spring. The production could have been increased to five lambs each spring if they had kept five ewes and one ram. The rams also ate more fodder but produced no milk. The same was true for goats. This faulty farming practice reduced the amount milk, meat and number of offspring each year.
During the winter a major part of the diet consisted of milk, buttermilk, yogurt, butter and cheese. The diet was a high-fat diet throughout the year contrary to false claims that their diet was low-fat. The milk was more than 50 percent fat on a calorie basis and nothing was wasted.
The spring starvation was a difficult period for the Hunzakuts. The children were extremely thin and malnourished. Diseases abound and many died. The "healthy Hunza" claim made in many books and websites is strictly false.
The Hunza Longevity Myth.
John Clark did not make any mention whatsoever about the Hunza people living to an especially old age. The British general who first visited Hunza in the 1870s said there were old people but gave no indication as to the ages. At that time in history a person beyond 50 years of age was considered to be well beyond the average life expectancy.
This picture shows old Hunza men who proclaim to a visitor that they are more than 100 years of age. They appear to be 70 to 80 years of age which would be more accurate. Because this is a recent picture taken by tourists, these gentlemen were probably never born or raised in Hunza. They most likely arrived from other areas of Pakistan, drawn to the opportunity of collecting a gratuity from the unsuspecting traveler for the privilege of taking their picture.
Hunzakuts are known for their folklore and story telling as are most primitive people. After switching from being a warrior people to a peaceful people the Hunzakuts developed a highly over-inflated opinion of themselves. They thought the British soldiers had come to surrender to their leadership. They viewed themselves as living in the land of perfect, and they claimed theirs was the perfect society. They were and continue to be very much in denial of their true situation. This attitude is not uncommon among primitive peoples. Arctic explorer Vilhjalmur Stefansson reported a very similar attitude among the primitive Eskimos who had never seen a white man. The Eskimos bragged that their Shaman (religious leader) could kill a bear on the other side of the mountain with a bow and arrow, and that he could travel to the Moon, converse with the people living there and return. The Eskimo considered themselves to be far superior to the white man who admitted to having never been to the moon. This was in 1910 before white man did travel to the Moon, walk on the surface and return, although not finding the people whom the Eskimo claimed lived there.
Stefansson 1 - Eskimos Prove An All Meat Diet Provides Excellent Health.
Exaggerations of the longevity of the Hunza people have exploded because the British General reported that the Hunza people lived to a healthy old age. Some claims are now being made that the Hunzakuts lived 150 to 200 years of age. These claims are pure nonsense. The claim that the people lived to 110 years of age is also false. The thought of a Garden of Eden has many imaginations running wild. The following is a typical example of the myths being propagated wildly.
"The Hunza of the title is a valley in the Himalayan foothills of northern Pakistan. The Hunza people are best known for their healthy diet and lifestyle that supposedly result in people living to the age of 150 and having an active sex life until the age of 200 — or something like that."
The health of the present day Hunza is known for certain. The following is a present day observation.
"As someone who has lived and worked in the Hunza and Baltistan region of northern Pakistan for a decade, it is important to first debunk the myth that the Burushushki, Wakhi and Shina people of the Hunza region are blessed with the lives of Methusula. This was actually a myth which gained momentum when it was written up by Dr. Alexander Leaf, in the January 1973 issue of National Geographic magazine. There is absolutely no scientific validity to his claim. People of the Hunza suffer from malnutrition and nutrition deficiencies just as much as any other remote mountain region in SE Asia. Although the predominantly Ismaeli faith (branch of Shi-ite muslims) are progressive and relatively better off than most of their neighbours in nearby regions, they will all tell any visitor, that their life expectancy is around 50 - 60 years, just like any other region of northern Pakistan."
The lack of resources left the Hunza people in a constant struggle to obtain their food, and the mountain farming on the sides of the steep rocky valley required a lot of hard work. The caloric intake was naturally low and never in abundance. This combination of factors prevented the Hunza people from becoming obese and lead to the avoidance of diseases caused by a diet with an abundance of carbohydrates.
Absolute Scientific Proof Carbohydrates Are Pathogenic.
The Mir gave Renee Taylor the secret to the longevity claim of the Hunzakuts, but she totally missed the implication. He said,
"Age has nothing to do with the calendar." See page 51.
Taylor confirmed that the people did not look to be as old as they claimed.
"He looked about fifty, but he told me that he was about eighty." See page 60.
The Hunzakuts had developed the practice of equating age with wisdom, experience and achievement. A wise farmer of 50 years of age who had accumulated much more than the average farmer could rightly claim to be 120 years of age instead of his truly 50 calendar years. Taylor said she saw a man playing and jumping at a game of volleyball who said he was 145 years old but looked to be only 50 or maybe 60. See page 63. Taylor ties to lead the reader into believing these men were very old. In fact they were not. It is doubtful that they were even 50 or 60. The dry, dusty air of Hunza and the nutritional deficiencies more likely made the people look much older than they really were. This man was probably between 40 and 50 years of age but claimed to be 145 years old.
Renee Taylor made no attempt assemble the descendants of any of the older people in order to gain some confirmation as to age. It certainly would have made a point if she had taken a picture, but it was impossible to take a picture of eight living generations because the man's age was a big lie. She could have easily taken such a picture if "nobody ever gets sick in Hunza." The picture would have been interesting and looked something like this.
Man claiming to be 145 years of age jumping and playing volley ball.
Son of 125 years of age.
Grandson of 105 years of age.
Great grandson of 85 years of age.
Great great grandson of 65 years of age.
Great great great grandson of 45 years of age.
Great great great great grandson of 25 years of age.
Great great great great great grandson of 5 years of age.
Many pictures have been taken in Hunza of family groups by visitors showing babies with their father and grandfather. These grandfathers are unlikely to be any older than they appear. They are perhaps 50 years of age as is common for a grandfather, not 120 years of age as some books falsely claim.
The Hunza Vegetarian Myth.
The Hunza people were never vegetarians or even close to it. They refrained from eating many of their animals in summer because animals were the main source of food in the remaining 10 months of the year. They ate a high-fat diet all year long, especially in winter when the consumption of animal fats increased. The butter, yogurt and cheese made from the goat, sheep and Yak milk was very high in fat, especially saturated fats. The Hunza people were somewhat vegetarian for two or three months during the summer.
The diet that vegetarian authors claim was eaten by the Hunza people can be found in other modern and primitive societies. The present people in Southern India are strict vegetarians by religious conviction, but they have the shortest life span on earth as scientifically proven. They are ravaged by disease, diet deficiencies and suffer from frail body structures. The children exhibit a failure to thrive, and the childhood mortality is very high.
The ancient people of Egypt in the days of the Pharaohs ate a diet almost identical to that claimed for the Hunza people by present day vegetarian authors, but the health of the Egyptians was a disaster. The Egyptians had a written language that described diseases such as tooth decay, obesity and heart disease. They lived on the fertile flood plain of the Nile River delta. Life was easy, and grains, fruits and vegetables were grown in an overwhelming abundance. The Bible tells of the abundance in Egypt while surrounding peoples were suffering drought and famine. The Egyptians mummified hundreds of thousands of people whose preserved remains are available for study today. The bodies can be examined today to identify diseases and diet deficiencies. Even though they had a abundance of food they suffered terribly from rotten teeth, osteoporosis, diabetes and heart disease. Soft tissue diseases such as cancer are more difficult to trace in the mummies. Heart disease would have not been identified had it not been for the Egyptian writings. The cause for the poor health of the Egyptians was the abundance of carbohydrate foods not unlike the abundance found in supermarkets today.
Absolute Scientific Proof Carbohydrates Are Pathogenic.
The Hunza Apricot Pit, Vitamin B-17 and the Cancer Cure Myth.
The Hunza people did grow apricots and eat the apricot kernel of the apricot pit. The apricot kernel does indeed contain vitamin B-17, and the people may have had a low incidence of cancer, but the apricot had nothing to do with the cancer rate in the Hunza people. Vitamin B-17 has never been shown to prevent or cure cancer. The dead Hunzakuts were never examined by anyone to verify the cause of death. It was never proven that they had a low incidence of cancer.
The Hunza Glacial Milk and the Cesium Cancer Cure Myth.
Many people jump to the conclusion that the water diverted from glacial runoff was the source of special healing and life extending properties. The gardens were watered with mineral rich glacier water carried by an aqueduct system for a distance of 50 miles (80 m) from the Ultar Glacier on the 25,550 foot (7789 m) high Mount Rakaposhi.
The wooden aqueduct trough was hung from the sheer cliffs by steel nails hammered into the rock walls. Rocks beneath the glacier were ground into a fine powder or silt by the pressure and weight to give the water a slight milky color, thus it was described as "Glacial Milk." Click on the picture to see an enlargement.
There are those who claim the Hunza water is rich in cesium and potassium thereby making it rich with caustically (alkaline) active metals that prevent and cure cancer. Some modern doctors are giving cesium therapy treatments to cure cancer, but cesium does not cure cancer.
The glacier water used to flood the garden plots did provide many minerals or trace metals. The minerals were in the ground rock and not in the colloidal form as many claim. The following link gives a chemical composition of the glacial milk of Hunza. It may or may not be correct. Most of the other information on the following link is false.
Death Rides a Slow Bus in Hunza by Jane Kinderlehrer
The Hunza Bread Recipe and the Hunza Pie Myths.
The Hunza people made a hard flat bread from the grains grown in the terraced gardens that was not unlike the bread made by some North American Indians. However, it was undoubtedly nothing like the fancy concoction used to make modern day "Hunza bread." The Hunzakuts never made a pie and would not recognize the modern day pie that many claim originated with them.
The Hunzakuts would crush the grain between two rocks to make a very coarse flour, mix it with water and roll it into a flat pancake shape. The dough was cooked slightly on top of a heated rock in the days before metal pans were obtained. The bread was stacked for serving during the meal.
Some of the modern Hunza bread recipes contain canola oil, sugar, honey, molasses, soya milk, sea salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, orange juice, lemon juice, pineapple, mayonnaise, olives, shrimp, curry powder, parsley, avocado, coconut, ginger, papaya, bananas, molasses and baking powder, none of which were used by the Hunzakuts.
The True Health of the Hunza People.
The Hunzakuts were not extremely healthy as many claim. The Mir told Renee Taylor that the people were free of all diseases. This was not true. The Hunzakuts were always disease ridden and the death rate was very high as observed by John Clark 10 years before the arrival of Renee Taylor. Clark was met by hordes of sick people who were seeking medical attention in every village (oasis) he visited. He diagnosed many diseases and treated those whom he could help. The diseases he listed are:
Dysentery
Ringworm
Impetigo
Cataracts
Eye infections
Tuberculosis
Scurvy
Malaria
Ascariasis (worms)
Leucoderma
Staphylococcus
Dental caries
Soft teeth
Goitre
Bronchitis
Sinusitis
Chapped and bleeding hands
Beriberi
Influenza
Pneumonia
Infections
Rheumatic knees of sub-clinical rickets
John Clark made a survey of the Hunza boys in his school to ascertain how many of the students had lost family members. This shows the terribly high mortality rate of the Hunza people. They were not healthy and free of disease as falsely claimed. The results are shocking for these boys between the ages of 12 and 16.
The Discovery of the Hunza River Valley.
A British General and a garrison of solders on horseback investigated the Hunza River Valley in the 1870s. Hunza was a tiny kingdom located in a remote valley 100 miles (160 km) long and only one mile (1.6 km) wide, situated at an elevation of 8,500 feet (2590 m) and completely enclosed by mountain peaks. These peaks soar to a height of 25,550 feet (7788 m) and belong to the Karakoram Range, broadly known in the West as "the Himalayas." Hunza is now part of Pakistan in the northern section bordering on Afghanistan, Russia, China, Kashmir and India. The Kilik Pass leads to Russia and the Mintaka Pass to China.
The pass to reach Hunza from Gilgit, Pakistan was 13,700 feet (4176 m) high, a difficult and treacherous trail. Upon entering the valley the British found the steep, rocky sides of the valley lined with terraced garden plots, fruit trees and animals being raised for meat and milk.
The gardens were watered with mineral rich glacier water carried by an aqueduct system running a distance of 50 miles (80 km) from the Ultar Glacier on the 25,550 foot (7788 m) high Mount Rakaposhi. The wooden aqueduct trough was hung from the sheer cliffs by steel nails hammered into the rock walls. Silt from the river below was carried up the side of the valley to form and replenish the terraced gardens. The average annual precipitation in Hunza is less than two inches.
Ultar Peak rising above Baltit, the capital of Hunza, is spectacular. The Old Palace is on the hill above the village. Click the picture to see an enlargement.
The difficult trail into Hunza kept the people isolated. As late as 1950 most of the children of Hunza had never seen a wheel or a Jeep even though airplanes were landing at the airport in Gilgit, Pakistan only 70 miles (112 km) away. John Clark reported in his book, Hunza - Lost Kingdom of the Himalayas, that he could see three peaks above 25,000 feet and eleven glaciers all at once from Shishpar Glacier Nullah (canyon) overlooking the Hunza valley. See John Clark's book listed below on page 92.
The Hunzakuts, as they are called, had signed a peace treaty with their neighboring communities about 10 years prior to the arrival of the British. They had been a warrior community preying upon the Chinese trading caravans as they traveled the high mountain passes between Sin kiang and Kashmir. The Hunzakuts profited for a time by their thievery, plunder and murder, but they were hated by their neighbors. According to Hunzakut folklore, a peace treaty was signed because the Mir's son convinced his father to end their murderous ways.
Burushaski, the language of the Hunzakuts, is much different from other languages of the region and appears to be a mixture of the languages of Ancient Macedonian and the Hellenistic Persian Empire. However, the people also learned to speak the written Urdu language of Pakistan and other languages of the region.
The terraced gardens were extensive with up to 50 cascading levels. The people lived in communities below. It was a considerable distance to walk for working in the fields. They had no roads or wheeled carts. All the grain and other produce was transported to the homes on the backs of men and animals. Click the picture to see an enlargement.
Everything in Hunza valley was always in short supply except crumbling rocks. Fuel for heating and cooking was severely limited, and fodder for feeding the animals was precious. Animal dung was used for garden fertilizer rather than fuel for fires as was done elsewhere. Supplies from outside of the valley were limited by the difficulty in bring goods over the high mountain pass. Highly prized goods brought in from the outside included guns, knifes, tools, metal pots, stoves, lamps, cotton cloth, silk cloth, thread, needles, matches, mirrors, glassware and some construction metals such as bolts, rods, sheet and plate. As late as 1951 these items had to be carried on the backs of men or animals. In past centuries traditional dress and bedding were made from sheepskins and other animal hides.
The original valley was mostly bare rock with a very limited amount of indigenous plant life. The sudden appearance of the vegetation in contrast to the surrounding barren rock earned the valley the description of being Shangri-La or the Garden of Eden. Given the hard work required to tend the gardens and animals, the description of Garden of Eden certainly did not apply to the Hunza River Valley.
Mir Muhammed Ghazan Khan I ruled from 1864 to 1886. Folklore stories say he sent his brother a gift of a cloak impregnated with smallpox and murdered his uncle and other brothers, but the facts are rather unknown. He was murdered in 1886 by Safdar Ali Khan who became the new ruler of Hunza. Mir Safdar Ali Khan is shown in the picture at the left. Click the picture to see an enlargement. In 1891 an expedition of 5,000 men lead by British Colonel Algernon Durand was attacked by the Hunzakut leader, Mir Safdar Ali Khan. The Mir fled to China and was replaced by his half-brother, Muhammed Nazim Klan. Mir Nazim Klan died in 1938 of mysterious causes, and it is highly suspect that his son, Muhammed Ghazan Khan II, was involved in his death. He died in 1946 and was replaced by his son, Muhammed Jamal Khan. Mir Muhammed Jamal Khan was deposed in 1974 by Pakistan although he maintained his property in Hunza. He died in Gilgit, Pakistan in 1976 were he also had a residence. Mir Muhammed Jamal Khan could also speak perfect English because he had been educated by the British as a boy. His descendents maintain their royal titles but have no ruling authority in Hunza.
Ancestry of Hunza Rulers Since the 16th Century.