Afghan Kochi nomads loading their camels, 1940 (c)

Pashtun Kochi nomads loading their camels, 1940 (c)

Collection: Church Missionary Society Unofficial Papers: Family papers of Dr Lilian Starr ('Stella') Underhill, CMS medical missionary to Pakistan. 

Source:  Cadbury Research Library

Kochi Pashtun jewelry

 

Detail from a Photo of young Kochi girl in their encampment in Bamyian, Afghanistan, dated to 1939, taken by Annemarie Schwarzenbach. Source

Kochi girl, 1939. Source

Recommended Books

Afghan Kochi mother and child, 1950s

A Pavandah (itinerant Pashtun merchant) in the Gandapur territory, 1861

 

A Pavandah (itinerant Pashtun merchant) in the Gandapur territory, 1861. 

Source: "People of India" by Watson and Kaye. 

 "These wandering merchants carry on all the trade between Central Asia and India".[...]. Every year they descend from the passes into Afghanistan, with long droves of camels laden with wool and other produce, and take back salt, spices, sugar, Indian condiments, with British and Indian manufactures. Their routes are, however, of continued peril until the passes are traversed, and the long lines of camels stretch out across the plains of the Derajat and the Indus. The Povindahs, however, pay black mail or transit dues to the Wuzeerees, and other frontier tribes; and as long as conditions of agreement are observed, the merchants are safe. But these conditions are extremely uncertain: the tribes are but too often capricious. One portion of a tribe may have a feud with another, or avarice may prevail over solemn agreements. In such cases the Povindahs have nothing left but force, and they must fight their way through an opposing tribe, or section of a tribe, or submit to any exaction demanded. The person represented is fully anned -with matchlock, sword, and shield. The Povindahs have, for the most part, no settled habitation. Their cities are their camps: tents of black felt in the winter or cool season in India; in summer, in Afghanistan...[...]They have not the fire and dash of the Afghan soldiery, but are brave in defence of their own property, and capable of vast endurance in their long and rough marches. Povindahs seldom cross the Indus. Kohat, Dehras Ismael and Ghazee Khan, Gundapoor, and other great marts along the Indus, are where they take up their quarters, dispose of their goods, and are met by merchants from India. Their wealth lies chiefly in camels, of which they possess large and valuable herds. " ["People of India" by Watson and Kaye, volume-5.]

Nomad Ghilzais in the Kurram valley, 1895 (c)

Nomad Ghilzais in the Kurram valley, 1895 (c). Photo by Frederick Saint John Gore.

Nomad Pashtun girl, North West Frontier, 1930s

 

Nomad Pashtun girl, North West Frontier, 1930s.

Afghan nomads (Kochi or Pawanda)

"Powandah is the name given to the nomad tribes of Afghans who move about with their flocks and herds, and act as carriers between their own country and India" (Raverty, "A Dictionary of the Puk'hto, Pus'hto, Or, Language of the Afghans, p-1106)

Kochi caravan marching through Kabul to summer pasturelands in the north, 1950s

A Kuchi family moving to Peshawar plains at the approach of cold weather, 1919.

A shy Kochi maiden, 1950s.

An Afghan nomad woman. Source: Zhwandun Magazine, December 1975.

Afghan nomad children, Landi Kotal, 1937. Photo by Albert Chalcroft, The King's Regiment.

A Pashtun girl (Kochai?), Landi Kotal, 1937. Photo by Albert Chalcroft, The King's Regiment. Source

Afghan nomads entering the Khyber Pass, 27-12-1933. Source

A Kochi family moving to Peshawar plains at the approach of cold weather

Afghan nomads with their camel caravan in the Khyber Pass

📖 Related Posts

Pashtun wedding procession, Peshawar, 1910 (c)

Historical photos of Pakhtunkhwa taken in 1919 (c)