Known in ancient times as the Pawindhas, the nomad families of Kohistan and the Hazara division have kept alive the centuries-old tradition of migration from the mountains to the plains, and vice versa.

These Pawindhas clans live in makeshift dwellings, own few possessions and speak their own rustic dialect. They migrate during each season, heading from Kohistan in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa carrying household items and accompanied by hoards of animals, such as goats, sheep, mules and horses, down the Silk Road to the plains of Punjab in the winter, and back to the mountains in the summer.

Few people across the country are aware that there are still tribes that live life on the move, camping out under the stars each night during their two annual migrations, the way the Gujjar or Pawindhas clan does.

Their main source of income is their livestock, which travels with them and serves as transport for the elderly, women as they travel through the countryside, and pitch tents wherever they stop.

Hakim Khan, who has come from Balakot and is leading his family’s caravan to the south Punjab plains via the Taxila-Haripur Road, said: “We will stay [in Punjab] until the end of winter, with some of our old contacts and relatives who work on the farms.”

Their transient lifestyle is an ancient tradition, and one they have chosen.

Reshman recalled her first journey to Punjab, on the back of a horse when she was three years old. She said she has been travelling the same route since she was a child, adding that she and the rest of her tribe wonder how people could live in the same place their whole lives.

Sardar Samandar, 62, the head of another family from the Kohistan area, told Dawn their families have discarded permanent settlements for centuries, instead adopting a transient lifestyle to keep their forefathers’ culture alive.

He said his family will live on the plains of Punjab and help local farmers cultivate wheat, and remain there until wheat harvesting.

“We will get our share in the crop as well as wages and return to our native valley in mid-May, with our earnings and wheat, which we will then depend on for the remaining months.”

The nomadic herders live in harmony with the environment, and with their huge flocks of sheep and goats on which their very existence depends. It has been observed that most of clan members undertake their spring and autumn migrations on foot, covering hundreds of miles in a matter of weeks while others, presumably from better off tribes, ride brightly caparisoned ponies and mules that they breed as another source of income.

Banaras, 63, is leading his family to Dera Ghazi Khan. Pleased with his choice to carry on his ancestors’ way of life despite some shortcomings, such as a house, education for his children and health, he said: “What could be better than going to new places and leading a life free of too many obligations that permanent settlement brings.”

According to the historian and senior archaeologist Abdul Ghafoor, members of the Gujjar or Pawindhas clan can trace their history back to the ancient Turkic tribes of Central Asia, and are known throughout the Himalayan, Karakoram and Hindu Kush regions.

Mr Ghafoor said their lives revolved around the wellbeing of their animals, which they graze in the plains during the winter, and herd back up into the mountains in the summer, when the weather in the plains is too hot for them to endure.

He said the Gujjar tribes have their own customs, culture and language, but they also speak the language of their traditional wintering places. Tribes that spend the winter in Punjab speak Punjabi as a second language, so they can conduct business or work as agriculture labourers during their time on the plains. During spring and autumn migrations, it is customary for young children to ride atop their baggage, piled on ponies and mules, as their short legs cannot keep up with the gruelling space set by their elders.

“I am never tired, despite travelling over 70 kilometres on foot from dawn to dusk. It makes me strong, and we tour over a hundred cities every year,” said Palwasha, a young girl. Shyly covering her face, she added: “We rest at night and travel daily for almost two months from the Kohistan valley to Rahimyar Khan.”

Published in Dawn, December 4th, 2016