The last Wakhi shepherdesses of Pamir

Nestled in the Karakoram Range in northern Pakistan, the remote Shimshal Valley adapts each year to the rhythm of the mountains with "kutch" – the transhumance or seasonal movement of people with their livestock – led by women. By Camille Del Bos

  • Wakhi shepherdess milking her cattle (photo: Camille Del Bos)
    A Wakhi shepherdess milks her cattle in a pen at the end of the day. She wears the "kilt", a colourful embroidered Wakhi hat worn by the oldest. The days assume a monotonous rhythm, punctuated by the herding of sheep, milking and the making of traditional cheese and yak butter
  • Yaks graze in Shimshal Pamir, in the Karakoram range (photo: Camille Del Bos)
    At the foot of 6,000 metre-high mountains lies the Pamir plateau, a plain of high-altitude pasture dotted with lakes
  • Wakhi shepherdesses milking their cattle in a pen (photo: Camille Del Bos)
    Milking time for the Wakhi shepherdesses in the Karakoram Range. To locate their own herd they look for the little coloured string looped through the animal's ear
  • A Wakhi shepherdess with her child in their rock shelter (photo: Camille Del Bos)
    A Wakhi shepherdess with her son in their shelter in the Karakoram Range. Shepherdesses of all ages, with or without children, work tirelessly in this tough and inhospitable environment
  • Inayat, a Wakhi shepherdess, fills a large cooking pot with fresh milk (photo: Camille Del Bos)
    Inayat, a Wakhi shepherdess, fills a large cooking pot with fresh milk. She will boil it for the next 12 hours over the fire to make a local cheese. She uses sundried yak cowpats for the fire as there is no wood at this altitude
  • Milking garb of a Wakhi shepherdess (photo: Camille Del Bos)
    A Wakhi shepherdess with an apron, bucket and worn clothes, ready for milking on a high altitude plateau in the summer village in the Karakoram Range
  • Local Wakhi dancing for a local festival in high altitude plateau (photo: Camille Del Bos)
    Chance to nurture local culture and traditions: local Wakhi dancing for Woolio, a local faith-based celebration on the high-altitude plateau. It is a cheerful occasion with songs in the Wakhi language, traditional dancing and festive acclamations by the villagers
  • Men help themselves to "charmuk" and drink warm milk-tea in mugs (photo: Camille Del Bos)
    For Woolio, locals eat a bread mixture called "charmuk", made from bread and melted yak butter in a flat-bottom dish, with mugs of salted milk-tea
  • Deserted shepherds huts in the high-altitude summer village (photo: Camille Del Bos)
    Many shepherd huts made from rock and mud in the Karakoram Range are deserted because of a lack of younger shepherdesses to replace the older generation. Only seventeen of some forty huts were occupied this year
  • Old Wakhi woman playing a wooden mouth harp in her shepherd's hut (photo: Camille Del Bos)
    Nar Begum is one of the oldest shepherdesses. She plays a wooden mouth harp with a string in her shepherds' hut. She sighs and looks away; "Some of my friends simply couldnʹt come because of bad health, others are just gone forever. As for me, God knows!"
  • Young Wakhi men playing cricket (photo: Camille Del Bos)
    Before leaving the Woolio celebration, young Wakhi men play cricket on an improvised pitch at 4,500 metres above sea level. The austerity of the transhumance is little incentive these days. The younger generation tends to prefer the comfort of classrooms and social recognition of a future office life
  • Wakhi people sitting in front of a "jamaat khana" (photo: Camille Del Bos)
    Shepherdesses and a few men sit outside a "jamaat khana" in the Karakoram Range, the religious place of gathering and prayer for Wakhi people
  • A shepherdess sun-drying a local cheese (photo: Camille Del Bos)
    A Wakhi shepherdess sits on the roof of her hut in the Karakoram range and shapes a thick paste made out of boiled milk, which will become cheese
  • Local Wakhi sun-dried cheese called "qurut" (photo: Camille Del Bos)
    The sun-dried cheese "qurut" is just one way the locals put the abundant milk to good use. It offers an additional source of income, along with the sale of livestock
  • Flock returning in single file to their pen (photo: Camille Del Bos)
    Back from the pasture, a flock of sheep and goats reach their pen after a day grazing on high-altitude pasture in the Karakoram Range