Hindu Kush

a mountain range in S Asia, mostly in NE Afghanistan, extending W from the Himalayas. Highest peak, Tirich Mir, 25,230 ft. (7690 m). Also called Hindu Kush Mountains.

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Latin Caucasus Indicus

Mountain system, south-central Asia.

Some 600 mi (950 km) long, it forms a drainage divide between the Amu Darya (Oxus River) valley to the northwest and the Indus River valley to the southeast, and it runs from the Pamirs in the east near the Pakistan-China border through Pakistan to western Afghanistan. Its passes have historically been of great military significance, providing access to the northern plains of the Indian subcontinent. It includes about two dozen summits above 23,000 ft (7,000 m), including the highest, Tirich Mir, at 25,260 ft (7,699 m).

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▪ mountains, Asia

Introduction

      great mountain system of Central Asia. Broadly defined, it is some 500 miles (800 km) long and as wide as 150 miles (240 km).

 The Hindu Kush is one of the great watersheds of Central Asia, forming part of the vast Alpine zone that stretches across Eurasia from east to west. It runs northeast to southwest and divides the valley of the Amu Darya (the ancient Oxus River) to the north from the Indus River valley to the south. To the east the Hindu Kush buttresses the Pamir (Pamirs) range near the point where the borders of China, Pakistani-controlled Kashmir, and Afghanistan meet, after which it runs southwest through Pakistan and into Afghanistan, finally merging into minor ranges in western Afghanistan. The highest peak is Mount Tirich Mir (Tirich Mir), which rises near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border to 25,230 feet (7,690 metres).

      It was through the high passes of the Hindu Kush in about 1500 BC that invaders from Central Asia brought their Indo-European language—a forerunner of the Indo-Iranian languages spoken throughout the region today. Historically, the passes have been of great military significance, providing access to the northern plains of India for such conquerors as Alexander the Great, the king of Macedonia; the Mongols Genghis Khan and Timur (Tamerlane); and their descendant Babur, the first Mughal emperor. During the period of British rule in India, the Indian government was keenly concerned with the security both of these passes and of an associated physical feature to the south, the Khyber Pass. The Hindu Kush range has rarely constituted the frontier between major powers but has usually formed part of an intermediate buffer zone. The name Hindu Kush derives from the Arabic for “Mountains of India.” Its earliest known usage occurs on a map published about AD 1000.

Physical features

      The eastern limit of the Hindu Kush is difficult to determine because of a locally complex topography, although the Karambar Pass (14,250 feet [4,343 metres]) between the valleys of the Konar (called the Kunar or Chitral in Pakistan) and Gilgit rivers may be tentatively accepted as the boundary. The western limit also is uncertain, as the mountains lose height and fan out into minor ranges in Afghanistan. Geologists, however, consider the Hindu Kush range to extend much farther west to the Iranian border.

Physiography

      The Hindu Kush may be divided into three main sections: the eastern Hindu Kush, which runs from the Karambar Pass in the east to the Dorāh (Do Rāh) Pass (14,940 feet [4,554 metres]) not far from Mount Tirich Mir; the central Hindu Kush, which then continues to the Shebar (Shībar) Pass (9,800 feet [2,987 metres]) to the northwest of Kabul; and the western Hindu Kush, also known as the Bābā Mountains (Kūh-e Bābā), which gradually descends to the Kermū Pass.

      In its extreme eastern section, between the passes of Karambar and Baroghil (Barowghīl; 12,480 feet [3,804 metres]), the eastern Hindu Kush is not very high and has mountains that often take the form of rounded domes. Farther to the west the main ridge rises rapidly to Baba Tangi (21,368 feet [6,513 metres]) and becomes rugged, after which, within the space of about 100 miles (160 km), are concentrated the highest mountains of the entire region—about two dozen summits of more than 23,000 feet (7,000 metres) in elevation. A first cluster of high peaks around Urgand (23,094 feet [7,039 metres]), in Afghanistan, is followed farther south by the massif (principal mountain mass) of Saraghrara (24,111 feet [7,349 metres]). Another line of imposing mountains, which includes Mounts Langar (23,162 feet [7,060 metres]), Shachaur (23,346 feet [7,116 metres]), Udrem Zom (23,376 feet [7,125 metres]), and Nādīr Shāh Zhāra (23,376 feet [7,125 metres]), leads to the three giant mountains of the Hindu Kush, which are Mounts Noshaq (Nowshāk; 24,557 feet [7,485 metres]), Istoro Nal (24,242 feet [7,389 metres]), and Tirich Mir. Most major glaciers of the Hindu Kush—among them Kotgaz, Niroghi, Atrak, and Tirich—are in the valleys of this section.

      The central section from the Dorāh Pass to the Shebar Pass separates the traditional Afghan regions of Badakhshān to the north and Nūrestān and Kūhestān (Kohistan) (Kohistān) around the upper Kābul River to the south. The concentration of high summits in this region creates from some vantage points the appearance of an unbroken horizon, a phenomenon known as Gipfelflur (German: “summit plain”). Maximum heights, which are lower than those in the eastern section, include Koh-i-Bandakor (22,451 feet [6,843 metres]), Koh-i-Mondi (20,498 feet [6,248 metres]), and Mīr Samīr (19,878 feet [6,059 metres]). These peaks are surrounded by a host of lesser mountains. Glaciers are poorly developed, but the mountain passes—which include Putsigrām (13,450 feet [5,000 metres]), Verān (15,400 feet [4,694 metres]), Rām Gol (15,400 feet [4,694 metres]), and Anjoman (13,850 feet [4,221 metres])—are high, making transmontane communications difficult.

      The mountains of the western region fan out gradually toward the Afghan city of Herāt, near the Iranian border, declining into hills of lesser importance. Communication is easier in this region, as roads have long since been built through the passes, such as the Shebar Pass (9,800 feet [2,987 metres]).

      A wider definition of the Hindu Kush would include a fourth region known as Hindu Raj in Pakistan. This region is formed by a long, winding chain of mountains—with some lofty peaks, such as Mounts Darkot (22,447 feet [6,842 metres]) and Buni Zom (21,499 feet [6,553 metres])—which strikes southward from the Lupsuk Peak (18,861 feet [5,749 metres]) in the eastern region, then continues to the Lawarai Pass (12,100 feet [3,688 metres]) and beyond to the Kābul River. If this chain is considered part of the Hindu Kush, then the outlying mountains of the Swat Kohistan (Kohistān) region of Pakistan to the south also form part of the complex.

      International boundaries running through the Hindu Kush are primarily those of Pakistan and Afghanistan. The Karambar Pass lies about 40 miles (60 km) west of the Afghan-Chinese border, while to the west the Hindu Kush, strictly considered, approaches the border between Afghanistan and Iran without extending into Iranian territory. Between these extremes the Pakistan-Afghanistan border follows the main watershed of the Hindu Kush throughout its eastern region, from Lupsuk Peak just north of the Karambar Pass to the Dorāh Pass just south of Mount Tirich Mir. Not far from the Dorāh Pass the boundary leaves the main watershed and follows minor spurs until it crosses the Kābul River, continuing along the crest of the Spin Ghar (Safīd Mountain Range) Mountains toward the south. The Khyber Pass once was an important strategic gateway because it cut through the Spin Ghar instead of through the Hindu Kush, thus offering a comparatively easy route between the valley of the Kābul and the plains of Punjab; the pass lost its importance after it was superseded by a more accessible pass to the north.

      The erratic boundary line is the result of a series of compromises reached at the end of the 19th century between the British and the ruler of Afghanistan; called the Durand Line for the British negotiator Sir Mortimer Durand, it has been inherited by the modern states of Pakistan and Afghanistan. Another curious configuration established about the same time and as yet unchanged is the Vākhān region (Wakhan Corridor), a panhandle of Afghan territory designed to act as a buffer between British India and tsarist Russia.

Geology

      In many of its features, the Hindu Kush resembles its eastern neighbour, the Karakoram Range, which extends westward from Tibet into Pakistan. Indeed, some authorities consider the Hindu Kush a continuation of the Karakoram. Both ranges are products of the collision of the Indian and Eurasian continental plates beginning about 50 million years ago. Still actively deforming, the Hindu Kush and the Pamirs constitute the most seismically active intermediate-depth earthquake zone in the world. The earthquakes originate between 100 and 140 miles (160 and 230 km) below the surface in a 25-mile- (40-km-) wide belt. Much of the Hindu Kush comprises metamorphic rock, including metamorphosed granodiorite, dated to approximately 115 million years ago, and metamorphosed sedimentary rocks of amphibolite and greenschist facies. The Hindu Kush also contains Cenozoic granites (granite), intruded during the India-Eurasia collision, that are rich in muscovite mica and tourmaline. The Hindu Kush is bounded to the south by a right lateral strike-slip fault, the Heart Fault, but the northern margin is less well defined.

Drainage

      The eastern Hindu Kush appears to be formed of two parallel mountain chains, consisting of a lower one to the north, which acts as a watershed, and a higher southern one that carries the main peaks. Drainage is comparatively simple on the northern side but highly complex on the southern one, where valleys follow two contrasting directions—northeast to southwest and roughly east to west. Most of the rivers, such as the Panjshēr (Panjshīr), the Alīngār, the Konar, and the Panjkora, follow the northeast-to-southwest direction and are then suddenly deflected toward the east-west axis by the Kābul River, into which they flow. The Yarkhun and Ghizar river valleys also take the same east-to-west direction. The Chitral River drains the southern slopes of the eastern Hindu Kush, flowing south through the Chitral region of Northern Pakistan into Afghanistan to join the Konar River. Peak summer runoff in the Konar River can be 60 times the lowest winter amount.

Climate

      Since the Hindu Kush separates one major climate zone of Asia from another, the range's climate shows great variations. The mountains of Swat Kohistan are within the area of the rain-bearing summer monsoon winds, and most of the eastern Hindu Kush, as well as the Hindu Raj, rises up at the extreme western limit of monsoonal Asia. This region experiences rainy or snowy summers (from July to September) and dry winters. The central and western Hindu Kush, however, border the Mediterranean climatic zone, characterized by hot, dry summers and cold, wet or snowy winters (from December to early March). Climatic variations between these opposites also occur, producing often striking local contrasts.

      A graphic image of climatic conditions is presented by the glaciers (glacier). The mantle of snow and ice is heaviest at the extreme eastern end of the Hindu Kush in Pakistan, where the Chiantar Glacier is situated, and is also heavy in the higher section around Mounts Tirich Mir and Saraghrara and in parts of the Hindu Raj. Toward the west, however, glaciation is more sporadic. In the central Hindu Kush, mountains 12,000 feet (3,600 metres) high are often bare almost to the summit. Some glaciers of the Hindu Kush appear to be retreating, while others are advancing. Some glacial regions have a striking feature known as ablated snow hummocks—called nieves penitentes or Büsserschnee (literally, “penitent snow”)—that give the illusion of kneeling human figures, sometimes two or three feet high; especially noticeable in the early morning, they are formed by the alternation of strong sunlight and rapid evaporation during the day and severe cold at night.

Plant life

 Forests cover many southern slopes of the eastern and central Hindu Kush, where there is abundant snowfall in the winter and intermittent precipitation from the summer monsoon. In the northernmost mountains in Pakistan's Chitral district and the Gilgit district (Pakistani-controlled Kashmir), precipitation on lower slopes is sparse; hence forest vegetation is limited to occasional juniper and birch. Large stands of deodar cedar and blue pine cloak the eastern and central spurs of the Hindu Kush in Pakistan and Afghanistan. In the western Hindu Kush, forest is almost absent, and cultivated fodder trees such as poplar, willow, and Russian olive predominate. Other planted trees in irrigated mountain oases include plane trees and economically valuable species such as mulberry, jujube, and walnut. Meadowland is intermittent, depending on sunny and shady exposure, with substantial pastures found on slopes where snow accumulates; these pastures are occasionally cultivated in the summer by local and transhumant (seasonally migrating) populations. The valleys of the Swat and Dir districts, as well as parts of Chitral, support rice cultivation.

      Undulating grassland, called pamir, occurs above the tree line in the eastern Hindu Kush, while in the deep valleys barren rock walls are punctuated by brilliant emerald-green oases irrigated by glacial and snowfield meltwater. On the northern slopes, vegetation generally is sparse and limited to summer grazing by valley-dwelling inhabitants. In the inaccessible reaches of Nūrestān, deodar forest is still substantial, but in the western portion of the range, where precipitation is less abundant, the higher slopes support grazing.

Animal life

      Well-adapted species of wildlife are found throughout the mountains. The Siberian ibex and the markhor (both wild goats) negotiate the high crags, while Marco Polo sheep and urial (another wild sheep) occasionally are found in the high pamir. Black and brown bears still exist in isolated valleys, and the Chitral valley wildlife preserve is a domain of the rare snow leopard. The rich birdlife of the mountains includes vultures and eagles. The streams of the northern slope contain brown trout in abundance.

      Human depredation has reduced the variety and distribution of wildlife throughout the Hindu Kush, although efforts to create wildlife preserves in unpopulated areas have met with some success. The display of horns at pagan and Muslim religious sites demonstrates the cultic importance of the ibex. A vestige of this cult persists in domesticated animal husbandry, where, by custom, only males may milk goats.

People

      A long and tormented history, together with fragmented topography, has produced a veritable mosaic of peoples in the region. The lower parts of the Vākhān and the higher parts of the Sanglīch and Anjoman valleys, all on the northwestern slopes of the Hindu Kush, are sparsely inhabited by the so-called Pamir or Mountain Tajik, most of whom are Ismāʿīlī Muslims. Other Tajik (who are Sunni Muslims), Uzbek, and some Ḥazāra (Persian-speaking peoples of Central Asian origin) live in the valleys of the central and western parts of the Hindu Kush. Kyrgyz nomads formerly occupied the high pamir but migrated to eastern Turkey in the 1980s during the Afghan War. Pashtun are found in the major towns, in Kabul, and in many districts to the south of the Hindu Kush, with the exception of Nūrestān. Pashtun nomads range over the western hills and into northern high pastures in Afghanistan. Some Indic Gujar nomadic herders seasonally penetrate the valleys of the southern slopes. On the southeast (Pakistan) side of the Hindu Kush, most people are Kohistani, an ethnic group that shows a marked cultural unity from Kashmir to Kabul.

      The Kafir (Nūristāni) of Chitral are an exceptionally interesting people. Their name means “Infidel” or “Non-Muslim” and seems to have been used since the 11th century. Traditionally, they are divided into two groups—the kalasha (“black”) Kafir of Chitral and the kati (“red”) Kafir of Nūrestān. In the past, the Kafir inhabited a much larger area of the Hindu Kush. The Kafir of Nūrestān were forcibly converted to Islam in 1896.

      Physically, the Kafir do not seem to differ much from their neighbours; they speak a language classed by some as Dardic (Dardic languages). It is in their religion that their ethnic individuality is most strikingly expressed. They practice a form of polytheism; worship consists mainly in the sacrifice of animals. Dancing is important, and shamans practice divination. Prior to modern legal prohibition of the custom, the dead were disposed of, unburied, in heavy wooden coffins. Large wooden statues of ancestors, often on horseback, traditionally stood near graveyards; many of these works now reside in museums. Housing in Chitral and Nūrestān consists of strong rectangular wooden buildings. The economy is based on agriculture and the raising of goats and oxen.

Economy

Resources

      Forage, timber, and water are the most heavily exploited resources in the Hindu Kush. Human settlements occur where land can be irrigated. Large seasonal migrations of livestock, driven by herders, fully utilize the pasturelands of remote mountain areas. Each year thousands of sheep and goats from the high pastures of Badakhshān travel through the Anjoman Pass down to the markets of Kabul.

      Small hydroelectric power plants generate electricity for mountain villages in Pakistan. In the north, hydropower is generated at Pol-e Khomrī and Kondūz. Many of these are dual-purpose dams, with large downstream irrigation facilities.

      Small irrigated plots of wheat, barley, millet, corn (maize), potatoes, and peas and beans constitute the region's agriculture. Orchards of mulberry, walnut, almond, jujube, apricot, and apple are valuable sources of food during drought. Migrants, refugees from Afghanistan, and loggers have depleted much of the tree cover on the southern slopes, with the high forests of Nūrestān and the Hindu Raj remaining inaccessible.

      Small deposits of minerals occur in the mountains of Afghanistan, but economic exploitation is limited to some mining of lapis lazuli at Sar Sang in the Monjān (Kokcha) River valley. Some beryl is mined in the Konar River valley. Ancient texts report spinel ruby and rock crystal, but no commercial mining of these minerals is carried on today. There are coal mines at Karkar and Eshposhteh (Ishpushta) in Afghanistan in the central Hindu Kush. The northern plains adjacent to the western Hindu Kush supply natural gas for export to Uzbekistan, while the Bābā Mountains to the south near Hājjī Gak and Paghmān (west of Kabul) and in the north near Feyẕābād contain iron ore deposits.

Transportation

      Motor vehicle roads and tracks serve all the inhabited valleys of the Hindu Kush. Every village in the Pakistan portion of the mountains can be reached by jeep; tracks over such high passes as Shandur and Lawarai in Gilgit and Chitral districts have reduced the isolation of these valleys. Of major importance is the all-weather road through the Sālang Tunnel linking northern and southern Afghanistan. Rough vehicle tracks penetrate the northern valleys, including the Vākhān region, from Feyẕābād in Badakhshān. Short-takeoff-and-landing aircraft intermittently serve remote locations and provide daily service to Chitral and Gilgit. Air service to the Vākhān region and the western Hindu Kush in Afghanistan is infrequent.

Study and exploration (European exploration)

      General descriptions of the Hindu Kush valleys are found in the ancient records of such pilgrims as the Chinese Buddhist monk Xuanzang, who exited South Asia through the Hindu Kush in the mid-7th century CE, and from scribes who accompanied invaders from Central Asia. Many local toponyms are Turkic in origin. The Venetian traveler Marco Polo (Polo, Marco) and his group is said to have passed along the Hindu Kush through the Badakhshān and Vākhān regions in the 13th century. The central section of the range, known as Kābul Kūhestān (Kohistan), was famous in antiquity as the location of the triodon, three great transmontane routes. The first of these was either the Khawāk Pass in the Panjshēr River valley, over which Alexander the Great passed northward, or the adjacent Thalle Pass, used by Timur; the second was the Kushān Pass (slightly to the west of the present-day Sālang road tunnel), which Alexander crossed southward; and the third was the Kipchak Pass, used by Genghis Khan in the early 13th century and by Babur in 1504.

      In the 19th century, political control of the Hindu Kush was contested by tsarist Russia and imperial Britain. With the establishment of Afghanistan in the early 1880s, these two combatants were essentially banished from the territory; hence it was left to other Europeans, especially the Germans, to study and explore the central ranges of the Hindu Kush. The Germans and the French conducted major scientific and archaeological expeditions in Afghanistan in the 1930s.

      By the end of the 19th century, the British had subdued the dissident principalities in the eastern Hindu Kush. There followed the precise topographical measurement of what became the northwestern frontier of British India. Further extensive topographic suveys of the Hindu Kush were carried out in the second half of the 20th century by the Soviet Union, the United States, and Pakistan, leading to the production of highly detailed maps. War disrupted activity in the region during the 1980s and 1990s.

Fosco Maraini Nigel John Roger Allan Lewis Owen

Additional Reading

For descriptions of general geography of the Hindu Kush region, it is necessary to consult books on Afghanistan, such as Louis Dupree, Afghanistan (1973, reissued 1997); and Erwin Grötzbach, Afghanistan: eine geographische Landeskunde (1990), which includes a survey of economic conditions in the area. Lennart Edelberg and Schuyler Jones, Nuristan (1979), provides a survey of the central Hindu Kush. Invaluable material on Kafir culture is contained in George Scott Robertson, The Kafirs of the Hindu-Kush (1896, reissued 1974). Scholarly analyses include Karl Jettmar, The Religions of the Hindukush, 3 vol. (1986; originally published in German, 1975); and Karl Jettmar and Lennart Edelberg (eds.), Cultures of the Hindukush (1974). A useful collection of papers on the geography of the Hindu Kush is Elena Bashir and Israr-ud-Din (eds.), Proceedings of the Second International Hindukush Cultural Conference (1996).Lewis Owen

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