DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.36956#0030
Darel and Tangir, were ruled until 1917 by one of the Khushwaqte
princes of Yasm, further to the north, the famous Pakhtun Wall Khan.
Under this alien domination, many of the fortress-villages of Tangir
were completely broken up and the population scattered m small hamlets
throughout the valley floor. The British, meanwhile, had destroyed the
fastnesses at Chilas. Though his reign extended to Sazm, almost op-
posite Tangir on the southern side of the Indus, it seems to have been
limited to taxation of the inhabitants as they came down to the river. The
village therefore survived intact. The fastness further to the east, at Gor,
remained largely unimpaired; m the meantime it has lost its formerly
tight organisation. It was thus a matter of importance that a substantial
record should be made of Sazin before it, too, went the way of the
others. Furthermore it had the unique advantage that the valley, being
much smaller than the others, contains only a single village, which could
therefore be studied m isolation m relation to its surrounding fields and
resources. Of the remaining valleys, only Harban, the next valley to the
east, still contains a defensible village, Dargah, midway along its length,
but this, terraced around a conical rock with a tower at the top, has a
different character, and the population is not Shm, but rather a mixture
of differing origin: a folk etymology explains bur bun as meaning 'from
all directions'.
Sazin has not, however, remained immune from the social changes in
the region. The subsiding of inter-valley strife, particularly since the
voluntary accession of the region to Pakistan m 1952, resulted m the
diversion of local aggression into ever-ramifying blood feuds, usually
originating m real, imagined, or alleged cases of adultery. These m turn
have engendered their own form of architectural expression m tall,
square towers built by the feuding families as paid of their homesteads:
m the case of Sazm they are to be found either in, or immediately next to
the village. Further changes have been brought about by shifts in the
economy ; the exploitation of the mountain forests led, as in other valleys
14
princes of Yasm, further to the north, the famous Pakhtun Wall Khan.
Under this alien domination, many of the fortress-villages of Tangir
were completely broken up and the population scattered m small hamlets
throughout the valley floor. The British, meanwhile, had destroyed the
fastnesses at Chilas. Though his reign extended to Sazm, almost op-
posite Tangir on the southern side of the Indus, it seems to have been
limited to taxation of the inhabitants as they came down to the river. The
village therefore survived intact. The fastness further to the east, at Gor,
remained largely unimpaired; m the meantime it has lost its formerly
tight organisation. It was thus a matter of importance that a substantial
record should be made of Sazin before it, too, went the way of the
others. Furthermore it had the unique advantage that the valley, being
much smaller than the others, contains only a single village, which could
therefore be studied m isolation m relation to its surrounding fields and
resources. Of the remaining valleys, only Harban, the next valley to the
east, still contains a defensible village, Dargah, midway along its length,
but this, terraced around a conical rock with a tower at the top, has a
different character, and the population is not Shm, but rather a mixture
of differing origin: a folk etymology explains bur bun as meaning 'from
all directions'.
Sazin has not, however, remained immune from the social changes in
the region. The subsiding of inter-valley strife, particularly since the
voluntary accession of the region to Pakistan m 1952, resulted m the
diversion of local aggression into ever-ramifying blood feuds, usually
originating m real, imagined, or alleged cases of adultery. These m turn
have engendered their own form of architectural expression m tall,
square towers built by the feuding families as paid of their homesteads:
m the case of Sazm they are to be found either in, or immediately next to
the village. Further changes have been brought about by shifts in the
economy ; the exploitation of the mountain forests led, as in other valleys
14