:::::::::::::::::::::::::::[SHIMSHAL]

:: Home

:: About us

:: History

:: Organization

Shimshal culturally and Environmentally Unique Community

Shimshal is a farming and herding community of some 1100 inhabitants, situated at the north-eastern extreme of both the former principality of Hunza (now part of Gilgit Administrative District), and the modern state of Pakistan (see Figure 1). Our settlement occupies the upper portion of a valley of the same name, which descends west into the Hunza River valley at Passu, and which separates the Ghujerab and Hispar Mustagh ranges of the Karakoram mountain system. Our villages are situated on a series of glacial and alluvial deposits that form a broad strip between the river's floodplain and steep mountain slopes to the south. These deposits have been terraced for several hundred years. They are irrigated by the melt water nalas which currently dissect them. In addition, the lowest terraces are irrigated from the river itself. The cultivated area, covering about 250 hectares, lies between 3000 and 3300 meters above sea level, at the upper limits of single crop cultivation. We grow hardy cereals (wheat and barley), potatoes, peas and beans, apricots and apples. Small quantities of garden vegetables are also grown by some households. We are one of the few communities remaining in Pakistan's Northern Areas that grows enough agricultural produce to feed itself.

        We complement our irrigated agriculture with extensive herding of sheep, goats, cattle and yaks. Indeed, we tend more livestock per capita than any other Hunza community , and earn much of our money from the sale of dairy produce, yaks, and yak hair carpets. This is due, in part, to our community's exclusive control of vast areas of high altitude land. Shimshal pastures cover about 2700 square kilometers of the Central Karakoram. Within that area we maintain over three dozen individual pastures, including three large and highly productive alpine areas. Also within Shimshal territory are innumerable peaks, glaciers and trekking routes, including nine peaks above 7,000 meters. Although the environmental potential for adventure tourism is high, relatively few trekkers visit our territory. From May 1994 to May 1995 only 35 foreign tourists visited the community, although as many as 100 trekkers a year passed through Shimshal in the late 1980s and early 1990s (Environmental Education Programme, Shimshal, 1995).

        Our community's only direct communication with Hunza and the rest of Pakistan is by path along the Shimshal River to Passu and the Karakoram Highway. Despite our location 60 kilometers and two days walk from the nearest road we interact extensively with the outside world. The majority of households have members working and/or studying in lowland Pakistan, or in the Middle East. Most migrants return to live and work in the community, so that school teachers, animal and crop specialists, dispensers, V.O. leaders, etc. are all Shimshalis who have been trained outside. At present about 120 Shimshalis reside outside the village (environmental Education Programme, 1995).

        Since 1985 all households have belonged to one of three Aga Khan Rural Support Programme (AKRSP) Village Organizations (VOs) that have formed in the community. The three V.Os, with sporadic assistance from government-funded contractors, have undertaken an ambitious project to construct a road from Passu to Shimshal settlement. We expect the road to be finished by early 1999, after fourteen years of committed labor. In addition to our efforts on the road, the Shimshal V.Os, and other community-based collective organizations, have undertaken numerous other self-help development projects, including fruit and forest plantations, land settlement, irrigation channel construction, and, most recently, an AKRSP-sponsored hydro-electric generating station.