Pakol

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Pakol hat of the Chitral Scouts.
Chitrali villagers pictured wearing the pakol in 1906.

Pakol (Khowar: پکول, Balti: بروقپی نتینگ, Shina: Pakhui, Wakhi: Seeked, Brushashki: Phartsun, Persian and Pashto: پکول ) is a soft round-topped men's hat, typically of wool and found in any of a variety of earthy colors: brown, black, grey, ivory or dyed red using walnut.[1][2] It is also known as the Chitrali cap after Chitral, Pakistan, where it is believed to have originated.[3]

Pakol is primarily worn by the Dardic peoples (also Nuristanis) and was later adopted by some Iranic peoples, of northern Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Pakistani-administered Gilgit-Baltistan, northeastern Afghanistan and northern India's Jammu and Kashmir.[4] However, as with areas home to Pashtuns and Tajiks, it was introduced in the Kashmir Valley later by Shins of northern Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir, who are locally known as Dards.[5] Thus the Pakol is colloquially called Dardi cap in Jammu and Kashmir.[5]

Origin[]

According to some historians and ethnographers Pakol originated from Chitral.[6][7] The woolen cap has been the staple headgear of the Chitrali people for centuries.[8][9] The main source of production is Chitral in Pakistan which is also located at the center of its range.[10] It is also worn in some regions of Gilgit-Baltistan, Dir and Swat valley in Pakistan, also by Afghans such as Nuristanis, Pashayi, Pashtuns and Tajiks, as well as parts of northern India, such as Jammu & Kashmir and Delhi.[5][4]

Overview[]

Pakistani street vendors operating a pakol shop in Gilgit-Baltistan; the cap is slightly different from modern Chitrali caps.

Some authors have compared this hat with those worn by ancient Sogdia (modern Uzbekistan) and ancient Greek headdresses (kausia hat).[11] Some romantize the link of the pakol to Alexander the Great’s campaigns in the Bactrian-Greek and Indo-Afghan borderlands in the late fourth century BC.[11] The pakol has a short modern history in Nuristan (19 century), and the same goes for neighbouring Chitral (Willem Vogelsang, 2006, p. 149-155).[12] The pakol gained a glamorous image during the Afghan civil war (1980s), have popularized it too which is now known all over the world. Its been said that Ahmad Shah Massoud started to wear the pakol when he was in Nuristan (1978). Ahmad Shah Massoud was responsible for the sudden popularity of the cap.[11] The pakol became the symbol of the new leading elements of the country.[11] In Pakistan, it's worn in Chitral, Swat and Dir and is considered a staple of their ethnic background.

In the Swat valley, east of Chitral, people tend to wear a slightly different type of pakol. It is beige in colour and distinctive for its ‘pie-crust’ stitching along the rolled brim. Pashtun in neighbouring Pakistan seem overwhelmingly to have adopted the pakol (once Massoud popularized it), such as Peshawar.[11] Pictures from Peshawar from very recently, show a city dominated by turban-wearing Pashtun instead of a pakol.[11] In the past, the pakol has also been worn in India, especially in parts of Jammu & Kashmir (mainly by the Shina and other Dards) and Delhi.[5][4] In Kashmir, it was introduced by seasonal migrants of ethnic Shins/Dards, hailing from the Gurez and Tulail areas in north Jammu and Kashmir’s Bandipora district.[5] The similar caps are worn in the Chinese/Turkestani/Indian borderlands.[11] These modern twists isn't a feature that Alexander’s soldiers picked up in Afghanistan in the late 4th century BC but rather a modern staple of the 1900s.[11]

History[]

A statue of a Macedonian boy wearing Kausia which is thought to be the source of the pakol. Terracotta, made in Athens, ca. 300 BC

Kausia and Alexander[]

The pakol is remarkably similar to the ancient Macedonian kausia hat, worn by men in Ancient Greece, which may have been its ancestor.[13][14] According to Bonnie Kingsley the kausia may have came to the Mediterranean as a campaign hat worn by Alexander and veterans of his campaigns in India.[15] but according to Ernst Fredricksmeyer the kausia was too established a staple of the Macedonian wardrobe for it to have been imported from Asia to Macedonia.[16]

Criticism of Macedonian Link[]

However Willem Vogelsang of the National Museum of Ethnology in Leiden, showed that the pakool is actually a simple adaptation of caps with rolled rims worn all over the borderlands of China, India and Central Asia.[17] At the juncture of the 3 regions lies Chitral forming a watershed.[18]

Chitralis from Upper Chitral pictured wearing the Pakol in 1906

Origin, Discovery and Documentation in Chitral[]

The modern Pakol is believed to have originated from Chitral where it was made and found exclusively until the end of the 19th century.[7] The word Pakol is a chitrali word derived from another chitrali name of the hat Khapol. The Pakol is made from a special type of wool known as the Chitrali patti locally known as 'Shu' which is procured from the sheepherders from its valleys. The earliest mention of the Pakol is attributed to Donatus O'Briens' book (1895) on the language of Chitral, where describing the ethnic dress of Chitralis he states that:

"The dress worn by most men consist of a homespun cap black, brown or grey made in the shape of a bag and rolled up until it fits the skull."[19]

Later on in 1896 George Scott Robertson denoted the cap with the name "Chitrali Cap".[20]

Chitralis wearing the Pakol pictured in 1929.

Early mentions of its nativity and homogeneity to Chitral and its English and local nomenclature paired with documentation of it not being worn in any of the regions surrounding Chitral make it evident that the Pakol most probably originated from the Chitral region of Northern Pakistan where it was worn exclusively till the end of the 19th century.

The Kafiristan Campaign and Adoption by Nuristanis[]

The earliest documentations of the inhabitants of Kafiristan states that they went about without any headgear.[20] Another source refers to the pakol as the chitrali cap and states that it is only worn in the Bashgul valley as an imported article of clothing because of Bashgul's proximity to Chitral.[21]

Pakols must have spread at a quick pace among the locals, now renamed Nuristanis, after and partially as a consequence of the conquest of Kafiristan by Abdul Rahman Khan of Afghanistan. The opening up of the valleys to increased contact and trade, and the population's conversion to Islam, might have provided incentives for the residents to abandon their previously distinctive hairstyle and cover their heads with hats. It seems logical that the men adopted one with which they were already acquainted, and that was readily available locally. The adoption of specific items of clothing to mark a new identity, especially a religious one, is well-established in history.[22]

Initial Prominence in Pakistan[]

The Pakol first found for itself prominence in Pakistan by Chitrali traders and businessmen who expanded their businesses.[23] The Pakol began to be worn in many parts of Pakistan, especially the adjoining areas to Chitral such as Dir, Swat, Malakand and Bajaur.[citation needed]

Initial Prominence in India[]

The Pakol has been worn traditionally in India by the Shina people of northern Jammu and Kashmir's Gurez Valley (including Tulail).[5] Like Indian-administered Gurez, it is also worn in the Shina/Dard region of Pakistan (accurately Upper Neelum (Gurez), Astore and Chilas), up to Gilgit and Hunza... in the whole belt up to Chitral, which was once a part of Kashmir.[5]

The Pakol has also been worn in the Kashmir valley occasionally for decades, where it was introduced by seasonal migrants of ethnic Shins/Dards, hailing from Gurez.[5] A columnist with a valley based newspaper, said about the cap that it became popular in the 1950s after being sported by Bakshi Ghulam Mohammad, the Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir.[5]

Initial Prominence in Afghanistan[]

Pakol is worn within Afghanistan in many provinces, in particular, Nuristan and nearby provinces. Although, it is now commonly worn throughout Afghanistan. Alexander Gardner, American adventurer visited Nuristan twice between 1826 and 1828. Picture on the right is of Abdal Kadir, Red Kafirs of Kunisht (Afghanistan) "The Man Who Would Be King" (1888) Published in 1905 in the Smith Academy Record.

Abdal Kadir, Red Kafirs of Kunisht (Afghanistan) "The Man Who Would Be King" (1888) by Rudyard Kipling about Nuristan, a remote part of Afghanistan.

In the 1980s, the pakol was worn by a special unit of the Afghan Mujahideen who fought against the Russians (Soviets). The pakol owes its global celebrity to the Tajik-majority members of the Jamiat-e Islami Afghanistan, who, following their leader Ahmad Shah Massoud, wore it amongst their ranks.

See also[]

References[]

  1. ^ Mir, Ziab R (1 October 2016). "My Cap, My Identity: Men's caps from Gilgit-Baltistan". Pamir Times.
  2. ^ Blackwood, William (1968). "Blackwood's Magazine". Vol. 303. Cite magazine requires |magazine= (help)
  3. ^ Chohan, Amar Singh (2014-07-14). A History of Kafferistan: Socio-economic and Political Conditions of the Kaffers.
  4. ^ Jump up to: a b c Saxena, Shivam (4 March 2015). "Inside Delhi's lil Afghanistan: Aroma of Kabuli pulao, murmurs in Dari". Hindustan Times. Retrieved 16 March 2018. Several shops run by Afghani refugees at Sharif Manzil now have flourishing businesses of imported carpets, pakol and karakuli caps (below), shawls and vasket (jackets). “We import these caps from Kabul. They are now becoming popular in India too,” says Sikander Khan, who runs a small garment shop in the area.
  5. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h i Naqash, Rayan (11 March 2017). "Kashmir's stylish and aspirational caps come at a hefty price". Scroll.in. Retrieved 5 July 2021.
  6. ^ "From Alexander the Great to Ahmad Shah Massoud: A Social History of the Pakol | Afghanistan Analysts Network". 3 January 2014. Retrieved 2020-02-20.
  7. ^ Jump up to: a b Chico, Beverly (2013-10-03). Hats and Headwear around the World: A Cultural Encyclopedia: A Cultural Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 978-1-61069-063-8.
  8. ^ Organisation (Pakistan), Population Census (1999). 1998 District Census Report of [name of District].: Chitral. Population Census Organisation, Statistics Division, Govt. of Pakistan.
  9. ^ Swift, Hugh (1990). Trekking in Pakistan and India. Sierra Club Books. ISBN 978-0-87156-662-1. pakol tudor styled.
  10. ^ Pushtun clothes choice-cold-nights/ "Pakol cap of Chitral" Check |url= value (help).
  11. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h Vogelsang, Willem (2006). "The Pakol: A Distinctive, but Apparently not so Very Old Headgear from the Indo-Iranian Borderlands". Khil'a. 2: 149–155. doi:10.2143/KH.2.0.2021290.
  12. ^ Vogelsang, Willem (2006). "The Pakol". Khil'a. 2: 149–155. doi:10.2143/KH.2.0.2021290.
  13. ^ Worthington, Ian, ed. (1994). Ventures into Greek History. Clarendon Press. p. 135. ISBN 019814928X.
  14. ^ Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940). "καυσία". A Greek–English Lexicon. Clarendon Press.
  15. ^ Kingsley, Bonnie M (1981). "The Cap That Survived Alexander". American Journal of Archaeology. 85 (1): 39–46. doi:10.2307/504964. JSTOR 504964.
  16. ^ Fredricksmeyer, Ernst (1986). "Alexander the Great and the Macedonian kausia". Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association. 116: 215–227. doi:10.2307/283917. JSTOR 283917.
  17. ^ "Did Alexander wear my hat?". Lugubelinus. 2016-06-04. Retrieved 2020-02-20.
  18. ^ Journal of the Society of Arts. The Society. 1874.
  19. ^ "Grammar and vocabulary of the K̲h̲owâr dialect (Chitrâli)". digital.soas.ac.uk. Retrieved 2020-02-24.
  20. ^ Jump up to: a b Robertson, Sir George Scott (1896). The Káfirs of the Hindu-Kush. Lawrence & Bullen, Limited. p. 515. chitrali cap.
  21. ^ Chohan, Amar Singh (1989). A History of Kafferistan: Socio-economic and Political Conditions of the Kaffers. Atlantic Publishers & Distri.
  22. ^ "From Alexander the Great to Ahmad Shah Massud: A social history of the pakol". English (in Pashto). 2014-01-03. Retrieved 2020-02-29.
  23. ^ Ferrari, Fabrizio (2011-03-07). Health and Religious Rituals in South Asia: Disease, Possession and Healing. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-1-136-84629-8.

Literature[]

  • Willem Vogelsang, 'The Pakol: A distinctive, but apparently not so very old headgear from the Indo-Iranian borderlands'. Khil`a. Journal for Dress and Textiles of the Islamic World, Vol. 2, 2006, pp. 149–155.

External links[]

Retrieved from ""