Nuristani Woodcarving

Located in Afghanistan’s eastern mountains, the region of Kafiristan ('Land of the Infidels') was long an isolated society. Cut off from the world thanks to the difficult mountain terrain, their local religion was supplanted by Islam only at the end of the 19th century, over a millennium after the neighbouring regions, and the region renamed Nuristan (or 'Land of Light'). Their unique style of woodcarving is in great need of preservation lest it be lost forever.

Woodcarving played an integral role in the delineation of Nuristan’s social structure. The producers of the craft came from the ‘Bari’. As well as being woodworkers, the ‘Bari’ were more generally labourers, involved in building bridges and water mills, or working as stone carvers and potters. Deemed to be impure and racially separate from the rest of society, the ‘Bari’ were, prior to the region’s Islamisation, treated as slaves. As a result there is no genealogical record of the exceptionally skilled woodcarvers who transmitted the knowledge from master ('ustad') to student ('shagerd'), generation after generation.

In the past, Nuristani woodcarving held symbolic meaning and acted as a means of social signalling to identify acts of greatness, specifically hunting and feast-giving. The ‘Atrozhen’, or class of freemen, were allowed to decorate - or, rather, have the lower class ‘Bari’ decorate - their houses with the symbols. However, even within the ‘Atrozhen’, privilege was tightly controlled. A community council of 'Big Men' effectively held the exclusive privilege of controlling social movement. The social positions and titles that people were given were obtained only upon this council’s approval.

The designs of Nuristani woodwork are socially symbolic, usually alluding to the owner's bravery or ability to feed others. The motifs would be carved onto door frames, chairs, and the pillars inside and outside the main room ('ama') of the house. Once again there were social restrictions on who could have the motifs on their houses. For example, the ‘Bari’ were forbidden from decorating their own homes in this way (these would be situated further down the valley and thus on the frontline of any outsider's attack).

An interesting example of a particular motif is the ‘Yoshzhanla ba keere’, ‘Yoshzhanla’ being a person who kills demons. The number of spokes emanating from the central circle corresponds to the number of Nuristan’s enemies the owner has killed. The outer circle represents the Nuristan territory. The four compass-like points refer to a giant, who the Nuristani people believed had four ears. Therefore, someone who included this motif in the design of, for instance, their hearth pillar was deemed able to protect his people from giants and enemies.

In addition to praising their fellow citizens for killing enemies, Nuristani people also bestowed honour upon those adept at hunting. The best hunters would have a figurative depiction of a male goat’s head carved onto their doors ('sookheng'). The symbolism was enhanced by the addition of lines and small circles on the goats' horns. The lines corresponded to the number of ibex killed; the circles to the number of tigers. Symbols denoting prowess in hunting and killing were often combined with those of feast-giving, a very important social duty of wealthier Nuristanis. The ‘Panong’ symbol shows, from the peripherally-situated triangles, that ceremonial feasts were given by the family figure not only to the local village but also to people from other Nuristani communities. Like other symbols, it was carved on doors and pillars of the family home. In addition, it could be woven into family members’ clothing in blue and red.