Gojal

Gójal is famous for its rich ńatural wealth, landscape, beautiful places, high móuntains, beautiful natural beauty, wildlife and nature, shining glaciers, lush vegetation and fruit valleys, beautiful meadows and pastures.  The valley consists of twenty five villages, including •Goshobin •Ainabad, •Shashkat •Nazimabad 1, •Galimat, •Gulkan, •Sassoni •Hussainani, •Paso, •Khyber, •Galpan, •Morkhon, •Jamalabad, •Garcha, •Sarteez, •Nazimabad.  •Soost •Aminabad.  •Khudaabad, •Misgar, •Qalandarchi, •Ogarchi, •Rameng, •Yarz Reach, •Karman, •Reshit, •Shariasaf, •Compadre, •Zodkhon, •Austin and •Shamshal  Gilmat is Gojal's largest settlement and tehsil headquarters.  Gójal is geògraphically the largest tehsil of Hunza Nagar district in Gilgit-Baltistan, covering an area of   about eight and a half thousand square kilometers.  The valley meets the Xinjiang-Uighur region of China and the Wakhan Corridor, or Little Pamir, of Âfghanistan.

The people of Gojal are very hospitable and educated.  "Education" is a part of everyone's life, regardless of gender or income• Everyone is educated up to secondary level.  The Aga Khan Development Network's efforts have yielded excellent results and people are now pursuing higher education in Pakistan as well as internationally.  Right now every home has a satellite TV and a computer.

The medium of instruction is Urdu while English is spoken and understood by most of the people.  Walkie is a widely used drug by locals, while residents of Shiskat, Kebar and Misgar speak some of the villages of Burshaski.  Because the area was a tourist destination, people learned English from tourists and even from going to school.

There is a very special way of walking to greet each other.  Regardless of gender, they greet each other by kissing each other's hands.  It's a sign of respect, but the trend has waned recently.  People are liberal and do not have extreme views.  Girls are educated and encouraged to work in the area.  So in Gojal, it is very rare for women to work in the fields or in shops or on their way to school. <<In fact, in 2005♧ a new initiative was taken to educate the older generation•  Now even older people are being taught to read and write.

All the houses in Gojal follow a traditional style that has been going on for centuries.  It is designed so that everyone is comfortable and has a place to sit.  When you enter the house, there is space for musicians and dancers.  ♡Women sit on the left while men sit on the right.• The stove is in the middle and the store is at the back.  At the center sit the head of the family and the elders.

Herp or soz to local music and this tune runs in the blood of the local people.  In every celebration, people dance to the tunes and this is the culture in which the elder of the family guides the dance while the youngest follows it at the end.  It is a field of learning for children to practice and that is how they learn.

°Lifestyle is very simple and People prefer it that way•  Older men wear white hats while women wear hand-stitched sculpted hats.  In winter, men wear a special long coat made of wool to keep themselves warm.

°The people of :Gojal have a very strong social organization•  Whether it is a celebration or the death of everyone stands for each other.  In order to strengthen the bonds during the marriage, a non-distinguished member is given the responsibility by the groom to become the mother of the bride, thus the families are bound in strong relationships.  When a marriage takes place, the whole tribe distributes its resources so that it does not become a burden on one person.

One type of festival offers a unique feature of its cultural diversity and variety of forms of expression as a celebration of different events in social life.  These festivals cover a number of important seasonal events, cultural events and religious festivals.

Depending on the weather conditions and the melting of the snow, Oshi is celebrated during the last week of February.  Locals collectively demolish and repair important irrigation channels.  Early in the morning the villagers gather at the starting point of their own irrigation channels.  The head of the family takes a bit and gathers at the starting point of the channels.  The caliph (religious scholar) offers special prayers for prosperity, productivity and adequate water supply.  Then people start repairing and cleaning the channels.  Special meals are prepared and enjoyed after the work is completed.

The month of February is celebrated at the end of winter, and to welcome the spring season.  This ceremony is performed on different dates in each valley.  On this day the head of the family sprinkles flour on the pillars, walls and doors of the house.

Taghm is a two-day event, which takes place during the plowing season during March.  This is the official opening ceremony of the farming season.  This event depends on the extreme weather in different places.  The celebration lasts for two days.  For this occasion, people prepare a special dish called semen by processing wheat grains for about a month before this day.  Semen is cooked like kheer or halva.  Half bread is also prepared.