Ghorband

M. Jamil Hanifi

Ghorband, a major valley of Kohestan/Kohistan and a sub-province (woloswali) of Parvan province in the southern foothills of the Hindu Kush massif, located approximately 50 miles north of Kabul. The term Ghorband probably derives from Ghor/Ghaur, the name of the mountainous region northwest of Ghorband, and the Persian word band (barrier, dam), i.e., the mountainous barrier to Ghur (see Babor-nama, tr. Beveridge, p. 214). This picturesque valley contains some dazzling vistas near the subsidiary valleys and villages of Bag-e Awgan, Dara-e Ashawa, Deh Rangar, Dara-e Ju-ye, Dara-ye Sayyedan, and Siahgerd. The sub-province is about 935 square miles and stretches for approximately 60 miles from the village of Tutom-dara (about 8 miles north of Charikar), seat of the Parvan provincial government at its eastern entrance, to the base of  Shibar pass in the west. The elevation of the valley varies from about 5,500 feet in much of the eastern part to over 8,400 feet at the foot of the Shibar pass. Ghorband is bordered in the south, from the Shibar pass to Chardeh, by a narrow branch of Kuh-e Baba range and from there, east to Tutom-dara, by Paghman mountains. The valley is drained by the Ghorband river which, after joining the Panjshir about 8 miles southeast of Tutom-dara, flows into the Kabul river east of Tang-e Gharu gorge.

The 1970s census of Afghanistan estimated the population of Ghorband at 21,500 living in about 43 villages with 21 villages having 500 or more inhabitants (Gazetteer of Afghanistan VI, p. 220). The majority of the inhabitants of Ghorband are Sunni Tajiks. A number of villagers claim to be of Sayyed descent. Several villages in the eastern parts of the valley are home to Shinwari Pashtuns/Paxtuns. The Shi'ite (Shaikh 'Ali) Hazaras are numerically dominant in western Ghorband.

Prior to the tunneling of Salang pass through the Hindu Kush range and the construction of an all-weather road for motorized traffic there in the 1960s, the main road from Kabul to northern Afghanistan passed through the Ghorband valley. This gravel road was upgraded in the 1930s to accommodate trucks, but it was never paved. Until early 20th century Tutom-dara, in eastern Ghor-band, was one of the locations where duty on trade goods to and from northern Afghanistan was collected.

Ghorband produces large quantities of almonds, apples, apricots, grapes, mulberries, peaches, pears, pomegranates, quinces, and walnuts. Surpluses of grapes and apricots are dried and exported to areas within and outside Afghanistan. Some varieties of fresh grapes are preserved in small wooden and clay containers for export and for local consumption during the off-season. Mulberries, fresh (tut) and dried (talkòan), are an important part of the diet of the people of Kohestan. A few villages produce surplus dairy products. The village of Ashawa is famous for a variety of dried cheese called panir-e Ashawa. A number of popular dishes in the country are said to have originally come from Ghorband: shola-ye gorbandi, a dish in which well-cooked thick rice and mung beans (shola) are served with lamb and vegetable stew; shurva-ye gorbandi, a soup made of lamb and vegetables. Its shurva-ye chaynaki (teapot soup), a soup of lamb and vegetables prepared in teapots and served to travelers in major rest stops, is reputed to be one of the best of its kind in Afghanistan.

There are reports of extensive mineral resources in Ghorband. Until early 1880s lead was mined near the village of Faranjal, about 6 miles west of Chardeh. British surveyors in the 19th century reported significant deposits of iron, zinc, sulfur, and coal (Gazetteer of Afghanistan VI, p. 168). The presence of these and other resources have been confirmed by recent surveys (Shroder).

Charikar is the largest town and market place in the province of Parvan. In Ghorband, as throughout much of Afghanistan, besides the town and city markets, there are periodic (usually weekly) markets in some villages located near the main roads (e.g., Chardeh and Tutom-dara in Ghorband) that help integrate local economies. In addition to relations generated by trade in fruits and the transit activity along the main road, the local economy is engaged by regular contacts with Pashtun pastoral nomads who seasonally visit pastures throughout the valley. The nomads bring in pulses and ghee, both important supplements to the local cereal-based diet and trinkets. Over time some of these nomads have settled in the valley.

There are numerous pre-Islamic archaeological sites throughout Ghorband. The ruins of an early medieval Buddhist monastery complex near the village of Fondoqestan, about 23 miles east of Tutom-dara, were excavated by Joseph Hackin in the 1930s. Excavation of the site, which is dated to the late 6th or early 7th centuries C.E., produced a large number of sculptures and a hoard of Arab-Sasanian coins. Fondoqestan is located equidistant between the large pre-Islamic sites of Bagram/Begram, the site of ancient Kapisa in the east, and Bamian in the west.

Ghorband has been prominent in the modern history of Afghanistan. During the first Anglo-Afghan war (1838-42) a contingent of British army was defeated by local forces at Tutom-dara (Gazetteer of Afghanistan VI, pp. 794-95). During this war the British contemplated the termination of duties on trade goods that were being collected at this village. In 1929 a number of armed confrontations took place in western Ghorband between the Sunnite militia sent from Kabul by Habib-Allah Kalakani, known as Bacha-ye Saqqa, and the local Shi'ite Hazara forces supporting the dethroned Amir Aman-Allah Khan. After the collapse of the central government in 1992, the valley has been the site of several battles between the Taleban forces and the various opposition groups.

Bibliography

1. Nigel John R. Allan, "Men and Crops in the Central Hindukush," Phd. dissertation., Syracuse University, 1978.
   Idem, "Kuh Daman Periodic Markets: Cynosures for Rural Circulation and Potential Economic Development," in Erwin Grotzbach, ed. Current Problems of Regional Development and Urban Geography of Afghanistan, Meisenheim am Glan, 1976, pp. 173-93.
2. Frank Raymond Allchin and Norman Hammond, eds., The Archaeology of Afghanistan from Earliest Times to the Timurid Period, New York, 1978.
3. Gazetteer of Afghanistan VI, pp. 220-27.
4. Babor-nama, tr. Beveridge, p. 205.
5. Dayerat al-Mo'aref-e Ahriana, Afganestan, Kabul, 1955.
6. Mohammad Fayzi, Ketab-e tadhakkor-e enqelab, tr. Robert D. McChesney as Kabul Under Siege: Fayz Muhammad's Account of the 1929 Uprising, Princeton, 1999.
7. Joseph Hackin, "La monasteàre boudhique de Fondukistan, MDAFA 8, 1959, pp. 49-58.
   Idem, "The Buddhist Monastery of Fondukistan," Afghanistan 5/2, 1950, pp. 19-35.
8. Johannes Humlum, La geographie de Afghanistan, Copenhagen, 1959.
9. John William Kaye, History of the War in Afghanistan, 3 vols., London, 1857.
10. Perceval Barton Lord, "Some Accounts of a Visit to the Plain of Koh-i-Daman, the Mining District of Ghorband, and the Pass of Hindu Kush, with a Few General Observations Respecting the Structure and Conformation of the Country from the Indus to Kabul," JASB 7, 1838, pp. 521-37.
11. Charles Mason, Narrative of Various Journeys in Balochistan, Afghanistan and the Panjab, 3 vols., London, 1842, repr., London, 1974. "Resources and Expenditure of Afghanistan, 1841," National Archives of India, For. S. C., nos. 32-35, 25 October 1842.
12. Benjamin Rowland, "The Bejewelled Buddha in Afghanistan," Artibus Asiae 24, 1961, pp. 20-24.
13. John F. Shroder, Jr.,"The USSR and Afghanistan Mineral Resources," in Allen F. Agnew, ed., International Minerals: A National Perspective, Boulder, Colo., 1983, pp. 115-53.
14. Charles Edward Yates, Northern Afghanistan, or Letters from the Afghan Boundary Commission, London, 1888.

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