Regions with significant populations | |
---|---|
Swat | |
Languages | |
Torwali | |
Religion | |
Predominantly Islam | |
Related ethnic groups | |
other Dardic peoples |
The Torwali people are an ethnic group located in the Swat district of Pakistan. The Torwali people have a culture the values the telling of folktales with musical accompaniment.[1] The tongue spoken by the Torwali belongs to the Dardic sub-group of the Indo-Aryan language family.[2]
Description
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9d/Swat_%28rivi%C3%A8re%29.png/250px-Swat_%28rivi%C3%A8re%29.png)
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f7/Bahrain_Valley%2C_Swat%2C_Pakistan.jpg/250px-Bahrain_Valley%2C_Swat%2C_Pakistan.jpg)
The Torwalis inhabit the Swat River valley between Laikot (a little south of Kalam) down to and including the village of Bahrein (60 km north of Mingora). The Torwalis live in compact villages of up to 600 houses, mainly on the west bank of the Swat River. Fredrik Barth estimated that they constituted about 2000 households in all in 1956. All the Torwalis he met were bilinguial, speaking Pashto and Torwali.[3]
Culture
Unique to the Torwali people are traditional games, which were abandoned for more than six decades.[4] A festival held in Bahrain known as Simam attempted to revive them in 2011.[4] The Torwali people have a tradition of telling folktales.[5]
Language
The Torwali people speak the Torwali language, an Indo-Aryan language of the Dardic (Kohistani) branch.[2][6]
Music
The Torwali people play music using the traditional South Asian instrument known as the sitar.[1] Modern Torwali songs influenced by Urdu or Pashtu music are known as phal.[1]
References
- ^ a b c Torwali, Zubair (12 February 2016). "Fading songs from the hills". The Friday Times. Retrieved 25 December 2020.
- ^ a b Shah, Danial (30 September 2013). "Torwali is a language". Himal Southasian. Retrieved 3 December 2020.
- ^ Barth 1956, p. 69.
- ^ a b Cite error: The named reference
Torwali2019
was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Torwali, Zubair (12 February 2016). "Fading songs from the hills". The Friday Times. Retrieved 25 December 2020.
- ^ Eberhard, David M.; Simons, Gary F.; Fennig, Charles D., eds. (2020). "Torwali". Ethnologue: Languages of the World (23 ed.). Dallas, Texas: SIL International. Retrieved 25 December 2020.
Further reading
- Rehman, Abdur (1976), The Last Two Dynasties of the Sahis (PDF), Australian National University
- Barth, Fredrik (1956), "Torwali", Indus and Swat Kohistan: An ethnographic survey, Oslo: Forenede Trykkerier – via archive.org
- Stein, Aurel (1930), An Archaeological Tour in Upper Swat and Adjacent Hill Tracts, Memoirs of the Archaeological Survey of India, Government of India, Central Publication Branch