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Photograph by Matthieu Paley
Nomads by necessity, the Kyrgyz move their herds across the Wakhan—a panhandle of alpine valleys and high mountains in northeastern Afghanistan.
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Photograph by Matthieu Paley
A nephew of the khan wears a makeshift face mask to protect himself from the biting winds that can whip through the high-altitude pamir.
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Photograph by Matthieu Paley
In this high, barren valley called Little Pamir, survival depends on livestock. Red-robed Kyrgyz girls corral sheep for milking, while dung dries atop the walls for use as fuel. The sheep, along with goats, yaks, and camels, provide milk, meat, and wool and even serve as currency: One lamb buys 110 pounds of flour.
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Photograph by Matthieu Paley
A girl carries a pair of lambs to be reunited with their mothers for the night. On especially cold days the vulnerable young animals are kept warm in cloth bags hung in the herders’ huts. The Kyrgyz complain that their winters are brutal. But would they want to call any other place home?
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Photograph by Matthieu Paley
A boy playfully throws a cat in the air at the khan’s winter camp near the Afghan-Tajik border. The Kyrgyz’s survival depends on their animals—sheep, goats, yaks, horses, and camels—but they are not sentimental about them.
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Photograph by Matthieu Paley
Hajji Roshan Khan, 32, waits as his wife returns from fetching water with the family donkey on a bitterly cold day. In 2010 he succeeded his late father, Abdul Rashid Khan, as the tribal leader of the roughly 1,100 Kyrgyz nomads living in Afghanistan’s Wakhan corridor.
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Photograph by Matthieu Paley
High above the tree line, a winter caravan of traders relies on sure-footed yaks to traverse a treacherous path down to a lower valley. At altitudes above 14,000 feet, winters in the Little Pamir last eight months or more, and snow can fall even in summer.
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Photograph by Matthieu Paley
Kyrgyz men seek shelter in a shepherd’s cave during their annual journey from their mountainous homeland to the nearest trading village in Pakistan, an icy, five-day trek. They will barter livestock, wool, and dairy products for everything from tea to television sets.
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Photograph by Matthieu Paley
Kyrgyz girls slide plastic jugs back to their family’s camp after chopping a hole in a frozen spring to fetch water. Men handle herding and trading; much of the hard labor of daily life falls to the females.
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Photograph by Matthieu Paley
Two girls venture outside their mud hut after a hailstorm at the khan’s autumn camp beside the Aksu River. The nomads sometimes stop here for a few weeks between migratory seasons if grass for their herds is too scarce at the summer or winter camps.
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Photograph by Matthieu Paley
Teenager Bibi Zohra will soon exchange her childhood crimson veil for a wife’s white headdress. She’s marrying a man twice her age and faces a risky future: The mortality rate among Kyrgyz women during childbirth is unmercifully high, some 500 times greater than in the developed world.
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Photograph by Matthieu Paley
Khairuddin’s father hopes that shaving his son’s head—and putting the hair in a “clean place,” such as a frozen river—will cure the boy’s persistent headaches. Although the Kyrgyz are Sunni Muslims, their rituals also reflect other ancient traditions. They believe that evil spirits cause many medical problems.
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Photograph by Matthieu Paley
Abdul Metalib and his wife, Halcha Khan, started smoking opium after losing a son; each of their 11 children died before age six. Many Kyrgyz say they use the drug as an escape from pain, since they have no doctors or medicine. As many as 50 percent of the nomads may be addicts.
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Photograph by Matthieu Paley
Kyrgyz herders adore their cell phones, which they acquire by trading and keep charged with solar-powered car batteries. Though useless for communication—cellular service doesn’t reach the isolated plateau—the gadgets are used to play music and take photos.
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Photograph by Matthieu Paley
Whip in mouth, a Kyrgyz man steers his horse in a game of buzkashi, a competition akin to polo—except a headless goat carcass takes the place of the ball. Buzkashi is the Afghan national sport. The Kyrgyz call it ulak tartysh, or “kid grabbing.”
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Photograph by Matthieu Paley
Blanket-draped yaks hunker down outside a young couple’s yurt on the eve of a summer trading journey. Made of interlaced poles covered with felt, these portable homes are packed up and reassembled for seasonal migration. Wooden doors are imported to the treeless plateau from lower altitudes.
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