Die Sehnsucht nach dem irdischen Paradies: Ethnotourismus zu den Kalasha

Abstract

The Kalasha are a predominantly non-Muslim minority living in three valleys of the remote Hindukush (North-West Pakistan). Well studied by a fair number of anthropologists they have become an important target of ethnic tourism since the sixties. In tourism advertisement and popular travel literature the pagan Kalasha are portrayed as the "Greeks of Asia" and special emphasis is laid upon their orgiastic festivals, dancing women, and shamans. Recently their ethnic art has also been "discovered" by painters. Among the Kalasha ethno-tourists are looking for a paradise on earth, an arcadia, not yet ruined by the rational, highly industrialized civilization of the West.