Pakol
Pakol (Template:Lang-ps; Template:Lang-ur; Balti بروقپی نتینگ; Template:Lang-tg; Shina/Khowar language: Pakhui; Wakhi Seeked/Brushashki: Phartsun),[1][2] also known as Chitrali cap,[3] Gilgiti cap,[4] is a soft round-topped men's hat, typically of wool and found in any of a variety of earthy colors: brown, black, grey, or ivory, or dyed red using walnut. The origins of the cap are complex but the cap is thought to originate either from Nuristan region in Afghanistan, The main source of production is Chitral in Pakistan. It is also worn by Nuristani people of the adjacent valleys in Chitral such as Dir in Pakistan.
Overview
The pakol is remarkably similar to the ancient Macedonian kausia hat, worn by men in ancient Southeast Europe, which may have been its ancestor.[5][6] According to Bonnie Kingsley the kausia may have came to the Mediterranean as a campaign hat worn by Alexander and veterans of his campaigns in India,[7] although according to Ernst Fredricksmeyer the kausia was too established a staple of the Macedonian wardrobe for it to have been imported from Asia to Macedonia.[8] The pakol gained popularity in Nuristan in Afghanistan a few centuries ago. It is now also very commonly worn in Chitral, Swat and Dir in Pakistan and exclusively to these people around that similar region, as it is a staple of their ethnic background. In the past couple decades, the pakol has also been worn in India, especially in parts of Delhi and Jammu & Kashmir.[9][10]
Origins
The pakol is remarkably similar to the ancient Macedonian kausia hat, worn by men in ancient Southeast Europe, which may have been its ancestor.[5][6] According to Bonnie Kingsley the kausia may have came to the Mediterranean as a campaign hat worn by Alexander and veterans of his campaigns in India.[7] but according to Ernst Fredricksmeyer the kausia was too established a staple of the Macedonian wardrobe for it to have been imported from Asia to Macedonia.[8] The origins of the cap are complex and often misunderstood. The cap is thought to originate from the Nuristan region in Afghanistan.[citation needed] Later Pashtuns of adjoining areas; Swat and Dir adopted it. In the 1980s, the pakol was worn by a special unit of the Afghan Mujahideen who fought against the Soviets. The pakol owes its global celebrity to the Tajik-majority members of the Jamiat-e Islami Afghanistan, who, following their leader Ahmad Shah Massoud, first adopted it as a standard item of their outfit. Since then the headware has become famous in Afghanistan.[citation needed]
The pakol came into vogue in India in the 2000s, after Afghan refugees emigrated to Delhi and opened businesses selling pakols imported from Kabul.[9] The pakol's popularity also surged after actors in various Bollywood films sported the cap.[10]
See also
References
- ^ Mir, Ziab R (1 October 2016). "My Cap, My Identity: Men's caps from Gilgit-Baltistan". Pamir Times.
- ^ Blackwood, William (1968). "Blackwood's Magazine". Vol. 303.
{{cite magazine}}: Cite magazine requires|magazine=(help) - ^ Chohan, Amar Singh (2014-07-14). A History of Kafferistan: Socio-economic and Political Conditions of the Kaffers.
- ^ Ridgeway, Rick (2014-02-14). The Last Step: The American Ascent of K2. ISBN 9781594859366.
- ^ a b Worthington, Ian, ed. (1994). Ventures into Greek History. Clarendon Press. p. 135. ISBN 019814928X.
- ^ a b Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940). "καυσία". A Greek–English Lexicon. Clarendon Press.
- ^ a b Kingsley, Bonnie M (1981). "The Cap That Survived Alexander". American Journal of Archaeology. 85: 39. doi:10.2307/504964. JSTOR 504964.
- ^ a b Fredricksmeyer, Ernst (1986). "Alexander the Great and the Macedonian kausia". Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association. 116: 215–227. doi:10.2307/283917. JSTOR 283917.
- ^ a b Saxena, Shivam (4 March 2015). "Inside Delhi's lil Afghanistan: Aroma of Kabuli pulao, murmurs in Dari". Hindustan Times. Retrieved 16 March 2018.
Several shops run by Afghani refugees at Sharif Manzil now have flourishing businesses of imported carpets, pakol and karakuli caps (below), shawls and vasket (jackets). "We import these caps from Kabul. They are now becoming popular in India too," says Sikander Khan, who runs a small garment shop in the area.
- ^ a b "And Thugs Met Nemesis". Greater Kashmir. 22 October 2016. Retrieved 16 March 2018.
On my way for tuition to the Unique Academy at Zaina Kadal, one of the busiest marketplaces crowded with Tonga, I often spotted a couple of these known political goons sitting on a shopfront or the backseat of a Tonga puffing cigarettes cascading air around with cannabis aroma. One of them a hefty chariot driver donned in what has now been popularised by Bollywood films as 'Pathani Suit', ivory coloured 'Pakol cap', and golden thread Peshawari chappal known for his thoul (head fight) was evil personified.
External links
- Willem Vogelsang, 'The Pakol: A distinctive, but apparently not so very old headgear from the Indo-Iranian borderlands'. Khil`a. Journal for Dress and Textiles of the Islamic World, Vol. 2, 2006, pp. 149–155.
