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Gulmit Our final destination in Hunza was the little village of Gulmit, the summer residence of the Mir of Hunza and much less developed than Karimabad. |
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The visual highlight of the Gulmit may be the Cathedral Peaks (above). We stayed at the "Village Guest House" which is economical, interesting and historical. The old Mir used to stay there and, even now, there is a royal looking guy walking around, putting up with the less-than-deferring foreigners. Despite being a "palace," the walls are made of mud (lower right) but the detail work inside is fairly nice (below). Due, I suspect, to their isolation, the Hunzans have some things, which are totally unlike anything I've seen elsewhere. The lock, (lower left) is one example. |
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Threadnet The one "touristy" thing we found in Gulmit was Threadnet, a weaving cooperative. While I think most Pakistani carpets are overly bound by tradition, the Threadnet carpets have innovative designs. Unfortunately, they are priced far above our ability to pay but, considering the labor and originality, are probably worth it. Although innovative in design, they pride themselves in using traditional "vegetable" dyes rather than modern chemical ones. Like most of the women in Hunza, the Threadnet weavers were charming. Because of Aga Khan development work, they are far better educated than most village women in Pakistan and could speak good Urdu and reasonable English, in addition to their local language which, surprisingly, seemed very different from the language spoken just down the road in Karimabad. |
