Afghanistan | Wild Shepherdess with Kate Humble | BBC Documentary

in the most remote places on earth people depend on their animals for survival a few years ago I moved to a farm in the Welsh Hills I become fascinated by the bond between Shepherd and flock now I'm going to explore this relationships ancient origins I could have been standing here 500 years ago and witnessed exactly that so soon and I want to look at the future of herding my journey begins in the mountains of Afghanistan has a real biting chill to it the shepherd here live as they have done for a thousand years a smooth ride that seemed to have built-in shock absorbers it is an exhausting way of life and it's very cold I would do almost hoping for the apparition that I have for these people really knows no bounds I want to look back in time to experience an ancient way of life and see if it still has a place in the 21st century [Music] [Music] I'm in transit heading to the airport and driving along one of the most dangerous roads in the world three days ago a suicide bomber killed 12 expat workers a couple of miles from here Kabul is a city on the edge this is the riskiest thing probably that we're doing on our whole three-week trip you're told all the kind of things to look out for all of the things not to do and and but once you're here you still feel slightly helpless even though you've put everything in place to to try and make sure that things are safe being here is really unnerving but I have to pass through Kabul to get to some of the most traditional Shepherds on earth [Music] after five security checks we finally get to our charter plane that's the most stressful part of the journey over but it's going to take me two more days to get to the Shepards I want to live with [Music] this rugged land is one of the last places in the world where you can find truly traditional Shepherds whose way of life goes back to ancient times [Music] incredible natural beauty it's hard to make that when you say the word Afghanistan's with most anybody all they think about is war and strikes terror yeah here it just looks like a passive indescribable optimist beauty we're flying across the western edge of the Himalayas heading towards the Wakhan corridor home of the wacky shepherds [Music] this narrow slither of mountainous Afghani territory is a legacy of nineteenth-century Imperial rivalry Britain and Russia declared that their empires must never meet and so the Wakhan corridor was created as a neutral buffer zone between what is now Tajikistan and Pakistan [Music] [Music] we're in the Walker and there's even a welcoming come [Music] this region is so remote it was never captured by the Taliban there are no soldiers here no guns this feels like a completely different country a different world to Kabul it's ready okay well I'm ready let's go okay this man his name we drive up the wacom Valley passing donkeys and cows but is yet there's no sign of any sheep or any Shepherds we're now 3,000 metres above sea level it feels like the roof of the world down in the valley here is the sort of heartland of the wacom communities but no sign of the sheeps that basically allow these people to survive in a spectacular but nonetheless harsh environment so where are those sheep well in the summer they're driven up staggeringly over those mountains into what is called the big premiere these huge valleys and to go and find the Wacken Shepherd's I've got to go there too the walkie have lived in this valley for two and a half thousand years or more wheat is the staple crop and mid-september is harvest time it feels like I've stepped into the Middle Ages the valley is only a few miles wide there's no room to graze sheep as well as grow crops so earlier in the summer the wa he divided into two teams some stayed down here in their villages to farm while others went up to the mountain pastures to herd it's a tough 20 mile trek up to the Shepherds the film crew and I are not exactly traveling light so we've hired some pack animals and their owners to help us on the final leg of our journey [Music] yaks are the walkies four-by-fours these hairy cow like beasts can cover almost any terrain though it's a rather gentle sedate pace [Music] this route but many of the work on Shepherds will take at the beginning of every summer their flocks up to the good grazing lands these mountain paths were once used by merchants following the Silk Road from Europe to China Marco Polo passed close by he described how wild animal horns marked the route and it doesn't look like much has changed since he was here almost 800 years ago [Music] after trekking for six hours we're halfway to the summer pastures we stopped for the night at a shepherd's hut [Music] I wake up to a light dusting of snow my first night under canvas was very cold and the thin mountain air is having a strange effect on my body because we're at 4,000 meters no it's swell up at altitude it's nice isn't it but there's no time to worry about a puffy face I want to get to the pastures as soon as possible so we pick up the pace we stop to rest the animals and I show the men some pictures from my farm with all the troubles in the rest of Afghanistan I want to know what life is like for the wahi is it very hard in the mountains demography Massillon the wucky may be far from the horrors of war but living here is by no means easy at 4,600 meters we get our first spectacular view of the mountain pastures known as the big Pamir well this is what we've climbed to see this giant u-shaped valley a flat expanse of rich grazing land and every bit of it will be used by the WA hand shepherds there may be plenty of space for animals but it looks more like a moonscape than lush pasture we drop down into the big premiere ahead of us at last yzma London one of the walkies summer camps I want to find out what it's like to herd in a world that is very different from mine and this is a far cry from the Welsh Hills the walk on have an association and we have one of the members travelling with us and he's gone ahead on a horse to let the village know that we're arriving and hopefully to give us permission to enter the village as you can see there are definitely sheep here so that's a good thing however what's not so good is what's coming along the valley behind us which looks like the beginnings of a snow storm so I think we have to hope that they will let us stay at least for one night we've been given the okay to stay in the camp [Music] bahattar so this is your son yeah this is your husband I love their decoration yeah some old sweet wrappers add a splash of color to the eart Joy local tea is prepared salty t may not sound very appetizing behind desperate for a cuppa hot for good okay flatbread baked in the fire is handed out visitors however unexpected are always made to feel welcome [Music] the sheep and the axe are just coming in for the night and they go into the enclosures yeah why do you bring them in at night and get children into them John Turner with many do we attend a soft subject [Music] there's a price to pay for bringing animals up to this mountain wilderness predators [Music] the temperature plummets to minus 15 degrees centigrade it's too cold for the Shepherd's to stay up and guard their animals but the flock is not without protection dogs have taken care of the night shift these are not pets they spend their lives outside and their ears are clipped short so predators cannot latch on to them in a fight as well as wolves the shepherds and their dogs need to protect the flock from snow leopards and bears what is the most dangerous animal for you when you are living up here in the Permian is mr. stoner Garza's or leadership Rock surrogate shopped assertedly IO not further burning him some spirited some chatty T our horizon [Music] last year wolves killed eight animals here in Milan done the walkies herds are key to their survival and this kind of loss can seriously affect a family's chance of making it through the winter [Music] [Music] every day just after sunrise the herd is driven out onto the hills [Music] so I'm going out today with one of the men of the village Pancham BAE his name means thirsty only a few of these animals actually belonged to Pancham Bay the men take it in turns to go out shepherding so today he's in charge of the whole flock all 200 of them we climb up the valley far from the camp but I can't see any improvement in the pasture the grass is still low brown and scrubby green Welsh pasture like my sheep he used to and yet these animals right there in the peak of condition they're fat they look healthy and something that I'm incredibly envious of one of them is limping it's been really wet back at home my sheep have been plagued by foot rot but none of these animals are showing any sign of it sheep were first domesticated in the hills of Turkey Iran and Iraq around 12,000 years ago and they do seem to thrive in this kind of dry mountainous terrain Carney loss at the back but summer is nearly over there's a long lean winter ahead these sheep have adapted to a life of feast and famine by storing reserves in their fatty hind quarters still can't quite get over this something vaguely obscene about those bottoms after a morning grazing on the slopes the animals are brought back to the camp to be milked [Applause] [Music] one of the women Nisa is struggling to get used to our strange ways animals are kept apart from their mothers during the day to stop them drinking all the milk but they're briefly reunited now feeding but they also take some of those out it's a very efficient system lambs are kept happy and healthy and the women get as much milk as possible something really nothing about being with people who handle animals confidence and I mean it really is second nature [Music] [Music] [Music] the animals are driven back out onto the slopes they'll spend the rest of the day grazing before they're brought home for the night the next job is bread baking first we need fuel for the fire there are no trees up this high but there's a never-ending supply of yak dung you're feeling better leave Seguin Vimala the herd has come back to this camp every year so there are stone huts here as well as yurts it's quite smoky in here isn't it their dung it makes a lot of smoke there wasn't that the loopy you know a black Ford got optionally so it is flour water okay so you put their hot dung on top of the lid and that cooks their bread bread with tea is the wahi staple it's the only thing many people eat for breakfast lunch and dinner day after day week after week [Music] traders from the west of the province arrived in camp it's taken them 25 days to cross the mountains and why did you come here call me Karen bye you see because of e so are there many traders that like you that come to this area to buy animals what is your daughter's cache calm all day there are new anime hair anew and do you come here because the Waukee people have very good animals I'm not a cowboy on assessment across here these men may get a good deal up here but this is the only way that what he have of earning any money Nisa has a few yaks and she sold one to the trader so are you happy today because you sold a yak whose family Zulu goofed I'm unhappy you are unhappy Hey why Zulu me Jan stony so she she this was a good yak for her she didn't want to sell why is it gonna be this but a giant I suppose it's me now she's a as well as providing everyday necessities like milk and wool the family's animals can be cashed in when times are hard as long as they have their herd they have the means to survive [Music] the Shepards are highly mobile migrating as the cold weather starts to set in the wahi call these journeys the couch and I've come here at the end of summer hoping to take part in one Milan done is lowdown and sheltered and no one has any plans to move yet but we've heard there is another camp where the people are getting ready to make a couch so we pack our bags and say our goodbyes [Music] our destination is four-and-a-half thousand metres above sea level and is the most remote settlement in the big Pamir we're getting our first glimpse of the village now and it is noticeably higher not just because my legs ache but because the air has a real biting chill to it the sun's may be bright but the wind is coming straight off those snowy peaks [Music] the village is called assam cottage about 50 people live here so it's almost twice the size of Milan done and we're in luck they're getting ready to move to make a couch but there's a problem yesterday we sent someone ahead to ask if we could film here and we were given the okay but now some of the men seem less keen [Music] we spend the rest of the day talking things through waiting for a final decision in a way I totally understand the men's reluctance how would we react if strangers turned up at our homes and asked to film us but we were given such a warm welcome back in Milan Don it seems strange that things could be so different up here it may be that this is just a very remote community even their village in the valley is very remote they won't have seen a lot of foreigners and so we think that it quite understandably when we all turn up they just think what are you doing here and what we hope is that maybe tomorrow they might feel more comfortable about us filming [Music] next morning things are still a bit tense the men tell us we can film in the camp but the women are off-limits but not everyone is happy with this decision a woman called buck beguine says she wants to show me how to make food for the winter no one it seems tells this lady what she can or cannot do I'm immediately put to work so in here coach can we have and we turn it to put Jamison making the butter now okay and we have this ingenious system of sort of paddle and it's leather strap and returning it she's incredibly strong and very feisty this woman doctor you want me to do it now just by myself Oh question what's gonna work okay hold on let me see like that very hard it seems that the summer is the time when all the dairy produce that they make it's all made up here in the mountains and then stored and taken down to the village for the winter after many hours of churning the fat of the milk separates out so this is the butter comes from here the remaining butter milk is boiled again for a few hours and allowed to cool the water is then squeezed out leaving a moist yogurt like paste called crook'd very good good so it is a complete dairy yogurt butter nothing is wasted stale bread goes into the leftover residue and is given to the dogs everyone's been busy packing up getting ready for the coach the chief has come up from the main village in the valley to oversee things crucially for us he seems very relaxed that we're here and he gives us his full support [Music] [Applause] [Music] we're given the okay just as the herd is driven back for milking and as if by magic the women appear [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] what's so incredible is that you have kids as young as this all helping all the new bring the sheep and the goats and you can see that they literally learn their craft the moment they walk but the young workers do get the odd break little girls have no dolls to dress so they make do with goats instead [Music] so our breakthrough came I'm so delighted but we're able to film here and the day after tomorrow the whole village is going to move and we'll get a sense of the true scale of the cut when everybody and all their livestock moved down into the valley [Music] the couch will move the camp to a lower more sheltered spot but there's still lots of work to do before we leave the women take to the roof for the next stage of winter food production the crook paste made from boiled buttermilk has been drained and now needs to dry now from milking to churning to drying making croute is what this time of year is all about so this is an important product that you make while you're here in the summer what if you're on a cotton look you imported the fruit is dried and bagged up it should last for six months just long enough to see everyone through the winter [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] the migration is going to be in two waves an advance party will leave today everyone else including buck begin and myself will follow on tomorrow there's a lot of work to be done the pressure is on their livestock provide the wahi with almost everything they need wool is compressed into felt panels yak hair is twisted into ropes and the animals themselves are removal vans [Music] the advance party sets off down the Pamir heading for warmer pastures [Music] last-minute things that have been forgotten you've left your coat [Music] I could have been standing here 500 years ago and witnessed exactly that so team [Music] [Applause] next morning winter is beginning to bite the snow makes it hard for the animals to graze so the herd is immediately driven down the volume there's lots to be done and I try to make myself useful [Music] the women and children are wearing their finest clothes giving the occasion a festival air [Music] are you pleased to be moving and they say cheesy sauce was like set of Fukushima there are collisions across the eMeter my fire debuff jayabharathi I was got a new start haha Garnica only Taro's bestirred missionary certainly making amazing to me like guys Rock yeah this is healthy things are more than making cushioned - oh gosh really oh not feeling so good today finally the most important cargo of all a summers worth of croute and butter this is a precious load that represents hours and hours and hours of really physical labor [Music] Oh Oh sitting on a sofa with legs the yurts are down the axe are loaded and our couch begins [Music] [Music] there's such a smooth ride they seem to have built-in shock absorbers so even over this very rough terrain you feel like you're almost floating over it so we get off here yeah okay thank you yak so we stay here okay our so I think what's happening in the good tradition of any house move is that there will be tea we've passed close to another herding camp the women come out bearing tea and bread only a few hundred what he Shepherds live up here spread out across a huge area moments like these forged bonds between disparate communities [Music] this feels like such an ancient tradition that has been held on to not for any romantic reasons simply reasons that are practical this is how these people live [Music] it's mid-afternoon by the time we get to vac boy a temporary herding camp at the foot of a huge scree slope more pasture there's more grass down here it's definitely warmer and so now it's the big task of settling in re putting up the yurts and making it's much harder putting a yurt up than taking it down they are giant 3d jigsaw puzzles get the wrong hole in the wrong place and you have to start again from scratch ivb south leave this house are you okay I helped begin move into the hut that will be her home for the next few weeks the herd is driven into camp nothing gets in the way of milking a few hours later all the Earth's are up and the smell of burning yak dung fills the air so what are you cooking again too shiny putted it on back this meal is only made on important occasions religious festivals funerals and at the end of a cut what's have you put in here special hi yeah hello little bit sauce little bit so yes very good very good Stewie Anya [Music] life quickly returns to its normal routine [Applause] [Music] [Applause] mahmud are you is repairing felt panels that were damaged on the couch this way of life feels timeless but how long will it last do you think that your son's children will want to come to the Pamir to be shepherds in Osaka garnished Boone Boone ignorant spotting Torah Gnostic spotting como agnostic madonna remote honesty she's not is there one thing that you think would make life easier for the one hand the shack Titian sported rottenness for the next shot Gnostic psychiatry who we didn't really piss on the tumeric not foreigners in Italy I am fahren say Chandi climb a neon betina's pin Johanna for 4 million in a higher mall hi I'm Josh Buettner suck out the cheese envision that persuasion zaqqum just Mardan Marhaba the Wakhan corridor is the poorest district in the poorest province in one of the poorest countries in the world it's hard to see how things can change how life here could be made easier it feels like the future for the Waki for the next few decades at least will be much the same as their past the constant struggle to survive does take its toll is this a very hard life imagining [Music] as many as one in five while he children die before they reach their first birthday [Music] half of wahi children under two are malnourished because of the harsh conditions average life expectancy for the wahi is only 35 years of age [Music] [Music] buf begins life story is heart-rending so I am touched when she says she now thinks of me as her honorary daughter pyridine omelet so do genomics raktajino me ma did a study Killarney my mom or dad they made him yeah a display I feel Bock begin has no children up here to look after her and she has few animals of her own but she's been lent some sheep and goats by wealthier herders she can milk them and breed from them before eventually returning the animals to their rightful owners so she always has something to eat and something to do [Music] in the absence of any outside help the walkie have created a simple but effective welfare system so kianak mooks talents of your Marshburn each other and said he won't our genome whatever God knows for tomorrow's button duster columnist Watson achieve nothing I said no cookie of a Fiat so what the judge does just about with Donna Braun a young madam spoon egham surrey it's my last day in the Pamir we've brought a sheep and a throwing of farewell feast the chief blesses the knife and the sheep's throat is cut [Music] so the fleece has come off in one very neat piece I'm envious of their butchery skills when we kill a lamb in the UK we throw as much as a fifth of it away here everything goes in the pot brains lungs heart every last drop of blood is savored animals are only slaughtered on special occasions like marriages they're too valuable to eat otherwise known as the otter for that I'm sorry I wish I was too joy joy prove you're miss holy holy Wisconsin which is you know in a moment people here are lucky if they eat meat once a month at home we take it for granted often eating meat once or twice a day [Music] it's time to leave the big premiere it's been a real privilege to have experienced for a short while how the wacky Shepherds live I do that that you're cool mahalia was highlighting must be gamer theories every day [Music] but what he maybe some of the most traditional herders in the world but there are lessons we can learn from them as more and more sheep are raised worldwide using new technology and modern methods I hope we don't forget all of the old ways about how to value our animals and use them efficiently and respectfully there's something very hot I think that in a country that is wracked by war and religious strife and poverty in a world that is upside down and sometimes kind of too miserable to contemplate there are these people in these mountains surviving actually with dignity and with honor with no guns with no strife with no battles just the battles with the elements and the battles of keeping their animals alive there is nothing romantic about this way of life but it is inspiring to discover that the ancient connection between Shepherd and flock still exists allowing both to survive in such a harsh unforgiving land thank you for letting us stay in your village such as of Estonia Khrushchev in whatever thank you it's wider than I thought [Music] my journey to remote hurting communities doesn't end here next time I travel to the high Andes where I get to grips with alpacas Peru is at a crossroads between old and new ways of herding can ancient tradition compete against science and technology what I'm going for is really what I go for when I pick a race horse in a race which is a pretty face or a nice bum [Music]

Channel: BBC Documentary

Views: 3,537,392

Rating: 4.934691 out of 5

Keywords: bbc documentary, documentary bbc, bbc, wild shepherdess, wild shepherdess kate humble, kate humble, kate humble documentary, kate humble afghanistan, shepherd documentary, shepherdess documentary, bbc wildlife documentary, sheep, sheep documentary, farming, farming documentary, farming lifestyle, food, food documentary, bbc documentary full, rural farming

Id: UP8pA0v6QFE

Length: 51min 55sec (3115 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 13 2020

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Sheep in Afghanistan