macedon - THE VISIT TO THE MACEDONIANS IN HUNZA IS ANOTHER PROOF ABOUT OUR IDENTITY!

THE VISIT TO THE MACEDONIANS IN HUNZA IS ANOTHER PROOF ABOUT OUR IDENTITY!

Tuesday, 31. July 2007, 01:40:19

Marina Dojcinovska, bachelor in pedagogue, for
over 12 years a journalist. She is in journalism since
the forming of A1 TV, was the editor of editorial contact
offi ce of Sitel TV, an editor of the editorial contact
offi ce in the MTV, and up until 3 years ago a private
producer or, as she her self puts it, a free lancer in a
Ma cedonian way.
In the sign of “Porti”- the Macedonian public celebrated
the40 issues of “Makedonium”- a show for
the coming back of the Macedonian identity!
The last exclusive project of “Porti” is the fi lm about
the Huns and Kalashite - Macedonian from the Hi malayas.
Dojcinovska has lots to tell to her 4.5 year old
son Damjan.

ARE THERE REALLY ANY MACEDONIANS OUT THERE?

You recently got back from a very interesting trip, whose
mission was, as for a long time, exactly 11 years, is the
mission of “Makedonsko Sonce” too, “The true story about
Macedonia”.
DOJCINOVSKA: Mission?! Perhaps it was! I know that it was
the answer to the big and crucial Macedonian question: are there
really Macedonians out there!

For the intellectual Macedonian public, the Hunz and Kalashi at
least for 10 years, since I’ve fi rst heard of them, represented “only
a heard story”, with a mystic sound and a hypothetical vision.
Anyone who has read just a little of Macedonian history (by
this I mean to Quintus Curtis Rufus, Plutarch, Arian), should have
an idea that in the whole “neo-romantic Macedonian story” there
is a certain logic - that Alexander the Great reached the foothills of
the Himalayas, with the Macedonian Phalange, following the silk
road, towards east, towards the sun and the end of the world.
Some of them remained there, and we found them, and they are
still there. All of these centuries, from 326-327 BC till today,
because of the hard mountainous terrain, protected from diff erent
missionaries, curious travelers, occasional passengers and inva-
ders, cut off even from the Patens, and the Chinese and the rest of
the world-they lived high in the Himalayas alone and untouched.
The Hunz and Kalashi say that you can only arrive there if you go
to look for them. And we went to look for them-to our brothers of
the Hi malayas, the guardians of the remote destinations from the
most famous of the Macedonians times. Both of them say that
they are descendants of Alexander the Great.

Alexander the Great did his mission of merging East and
West with a vision. How did your crew follow his journey
there, and how did you come all the way to Pakistan, to the
Hunz and Kalashite which are direct descendants of the
Macedonian Phalange?

DOJCINOVSKA: It wasn’t simple. Actually, I think it would have
been impossible without John Baba. From all of the people that I
have spoken to on the subject of the Hunz and Kalashi only Mr.
Vladimir Ralev has been to the Kalashi. As a good guide for that
region of the world, he took upon himself the entire organization
and realization of this project. Ralev achieved to turn a vision in to
a concrete story with video record, and all of the practical problems
along the way were dealt with an incredible elegance, even
when it comes to Pakistan. He is an impressive person, a great
Macedonian and I think that with this journey he wanted to an-
swer the call of the archeologist within (among others he is a
bachelor of archeology and art history), when it comes to
Macedonia. The Hunz and Kalsahi live on territories which today
are a part of Pakistan. So in order to come to them, you have to
travel trough Pakistan, once called the tribal country of Pakistan,
and today is called the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. From Karachi,
Islamabad, Gilgit - as you move northwards, towards the Hi ma layas,
you pass the Sunnites, Shiites, the Patens - spread out on their
charpoy (short oriental beds, fi res burning a long side the road,
you can smell kebabs and chicken tika). A wild country- narguile
and living exotic.

On my Pakistani visa Not valid for restricted and prohibited
areas was stamped - because in some parts of the country the
government doesn’t guarantee protection! Trough such part and
roads you can get to the Hunz, after 19 hours of driving by jeep
from Islamabad.

THE SAME DNA IS ANOTHER PROOF ABOUT OUR IDENTITY

Following the Macedonian DNA, which as a fact was proven
before the making of the fi lm about Alexander, was
the feeling that the Hunz were our closest relatives proven
in reality?

DOJCINOVSKA: The deepest towards the roots, the highest to
the Gods, and again among your own!!! Preparing for this journey,
I could only fi nd little in written materials. When we got there,
after all of those hours spent driving, I can understand why! Karakorum
road, the road that gets you in the valley of the Hunz was
built in the 80’s, and it is a piece of marvel in the history of roads,
cut by rocks with 300 meters deep cliff s that end in the river Indy.
When even after that relatively new road, the average speed is
25kph, today in the 21 century, it becomes clear to you that in all
of the centuries past, a trip to the Hunz was virtually impossible -
that’s why every record about them is rare.

Until 1974, before they became an administrative part of Pakistan,
the Hunz lived in their own state - the state of the Hunz -
with their own king. They kept the king till this day and they call
him Peace. He was away during our stay, but his wife made a
reception for us, Her Highness the queen of the Hunz. There are
over 50.000 Hunz today. The capital is Karimabad, Baltid till 1974.
On the fi rst mention of Macedonia, the people clearly excited say:
“So, we are cousins!!! Because we are also Macedonians who were
left here since the time of Alexander!”… and the Macedonians
stories begin: how they stayed, why they stayed, there are several
versions about why they stayed, but mostly they believe the one
in which they remain there throughout the centuries so that it is
known what is the farthest place of where the Phalange came and
where the Macedonian foot stepped.

COMMON WORDS TO THE MACEDONIANS IN HIMALAYAS

In one of our interviews, the famous linguist D-r. Ilija Chashule
pointed out the link between the Burshu and the ancient
Macedonian language, proven trough long years of
scientifi c research. Did you also establish that link?

In one of our interviews, the famous linguist D-r. Ilija Chashule
pointed out the link between the Burshu and the ancient
Macedonian language, proven trough long years of
scientifi c research. Did you also establish that link?

DOJCINOVSKA: Yes, before I left, I read his research and I can
say that I’m personally convinced of that, and I’m even in a position
to enrich the list of common words. The same embroilments,
ezgias with zurlas and drums, the same openheartedness, wood
carving, the same Macedonian symbols for recognition and most
importantly, the Burshu language (they are the only ones that still
speak Burshu on the entire planet).

They said hallo to Ilija Chashule, a linguist who is probably the
fi rst Macedonian who has researched the relations between the
Burshu and the ancient Macedonian language.
That mutual fi ling of common belonging to the great idea of
Macedonia resulted in unforgettable emotional moments. As if
you have found somebody who you have lost along time ago -
somewhere at the end of the world!

A man told me a sentence which gave me Goosebumps:
“Imagine - he said - the greatness of Alexander when he
managed to link us after all these centuries and thousands
of kilometers apart, here on the roof of the world!”

You also visited the Kalash. Who are they actually?

DOJCINOVSKA: from the Hunz (northeastern Pakistan) to the
Kalash (northwestern Pakistan, on the border with Afghanistan),
you should cross a lot of mountains; one of the highest is 3740m.
There is a road but, it’s not paved, on certain places it became a
river because of the overfl owing waters from the Hindukush, and
then the journey becomes a “camel trophy” over the Himalayas.
After all those bad roads, overfl owing waters, strange colors and

lunar landscapes - suddenly it all feels so familiar.
Like moments of a previous life, like a Macedonian deja vu. At
the bridge, like Boshkov Bridge, on a river like Gorska River, on a
road like the one trough Jama, you arrive at Bamburet, on of the
three villages of the Kalash. You are welcomed by beautiful faces,
with similar physiognomy as ours, so diff erent from everybody
that surrounds them, smiling and openhearted people. You can
see how absolute happiness looks like on a person’s face. People
who in there own lives did nothing grandiose especially not
having a lot of money, but people who do not experienced
depression, neither as a term or as a defi nition! They claim about
themselves that they are the famous descendants of Alexander,
and according to some Pakistani researchers, there is a theory
that Roxana, Alexander’s bride was from these parts. The real
surprise to our crew was that in Bamburet, for over 9 years Greek
missionaries, to the Kalash and to the tourists, tell their version of
Alexander the Great and the connection with the Kalash. There in
the middle of the village, in Bamburet, at the end of August 2005
the opening of the Greek cultural center was scheduled to be
opened. We didn’t attend the ceremony! A boy from the Kalash
who was guiding tourist trough Bamburet, at the end of our stay,
said to me: “I, who think that I’m the smartest person in the
village, am ashamed of myself.
Well I’m hearing from the first time
that Macedonia is not the same as Greece!”

EVERYWHERE FAMOUS EXCEPT AT HOME

Everywhere he stepped, Alexander left a permanent mark.
He is celebrated everywhere, except at home, here in his
Macedonia!

DOJCINOVSKA: He merged the East and the West, created
new relations based on equality, spread the Macedonian culture,
but also respected other cultures. In Pakistan he built 17 cities - 17
Alexandrias, and Karachi is one of them. We in Skopje don’t have
a monument of Alexander. Over there are lots and they are
opened by (the ribbon is cut by) the Greek ambassador. I’m not
angry at him! That is the way it will be in the future as well. There
is no national strategy based on the Macedonian identity in this
country!!!

Such things happen by accident or by enthusiasm to us. What
little is done on that fi eld is a result of the personal energy of individuals.
Thank God for them! One of those people is the founder
of your weekly newspaper,
Mr. Go rgija - George Atanasoski,
who will so on give to the Macedonian people and
to the territory from which the greatest
general comes from the first monument
to Alexander the Great.

The Pakistanis became very dear to me because of their attitude
towards Alexander. They respect and honor him even
today although he was a conqueror to them.

“The roads of Alexander” are becoming more and more attractive
destinations to the tourists in Pakistan. We brought back a 12
part series about the conquest of Pakistan by Alexander, produced
by Pakistani TV. I’m glad that our viewers will be able to see
them as well.
(None of our TV stations have so far off ered a similar
TV project. And Alexander was a Macedonian - he started from
here and reached them).

For the end I’ll bring us back to your mission: Did you fi nd
the last link to our identity, with which every Macedonian
should be faced?

DOJCINOVSKA: One huge step forward in the so called awakening
or the last truth in my mosaic called Macedonia! I know
who I’m and what I’m, and nobody, anywhere, never called me
Macedonian. I don’t think in a diminutive especially not when I
think about Macedonia, because I was at the end of the world
which used to be Macedonia!

Every country that respects it self, after this kind of a discovery
should immediately take concrete and serious initiatives. An
expedition of historians, ethnologists, linguists, maybe a politician
or two - from one of those that negotiated about the double or
triple formulas about the name Macedonia should be send to the
Hunz and Kalash. They’re there and waiting for us, all of this
centuries!

As for this project “Mission impossible - done!”, the production
“Porti” is already working on the movie and I’m eager to share it
with the Macedonian public!

VIDEO