The Shadow Girls’ Academy (SGA) has launched the second edition of “Wakhi Express”, a bi-lingual magazine edited by Karim Khan Saka.

The second edition of SGA’s Wakhi Express has been dedicated to the “unique culture of Wakhi (Tajik) people living in China”.

A profile of Mastar Sultan Ali (aka Ustad Samarqand) is part of the second edition, throwing light on the educational, social and religious services of a legendary teacher and activist. Profiles of mountaineer Rajab Shah and Master Daulat Amin, two important personalities of Gojal valley, are also included in the magazine. More profiles of similar icons will be included in the magazine’s future editions.

Most interestingly, more than half of the magazine’s content is in Wakhi language, written in Roman script.

A travelogue written by the chief editor, with eye-catching photographs and interesting details of some time spent in China, is probably the most absorbing piece in the magazine.

Wakhi songs penned by Karim Khan (editor), Nazir Ahmed Bulblul and Saifuddin Saif are also included in the magazine.

Overall, the magazine is a good initiative for promotion and preservation of Wakhi language and culture.

The readers will, however, face considerable difficulty in reading the Wakhi script, largely due to non-familiarity with many of the symbols used.

Team of the Wakhi Express, while deserving appreciating for taking the step, may consider to make the magazine completely bilingual by providing Wakhi and English translations of all the content.—

For details about availability of the magazine you may like to reach wakhi.express@gmail.com

Wakhi is basically the language of inhabitants of Wakhan Corridor, an
area presently divided between the extreme northeast of Afghanistan and
Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Province of Tajikistan. It belongs to the
southern group of the Pamiri languages which are spoken in the mountainous
regions of Afghanistan and Tajikistan
Complete at source: http://pu.edu.pk/images/journal/pols/Currentissue-pdf/THE%20WAKHI%20COMMUNITY%20PAKISTAN.pdf

the first ever great and unique Wakhi online dictionary with prounciation, a gift for Wakhi community and Wakhi learners from all over the World. this great work are don by two Professors from Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, Japan.

Click on Index for Wakhi Vocabularies, Wakhi – English

INDEX  >  Speaker (sound).>Ɣ̌ef- fireplace

URL: http://www.coelang.tufs.ac.jp/multilingual_corpus/wakhi/

Wakhi Language: Volume 1 (Xikwor Zik Book-1) by Mr. Haqiqat Ali (Late) 1985

Pdf file: WAKHI LANGUAGE by Haqiqat Ali 1985

Booklet scanned and shared with Wakhi community and worldwide:

August 30, 2011

Gыlmit, Tehsil Headquarter of Gojal (After Attabad Disaster -2011)

Hussaini Gojal

Passu Map can find here with pdf file.

http://wakhi.wordpress.com/2008/11/19/passu-image-map-in-wakhi-script/

A Video Blog………………………………Gulbtur-Live

URL: http://gulbtur.wordpress.com/

Wakhan lady

1) First of all you need to pick up an Afghanistan visa. This is easy enough to do in Dushanbe and usually takes about 3 days. For a UK national it cost myself $60 for the visa and other than which type I wanted there were no questions asked. Be aware that the embassy has moved – it is not where The Central Asia LP guide says it is. You need a Letter of Invitation (LOI) for Afghanistan but we found that the Afghan embassy in Dushanbe already had a set letter that they provided and that required a short trip to a local shop to photocopy and submit with the form. This avoided the hassle/cost of obtaining an LOI.  I also saw them filling out vehicle permits at the Embassy so if you have your own vehicle it might be worth a try.

*Mountain Unity can provide an LOI if you need one (for a fee).

2) For arranging travel to the Wakhan Corridor you do need to get in contact with Mountain Unity. The person running this is David James – a UK national who is living in Ishkashim on the Afghan side with his family. Email him through the website and they will be able to arrange a Wakhan Permit for you. It is not an easy process for them to go through and there is not much point in them doing it if you only have a day or so for the Corridor. The Permit is currently $50.

By emailing Mountain Unity and telling them how many days you have they can provide you with an itinerary and the costs. Their partner Wakhan Tourism helps organize the trip for you by getting the permits, etc, but it is done through David at Mountain Unity.

Unfortunately, the driver and vehicle hire – which is a necessity for getting into the corridor is expensive.  Aga Khan Foundation are promoting tourism there (in partnership with Mountain Unity and Wakhan Tourism) and they can provide the driver/cars to get into the Corridor.   The rates at the moment appear to be considerably more than they would be Tajikistan.  Which is unfortunate.  Obviously the more people in the car the cheaper it is and you don’t need a car for many days – only 2 or 3. The price quoted August 2009 was $180 per day but this may change. Mountain Unity will provide a break down of all costs, but this is the big one. Further to that there is the cost for guides and homestays ($25pp/night), etc – which if going for 3 weeks will obviously add up. All of which can be arranged via the emails with David.

Sustainable / Eco Tourism – Mountain Unity is doing a very good job of trying to increase tourism with the aim of supporting local people. They have set up a basic network of guesthouses around Iskhashim that are reasonably priced and comfortable. However it appears there is some outside competition starting to come in that is likely to lead to the tourism money leaving the area. For that reason alone I would strongly recommend only staying at a Mountain Unity organized guesthouse.

Ayanbegs Guest house (Mountain Unity)

Border stuff
Mountain Unity can send a car to pick you up from the border (around $20-25).

The Tajik border opens at 0800-12.00 and then opens again at 14.00.
The Afghan border is closed on Sunday.

Opening times 09:00 – 11:30, 14:00 – 16:00.

It would be wise to get a taxi/cycle from Ishkashim (Tajikistan) although it isn’t far – about 3km out of town, simply because the border point is situated in desert – it is excruciatingly hot if waiting there for the border to open, and will not be a pleasant walk from Ishkashim!

There is the open border market on every other Saturday where the two sides mix at an island in the river.

Taj Afghan Market at Ishkashim

To get to Iskhashim just follow the advice on the Taxi page on this website.

MORE INFORMATION:
The best two websites to reference for sorting yourself out for the Wakhan and probably all you need  (other than this one of course):

*Mountain Unity website
*Jildu website

Random: If you like reading and you are interested in the Wakhan Corridor, I recommend buying the 3 Cups of Tea book. If you go to the Wakhan you can easily see some of Greg Mortenson’s schools and it is nice knowing the background. (link below)

Also, Mountain Unity will we setting up a nursery in the Wakhan this year and are currently fundraising for good quality toys – that are going to be brought over from the UK. Please throw your support behind this chance for the Wakhan to have a nursery, and one with with decent toys. The Amazon wishlist is here and with free P&P selected it is very easy. Thanks.

Source: http://tajiktourism.com/wakhan-corridor-afghanistan/

This blog has been established with purpose of facilitating learning the Wakhi language. We hope that via this blog we will learn together how to read and write Wakhi. Lessons on how to read and write will be forwarded on daily basis. We hope that you will read them and provide us with feedback for the improvement of the blog. Your participation will be appreciated.

http://learnwakhi.blogspot.com

http://learnwakhi.blogspot.com/