The phenomenon of long-livers of the Hunza tribe - myth or reality?

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

Let's first define what information about this tribe exists in large quantities on the Internet, and then we will try to find out whether it is a myth or not. So …

For the first timethe talented English military doctor Mac Carrison told the Europeans about them, at the beginning of the 20th century 14 yearshealed the sick in this godforsaken area.

All the tribes that live there do not shine with health, but for all the years of work McCarrison did not meet a single sick hunzakuta. Even toothache and visual disturbances are unknown to them.… In 1963, a French medical expedition visited the hunzakuts, with the permission of the leader of this tribe, the French conducted a population census, which showed that the average life expectancy of the hunzakuts is 120 years. They live more than 160 years, women, even in old age, retain the ability to bear children, do not visit doctors, and there are simply no doctors there..

All European observers noted that the only difference between the hunzakuts and their neighbors is the diet, the basis of which is wheat cakes made from whole flour and fruits, mainly apricots.… All winter and spring, they add nothing to this, since there is nothing to add. A few handfuls of wheat grains and apricots - that's all the daily food.

This means that there is a certain way of life approaching the ideal, when people feel healthy, happy, do not age, as in other countries, by the age of 40-50. It is curious that the inhabitants of the Hunza Valley, in contrast to the neighboring peoples, are outwardly very similar to Europeans (like the Kalash who live very close by).

According to legend, the dwarf mountain state located here was founded by a group of soldiers of the army of Alexander the Great during his Indian campaign. Naturally, they established strict military discipline here - such that the inhabitants with swords and shields had to sleep, eat, and even dance …

At the same time, the hunzakuts with light irony refer to the fact that someone else in the world is called mountaineers. Well, in fact, is it not obvious that only those who live near the famous "mountain meeting place" - the point where the three highest systems of the world converge: the Himalayas, Hindu Kush and Karakorum - should bear this name with full justification. Of the 14 eight-thousanders of the Earth, five are nearby, including the second after Everest K2 (8,611 meters), the ascent of which in the climbing community is valued even more than the conquest of Chomolungma. And what about the no less famous local "killer peak" Nanga Parbat (8,126 meters), which buried a record number of climbers? And what about dozens of seven- and six-thousanders literally "crowding" around Hunza?

Passing through these rock massifs will not be possible if you are not a world-class athlete. You can only "leak" through narrow passes, gorges, paths. Since ancient times, these rare arteries were controlled by the principalities, which imposed a significant duty on all passing caravans. Hunza was considered one of the most influential among them.

In distant Russia, little is known about this "lost world", and for reasons not only geographic, but also political: Hunza, along with some other valleys of the Himalayas, ended up in the territory over which India and Pakistan have been waging a fierce dispute for almost 60 years (its main much more extensive Kashmir remains the subject.)

The USSR - out of harm's way - has always tried to distance itself from the conflict. For example, in most Soviet dictionaries and encyclopedias, the same K2 (another name - Chogori) is mentioned, but without specifying the area in which it is located. Local, quite traditional names were erased from Soviet maps, and, accordingly, from the Soviet news lexicon. But here's what is surprising: in Hunza, everyone knows about Russia.

Two captains

“Castle” many locals respectfully call the Baltite Fort, which hangs from the cliff over Karimabad. He is already about 700 years old, and at one time he served as a local independent ruler as a palace of peace and a fortress. Not devoid of imposingness from the outside, from the inside Baltit seems gloomy and raw. Semi-dark rooms and a poor environment - ordinary pots, spoons, a giant stove … In one of the rooms in the floor a hatch - under it the world (prince) of Hunza kept his personal captives. There are not many bright and large rooms, perhaps, only the "balcony hall" makes a pleasant impression - a majestic view of the valley opens from here. On one of the walls of this hall there is a collection of ancient musical instruments, on the other - weapons: sabers, swords. And a checker donated by the Russians.

In one of the rooms there are two portraits: the British captain Younghusband and the Russian captain Grombchevsky, who decided the fate of the principality. In 1888, at the junction of the Karakorum and the Himalayas, a Russian village almost appeared: when a Russian officer Bronislav Grombchevsky arrived with a mission to the then world of Khunza Safdar Ali. Then, on the border of Hindustan and Central Asia, the Great Game was going on, an active confrontation between the two superpowers of the 19th century - Russia and Great Britain. Not only a military man, but also a scientist, and later even an honorary member of the Imperial Geographical Society, this man was not going to conquer the land for his king. And then there were only six Cossacks with him. But nevertheless, it was a question of the earliest possible arrangement of a trading post and a political union. Russia, which by that time had influence throughout the Pamirs, now turned its gaze to Indian goods. This is how the captain entered the Game.

Safdar received him very warmly and willingly entered into the proposed agreement - he was afraid of the British who were pushing from the south.

And, as it turned out, not without reason. Grombchevsky's mission seriously alarmed Calcutta, where at that time the court of the Viceroy of British India was located. And although the special envoys and spies reassured the authorities: it is hardly worth fearing the appearance of Russian troops on the "crown of India" - too difficult passes lead to Hunzu from the north, besides, they are covered with snow for most of the year, it was decided to urgently send a detachment under the command of Francis Younghusband.

Both captains were colleagues - "geographers in uniform", they met more than once in the Pamir expeditions. Now they had to determine the future of the ownerless "Khunzakut bandits", as they were called in Calcutta.

Meanwhile, Russian goods and weapons were slowly appearing in Khunza, and even a ceremonial portrait of Alexander III appeared in the Baltit palace. The distant mountain government began diplomatic correspondence with St. Petersburg and offered to host a Cossack garrison. And in 1891, a message came from Khunza: the world of Safdar Ali was officially asking to be admitted to Russian citizenship together with all the people. This news soon reached Calcutta, as a result, on December 1, 1891, the mountain arrows of Yanghazbend captured the principality, Safdar Ali fled to Xinjiang. "The door to India is slammed for the king," the British occupier wrote to the Viceroy.

So, Hunza considered herself to be Russian territory for only four days. The ruler of the Khunzakuts wished to see himself as a Russian, but did not manage to receive an official answer. And the British entrenched and stayed here until 1947, when, during the collapse of the newly independent British India, the principality suddenly found itself on the territory controlled by Muslims.

Today, Hunza is governed by the Pakistani Ministry of Kashmir and Northern Territories, but the fond memories of the failed outcome of the Great Game remain.

Moreover, local residents ask Russian tourists why there are so few tourists from Russia. At the same time, the British, although they left almost 60 years ago, still flood their territories with hippies.

Apricot hippies

It is believed that Hunzu was rediscovered for the West by the hippies who roamed Asia in the 1970s in search of truth and exoticism. Moreover, they popularized this place so much that even an ordinary apricot is now called Hunza Apricot by the Americans. However, the "flower children" were attracted here not only by these two categories, but also by Indian hemp.

One of the main attractions of the Khunza is a glacier, which descends into the valley as a wide cold river. However, on numerous terraced fields, potatoes, vegetables and hemp are grown, which is sometimes smoked here, as it is added as a seasoning to meat dishes and soups.

As for the young long-haired guys with the Hippie way sign on their T-shirts - either real hippies or retro lovers - they are in Karimabad and mostly eat apricots. This is undoubtedly the main value of the Khunzakut gardens. All Pakistan knows that only here "khan's fruits" grow, which ooze aromatic sap on the trees.

Hunza is attractive not only for radical youth - lovers of mountain travel, fans of history, and simply lovers of getting away from their homeland come here. Of course, numerous climbers complete the picture …

Since the valley is located halfway from the Khunjerab Pass to the beginning of the Hindustan plains, the Khunzakuts are sure that they control the path to the "upper world" in general. In the mountains, as such. It is difficult to say whether this principality was once founded by the soldiers of Alexander the Great, or whether it was the Bactrians - the Aryan descendants of the once great Russian people, but there is certainly some kind of mystery in the emergence of this small and distinctive people in its environment. He speaks his own language Burushaski (Burushaski, whose relationship has not yet been established with any of the languages of the world, although everyone here knows Urdu, and many - English), professes, of course, like most Pakistanis, Islam, but a special sense, namely the Ismaili, one of the most mystical and mysterious in religion, which is professed by up to 95% of the population. Therefore, in Hunza you will not hear the usual calls to prayer coming from the speakers of the minarets. Everything is quiet, prayer is a private matter and everyone's time.

Health

Hunza swim in icy water even at 15 degrees below zero, play outdoor games up to a hundred years old, 40-year-old women look like girls, at 60 they retain their slimness and gracefulness, and at 65 they still give birth to children. In the summer they feed on raw fruits and vegetables, in the winter - on sun-dried apricots and sprouted grains, sheep cheese.

The Hunza River was a natural barrier for the two medieval principalities Hunza and Nagar. Since the 17th century, these principalities have been constantly at enmity, stole women and children from each other and sold them into slavery. Both those and others lived in fortified villages. Another thing is interesting: the residents have a period when the fruits have not yet ripened - it is called the "hungry spring" and lasts from two to four months. During these months, they eat almost nothing and only drink a drink from dried apricots once a day. Such a post has been elevated to a cult and is strictly observed.

Scottish physician McCarrison, the first to describe the Happy Valley, emphasized that protein intake there is at the lowest level of the norm, if it can be called the norm at all. The daily calorie content of hunza averages 1933 kcal and includes 50 g of protein, 36 g of fat and 365 carbohydrates.

The Scotsman lived in the vicinity of the Hunza Valley for 14 years. He came to the conclusion that it is diet that is the main factor in the longevity of this people. If a person eats incorrectly, then the mountain climate will not save him from diseases. Therefore, it is not surprising that the Hunza neighbors living in the same climatic conditions suffer from a variety of diseases. Their lifespan is two times shorter.

7. Mac Carrison, returning to England, set up interesting experiments on a large number of animals. Some of them ate the usual food of a London working-class family (white bread, herring, refined sugar, canned and boiled vegetables). As a result, a wide variety of "human diseases" began to appear in this group. Other animals were on the Hunza diet and remained absolutely healthy throughout the experiment.

In the book "Hunza - a people who do not know disease" R. Bircher emphasizes the following very significant advantages of the model of nutrition in this country: - first of all, it is vegetarian; - a large number of raw foods; - vegetables and fruits predominate in the daily diet; - natural products, without any chemicalization and prepared with the preservation of all biologically valuable substances; - alcohol and delicacies are consumed extremely rarely; - very moderate salt intake; products grown only on their own soil; - regular periods of fasting.

To this must be added other factors that favor healthy longevity. But the way of feeding is, undoubtedly, of a very essential and decisive importance here.

8. In 1963, a French medical expedition visited Hunze. As a result of the population census she conducted, it was found that the average life expectancy of the Hunzakuts is 120 years, which is twice that figure among Europeans. In August 1977, at the International Cancer Congress in Paris, a statement was made: "In accordance with the data of geocancerology (the science of studying cancer in different regions of the world), the complete absence of cancer occurs only among the Hunza people."

9. In April 1984, a Hong Kong newspaper reported the following surprising incident. One of the hunzakuts, whose name was Said Abdul Mobut, who arrived at London Heathrow Airport, perplexed the workers of the emigration service when he presented his passport. According to the document, hunzakut was born in 1823 and turned 160 years old. The mullah who accompanied Mobud noted that his ward is considered a saint in the country of Hunza, famous for its long-livers. Mobud has excellent health and sanity. He perfectly remembers events starting in 1850.

Local residents simply say about their secret of longevity: be a vegetarian, work always and physically, constantly move and do not change the rhythm of life, then you will live up to 120-150 years. Distinctive features of the Hunz as a people with "full health":

1) High working capacity in the broadest sense of the word. In the Hunza, this ability to work is manifested both during work and during dances and games. For them to walk 100-200 kilometers is the same as for us to take a short walk near the house. They climb steep mountains with extraordinary ease to convey some news, and return home fresh and cheerful.

2) Cheerfulness. Hunza constantly laugh, they are always in a good mood, even if they are hungry and suffer from the cold.

3) Exceptional durability. “The Hunzes have nerves as strong as ropes, and thin and delicate as a string,” wrote McCarison. “They never get angry or complain, they don’t get nervous or show impatience, they don’t quarrel among themselves and endure physical pain with complete peace of mind. troubles, noise, etc..

And now what he writes traveler SERGEY BOYKO

Fragments of text highlighted in bold at the beginning of the post are not true. They say that the original source of this text about Shangri-Le or one of the variations of such a text was "Week" (a newspaper supplement to "Izvestia"), in which at the end of 1964 an article appeared, reprinted from the French magazine "Constellation".

In various variations, these texts are circulating on the Web and continue to acquire fantastic details. Patience ran out when my photographs of Hunza appeared in one of these fables.

Valley of Hunza, as the emirs of the principality saw it

From the terrace of the royal palace - Baltit-fort

Already when reading the above myth, oddities are striking, such as the fact that if women among hunzakuts can give birth to children even at old age, and everyone knows what large families Muslims have, then it is not clear why there are still only 15 thousand hunzakuts. In general, if you look from the point of view of banal logic, then everything is already obvious, but if you add to this no less banal statistics, then … poor vegetarians.

This, of course, is not an attack on vegetarianism - I proceed from the fact that everyone is free to eat what he wants. These are attacks on falsification of facts. Psychologists have already written about the desire to believe in what confirms the correctness of your lifestyle. We all fall into this all too often, but this is not so bad. The other half is the tendency to soften the minds of the readers. In the exact sciences, it is difficult to engage in profanity, an expert will figure it out in no time. But the humanitarian sphere … As a rule, it is impossible to grasp a serious scientific problem at a snap, you have to think and strain. However, more and more texts are now not scientific or popular science, they do not even pull for reportage - easily digestible chewing gum, nothing more.

Well, there is a myth, give an exposure!

If we start from the text of the above fable about Hunza, it is obvious that the first half of it was taken from materials written before 1947, that is, before India and Pakistan gained independence. According to the text, the Hunzakuts live in very harsh conditions in the north of India, in the state of Jammu and Kashmir, on the banks of the Hunza River, 100 kilometers from the northernmost city of India, Gilgit.

Since 1947, Hunza is northern Pakistan, as is the city of Gilgit, which is - quite rightly - about 100 kilometers south of Hunza.

The two top red circles are Baltit - the capital of the former principality of Hunza and Gilgit - the capital of the former principality of the same name, later - the British Gilgit Agency

Signpost in the Gilgit area. Russian inscriptions - because the territory of the former USSR is not far from here

The talented English military doctor McCarrison, who treated patients in this godforsaken area for 14 years, firstly, was in the region for 7 years, not 14, his name was Robert McCarrison, not Mac Carrison, and, of course, he was far from the first European to write about Hunza and the people inhabiting it. One of the first was British Colonel John Biddulph, who lived in Gilgit from 1877 to 1881. This military and part-time researcher of a wide profile wrote a voluminous work "Tribes of Hindoo Kush", which, among other things, describes the hunzakuts.

As for Dr. Ralph Bircher, who devoted years to researching the life of the Hunzakuts, these studies should not be taken into account, since Bircher, not only was not in Hunza, his foot never set foot on the Indian subcontinent, all the "research" Bircher carried out, without leaving home. Nevertheless, for some reason he wrote a book called "Hunzakuta, a people who do not know disease" (Hunsa, das Volk, das keine Krankheit kannte).

(The same is the case with Jerome Rodale, who published The healthy Hunzas in the United States in the late 1940s. a boom in healthy eating. The publication contributed to the rooting of the myth about Hunza in the US. Rodale, by the way, in the preface honestly writes that he had never been to India and took all the data about Hunza from British military sources.)

The second of the earliest visitors to Hunza was the Russian military, orientalist, intelligence officer and traveler Bronislav Grombchevsky, a participant in the so-called Great Game - the confrontation between the Russian and British empires. Grombchevsky with a reconnaissance detachment of several Cossacks came from the north and tried to convince the emir (peace) of Hunza to cooperate with Russia.

The third was the "last adventurer" of the British Empire Francis Younghusband, who was sent to Hunz to counterbalance Grombchevsky, as described in detail here. Subsequently, in 1904, Younghusband led a detachment of British troops that invaded Tibet, as mentioned here.

However, back to McCarrison. He worked as a surgeon in Gilgit from 1904 to 1911 and, according to him, did not find digestive disorders, stomach ulcers, appendicitis, colitis or cancer in the Hunzakuts. However, McCarrison's research focused on nutrition-only diseases. Many other diseases remained outside of his field of vision. And not only for this reason.

This photo, taken by me in Hunza in 2010, has appeared in a number of fables. Tomatoes are dried on a wicker dish

First, McCarrison lived and worked in the administrative capital of the Gilgit Agency. This work is restricted to travel abroad, since there are plenty of patients in Gilgit, plus those who came from nearby villages.

The doctors who served here occasionally made detours of the territory under their jurisdiction and truly gigantic for one doctor, without staying anywhere for a long time. Occasionally - this is once a year and only in season - when the passes are free of snow. At that time, the road to Khunza did not exist, there were only caravan paths, the path was very difficult and took 2 - 3 days.

And what kind of patient, especially seriously ill patient, will be able to walk more than a hundred kilometers in the terrible heat in summer (experienced by himself) or in the very unpleasant cold in winter to a European, especially British (!) Doctor? Indeed, in 1891, the British conducted a successful military operation to seize the principality, annexed it to the British Empire, and it can be assumed that the hunzakuts did not have any special reasons to love the British.

One of the streets in Gilgit today. In spring, the temperature here can reach plus 40 degrees

If we add to this the little things like the fact that, for example, Muslim women with gynecological problems would never, under any circumstances, at that time (and even now, I suppose) go to a male doctor, and even an unfaithful one, then it is obvious that that the statistics collected by the talented physician McCarrison are far from the real state of affairs in the Hunza principality. This was later confirmed by other researchers, whose works the advocates of vegetarianism and a healthy lifestyle either deliberately keep silent about, or, most likely, simply do not know about them. I will return to these works a little later …

Those looking for the country of Shangri-La in Hunza suggest that, perhaps, the Hunzakuts have passed the disease due to the fact that they live in hard-to-reach regions and generally have almost no contact with foreigners. This is not true. These lands were inaccessible at first for Europeans. As for the last time, since the 1970s, there has been no talk of any isolation - the Karakorum Highway, the main trade route between Pakistan and China, runs right through the Hunza.

View of the oldest part of Hunza - Altit Fort and houses around it. On the other side of the Khunza River Karakorum highway

But isolation did not exist before. In the mountains of Karakorum and Hindu Kush, there are not many passes through which you can get from Central Asian countries to India and back. Branches of the Great Silk Road, along which caravans traveled, passed through such passes. One of these branches - from Xinjiang to Kashmir - was controlled by the Hunzakuts (from Altit-Fort the gorge is very clearly visible in both directions), they were engaged in regular robbery and collection of tribute from caravans and travelers.

“In the spring of 1889, the thirst for travel seized me again, but the authorities did not allow the trip,” writes at that time the captain of the British army Younghusband, “I had to die of boredom and blow dust off my uniform. And when my torment reached its limit, a telegram arrived from London from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs with an order to conduct reconnaissance of the northern borders of Kashmir in the area where the country of the Hunzakuts or Kanjuts, as the inhabitants of Xinjiang call them, is located. The Hunzakuts constantly raided neighboring countries. Not only the inhabitants of Baltistan were afraid of them, but also the Kashmir troops in Gilgit, that is, in the south, and the Kyrgyz nomads in the north were in fear in anticipation of an attack.

When I was in that area in 1888, I heard a rumor about another daring attack on a caravan of Kyrgyz, a large number of whom were either killed or captured by the Hunzakuts. The Kirghiz no longer tolerated it and turned to the Chinese emperor with a petition, but he remained deaf to requests. Then the nomads asked Britain for help, and in the end I was instructed to negotiate with the Emir of Hunza."

It was not possible to come to an agreement with the Emir Yanghusband. Emir Safdar Ali, who was sitting on the throne of Hunza at that time, was cruel and stupid. Younghusband later recalled that the emir considered the British queen and the Russian tsar to be almost equal to himself the emirs of the neighboring principalities. The ruler literally said the following: “My principality is only stones and ice, there is very little pasture and cultivated land. Raiding is the only source of income. If the Queen of Britain wants me to stop looting, let her subsidize me."

That is why the British launched a military campaign against Hunza - its ruler began to establish ties with Russia and China too strong, he counted too much on the help of these empires, and felt too unpunished, engaging in looting. For which he paid. The course of the military operation is beautifully described in the book "Where Three Empires Meet" by Edward Knight.

So the hunzakuts were not nearly as peaceful as the vegetarians would have liked. However, as regards the fact that there are no police or prisons in Khunza now, since in this society there are no violations of public order and crimes, everything is correct … not in all of Gilgit-Baltistan. Although there have been a few nasty exceptions lately, like this one.

Gilgit-Baltistan on the Aga Khan Foundation map (excluding Chitral). There was only one British doctor in this whole territory

The north of Pakistan is one of the quietest regions in the country - you can read this in any tourist avenue, and this is true due to the small population and the remoteness of the territories from major cities.

Among the entire volume of available literature about Hunza, it made sense to select those documents whose authors are not focused on esotericism or vegetarianism and which have lived in Hunza for a long time and were engaged in observations and research. The overwhelming majority of travelers got to Hunza for a short time and, as a rule, only during the season, that is, in summer.

As a result of the search, John Clark's book "Hunza. The Lost Kingdom of the Himalayas "(John Clark" Hunza - Lost Kingdom of the Himalayas "). Clark is an American scientist who went to the principality to search for minerals in 1950. This was his main goal, in addition, he planned to organize a woodworking school, introduce the Hunzakuts to the achievements of US agriculture and arrange an infirmary or a mini-hospital in the principality.

In total, Clark spent 20 months in Hunza. Particularly interesting is the statistics of the treatment of hunzakuts, which he, as befits a real scientist, scrupulously kept.

And this is what he writes: "During my stay in Khunza, I treated 5,684 patients (the population of the principality was at that time less than 20,000 people)." That is, more than a fifth, or even a fourth of the hunzakuts needed treatment. What were the diseases? “Fortunately, most had easily diagnosed diseases: malaria, dysentery, helminthic infestations, trachoma (a chronic eye infection caused by chlamydia), trichophytosis (ringworm), impetigo (skin rash caused by streptococci or staphylococci). In addition, Clark described one case of scurvy and diagnosed the Hunzakuts with severe dental and eye problems, especially the elderly.

Colonel David Lockart Robertson Lorimer, who represented the British government at the Gilgit Agency in 1920-1924 and who lived in Hunza from 1933 to 1934, also wrote about skin diseases in children caused by a lack of vitamins: “After winter, Hunzakut children look emaciated and suffer from various kinds of skin diseases, which disappear only when the earth gives the first harvests. "The colonel was, by the way, a wonderful linguist, his pen, among others, owns three books "Grammar", "History" and "Dictionary" of the Burushaski Language (The Burushaski Language. 3 vols.) language group.

Eyes problems, especially among the elderly hunzakuts, were caused by the fact that the houses were heated "in black", and the smoke from the hearth, although it was discharged through the hole in the roof, still ate the eyes.

A similar structure of roofs can be seen in the villages of Central Asia. "Through this hole in the ceiling, not only smoke escapes, but also heat," wrote Younghusband

Well, as for vegetarianism … Not only in Hunza, but also - again - throughout Gilgit-Baltistan, people live in poverty and eat meat only on major holidays, including religious ones. By the way, the latter are still often associated not with Islam, but with pre-Islamic beliefs, the echoes of which are very much alive in the north of Pakistan. The ritual in the photo below, if performed somewhere in Central Pakistan, where Orthodox Muslims live, would lead to murder for obscurantism.

The shaman drinks the blood of the sacrificial animal. Northern Pakistan. Gilgit area, 2011. Photo by Afsheen Ali

If there was an opportunity to eat meat more often, the hunzakuts would eat it. Once again, a word to Dr. Clark: “Having slaughtered one sheep for the holiday, a large family can afford to eat meat for a whole week. Since most travelers only find themselves in Hunza in the summer, there have been ridiculous rumors that the inhabitants of the country are vegetarians. They just can afford to eat meat for an average of two weeks a year. Therefore, they eat the killed animal whole - the brain, bone marrow, lungs, entrails - everything goes into food except for the trachea and genitals."

And one more thing: "since the diet of hunzakuts is poor in fats and vitamin D, they have bad teeth, a good half have a barrel-shaped chest (one of the signs of osteogenesis imperfecta), signs of rickets and problems with the musculoskeletal system."

Hunza is indeed a beautiful place. There is a rather mild microclimate, which is created by the surrounding mountains. Here, indeed, was one of the few points where three empires - Russian, British and Chinese - converged just recently. There is still a unique prehistoric rock art preserved here, here at arm's length there are six- and seven-thousanders, and yes, wonderful apricots grow in Hunza, as well as in Gilgit and Skardu. Having tried the apricot for the first time in Gilgit, I could not stop and ate it for about half a kilo - moreover, unwashed, not giving a damn about the consequences. For such delicious apricots have never been tasted before. This is all reality. Why make up fairy tales?