I’ll Never Get Out Of This World Alive

The designs of the Nuristani style of woodwork are socially symbolic, usually concerning the owners’ bravery or ability to feed others. The motifs would be carved onto door frames, chairs, and the pillars inside and outside their houses’ main room (āmā). Once again there were social restrictions determining who could have the motifs on their houses. The ‘Bari’ were certainly forbidden from employing their talent on their own humble abodes (these would be situated further down the valley and thus in the frontline of any outsiders’ attack.)

1. An interesting example of a particular motif is the ‘Yoshzhanla ba keere’, ‘Yoshzhanla’ being a person who kills demons. The number of spokes emanating from the central circle corresponds to the number of Nuristan’s enemies the owner has killed. The outer circle represents the Nuristan territory. The four, compass like points refer to a giant, who the Nuristani people pre-Islam believed had four ears. Therefore, someone who included this motif in the design of, for instance, their hearth pillar was deemed able to protect his people from giants and enemies.

2 and 3. In addition to praising their fellow citizens for killing human enemies, Nuristani people also bestowed honour upon those adept at hunting. The best hunters would have a figurative depiction of a male goat’s head carved onto their doors (sookheng). The symbolism was enhanced by the addition of lines and small circles on the goats’ horns. The lines corresponded to the number of ibex killed; the circles the number of tigers.

4. Symbols denoting prowess at hunting and killing were often combined with those of feast-giving, a very important social duty of wealthier Nuristanis. The ‘Panong’ symbol shows, from the peripherally-situated triangles, that ceremonial feasts were given by the family figure not only to the local village but also to people from other Nuristan communities. Like other symbols it was carved on doors and pillars of the family home. In addition it could be weaved into the family members’ clothing, particularly the boys and girls, coloured in blue and red.

Josef Albers, instructing a class at Black Mountain College, North Carolina 

North Carolina Digital Collections