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Martung
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Martung
Martung, Mārtung or Martoong (Urdu: مارتونگ) is a highland village and tehsil of Shangla District, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan included in Puran Subdivision. Central Martung (Koozkalai) is 982 m above sea level., Being hilly area, some parts of Martung are even more than 1800 m above mean sea level. Alogai is a place with scattered population in Martung having an altitude of 1641 meters. Martung is a green valley situated in the south-east of Shangla District, about 5 km north-west from River Indus. Major villages of the sub tehsil include Kabalgram, Pishlor, Titwalan, Koozkalai, Manzkalai, Shaga and Karindara.
The name "Martung" is supposed to be derived from the word "Mar Tuang" meaning snake charmer basket. Central Martung is relatively a low altitude valley surrounded by high hills from all around resembling to a snake charmer basket. There also exists a story about presence of a huge monster snake in Martung in the past. According to the story, the monster snake lived in the northern part of Tangiyal hill in Martung and ate rocks and soil from the hill. That portion of the hill looks to have been eaten away by something and is called "Mar Khoraley" that means eaten by snake in Pashtu. Both of these explanations support the idea "Martung" to be evolved from "Mar Tuang", though not confirmed at all.
Martung has road links with Mingora and Buner. Both the links are ordinary jeep tracks mostly with no black topping. Mingora is the largest city and trade centre in the region, but due to relatively better condition of the Buner road and less severe aftermaths of terrorist Taliban activities, people of the area prefer Buner as the nearest largest market and way of exit to the rest of the country. Beside these, two other ordinary jeep tracks from Martung to Chakesar and Martung to Kabalgram also provide alternate ways. Chakesar is connected to Gunangar Shamshikhel and Karora to Mingora-Besham road while from Kabalgram one can cross the river Indus to have access to a road leading to Mansehra and other parts of Hazara.
Unlike other parts of Shangla, weather in Martung remains moderate in winters and valleys in Martung get little snowfall. Areas very close to river Indus are quite hot in summer. Deforestation has been a great issue especially for Martung since long. People living in this area have no access to coal or gas at all and are facing problems of poor network of electricity, low voltage and load shedding since the area has got connected to the national grid. The people, therefore, have been burning wood for their household cooking and other requirements since the beginning. Although not very cold, even then the temperature goes below freezing point in the winter and people have to keep their houses warm by burning wood. Once there were thick forests of pine and olive trees within the valleys; now forests can only be found in far and high hills.
Martung is not very rich in water in contrast to the rest of District Shangla. Water is not a problem only in Sinkarai viz: the areas very near to the river Indus. Sinkarai includes Kabalgram, Dedal, Kamach, Behar,Gunangar Shamshikhel and many more small villages. The rest of Martung has many springs and small streams but they normally depend on the annual rainfall. Spring water was being used as drinking water since long, which the people carried from nearby springs to their houses. Small pipelines stretched from such springs to one or more houses are also common there, but a proper water supply scheme does not exist. Environmental changes since the early 1990s have affected the area and Martung gets less precipitation than normal since then. Some people living in the valley now dig wells to get water from. The water table is around 50 m below the earth surface in the central village of Martung. This situation has also led to reduced water quantity in the springs and small rivers. For the last 10 to 15 years, there are only two small rivers, namely Eitai and Khowar that flow for the whole year, also with reduced water than usual. This situation has greatly reduced the production of rice in the area, which is one of the major crops being grown there.
People of this area mainly live on farming. Soil of Martung is rich and fertile but unfortunately there is no irrigation system and agriculture in the area mainly depends upon rains. People are poor and are not aware of modern agriculture; they use old traditional ways and tools. They mainly grow wheat, maize and rice but not on the commercial scale. These are hardly enough for most of the people to eat. Being physically far from the local market (Mingora), it is not feasible to take their products to the market because of high transportation expenses. People grow vegetables and fruits only on small scale for their own use. A large number of people go to big cities of the country like Lahore and Karachi for seeking low level jobs like watch men, waiters in restaurants and labourers. Some people (very small portion) have small businesses in the local market and a few are government employees.
The population of the Tehsil is more than 85,000 persons. It was about 79,000 according to 1998 census. The central town Koozkalai has an approximate population of 6,500+ persons. Literacy rate in Martung is very low; less than 7% for male and less than 1% for female on the average. This figure is a little high for larger villages like Kabalgram, Koozkalai, Shaga, Karindara and Manzkalai. There was only one secondary school for boys in the area till 2006, and a few middle and primary schools for both boys and girls. Number of students and level of education both are very much below standards in all the educational institutes.
The people have rich culture and great moral values. Unlike the general image of Pathans, Martungis are peace loving people. Tribal enmities are very rare. Some of the typical Pathan cultures like Hujra and Jirga are still active in most of the villages. The inhabitants of Martung mainly belong to Aziz Khel or Azikhel and Khan Khel, section of the major Pathan tribe Yousafzai. Pashto is the major local language of all the inhabitants. Very few families in far hilly areas speak Gujri as their mother tongue and Pushto as their second language. Being national language of the country Urdu is understood by most of the people.
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Martung
Martung, Mārtung or Martoong (Urdu: مارتونگ) is a highland village and tehsil of Shangla District, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan included in Puran Subdivision. Central Martung (Koozkalai) is 982 m above sea level., Being hilly area, some parts of Martung are even more than 1800 m above mean sea level. Alogai is a place with scattered population in Martung having an altitude of 1641 meters. Martung is a green valley situated in the south-east of Shangla District, about 5 km north-west from River Indus. Major villages of the sub tehsil include Kabalgram, Pishlor, Titwalan, Koozkalai, Manzkalai, Shaga and Karindara.
The name "Martung" is supposed to be derived from the word "Mar Tuang" meaning snake charmer basket. Central Martung is relatively a low altitude valley surrounded by high hills from all around resembling to a snake charmer basket. There also exists a story about presence of a huge monster snake in Martung in the past. According to the story, the monster snake lived in the northern part of Tangiyal hill in Martung and ate rocks and soil from the hill. That portion of the hill looks to have been eaten away by something and is called "Mar Khoraley" that means eaten by snake in Pashtu. Both of these explanations support the idea "Martung" to be evolved from "Mar Tuang", though not confirmed at all.
Martung has road links with Mingora and Buner. Both the links are ordinary jeep tracks mostly with no black topping. Mingora is the largest city and trade centre in the region, but due to relatively better condition of the Buner road and less severe aftermaths of terrorist Taliban activities, people of the area prefer Buner as the nearest largest market and way of exit to the rest of the country. Beside these, two other ordinary jeep tracks from Martung to Chakesar and Martung to Kabalgram also provide alternate ways. Chakesar is connected to Gunangar Shamshikhel and Karora to Mingora-Besham road while from Kabalgram one can cross the river Indus to have access to a road leading to Mansehra and other parts of Hazara.
Unlike other parts of Shangla, weather in Martung remains moderate in winters and valleys in Martung get little snowfall. Areas very close to river Indus are quite hot in summer. Deforestation has been a great issue especially for Martung since long. People living in this area have no access to coal or gas at all and are facing problems of poor network of electricity, low voltage and load shedding since the area has got connected to the national grid. The people, therefore, have been burning wood for their household cooking and other requirements since the beginning. Although not very cold, even then the temperature goes below freezing point in the winter and people have to keep their houses warm by burning wood. Once there were thick forests of pine and olive trees within the valleys; now forests can only be found in far and high hills.
Martung is not very rich in water in contrast to the rest of District Shangla. Water is not a problem only in Sinkarai viz: the areas very near to the river Indus. Sinkarai includes Kabalgram, Dedal, Kamach, Behar,Gunangar Shamshikhel and many more small villages. The rest of Martung has many springs and small streams but they normally depend on the annual rainfall. Spring water was being used as drinking water since long, which the people carried from nearby springs to their houses. Small pipelines stretched from such springs to one or more houses are also common there, but a proper water supply scheme does not exist. Environmental changes since the early 1990s have affected the area and Martung gets less precipitation than normal since then. Some people living in the valley now dig wells to get water from. The water table is around 50 m below the earth surface in the central village of Martung. This situation has also led to reduced water quantity in the springs and small rivers. For the last 10 to 15 years, there are only two small rivers, namely Eitai and Khowar that flow for the whole year, also with reduced water than usual. This situation has greatly reduced the production of rice in the area, which is one of the major crops being grown there.
People of this area mainly live on farming. Soil of Martung is rich and fertile but unfortunately there is no irrigation system and agriculture in the area mainly depends upon rains. People are poor and are not aware of modern agriculture; they use old traditional ways and tools. They mainly grow wheat, maize and rice but not on the commercial scale. These are hardly enough for most of the people to eat. Being physically far from the local market (Mingora), it is not feasible to take their products to the market because of high transportation expenses. People grow vegetables and fruits only on small scale for their own use. A large number of people go to big cities of the country like Lahore and Karachi for seeking low level jobs like watch men, waiters in restaurants and labourers. Some people (very small portion) have small businesses in the local market and a few are government employees.
The population of the Tehsil is more than 85,000 persons. It was about 79,000 according to 1998 census. The central town Koozkalai has an approximate population of 6,500+ persons. Literacy rate in Martung is very low; less than 7% for male and less than 1% for female on the average. This figure is a little high for larger villages like Kabalgram, Koozkalai, Shaga, Karindara and Manzkalai. There was only one secondary school for boys in the area till 2006, and a few middle and primary schools for both boys and girls. Number of students and level of education both are very much below standards in all the educational institutes.
The people have rich culture and great moral values. Unlike the general image of Pathans, Martungis are peace loving people. Tribal enmities are very rare. Some of the typical Pathan cultures like Hujra and Jirga are still active in most of the villages. The inhabitants of Martung mainly belong to Aziz Khel or Azikhel and Khan Khel, section of the major Pathan tribe Yousafzai. Pashto is the major local language of all the inhabitants. Very few families in far hilly areas speak Gujri as their mother tongue and Pushto as their second language. Being national language of the country Urdu is understood by most of the people.
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