Punzg et Nurg

Across the high valleys where Wakhi families live, from the Pamirs to upper Hunza and Gojal, from Ishkashim and the Wakhan corridor to villages in Tajik Badakhshan, kohl is more than adornment. It is a quiet inheritance drawn in black along the rim of the eye.

Kohl is applied to men and women, and most tenderly to newborn children. A steady hand lines a child’s eyes within days of birth, the dark trace believed to protect, to strengthen, to steady the gaze against the elements.

The making of kohl remains precise and intimate. Stibnite stone is cleaned and ground into a fine powder through patient repetition. The knowledge lives in practice rather than in print. Two tools define the ritual. The slender graphite stick, known as punzg. The smaller, rough stone, called nurg. The punzg is rubbed against the nurg to gather the powder, then drawn carefully along the inner eyelid. The gesture is controlled, almost meditative. The result is a deep, luminous line that sharpens the eye without overwhelming it.

Families often extend the practice beyond the eyelids, tracing small protective designs on a child’s cheeks or forehead. A single dot. A faint curve. Marks that signal care and belonging.

During Taɣ̌m, the Wakhi seed sowing festival, kohl takes on heightened visibility. As the agricultural year begins, a young boy is guided to symbolically plough the field. Elders steady his hands on the wooden handle. His eyes are lined. Sometimes subtle designs mark his face. He stands between childhood and responsibility, framed by land and lineage. The black line around his eyes becomes part of the ceremony, part of how the community presents him to the soil and to the season ahead.

In villages scattered across borders yet united by language and memory, the practice continues with quiet confidence. The punzg touches the nurg. A fine powder gathers. A thin line appears. In that restrained, deliberate motion lies a continuity that has outlived empires, borders, and generations.