Introduction
This study was prompted by our observation of online photographs and videos documenting a local festival at the shrine of Shāh-e Sarāb in rural Bamiyan. Two features of the event stood out from the outset: its fixed position in the solar calendar and the prominence of water-centered rituals, particularly those focused on a natural spring at the site. These elements appeared unusual within the framework of a conventional Shi’i pilgrimage and raised questions regarding the festival’s historical depth. Closer examination of additional digital recordings and remote interviews suggests that the event is not an ordinary gathering at a shrine, but rather a calendrically fixed festival held annually on a specific day of the Iranian solar calendar. This feature alone distinguishes Shāh-e Sarāb from the vast majority of other Islamic observances in Afghanistan, which follow the lunar Hijri cycle. The fixed solar date, combined with the prominence of water-centered rituals, suggest a connection with pre-Islamic calendar-based traditions.
What we refer to here as the Shāh-e Sarāb “festival” is best understood as a large-scale, congregational pilgrimage that functions as a festival at a specific time of year, while the shrine itself remains a site of visitation throughout the year.Footnote 1 This article examines the Shāh-e Sarāb festival as a regional Hazara congregational pilgrimage embedded in the religious landscape of central Afghanistan, and explores the extent to which the festival preserves elements of an older ritual complex. Rather than treating the festival as an isolated anomaly, the study situates it within a sequence of religious transformations in Bamiyan (a highland region historically linked to ancient Bactria/Balkh). This region has successively accommodated Zoroastrian, Buddhist, Hellenistic, Sunni, and Shi’i religious systems over the millennia.Footnote 2
We argue that the Shāh-e Sarāb festival represents a localized, Islamized continuation of Khordādgān, the ancient Iranian month/day festival associated with Khordād, the divinity of water and wholeness. Ancient Iranians celebrated when the names of the month/day coincided in the Zoroastrian calendar. This interpretation rests on converging lines of evidence—calendrical, ritual, symbolic, toponymic, and historical—rather than on any single feature. By documenting this festival and placing it in comparative perspective, the article contributes to the study of ritual continuity in the Iranian world and highlights the Hindu Kush highlands as a setting in which pre-Islamic cultural forms have been preserved and reinterpreted to the present day within local Islamic practice.
Background
Although the peoples of the Iranian Plateau are today predominantly Muslim and follow the lunar Hijri calendar for Islamic religious observances, Iran and Afghanistan uniquely preserve a solar Iranian (shamsi) calendar inherited from pre-Islamic times. Unlike the lunar calendar used across the Islamic world for religious and related reasons, the Iranian solar calendar remains closely tied to the agricultural cycle, seasons, and traditional festivals, thereby serving as an important vehicle of long-term cultural continuity. The Islamic lunar calendar, by contrast, is not seasonally fixed: its days (and associated months) shift backward through the solar year by approximately eleven days annually. Moreover, unlike lunisolar systems such as the Hebrew and Chinese calendars, the Islamic lunar calendar contains no intercalary month to realign with the solar cycle. As a result, Islamic observances move continuously backward (by eleven days) from one season to the next one, whereas the Iranian solar calendar preserves the seasonal framework underlying ancient Iranian festivals and ritual practices.
Two parallel nomenclatures exist for the twelve months of the solar calendar. In Iran, the months bear pre-Islamic Persian names beginning with Farvardin, while in Afghanistan the months are commonly designated by Arabic names based on zodiacal signs beginning with Hamal (Aries).Footnote 3 Despite differences in nomenclature, both systems reflect the same ancient Iranian calendrical structure. Like other ancient solar calendars, the Iranian system faced the problem of the additional quarter day in the solar year beyond the standard 365 days. Over long periods, failure to account for this fraction caused the calendar to shift gradually relative to the seasons and complicated the dating of Zoroastrian month/day festivals. In some cases, this shift contributed to the expansion of (originally) single-day observances into festive periods longer than one day within Zoroastrian communities.Footnote 4
During the past millennium, the Iranian solar calendar underwent two major reforms. In the first, the Jalāli reform of 1079 CE, the beginning of the year was fixed at the vernal equinox and the calendar was reorganized into twelve months of thirty days followed by five epagomenal days (six in leap years). The second reform, implemented in 1925, redistributed these intercalary days among the months, producing the modern system in which the first six months have thirty-one days, the next five months thirty days, and the final month twenty-nine (or thirty in leap years). These reforms are significant for understanding the calendrical placement and historical interpretation of the Shāh-e Sarāb festival.
In modern Iran and Afghanistan, the solar year begins at the spring equinox (March 20 or 21), marked by Nowruz (new day), the new year festival extended to a two-week period. The observance of the arrival of the new year is the most widely shared cultural marker for Iranian-speaking peoples. Another major solar observance is the winter solstice, known as Chelleh or Yaldā, which perpetuates the existence of the ancient Deygān festival.Footnote 5 Other solar-based rites have largely disappeared or survive only regionally or within Zoroastrian communities. Notable survivals during Islamic times include Tiremā Sizdah in the Caspian region, a remnant of Tiragān; Esbandi in the Kashan area, reflecting Spandārmadagān; and the Qālishuyān ceremony near Mashhad-e Ardahāl, which preserves traces of Mehragān despite its present-day Shi’i reinterpretation.Footnote 6 The Shast-Sheshi festival of Jarquyeh near Isfahan is a living continuation of Khordādagān, the ancient festival of the deity Haurvatāt/Khordad.Footnote 7
Within this small corpus of solar festivals surviving since ancient times, the Shāh-e Sarāb celebration of central Afghanistan constitutes a significant case. The festival is held annually on the fourteenth of Jawzā/Khordād (Gemini), which corresponds with June 4 in most years. Its fixed position in the solar calendar, rather than the perpetually shifting events of the lunar Islamic calendar, distinguishes it from many other Shi’i (and Sunni) commemorations in the region.
The festival takes place at the shrine of Shāh-e Sarāb, located in a high mountain valley in Waras, the southernmost and highest-altitude district of Bamiyan Province. Each year, the festival attracts thousands of participants from Hazārajāt’s surrounding districts, functioning as a regional pilgrimage rather than a nationwide observance. The festival is closely associated with local and regional Hazara communities and is religiously framed within Shi’i Islam. The shrine is believed to contain the grave or graves of one or two early Islamic saints, connecting the festival to Shi’ism. Local tradition identifies the shrine as the burial place of two Shi’i holy figures, thereby integrating the festival into the broader sacred landscape of local devotional practice.
Local and media discourse identifies Shāh-e Sarāb as a Shi’i devotional event, with no attention apparently paid to its calendrical placement or possible pre-Islamic resonances. Yet, as we demonstrate here, both the festival’s precise timing and its central ritual components—particularly those associated with water, fertility, and gendered symbolism—correspond closely with the ancient Khordādgān festival.Footnote 8 Taken together, these features suggest that the Shāh-e Sarāb festival preserves, beneath its Islamic surface, a reconfigured continuation of a Zoroastrian solar rite that has survived successive religious transformations on the Iranian Plateau over the course of millennia.
Methodology
This study adopts a qualitative research design combining published information, virtual ethnographic observations, remote interviewing, and geospatial analysis. The analysis draws on three principal sources: virtual fieldwork using online audiovisual materials; virtual interviews with Hazara informants from Bamiyan; and satellite imagery obtained from Google Earth. Together, these sources provide complementary perspectives on the Shāh-e Sarāb festival and its possible historical continuities with the ancient festival of Khordādgān.
Afghanistan’s local cultural traditions and ritual practices remain under documented. During the 1960s, a period marked by some political stability and increased accessibility for international travelers, a few Western scholars and visitors conducted ethnographic research.Footnote 9 From the mid-1970s onward, prolonged political instability and armed conflict curtailed sustained on-site research, leaving extensive areas (including Hazārajāt in Afghanistan’s central highlands) largely absent from systematic documentation.
In the last decade, the widespread availability of smartphones and internet access has opened new avenues for exploring different parts of Afghanistan. Local enthusiasts and independent documentarians have visited remote areas to record information about landscapes, village life, and ritual practices and often include interviews with local residents. These materials, often disseminated online through platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram, generally lack standardized metadata, and their pool of informants is small and geographically limited. Nevertheless, these resources constitute a substantial body of primary material and provide valuable insights for ethnographic, linguistic, and cultural analysis.
The shrine of Shāh-e Sarāb in Bamiyan serves as the primary research site of this study. No scholarly studies exist on the shrine or its festival. The shrine has no nationwide prominence in the country; among the numerous people from Afghanistan—both individuals and online social groups—that we casually consulted, none had any knowledge of the shrine, much less of its associated festival. The only written account is a brief online essay on Bamiyan, reproduced verbatim across multiple websites.Footnote 10 The present analysis relies on amateur audiovisual sources, including a longer video filmed at the shrine on a non-festival day, several shorter recordings of the festival day in recent years, and some documented sermons delivered by Shi’i clerics then.Footnote 11 Despite their informal nature, these materials offer useful insight into the spatial organization of the shrine, the people who participate in its rites, and the contemporary Islamic framing of the event.
Satellite imagery from Google Earth offers an additional layer of observation. Imagery dating back to 2012 provides a limited but valuable visual record of the site and its surroundings. Particularly noteworthy is the image captured on June 4, 2023, coinciding with the date of the festival, which offers a rare synoptic view of the gathering and patterns of congregation that are otherwise difficult to document.
As philologists specializing in Iranian languages, the authors have documented the survival of pre-Islamic festivals and ritual practices across the Iranian Plateau. This expertise enables nuanced interpretation of oral, textual, and material evidence, particularly regarding the persistence of ritual motifs under successive religious transformations. Our familiarity with ancient Iran and contemporary Persian dialects informs the analysis of toponyms, ritual terminology, and symbolic practices, providing a framework for assessing potential connections between Shāh-e Sarāb and the ancient Zoroastrian Khordādgān festival. This background has guided the selection of sources and the analytical lens employed throughout the study, which helps to present a careful and informed approach to interpreting cultural continuity.
The shrine of Shāh-e Sarāb and its festival
Geography
Shāh-e Sarāb is distant from any urbanized center and has not been recorded in most available cartographic sources. After extensive searches across online satellite maps, we were able to identify the broader area through a detailed map, where the site appears under the name “Achamazar,” i.e., the hamlet Ācha Mazār (stepmother’s shrine).Footnote 12 This reference made it possible to locate the shrine on satellite imagery by systematically comparing published photographs of the site with high-resolution terrain features. The shrine’s geographical coordinates are 34.082° N, 66.830° E, and it sits at an elevation of 3,180 meters above sea level.Footnote 13
The area consists of rugged mountainous terrain with sparsely inhabited highland valleys. The shrine is located at the closed end of a narrow valley. Adjacent to the shrine lies the Shāh-e Sarāb spring, which gives rise to a stream that joins numerous tributaries descending from neighboring valleys. Together, these waterways form the river Ispighow (“White Cow” in Pashto), which drains into the Helmand River basin. The nearest settlement is Ācha Mazār, a small hamlet or farmstead with only a few houses (see Figure 1). Vegetation is sparse and largely confined to small-scale cultivation along the watercourses. As in other mountainous valleys of the Waras district, the local economy relies primarily on subsistence agriculture and animal husbandry.
Upper valleys of the Ispighow River, showing natural vegetation and cultivated strips along the watercourses. The shrine of Shāh-e Sarāb is located at a spring near the head of the highest valley (center of the image), at the foot of Mount Sarāb.
Figure 1 Long description
Satellite imagery map of the upper valleys of the Ispighow River, depicting rugged mountainous terrain with sparse vegetation. The map shows natural vegetation and cultivated strips along watercourses, indicating areas of small-scale agriculture. Key labeled features include the shrine of Shāh-e Sarāb at a spring near the head of the highest valley, at the foot of Mount Sarāb. The image orientation is north at the top, with streams flowing from the valleys into the Helmand River basin. The nearest labeled settlement is Ācha Mazār, a small hamlet or farmstead. The map illustrates settlement and cultivation concentrated along streams in rugged terrain, with green areas representing vegetation and cultivation and tan or gray areas indicating barren rock. The geographic scope is the upper valleys near the headwaters of the Ispighow River.
In broader geographical terms, the valley lies within Afghanistan’s central highlands (Hazārajāt), which forms part of the western Hindu Kush mountain ranges.Footnote 14 Administratively, the valley is located in the southwestern part of the Waras (or Warath) district (woleswāli), the southernmost district of Bamiyan Province. The district consists primarily of mountain ranges, and its steep-sided valleys are connected by winding dirt roads that converge on a narrow unpaved route crossing the Waras district and linking it to the provincial capital of Bamiyan, approximately 200 kilometers to the north. During the winter months, this road becomes largely impassable due to heavy snowfall, thus leaving the district effectively isolated.
The shrine
The narrow valley terminates at the base of a prominent ridge known as Kuh-e Sarāb (Mount Spring). Three lower peaks form part of its slopes. The Shāh-e Sarāb shrine complex is nestled among these elevations, which enclose it on three sides. Adjacent to the shrine lies a revered spring known as Chashma Mazār (Shrine Spring), a focal point for pilgrims and festival-goers. The complex opens onto a broad, flattened area at the base of the hills that rises gently toward the surrounding foothills, creating a natural gathering space for visitors (see Figure 2).
The oldest available image of the festival, most likely dating to June 4, 2020. A vast gathering of people largely engaged in fair-like activities on the open field adjacent to the shrine. The shrine complex, visible downslope in the background, is the old construction not yet replaced by the current shrine.
The shrine building appears to be relatively recent, replacing an older one. The history of the complex can be reconstructed through available satellite imagery from Google Earth. For this remote part of central Afghanistan, the timeline includes five snapshots of varying resolution, taken in 2012, 2019, 2022, and 2023 (two dates). All images show the site without people, except that of June 4, 2023, which was captured on the day of the festival, likely intentionally; if not coincidental, this suggests that satellite imaging may respond to human activity on the ground at times. Moreover, photos and videos on social media, beginning in 2021, help establish the chronology.
The earlier building is poorly documented. Satellite imagery dated September 15, 2012, shows a rectangular adobe structure, with external dimensions of roughly 23.5 by 18.5 meters, surrounding an inner courtyard measuring 14 by 9 meters (see Figure 3). Satellite imagery dated July 10, 2019 shows (in low resolution) the same building, which appears to be undergoing modification, with the inner courtyard expanded and opening to the southeast. It may be surmised that the structure was being remodeled in preparation for the following year’s festival, as suggested by a photograph most likely taken during the festival in 2020 (see Figure 2).Footnote 15 The building appears as an adobe structure with thick earthen walls, whose roof and perimeter walls serve as elevated vantage points during the festival. No information is available regarding the interior of this now-razed building.
Satellite imagery of the Shāh-e Sarāb shrine dated September 15, 2012. It shows the rectangular adobe structure with external dimensions of 440 square meters surrounding an inner courtyard. This building was later modified (Figure 2) and was eventually replaced by a smaller building with modern materials (Figure 4).
The new building first appears in satellite imagery dated May 28, 2022, showing a replacement structure, a square building with a bare roof, apparently still unfinished. Within less than three months, a video dated August 11, 2022 shows the completed building, now featuring a dome and minaret-like elements.Footnote 16 These features are also visible in satellite images dated June 2, 2023 and August 24, 2023, as well as in more recent photographs and videos.
The new shrine (see Figures 4 and 5) consists of a single square building measuring less than 100 square meters and containing one chamber with four internal columns. On the flat roof, a small dome (a common architectural feature of many mosques and shrines in the Islamic world) and four pole-like elements, symbolizing minarets, were added to the roof sometime after May 28, 2022. Architecturally, the structure is typical of shrines in the Hazārajāt region and contrasts with more elaborate shrines (emāmzāda) in Iran.Footnote 17 A low wall surrounds the building and creates a courtyard where visitors gather.
The current Shāh-e Sarāb shrine, situated on a mountain slope and enclosed by a low boundary wall. The building was constructed in 2022 using modern materials. The two turquoise structures in the foreground are vendor stalls.
The Shāh-e Sarāb shrine in November 2024. The flag on the dome is green, signifying the Shi’i faith. In the foreground, beside the building, there is a pole bearing a blue flag topped by a goat horn (not visible here). The pole stands above a grave, which the custodian only hesitantly described as belonging to an individual killed during what he referred to as “the mullah’s revolution” (enqelāb-e ākhundhā), apparently referring to the Taliban. Several colorful vendor stalls are visible on the right.
The older building was likely in poor condition and needed to be rebuilt. However, the most striking difference between the two phases lies in their appearance. The earlier structure, with its plain earthen walls and lack of overt religious markers, looked like a rural building and may have preserved elements of pagan or local sacred practices. By contrast, the new construction incorporates recognizable Shiʿi architectural features, including a dome and minaret-like elements, making the shrine clearly Islamic in form.
This change may reflect a broader process of bringing local shrines in line with standard Islamic forms. The addition of an outer courtyard also creates space for preaching by visiting clerics during the festival. While the available evidence does not allow firm conclusions, it is possible that the rebuilding also changed how the space is used and reduced practices that might be seen as non-orthodox. A similar pattern can be observed in the case of Shast-Sheshi, a rural festival in Iran identified as a remnant of Khordādgān, where older ritual elements have likewise been eliminated under the Islamic regime.Footnote 18
The “saints”
Inside the building stands the gravestone (or gravestones?), positioned beneath an elevated metal frame (zarih) draped in multicolored cloth.Footnote 19 This sarcophagus-like enclosure faces Mecca, hence is set an angle relative to the building’s principal axes. As shown in Figure 6, numerous padlocks are affixed to the frame; women attach these locks as part of votive practices related to their issuing and fulfilling of oaths and wishes. They also make food offerings at the shrine, the act carrying symbolic meaning and providing the givers with additional spiritual benefits (see Figure 7). The broader literature indicates that more women than men perform such rituals at shrines. The uniform appearance of the locks suggests that they are purchased from vendors operating at the shrine (see Figure 8).
A pilgrim (visiting from Iran) fashioning a votive padlock to the enclosure of the shrine. Numerous small locks affixed to the metal grille are part of the vows and petitions. Women attach a lock and then utter an oath or make a promise. The enclosure is draped in cloth, and a green-painted metal donation box stands in the foreground. A sign on the rear wall, in Persian, refers to “Mazār-e Shāh-e Sarāb” and expresses the wish that the devotee’s prayers and vows be favorably received and fulfilled.
Woman offering food to the shrine. The food consists of pieces of fried dough, commonly prepared as a votive offering and distributed among pilgrims.
Vendor stall at the shrine complex of Shāh-e Sarāb, displaying toys, amulets, prayer items, biscuits, other snacks, and household goods for pilgrims and visitors.
The shrine is known by several names: Shāh-e Sarāb (or Sarow in the Hazaragi variety of Persian), Mazār-e Shāh Sarwar Āghā, and Ācha Mazār.Footnote 20 The terms mazār and ziāratgāh correspond to what in Iran is commonly called an āstāna or emāmzāda, referring both to the shrine itself and the venerated individual said to be buried there. In Shi’i tradition, the occupant of a mazār is typically said to be a descendant (sayyed) of one of Shi’i imams.Footnote 21 The epithets shāh (king) and shāhzāda (prince) are standard honorifics in some contexts and might also denote a person of elevated status more generally.
According to local beliefs, Shāh-e Sarāb marks the burial place of Sayyed Sarwar.Footnote 22 In popular usage, however, the shrine is usually referred to simply as Shāh-e Sarāb or Shāh-e Sarwar (sarwar meaning “leader, chief”), the latter reflecting the prominence of Sarwar as the principal saint associated with the site. Oral accounts vary regarding Sarwar’s lineage, which is said to descend from the Fourth Shi’i Imam, Zaynolʿābedin-e Bimār, although the exact number of generations and intermediate ancestors differ across narratives and is not consistently specified. As with many Shi’i shrines, such genealogical claims are difficult to verify. In the present study, neither the historical accuracy of the lineage nor the factual basis of the narrative bears directly on the argument that the shrine’s ritual complex preserves elements rooted in earlier Iranian religious traditions.
Legends and miracles
Legends associated with the shrine conform to Shi’i narrative patterns, particularly those concerning persecuted descendants of the imams who fled the Arab caliphs and died in remote regions, where their burial sites later became centers of pilgrimage. According to local tradition, the saint (or the two saints) fled to the area to escape Abbasid persecution. After residing for a time in Khoshk-e Naw, at the western edge of the Waras district, they are said to have made their way toward Mount Sarāb.
Along the route, the saint is said to have paused at Pāy-e Kuh-e Mikh (at the foot of Mount Spike), where the shrine known as Hasanak is identified as a qadamgāh (stepping place), marking the footprint of the saint.Footnote 23 Another footprint shrine attributed to Shāh-e Sarāb is known as Mazār-e Dahan-e Qol-pari (shrine [at] the mouth of meadow-fairy). In addition, at Sardasht-e Sarāb (Plain of the Spring) (a location not independently identified by the authors), villagers point to the imprint of a horse’s hoof embedded in stone, a marking likewise associated with the saint.
The saint or saints are believed to have reached the foot of Mount Sarāb, where they died and were buried. The site is said to have gradually acquired sanctity through its reputation for miraculous cures and continued visitation and pilgrimage.
Some miracles are associated with the shrine. In one story, a flood divided into two channels as it neared the tomb, leaving it untouched. In another legend, a deer or gazelle (āhu) performed a pilgrimage to the gravesite, after which a shrine was erected and visitation grew. In Persian culture, a deer symbolizes innocence, purity, and divine protection.Footnote 24
Belief in the shrine’s supernatural powers is widespread. As with other Shi’i emāmzādas, Shāh-e Sarāb is credited with healing properties, including the ability to cure otherwise incurable illnesses. Similar to many shrines in Iran, Shāh-e Sarāb is associated with a water source.Footnote 25 What distinguishes this particular site is the reported mutability of its spring. According to local belief, the water periodically changes color—turning red, brown, or gray—an occurrence interpreted as an omen portending major political upheavals, such as the rise or fall of rulers.Footnote 26
Pilgrimage to Shāh-e Sarāb takes place throughout the warmer months, from May–September, with an estimated annual attendance of 24,000 visitors. The number of pilgrims increases markedly from early Jawzā (late May) and reaches its peak during the annual festival on June 4.
The festival
The shrine of Shāh-e Sarāb holds its annual festival on the 14th of Jawzā (Khordād) (June 4). In recent years, attendance has reached as many as 12,000 participants, making the event a large-scale communal gathering rather than a mere act of individual pilgrimage.
No historical documentation of the festival has yet been identified, and local memory does not extend far enough to permit reconstruction of its earlier forms or antiquity. People from across the region attend, provided they are physically able to undertake the journey and can afford transportation to this remote location. Although no obligatory donation is imposed, visitors customarily contribute sums ranging from 10–5,000 Afghanis (a few cents to 65 US dollars in 2020), which support the shrine’s maintenance, the wages of its sole custodian, and some food distributed during the festival. People also bring their own food.
Attendance
The shrine of Shāh-e Sarāb attracts pilgrims throughout the year, weather permitting. The annual celebration held on Jawzā 14, however, transforms the site into a major regional gathering of a distinctly festive character.
No quantitative records have survived from the period before the introduction of motorized transportation, and earlier levels of attendance can only be inferred indirectly. It is clear, however, that participation has increased markedly in recent decades, owing to improved access by van and motorcycle. The event’s expanding scale has, at times, prompted official governmental scrutiny and occasional symbolic engagement by state authorities. Informants recount the attendance of senior government officials during the final years of the former republic (2004–2021), including the vice president. This report could not be corroborated through independent documentation.
A former shrine custodian estimated the number of participants in recent years at 10,000–12,000.Footnote 27 At first glance, these figures appear implausibly high, given the shrine’s remote location and the lack of permanent infrastructure capable of accommodating crowds of that magnitude. To assess the credibility of this claim, we conducted an independent estimation based on publicly available photographic evidence and, most significantly, from a Google Earth satellite image dated June 4, 2023 (Figure 9), corresponding precisely to the day of the festival.Footnote 28 Applying established crowd-density metrics to the area visibly occupied by participants yields an estimated attendance of 11,000 individuals, allowing for a reasonable margin of error. We used artificial intelligence-assisted image analysis to estimate the number of individuals present.
Satellite imagery taken from 3,469 meters above ground level. The dense concentration at the upper left corresponds to the seated men listening to religious sermons. The remaining dispersed clusters represent attendees gathering on the open area in front of the shrine as well as groups positioned on the surrounding higher ground. Applying standard crowd-density estimation methods to the visible occupied area, total attendance is estimated at approximately 11,000 individuals.
Figure 9 Long description
Overhead satellite map view of a barren, mostly open landscape with a small built-up complex near the left side. No place names, boundary labels, legend, scale bar, or north arrow are visible. A rectangular walled area with several roofed structures sits near the left edge. A narrow linear feature consistent with a track or road runs along the left side of the scene and passes the complex. A small patch of vegetation appears adjacent to the complex. Across the central and right portions of the scene, many small dot-like marks form a large, irregular cluster. The densest concentration is closest to the complex, with additional scattered clusters extending outward into the open ground. The distribution becomes more dispersed farther from the central cluster, with smaller groups spread across the surrounding terrain.
Another, separate evaluation focused on the satellite image of the parking zone situated about 150 meters downhill from the shrine. This analysis identifies roughly 180 vans and 400 motorcycles. In light of local transportation practices—in which vans are frequently filled beyond nominal capacity and motorcycles often carry multiple riders—these vehicles could reasonably account for some 5,000 attendees. The divergence between the crowd-density estimate and the transportation-based calculation suggests several explanations. Many vehicles might have parked outside the immediately visible corridor, vehicles likely made multiple trips to shuttle visitors, and some participants reportedly arrive on foot from surrounding villages, although large-scale pedestrian access appears unlikely.Footnote 29
Travel and accommodation
Pilgrims travel to the festival primarily from villages within the Waras district. Others come from neighboring districts, especially Panjāb and the city of Bamiyan, as well as from Lal and Sar-Jangal in neighboring Ghor province. Some attendees come from the bordering areas of Daykundi and Ghazni provinces and, more broadly, from across Hazārajāt, the broader regional designation encompassing the core areas of the Hazara population in central Afghanistan. Informants frequently mentioned the presence of Dayzangi, a major Hazara tribal group widely dispersed across the region.
Travel times are considerable. The journey from the provincial center of Bamiyan to Sarāb takes some nine hours along rural unpaved roads. One account noted that people come in caravans.Footnote 30 How such large crowds reached the site before the advent of motorized transportation—presumably by horse and pack animals such as donkeys and mules—remains unknown.
No formal lodging infrastructure exists at the shrine. Many pilgrims visit only for the day, while those who come earlier or remain longer stay in nearby villages, where local hospitality plays a crucial role. Several small adobe buildings located upslope from the shrine also accommodate a limited number of overnight visitors.
The fair and the festival
The Shāh-e Sarāb festival, held from mid-morning to early afternoon, blends devotional pilgrimage with a vibrant communal celebration. While perhaps less elaborate than the comparative festivals and fairs of Ardahāl or Jarquyeh, which also combine solar and Shi’i rites, this gathering remains a major event for this remote highland region.Footnote 31
A temporary fair plays a central role in the Shāh-e Sarāb festivities. Several permanent metal huts near the shrine serve as storage or storefronts for vendors selling inexpensive merchandise tailored to visitors’ modest means. In addition, twenty to thirty itinerant vendors arrive days in advance to set up open-air stalls, often remaining for up to two weeks. Video recordings of the event show these merchants displaying their wares on cloths spread on the ground, resulting in a bustling marketplace for shopping, games, and socializing.Footnote 32
Food and its consumption are a focal point of the day’s communal activities. Families typically picnic on and alongside the slopes facing the shrine, although more formal communal dining occurs both inside and immediately outside the shrine building. Meat is a primary staple. The region relies on an economy based on animal husbandry, alongside subsistence agriculture. The communal lunch serves as the day’s central ritual, with meals prepared in a large dedicated kitchen structure where sheep and cattle are slaughtered specifically for the feast. Votive meals (nazr) are also prepared and distributed among the pilgrims.Footnote 33
The water source
Another key activity during the festival, and during pilgrimages at other times of the year, involves visiting the natural spring known as Chashma Mazār (Shrine Spring), located on the north side of the shrine. However, there appears to be multiple water sources in the immediate area: one located upstream from the shrine and another near the shrine itself, where the water collects in an accessible basin (or pool).Footnote 34 Older images show the original pool only indistinctly, but they suggest that it was a natural basin or pond, reinforced with earth and stones.
The current construction consists of a rectangular cement basin, about one meter deep (Figure 10).Footnote 35 It is enclosed by a roughly built dry-stone wall, which forms a protective boundary around the spring area. Pilgrims drink from the pool, collect water to take home for blessings, gather pebbles from the site for similar purposes, and gather local medicinal plants near the spring, known as badra (likely Ferula badra-kema) and kuzatani. Some local women collect, dry, and bring these plants to the festival to distribute or sell for a few coins. Pilgrims wash these plants in the spring or purchase them from vendors to take home.
The pool fed by the water source of Shāh-e Sarāb. This recently constructed cement basin collects water from a nearby spring. The rectangular basin is enclosed by a low stone. Standing by is the Chaman-sang Zawār, who was the shrine’s custodian (mojāwer) from circa 2016–2022.
The spring water is widely believed to possess healing properties. Before the cement pool was built, immersion in the natural basin was an essential ritual. Recent video footage shows that the pool is now connected to a bathhouse containing a linear row of at least four concrete tubs.Footnote 36 According to the custodian, ritual bathing is mandatory.Footnote 37 Given the large number of participants, it is likely that bathing begins several days before the peak festival day (June 4) in order to accommodate at least the more dedicated pilgrims.
The preaching
Online videos documenting the festival focus predominantly on religious preaching (likely uploaded by the preachers themselves for publicity). Shi’i clerics (both local village mullahs and itinerant preachers from nearby towns) deliver sermons that center on rowza (see Figure 11), emotive narratives recounting the suffering and martyrdom of the Third Imam, his family members, and supporters at the Battle of Karbala (680 CE).Footnote 38 These preachers use both formal Dari Persian and the Hazaragi Persian dialect in their accounts, which closely align with the devotional expectations and social concerns of many attendees.Footnote 39
Festival gathering at the shrine of Shāh-e Sarāb, June 4, 2025. In the foreground, men sit on the ground as they listen to sermons delivered by Shi’i clerics.
At the same time, the rhetoric bears traces of contemporary Islamist discourse influenced by religious seminaries in Iran, as evidenced by its theological vocabulary and sermonic structure. Overt political commentary appears deliberately restrained under Taliban rule.Footnote 40 Clerics deliver these sermons in formal Dari Persian, especially in written texts read aloud, interwoven with colloquial Iranian Persian forms acquired during clerical training in Iran, which produces a subtle yet noticeable linguistic layering.
Khordādgān elements of the Shāh-e Sarāb festival
The festival of Shāh-e Sarāb appears to preserve elements of the ancient Iranian month/day festival of Khordādgān. This association is based primarily on its fixed position in the solar calendar and is further supported by a set of converging symbolic and ritual features, most notably the central role of water-related practices and the prominent participation of women.
At present, the only festival in Iran and Afghanistan in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries that can be linked with Khordādgān with a high degree of certainty is Shast-Sheshi, celebrated in the Jarquyeh district of Isfahan province in central Iran.Footnote 41 The preceding account offers a detailed analysis of the Zoroastrian deity Khordād and the rites associated with her festival. The main points relevant to the present discussion are summarized below.
In Zoroastrian cosmology, ultimate authority resides with Ahura Mazda in conjunction with six beneficent divine beings known as the Amesha Spentas, all seven constituting the sacred Heptad. This group consists of Ahura Mazda, three male figures (Vahman, Ardvahisht, and Shahrēvar), and three female figures (Spandārmad, Khordād, and Amurdād). Each of these divinities governs one month of the Zoroastrian calendar, a system whose structure reaches into pre-Islamic antiquity. Every one of the thirty days of the month is assigned a specific divine name: the first seven days correspond to the Heptad in the order given above, while the remaining days are dedicated to lesser deities. People celebrated festivals on occasions when the name of the day coincided with the name of the month.Footnote 42
The goddess Khordād (Middle Persian Hordād or Xordād), who continued the Old Iranian Haurvatāt (wholeness, perfection), was the divine guardian of waters. She ruled over the third month of the year and the sixth day of each month. Her cult is reflected in the Avesta, in which a dedicated hymn, the “Hordād Yasht,” is preserved.Footnote 43 Over time, Khordād’s ritual prominence was gradually overshadowed by other water-related divinities, primarily Tishtrya (associated with rainfall and the festival of Tiragān) and Anahita (who came to dominate the religious sphere of fertility and flowing waters). By the Sasanian period (224–651 CE), Anahita’s elevated status had so far marginalized Khordād that later Pahlavi sources no longer retained a clear understanding of Khordād’s original female identity and failed to preserve reliable knowledge of her specific calendrical festival, Khordādgān.
The calendrical associations
Its solar date is the principal reason for positing a connection between the Shāh-e Sarāb festival and pre-Islamic traditions. While the Hazārajāt region contains multiple pilgrimage sites, Shāh-e Sarāb appears to be exceptional in that its annual festival is explicitly tied to the solar calendar.
This festival takes place on the fourteenth day of the solar month Jawzā (Gemini) in Afghanistan, corresponding to Khordād 14 in Iran, both following the Iranian solar calendar. In the modern calendar, this date corresponds to June 4 (June 3 in leap years). If the festival is assumed to be of premodern origins, its date must be recalculated according to the pre-modern Jalāli calendar, established in 1079 CE and once used throughout the Persianate world. On that basis, the festival corresponds to Khordād 16.
Within the Zoroastrian calendar, the sixteenth day of each month is dedicated to Mehr/Mithra, a date that carries no intrinsic relevance to Khordād. Yet, as shown in Mary Boyce’s studies, ancient Iranian month/day festivals were not confined to a single day. Due to pre-Islamic calendar reforms that caused confusion among Zoroastrians, each month/day festival could extend over a ten-day period.Footnote 44 If so, the Shāh-e Sarāb festival observed on Khordād 16 might be interpreted as the concluding day of a cycle that begins on Khordād 6 of the Jalāli calendar, the month/day concurrence that defines Khordādgān. This interpretation gains plausibility from the observation that pilgrims begin arriving at Shāh-e Sarāb in early Khordād, which suggests that the present-day peak on the Jalāli day of Khordād 16 preserves only the final phase of a once longer festival cycle. For comparison, the Shast-Sheshi festival in Jarquyeh near Isfahan begins on Khordād 6 of the Jalāli calendar and remains most popular for ten days.Footnote 45
Another point of comparison is Chak-Chak, or Pir-e Sabz, a well-known Zoroastrian congregational pilgrimage site near Ardakān in Yazd province, Iran, which attracts thousands of participants annually between June 14–18 (Khordād 25–29).Footnote 46 Despite its calendrical proximity, the pilgrimage (also described as a festival gathering) on these dates falls too late in the month to be identified with Khordādgān with reasonable certainty and should probably be excluded from a direct comparison.
Associations with women
Female symbolism is particularly prominent in the pilgrimage practices of Shāh-e Sarāb and recalls the character of Khordād as a female divinity. Women are highly visible participants in the festival, with many taking part in devotional acts performed at the shrine (see Figures 12 and 13). Such prominence, however, is not unique to this site. Across the Iranian Plateau, women widely participate in shrine-centered rituals and pilgrimages. Although public life in Islamic societies is male dominated, women’s participation in religious practices remains relatively open, which helps explain their visibility and acceptance in such contexts. Thus, while female presence lacks diagnostic value for establishing a connection with Khordādgān, it may be regarded as a necessary condition of it.
Crowd gathered around the shrine of Shāh-e Sarāb during the annual festival. Many participants are women wearing colorful local dress typical of Hazara communities. They are defying the austere dress norms enforced by Taliban rule throughout Afghanistan, especially in urban areas.
A large group of women and children gathered around a stone-lined communal cooking area during the Shāh-e Sarāb festival. Several women appear to be distributing food or preparing offerings, while others stand nearby holding bowls and containers. The scene takes place in an open outdoor setting crowded with festival participants.
Among the practices observed at the Shāh-e Sarāb site, one of the most conspicuous votive acts is the attachment of padlocks to the lattice framing (zarih) surrounding the gravestone (Figure 6). Pilgrims fasten these locks while making a wish or uttering a vow they intend to fulfill in the future. Closing the lock is a concrete act that verifies their intentions. While not specific to Khordādgān, this practice represents a form of popular devotion frequently associated with women and the expression of personal hopes and petitions.
A more distinctive indication of female symbolism appears in the shrine’s alternative name, Ācha Mazār, despite the belief that one or two male sayyeds are buried there. In the Hazaragi dialect of Persian, āča denotes a “stepmother.”Footnote 47 The related form āja refers to the “maternal grandmother,” or more broadly to either the “maternal or paternal grandmother” or “old woman.”Footnote 48 Comparable forms occur in languages spoken in the wider region, such as the Turkic oča (dialectal for “mother” in Uzbek), Tajik dialect oča “mother,” and Mongolian egč “older sister.” The recurrence of maternal and senior female terms in the shrine’s nomenclature suggests an underlying female-oriented conceptualization of a sacred figure, consistent with the goddess Khordād.
The water associations
Water plays a central role in the rituals of the Shāh-e Sarāb shrine. The very name, sarāb, in local usage denotes “the head or source of water.” The shrine is built beside a spring known as Chashma Mazār, which forms the focal point of both the festival and the pilgrimage. Many ritual practices performed at the site focus on this spring.
Ritual immersion is a central rite. This act is carried out in tubs filled with water from the spring, with pilgrims immersing themselves as part of their pilgrimage. The spring is believed to possess healing powers. Visitors drink the water, wash medicinal plants in it, and attribute curative properties to it.
Local belief further attributes supernatural qualities to the spring. At times, according to attendees, the water even changes color, an event interpreted as an omen of major social or political change. Such beliefs reinforce the perception of the spring as a living and responsive sacred presence.
The shrine’s legends likewise emphasize the role of water at this sacred site. One story, noted above, recounts a great flood that destroyed the surrounding area but left the tomb unharmed. Taken together, these calendrical, female, and hydrological elements form a coherent pattern that supports the interpretation of the Shāh-e Sarāb festival as a local survival of Khordādgān—preserved under an Islamic framework while retaining key elements of the symbolic logic of the ancient, pre-Islamic Iranian festival.
The survival of Khordād in Hazārajāt
Zoroastrian monuments of various sorts are largely absent in northern Afghanistan, reflecting successive religious and cultural transformations in the region.Footnote 49 Over the centuries, Zoroastrianism was gradually obscured beneath multiple layers of religious change. The region became a landscape where Zoroastrianism, Buddhism, Manichaeism, Christianity, and Islam flourished in succession.Footnote 50 Traces of earlier traditions occasionally remain visible. Some former Buddhist sanctuaries now function as mosques, for example.Footnote 51
The prehistory of the region situates the Avestan people of the pre-Achaemenid era (c. 1200–600 BCE) within the Upāirisaēna range, the ancient name for the Hindu Kush mountains. This vast range, often described as the western extension of the Pamir mountains, encompasses much of present-day Afghanistan. Many of the sixteen “good lands” mentioned in the opening chapter of the Vendidad—a primary liturgical text of the Avesta—are believed to have been located in this eastern Iranian Plateau region. The present province of Balkh, corresponding to Greco-Roman Bactria and the Avestan and Old Persian Bāxtriš, was one of the earliest urban centers of the Iranian world. As the first stronghold of the faith in the legendary tradition, the city and region remained an important spiritual center, known for its fire temples and sanctuaries dedicated to Aryan deities. Closely associated with Bactria was Bamiyan (Middle Persian Bāmīgān), which, along with Balkh ī Bāmīg (Brilliant Balkh), served as a religious and cultural stronghold from the Achaemenid period through late antiquity.Footnote 52 Bamiyan itself has been regarded as sacred territory since antiquity and functioned as a center for events related to the Zoroastrian ritual calendar.
In later periods, Balkh and Bamiyan developed into a zone of religious syncretism, where older Zoroastrian traditions gradually gave way to a flourishing Buddhist culture. Trade between Bactria, India, and eventually China passed through the Bamiyan basin, and, as a result, Buddhism spread into Bactria along the Silk Road from the third century BCE. Bamiyan subsequently became a major Buddhist pilgrimage center. Its monumental Buddha statues, carved into the cliffs of the Bamiyan valley, made the site famous throughout the world.Footnote 53 The region also hosted a significant Greek population under the Greco-Bactrian kingdom (256–120 BCE), which introduced elements of Hellenistic polytheism into the local religious landscape. By the fifth century, the Church of the East was established in the region. Under successive political powers—the Kushans, Sasanids, and Hephthalites—the region developed a distinctive cultural synthesis in which deities and traditions from different religions coexisted within the same communities.
The arrival of Islam in the region beginning in the mid-seventh century CE gradually diminished both Zoroastrianism and Buddhism. Central Afghanistan thereafter fell under the rule of successive Sunni Muslim dynasties, yet echoes of Balkh’s ancient sanctity persisted. From the twelfth century onward, the belief that Caliph Ali was buried in Mazar-e Sharif (modern Balkh) transformed the area into a major pilgrimage center, especially during Nowruz.Footnote 54
The most recent religious transformation in Hazārajāt has been Shi’ism’s gradual replacement of Sunnism. The history of the Hazara population itself reflects a complex interplay of linguistic, ethnic, religious, and tribal elements. The Hazaras’ distinctive Altaic physical features point to a Turko-Mongol presence dating back to the thirteenth-century Mongol invasions. Genetic studies indicate East Eurasian paternal haplogroups associated with Mongol expansions alongside predominantly West Eurasian maternal lineages.Footnote 55 This asymmetrical pattern suggests the intermarriage of Mongol or Turkic men and local indigenous women. These women not only transmitted the region’s Iranic cultural and linguistic traditions to subsequent generations, but also introduced the West Eurasian (Caucasoid) phenotypes that remain highly visible among many Hazaras today.
It remains uncertain how the Hazaragi variety of Persian, which preserves a discernible Turko-Mongol lexical substrate, developed. Dulling suggests that the shift to Persian among the Hazara might have taken place toward the end of the eighteenth century.Footnote 56 However, if the genetic evidence reflects sustained patterns of intermarriage of differently defined peoples, the formation of Hazaragi must be pushed back to as early as the thirteenth century, with Persian transmitted through local women, while Mongolian likely persisted longer among groups less affected by such intermarriages.
These successive religious and demographic transformations left Balkh and the Bamiyan highlands with little explicit evidence of ancient Iranian societies and cultures. Yet in the mountainous districts of Hazārajāt—less exposed to the political and religious upheavals that reshaped major urban centers—it is plausible that local traditions preserved residual elements of the Zoroastrian Khordādgān festival. The shrine of Shāh-e Sarāb might represent one such survival and could help explain how traces of this ancient ritual have endured among the Hazara to the present day.
Conclusion
The annual festival of Shāh-e Sarāb in central Afghanistan appears to represent an Islamized continuation of the ancient Iranian month/day festival of Khordādgān. The identification rests primarily on the fixed solar date of the celebration within the Iranian calendar. It is further supported by a set of correspondences connected to ritual and symbolism: the central role of water and ritual bathing, the prominence of female devotional practices and terminology, and the organization of pilgrimage around a life-giving spring. Considered in light of the Zoroastrian calendrical system and the attributes of the female deity Khordād, these elements form a pattern that is unlikely to be coincidental and points to ritual continuity under later religious reinterpretations. Taken together, these features strongly support the interpretation of the festival as a transformed expression of Khordādgān.
The case of Shāh-e Sarāb illustrates how pre-Islamic religious concepts could persist in remote eastern regions of the Iranian Plateau through processes of cultural transformation. In Hazārajāt, geographical isolation and the layering of Zoroastrian, Buddhist, and Shi’i frameworks have created a setting in which an ancient solar ritual could be transformed and endure over time. More broadly, this study suggests that Zoroastrian calendrical festivals—often considered extinct even within contemporary Zoroastrian communities—might still shape popular religious practices in unexpected contexts. The account thus offers a rare window into the long-term continuity of certain Iranian traditions.
Acknowledgement
The authors are especially grateful to Professor Lois Beck, who carefully edited drafts of this paper and offered valuable ethnographic insights. Her feedback substantially improved the article and prompted further research addressing important gaps—not only in documenting the activities involved in the festival, but also in clarifying broader issues concerning the region’s geography and history, Hazara culture, and the chronology of Hazara vernacular expressions, all of which remain poorly discussed in scholarship on Afghanistan and the eastern regions of the Iranian Plateau.We also express our sincere thanks to our informants, who patiently responded to our questions via online communication, despite frequent interruptions caused by poor internet connectivity in Afghanistan. For their safety, we have anonymized their identities, as disclosure could jeopardize their security under Taliban rule.
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