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In 1987 Akiko Wada left her bustling hi-tech metropolis in Japan to go backpacking with friends around the remote mountains of northern Pakistan. But once she discovered the beautiful village of Balanguru and the unique Kalash tribe that lived there, she decided to stay.
An island of high-altitude tranquility within a sea of violent change, she adopted Balanguru as her new home and decided to "become Kalash" and adopt a simple life - no phones, no television and, at the time I was visiting, no electricity.
She might even be the first foreigner to adopt the mountain tribe as her own, but she says that the regular stream of anthropologists who lived among them allowed the Kalash people to become accustomed to outsiders.
"They are very happy that someone stays with them, they welcome it. They are a minority so they feel proud if someone from outside joins them," she said.
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I find some of these taboo traditions very annoying
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Akiko Wada
The Kalash are not Muslim: they worship their ancestors as well as a pantheon of 12 gods and goddesses.
She learned the language and never looked back.
But it was a different story back home in Japan. Her father was incensed and she was not allowed to return to his house for almost a decade. Now her parents are elderly and she has been to visit them, although her immediate family has never come to see her in her new mountain home.
Friends no longer come either, she says, as they are afraid to visit Pakistan because of the violence.
Akiko says she chose to stay because she was impressed by the Kalash's self-sufficient lifestyle.
"They follow nature, they are self-dependent, weave their own dresses. It is not like working in the office. It attracted me."
She even married into the tribe, but the relationship foundered.
"We are separated now. He used to help and he used to be co-operative. Through him I thought I could do something for the community, like I thought of it as a dream but he changed."
BBC News - The Japanese tourist who joined Pakistani mountain tribe
An island of high-altitude tranquility within a sea of violent change, she adopted Balanguru as her new home and decided to "become Kalash" and adopt a simple life - no phones, no television and, at the time I was visiting, no electricity.
She might even be the first foreigner to adopt the mountain tribe as her own, but she says that the regular stream of anthropologists who lived among them allowed the Kalash people to become accustomed to outsiders.
"They are very happy that someone stays with them, they welcome it. They are a minority so they feel proud if someone from outside joins them," she said.
Continue reading the main story
Start Quote
I find some of these taboo traditions very annoying
End Quote
Akiko Wada
The Kalash are not Muslim: they worship their ancestors as well as a pantheon of 12 gods and goddesses.
She learned the language and never looked back.
But it was a different story back home in Japan. Her father was incensed and she was not allowed to return to his house for almost a decade. Now her parents are elderly and she has been to visit them, although her immediate family has never come to see her in her new mountain home.
Friends no longer come either, she says, as they are afraid to visit Pakistan because of the violence.
Akiko says she chose to stay because she was impressed by the Kalash's self-sufficient lifestyle.
"They follow nature, they are self-dependent, weave their own dresses. It is not like working in the office. It attracted me."
She even married into the tribe, but the relationship foundered.
"We are separated now. He used to help and he used to be co-operative. Through him I thought I could do something for the community, like I thought of it as a dream but he changed."
BBC News - The Japanese tourist who joined Pakistani mountain tribe
