The Splendor of Afghanistan and the Stories Told by Nancy Dupree

The Five O’Clock Follies and the Mesmerizing Beauty of Afghanistan

As American Historian and Author Nancy Dupree first travels to Badakhshan, a region in the northeastern part of Afghanistan to accompany her husband American Archeologist Louis Dupree perform archeological digging there for a couple of months, she discovers the countryside Afghanistan women are completely different from how they are portrayed by Western media. 

Dupree discovers that the Western view of the Afghan women has nothing in common with the reality she encounters. These women are not suppressed or put down so tenaciously announced by Western press.

While on archaeological quests Nancy and Louis Dupree usually rent a house in the local village and thus become a part of the local scene.

Nancy Dupree finds the local Women and men to show mutual respect. She overhears how when a man wants to eat while the wife is busy the latter tells him to prepare his own meal. Women, men and children work together side by side on the bountiful fields harvesting tasty peas and mouth-watering water melons. The Dupree’s participate in lucious local harvest festivals were men, children and women alike take part.

Badakhshan is the home of the mythical Wakhan Corridor, breathtakingly beautiful Pamir mountains where the snow leopard roams, the national animal of Afghanistan. 

As I myself started exploring Afghanistan in 2012 Nancy Hatch Dupree is a living legend. Everywhere I go there are stories about her, told with fondness and respect. Nancy Hatch Dupree is an internationally recognized expert on the history, art, and archaeology of Afghanistan.

She is renowned for spreading knowledge about Afghanistan and its cultural heritage.

After hearing about the extraordinary lives of Nancy Hatch Dupree and her husband American Archeologist Louis Dupree I am intrigued. 

By then, in the years 2012, 2013, Nancy Dupree is well over 80, a frail and delicate looking lady, affectionately referred to as the grandmother of Afghanistan – someone who carries profound knowledge about the country. Nancy Dupree is the director of the Afghanistan Center at Kabul University. There is were the vast collection of documents on Afghanistan she and her husband collected, are kept. I am exited to meet her. 

Nancy Hatch Dupree first arrives in Afghanistan in 1962 as a diplomat’s wife.

The Bamiyan Valley is enclosed in the high mountains of the Hindu Kush in the central highlands of Afghanistan. The valley has an altitude of 2,500 metres and follows the line of the Bamiyan River.

Bamiyan is a magical place. I usually go there by plane from Kabul. The flight is typically around $100 USD and takes one hour. You travel in a small plane and weather conditions determine on when you can fly. It is common to be stranded in Bamiyan for longer, so plan for extra time.

Bamiyan is historically significant. It was an important location in the trade routes that spanned from China to India through present-day Afghanistan.

Merchants passing through this natural corridor from the earliest days of the Silk Roads brought languages, beliefs and traditions together.

Bamiyan served as a major religious and cultural centre throughout the Middle Ages and played an important part in spreading Buddhism across Central Asia.

Evidence suggests that Buddhist monks settled in the Bamiyan Valley nd it grew into a major monastic centre. Bamiyan is frequently mentioned in Chinese texts from the 5th century AD onwards.

Two two colossal niches in the cliff side that contained large standing Buddha figures, perveived to have been erected in the 5th century, and standing 55m and 38m high respectively, which were destroyed by the Taliban in 2001 reveal the Buddhist era of Bamiyan.

The niches are flanked by dozens of artificial caves.
A number of these caves are adorned with frescoes. Together they consitute a huge monastic ensemble thought to date from the 3rd to 5th century AD.

One hour by car west of Bamiyan are the Band-e-Amir Lakes. Have you ever been there? If not, I highly recommend a trip there when you get the chance. It’s one of the most beautiful places I have ever encountered.

In my opinion the area is one of the most beautiful places on earth. I have never seen a such a blue as the water as in the lakes of Band-e-Amir. The whole are is so peaceful and clean. Pristine. Or as Nancy Dupree wrote in her 1970 guide to Afghanistan, that a full description about Band-e Amir would “rob the uninitiated of the wonder and amazement it produces on all who gaze upon it”. The very intense crystal clear blue color of the water is apparently due to the clarity of the air, the purity of the water and the high mineral content.

In 2009 Band-e-Amir was declared the first nationalpark of Afghanistan.

On a diplomat field trip to Bamiyam Nancy Dupree is assigned to be the guide for the guests.

When Nancy Dupree afterwards in a conversation with Mr Abdul Wahab Tarzi, the head of the newly established Department of Tourism, points out there doesn’t exist a guide book on Bamiyan, saying: “Mr Tarzi, it’s a scandal,” Bamiyan is one of the most beautiful places in the world”, mr Tarzi gives Nancy Dupree the assignment to write one.

It is in the splendour of the Afghanistan setting, Nancy Dupree meets the love of her life, American Archeologist Louis Dupree. They both share a deep love and fascination for Afghanistan.

Louis, who first started working in Afghanistan in 1948, is by then, in the early 1960s, already a renowned and highly regarded archaeologist and scholar of Afghan culture and history, conducting archaeological excavations throughout the country. With a larger than life air about him, Louis Dupree is regarded a legend.

With her and Louis its love at first sight. The day they first encounter they become a couple. Nancy and Louis both divorce their spouses.

At that time, Nancy Dupree is busy with another guide book. To find peace and solitude she usually rides to Paghman, a small village in the mountains outside of Kabul. There one day, she notices an unusual bird nesting. It’s the hoopoe bird, a colorful bird with a distinctive crown of feathers. An Afghan friend tells her according to Afghan folkelore when you see a hoopoe nesting close to you, you will receive good news before the sun sets.

That same evening as Louis returns from an archeological trip, he get down on his knees and proposes.

Based on this incident Nancy Dupree writes the article ”The role of Hoopoe in Afghan Folklore and Magic.”

The couple marry in the Bagh-e Bala Palace, the former royal palace in Kabul, on a snow covered February day in 1966, Nancy dressed in velvety blue. Snow on the wedding day promises a happy and prosperous marriage accordning to Afghan tradition and the wedding is huge. The palace, built in 1800s is located at a hilltop in the Bagh-e Bala park – The High Garden park – near Karte Parwan. The area is surrounded by majestic pine trees.

The newly married couple work closely together. Kabul in the 1960s is a vibrant and joyous place. Its famous for its astonishing gardens – colorful flowers in luscious abundance. Wealthy citizens throw extravagant parties almost every night. People from all over the world reside in Kabul – by some called Paris of the East. The city is friendly, lavish, colorful and full of activity. Many citizens keep horses and the Duprees also devote much of their time horseback riding.

Weekends are spent solializing in Pagham, winters are spent skiing. A location close to Ghazni serves as a popular skiing resort. Many Afghans are great skiiers.

In the 60s and early 70s tourists start exploring Afghanistan. Hippies are frequent visitors. Many of them are just passing through on their way to spiritual leaders in India or Nepal. Others come for the Afghan Black – hashish, considered top quality. Also adventure tourists with money on their hand who want to break new ground travel to Afghanistan. They have explored countries like China and Iran and after now after something even more unexplored. They want the roughness of unexplored territory and at the same time the – for Afghan standards – luxurious commodities of electricity, hot running water, comfortable and large rooms and bars were they can have a drink.

The Dupree couple work closely together and are a common sight driving around Kabul in their Land Rover. Nancy is busy writing guide books, doing research, giving lectures, Louis devoting his time to archeological excavations.

Duprees travel all over Afghanistan on their archeological endeavours. When at home in Kabul they spend their busy days writing, in their house with a beautifully luscious garden in the residential area Shahr-e-Nau. Nancy in the main building, Louis in another building across the garden.

Seen as experts on Afghan art, history and culture, people start paying the Duprees visits to retrieve information on all kind of work related topics.
These house calls become so frequent the couple decide, to be able to keep their work days undisturbed, they open their home for guests when the work day is over, at 5 pm.

That is how the Five O’clock follies are born. It is soon common knowledge that at 5 pm sharp the doors and bar open at the Duprees. The gatherings are immensely popular and grow large, frequented by Afghans and Westerners alike.

Nancy Dupree ends up writing five guidebooks for the Afghan Tourist Organization. Her work primarily focus on the history of modern Afghanistan. She compiles the books while studying the history of Afghanistan from 1962 until the late 1970s. She writes about tourism and history of Bamyan, Kabul, Kandahar, Herat, Mazar-i-Sharif.

Nancy Dupree grows to be an internationally recognized expert on the history, art, and archaeology of Afghanistan. Nancy and Louis Dupree dedicate a lifetime to documenting and preserving Afghanistan’s cultural heritage.

The Duprees are forced to leave Afghanistan in 1979 after the Soviet invasion.

During the invasion many priceleess books and historical documents are sold as fuel and the couple decided to intervene. With fierce determination they start collecting every book and document they can get hold of.

In order to preserve all these works, Nancy and Louis forms the Agency Coordinating Body for Afghan Relief (ACBAR). The couple amass a vast collection of books, maps, photographs and even rare recordings of folk music, which now are all housed at Kabul University.
They collect both government and non-government documents that relate to the country’s history, culture, the Soviet-Afghan War, and later, the Mujahedeen, and the Taliban.

Louis Dupree passes in 1989. Nancy Dupree continues to work, devoting her time to educating both Afghans and the world about Afghanistan’s cultural heritage. She returns to live in her beloved Afghanistan in 2003. She passes there in 2017 at the age of almost 90.