The Hunza Longevity Myth

John Clark did not make any mention whatsoever about the Hunza people living to an especially old age. The British general who first visited Hunza in the 1870s said there were old people but gave no indication as to the ages. At that time in history a person beyond 50 years of age was considered to be well beyond the average life expectancy.

This picture shows old Hunza men who proclaim to a visitor that they are more than 100 years of age. They appear to be 70 to 80 years of age which would be more accurate. Because this is a recent picture taken by tourists, these gentlemen were probably never born or raised in Hunza. They most likely arrived from other areas of Pakistan, drawn to the opportunity of collecting a gratuity from the unsuspecting traveler for the privilege of taking their picture.

Hunzakuts are known for their folklore and story telling as are most primitive people. After switching from being a warrior people to a peaceful people the Hunzakuts developed a highly over-inflated opinion of themselves. They thought the British soldiers had come to surrender to their leadership. They viewed themselves as living in the land of perfect, and they claimed theirs was the perfect society. They were and continue to be very much in denial of their true situation. This attitude is not uncommon among primitive peoples. Arctic explorer Vilhjalmur Stefansson reported a very similar attitude among the primitive Eskimos who had never seen a white man. The Eskimos bragged that their Shaman (religious leader) could kill a bear on the other side of the mountain with a bow and arrow, and that he could travel to the Moon, converse with the people living there and return. The Eskimo considered themselves to be far superior to the white man who admitted to having never been to the moon. This was in 1910 before white man did travel to the Moon, walk on the surface and return, although not finding the people whom the Eskimo claimed lived there.

Exaggerations of the longevity of the Hunza people have exploded because the British General reported that the Hunza people lived to a healthy old age. Some claims are now being made that the Hunzakuts lived 150 to 200 years of age. These claims are pure nonsense. The claim that the people lived to 110 years of age is also false. The thought of a Garden of Eden has many imaginations running wild. The following is a typical example of the myths being propagated wildly.

"The Hunza of the title is a valley in the Himalayan foothills of northern Pakistan. The Hunza people are best known for their healthy diet and lifestyle that supposedly result in people living to the age of 150 and having an active sex life until the age of 200 — or something like that."

The health of the present day Hunza is known for certain. The following is a present day observation.

"As someone who has lived and worked in the Hunza and Baltistan region of northern Pakistan for a decade, it is important to first debunk the myth that the Burushushki, Wakhi and Shina people of the Hunza region are blessed with the lives of Methusula. This was actually a myth which gained momentum when it was written up by Dr. Alexander Leaf, in the January 1973 issue of National Geographic magazine. There is absolutely no scientific validity to his claim. People of the Hunza suffer from malnutrition and nutrition deficiencies just as much as any other remote mountain region in SE Asia. Although the predominantly Ismaeli faith (branch of Shi-ite muslims) are progressive and relatively better off than most of their neighbours in nearby regions, they will all tell any visitor, that their life expectancy is around 50 - 60 years, just like any other region of northern Pakistan."

The lack of resources left the Hunza people in a constant struggle to obtain their food, and the mountain farming on the sides of the steep rocky valley required a lot of hard work. The caloric intake was naturally low and never in abundance. This combination of factors prevented the Hunza people from becoming obese and lead to the avoidance of diseases caused by a diet with an abundance of carbohydrates.

The Mir gave Renee Taylor the secret to the longevity claim of the Hunzakuts, but she totally missed the implication. He said,

"Age has nothing to do with the calendar." See page 51.

Taylor confirmed that the people did not look to be as old as they claimed.

"He looked about fifty, but he told me that he was about eighty." See page 60.

The Hunzakuts had developed the practice of equating age with wisdom, experience and achievement. A wise farmer of 50 years of age who had accumulated much more than the average farmer could rightly claim to be 120 years of age instead of his truly 50 calendar years. Taylor said she saw a man playing and jumping at a game of volleyball who said he was 145 years old but looked to be only 50 or maybe 60. See page 63. Taylor ties to lead the reader into believing these men were very old. In fact they were not. It is doubtful that they were even 50 or 60. The dry, dusty air of Hunza and the nutritional deficiencies more likely made the people look much older than they really were. This man was probably between 40 and 50 years of age but claimed to be 145 years old.

Renee Taylor made no attempt assemble the descendants of any of the older people in order to gain some confirmation as to age. It certainly would have made a point if she had taken a picture, but it was impossible to take a picture of eight living generations because the man's age was a big lie. She could have easily taken such a picture if "nobody ever gets sick in Hunza." The picture would have been interesting and looked something like this.

• Man claiming to be 145 years of age jumping and playing volley ball.

• Son of 125 years of age.

• Grandson of 105 years of age.

• Great grandson of 85 years of age.

• Great great grandson of 65 years of age.

• Great great great grandson of 45 years of age.

• Great great great great grandson of 25 years of age.

• Great great great great great grandson of 5 years of age.

Many pictures have been taken in Hunza of family groups by visitors showing babies with their father and grandfather. These grandfathers are unlikely to be any older than they appear. They are perhaps 50 years of age as is common for a grandfather, not 120 years of age as some books falsely claim.