A CANADIAN IN CENTRAL ASIA, 1970S
The following account of the sexual liaisons of a Canadian with boys in Central Asia (perhaps only Pakistan) is from Chapter 9, “The Impact of Other Cultures” of Parker Rossman’s Sexual Experience Between Men and Boys (originally published in 1976). This chapter of Dr. Rossman’s book, introduced here and intended to show how pederasts from repressive countries were changed by their experiences in accepting ones is a primary source for the history of Greek love, drawing on his interviews of the men involved. The experiences of the Canadian of the title are undated, but appear to be recent to the time of writing.
A Canadian in Central Asia
There are areas in Iran, Afghanistan, Russian Central Asia, and Pakistan where man-boy sex play is considered to be merely “a pleasant and amusing experience, a necessity just as food and drink.”[1] A German newspaper[2] reported that in 1963 alone almost 3,000 boys were prepared in secret Pakistani brothels for male prostitution, many of them for export. Novelists like Michener,[3] and explorers from years ago have described the popularity of boys as sex partners in the region: “ … the young men of Boukara enjoyed three types of amusement: hunting, music, and sex play with favorite boys. I was astonished at the open way, without any shame, that they spoke of the latter.”[4]
An Italian mountain climber wrote: “Everyone here talks about it [the sex play between men and boys] quite openly. If you want a girl you first court her younger brother.” He tells of the almost mystical spell cast upon his audience by a sexy dancing boy, and then reports: “A father is jolly proud here if his boy goes with one of us.”[5] A Canadian reported on his experiences in the region: “At home I had an affair with a youngster when I was in my late teens, and then, sadly, I thought I had to give that all up as kid stuff however much it was in my blood. But then my job took me to Central Asia. I thought I could only be a voyeur there because of language problems, even when I found that there hadn’t been much change in sexual culture in the last thousand years or so. By the age of ten or twelve a boy is considered an adult who can decide such things for himself. While girls are highly protected, it is assumed that boys must learn to cope with the constant banter about homosexuality, the songs, folk tales, ballads and folk sayings. With the coming of motion pictures, it is no longer true that dancing boys are the favorite entertainment. As the region has become westernized, pederasty has tended to go underground to remain largely as prostitution. I met a cabdriver in Lahore who spoke some English. He offered to help me find a boy who would go for a ride into the country with me, indeed we simply drove until I saw a boy who appealed to me, and then the cabdriver made the arrangements. He wouldn’t talk about sex matters though, when I sought more information. He said that was personal and private. He helped me find a student who was willing to take me to some villages - we would call them towns - where people were willing to talk openly about pederasty, although we had to charm a few palms with silver to get things started. I met several fathers who invited me to take their young sons back to Lahore with me for a few days. The student introduced me to two different types of boys, aged twelve to fourteen. Some were passive youngsters who were available for employment as houseboys, cooks or whatever. He said they would be very docile, obedient, and dull. Others - by far the vast majority - were hardy, tough, fiercely independent and masculine, mountain boys who take a comrade on sexually with the same rough spirit with which they play a brutal kind of polo. All this is lots of fun, like playing with a tiger. Since the girls are segregated and, besides, have a kind of rigid puritanism to overcome before they break free to express their sexual desires and needs, such boys ‘build up almost unbearable erotic tensions.’ In bed, once they have proven they are strongest, the wild tigers become playful kittens. I’ve decided it is somewhat the same at home, too. I would have thought I was afraid of tigers, but now that I’ve become an adventurer, I’m ready for and seeking all sorts of new surprises.”
[1] T. Coffin, The Sex Kick (New York, 1966), p. 37. [Author’s footnote 15]
[2] Stephen Barclay, Bondage (New York, 1968), p. 177. [Author’s footnote 16]
[3] James Michener, Caravans (New York, 1963) [Author’s footnote 17]. This novel was set in Afghanistan and referred briefly in only one chapter to the sexual popularity of dancing boys there.
[4] B. G. Meyendorff, Voyage d’Orenberg à Boukhara (Paris, 1826), pp. 284-85; Louis Dupree, Afghanistan (Princeton, 1973), p. 198. [Author’s footnote 18]
[5] Fosco Maraini, Where Four Worlds Meet (New York, 1964), p. 87. [Author’s footnote 19]. The setting is the Hindu Kush.
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