Camel bells are a relevant part of many economies.  People typically use them for milk and the transportation of goods and people. Bells of various tones are attached to camels to help locate them in the bush.

They can also be a valuable commodity, and are featured in works of literature and poetry. In Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner, the Kuchi and the sound of their camel bells form part of the backdrop of the protagonist Amir’s Afghan childhood. 

We chase the Kochi, the nomads who passed through Kabul on their way to the mountains of the north. We would hear their caravans approaching our neighborhood, the mewling of their sheep, the baaing of their goats, the jingle of bells around their camels’ necks. We’d run outside to watch the caravan plod through our street, men with dusty, weather-beaten faces and women recessed in long, colorful shawls, beads, and silver bracelets around their wrists and ankles. We hurled pebbles at their goats. We squirted water on their mules. I’d make Hassan sit on the Wall of Ailing Corn and fire pebbles with his slingshot at the camels’ rears. (Chapter 4, p.26)

Professor Ferdinand J. de Hen, collector of the de Hen Collection, traveled through much of Afghanistan on horseback collecting instruments. While there he also followed a Kuchi tribe on foot for days without making contact; as de Hen recalled, “They have to invite you otherwise they may shoot you…I was finally invited.” This camel bell was one of the instruments that he collected on his visit with the Kuchi nomads.