Dynamic asynchronous forms and web pages without using client-side Javascript possible?

Dynamic asynchronous forms and web pages without using client-side
Javascript possible?

I am trying to find out if it is possible to develop dynamic asynchronous
forms and web pages without using any form of client-side programming or
scripting. So basicaly I'm trying to have the benefits of AJAX and DOM
manipulation without using Javascript at all. If possible I'd like to have
all the programming done server side in Python or a similar language. I'm
trying really hard to circumvent using Javascript in web development. I
just don't want to get into it or remotely touch it with a stick.
I came across AHAH (Asynchronous HTML and HTTP) and it seems interesting.
However I was reading that the (X)HTML retrieved "cannot be on local on
your file system". Apparently, "you must FTP your HTML document onto a Web
site. And the HTML document(s) that you are fetching must also reside on a
Web site." (source: http://www.xfront.com/microformats/AHAH.html) Anyone
tried this and can confirm this? I find that not very practical. It would
make more sense to host everything in the same file system on the same
server.
Also a disadvantage of AHAH is that it seems to not be able to manipulate
the DOM, meaning it is somewhat restricted to what it can do. Your
placeholder have to already be there in your web page and then you can
retrieve (X)HTML fragment to fill these placeholder.
Does anyone know of some ways to have dynamic asynchronous web pages and
also manipulate the DOM without using Javascript? I'm okay with anything
server-side since I can pretty much use any language that I want. Worst
case scenario I guess I could have a nice interactive web site without
having to manipulate the DOM, but I think modern web sites have to be
asynchronous. It is kind of a deal breaker for me, having to reload a page
for every slight changes.