Hanji’s were living in simple Doonga boats for centuries calling it home yet the term houseboat as we now understand in relation to tourism can be assigned to this boat built on order of Akbar. We are still centuries away from story of houseboats as we see them today in between we read about Aurangzeb’s attempt in around 1655 to build ships to compete with Europeans, Italians. Were sent to build the ship in waters of Kashmir.

Boatmens was a trade involving in life Abu’l Fazl in his “Ain-e-Akbari” observes that life in Kashmir revolves around boats. They are everywhere. This was true even a few decades back. Food rashan arrived in big ‘Bahat’ boats. Hanji’s as a tribe is categorized as semi-nomadic, the people worked in various trades on seasons like growing vegetable and tourism.

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