The Bakarwal (also Bakkarwal, Bakharwal, Bakrawala and Bakerwal)

The Bakarwal of Kashmir

The Bakarwal (also Bakkarwal, Bakharwal, Bakrawala and Bakerwal) community is listed as scheduled tribes along with gujjars in jammu and kashmir in 1991. As a nomadic tribe they spread over a large part starting from pir-panjal range to hindkush to ladakh located in himalayan mountains of south Asia. They are goat herders and shepherds at […]

Gujjar-of-Kashmir

Gurjar or Gujjar of Kashmir

Gurjar or Gujjar (also transliterated as Gujar, Gujara and Gujjer) is an ethnic agriculture and pastoral community of India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. Although traditionally they have been involved in agriculture, Gurjars are a large heterogeneous group that is internally differentiated in terms, culture, religion, occupation and socio-economic status. The historical role of Gujjars has been […]

Hanji-of-Kashmir

Hanji’s of Kashmir

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 […]

Muslims-of-Kashmir

Kashmiri Muslims

Kashmiri Muslims by Ahanger HOBO Islam came to Kashmir in the very beginning through the Ladakh king Rinchen(widely known as Rinchen-Shah) who, ultimately impressed by the simple teaching of Sufi Islam from Bulbul shah, beloved poet of Kashmir and the first Muslim faqir to visit the valley, converted to Islam to consolidate his reportedly otherwise […]

Kashmiri-Pandits

Kashmiri Pandits

Kashmiri Pandits are descendants from the ancient times of the Aryan tribes of the north “the Indus Valley tribes” when the water of the Saraswati river were the sources of life. Unfortunately, after changing its course several times, the saraswati dried up and thus the people known as saraswat brahmins, kshatrayas and vaisas left this […]

Kashmiri-People

Kashmiri People

“Kashmiri” is a wide term, which has loosely been applied for several streams of immigrants from Turkey, Iran, Central Asia and Afghanistan. Other settlers have been claimed from anywhere as far as Greece, where it is claimed Alexander “The Great’ troops were captivated both by the beauty of the landscape and the women, stayed on […]

Chinar-Kashmir

Chinar Kashmir

Chinar “Atanus orientalis”Bouin”, is the most gigantic tree found everywhere in the valley. Its growth to a full size (over 100 feet)takes hundreds of years. Known for palm shaped leaves of up to 10 inche sin length with pendulous burr likes pherical flowers. The shade of Chinar provides cool breeze during Summers, its shade has […]

Handicraft-Kashmir

History of Handicrafts

History of Handicrafts by Ahanger HOBO. Emperor Zain-ul-Abidin introduced art of papier mashie, wood carving, stone cutting & polishing, and also developed the silk, shawl and carpet weaving in valley. It is said that art and craft developed under the patronage of Sultan who brought in the master artisans from Samarqand and Bukhara, he provided […]

Wazwan

Wazwan KASHMIRI CUISINE

The wazwan is a multi-course meal in the Kashmiri Muslim tradition and is treated with great respect by the Kashmiri people. Its preparation, by trained ‘Wazzas” is considered an art! Itis served at all the major occasions, particularly the famous and extravagant Kashmiri wedding where it can be prepared for up to two thousand people […]

Koshur "Kashmiri Language"

Kashmiri Language (Koshur)

Kashmiri Language (Koshur) by Ahanger HOBO Kashmiri has a very large phoneme inventory: 32 vowels and 62 consonants, giving that vowel nasalization and consonant palatalization are phonemic and not phonetic Mixture of Aryan and Naga script gave rise to Sharda script which in course of time changed into Sanskrit with a mixture of Dardic and […]