Paying obeisance,not heed
SAMEER YASIR treks up to the Amarnath cave shrine via Baltal in Sonmarg. He is appalled by the amount of pollution the annual pilgrimage...
Clash of cultures
As caravans of pilgrims on way to Amarnath cave shrine pass through the quaint villages of Pahalgam, the quiet and harmonious social environment gets...
Serving the faith
The conduct of the Amarnath pilgrimage is a garguntaun task every year. A huge number of government employees from almost all the departments have...
The Invisible Palanquin Man
Hundreds of thousands of devout Hindus visit the Kashmir Himalayas every year for pilgrimage to the Amarnath cave shrine. Many old, infirm or rich...
Night at the Graveyard
Cemeteries across the valley witness an unprecedented rush during the night of Shab-e-Baraat. Bilal Handoo reports on this tradition of visiting the final resting...
Loss and Anger
An eyewitness account of the devastating fire at Khanyar last Monday in which the shrine of Dastgeer Sahib was destroyed.
Early Monday morning Khanyar was...
The Revered Dastgeer Sahab
In the heart of Srinagar, the shrine of Dastgeer sahib withstood tests of time for more than two centuries. Kashmir has now lost this...
Neglecting The Essence
Kashmir has slowly been losing its essence - influences and heritage that inform its faith and culture - to callousness and exigencies of conflict...
The Exception
Shrines in Kashmir are regarded by many as places of worship, of hope and promise. But in most of these shrines, women are kept...
Life of A Massacre
A massacre can perpetuate trauma in memory. The scars of Chittisinghpora will never vanish, but 12 years after 35 Sikhs were brutally gunned down...
When Believing ‘Heals’
Despite great advances in medicine, something has remained unchanged. The tradition of faith healing has survived in Kashmir. Shams Irfan caught up with some of...
Cheated by kin
Women, as a group in Muslim majority Kashmir are the poorest section of society with little land holdings or property inspite of Islamic Law...
Seminaries In Focus
Dar-ul-Ulooms and Madrassas have remained part of Kashmir’s Muslim ethos for centuries. Never ever have these institutions, preaching and teaching the faith, landed in...
Faith Accompli
Christian missionary activity in Kashmir has come under a scanner after conversion of some vulnerable individuals. The extremely skewed sex ratio of Christians in...
Pounds, Dollars, and Dinars
A large destitute population notwithstanding, J&K receives only a fraction of the foreign contributions coming into India every year. Kashmir Life profiles some of...