Dargahs of the Indian subcontinent. The Khawja Mohi ud Din Chest
Dargah is just one of such great examples at hand. In times of distress and need, the community kitchens are still set up by Muslims everywhere in Kashmir and outside.
This mosque is dedicated to Bul Bul Shah, the oldest preacher of Islam in Kashmir. KL Image Bilal Bahadur
Lanker is a distorted version of the Persian word
Langar. There are two well-known localities in Srinagar city, namely, Bulbul Langar (Bulbul Lanker) and Jogi Langar.
Bulbul Lanker is located between Ali Kadal and Nawal Kadal, Srinagar. The latter is situated in Rainwari Srinagar.
A papiermâché craftsman at work in Srinagar
| Photo Credit: NISSAR AHMAD
Militancy, a flood, the pandemic Kashmir s ancient art of papier-mâché is at its lowest ebb now, but there may be a ray of hope for the future
Sometime in the 12th century, Omar Khayyam, the Persian poet and astronomer, wrote these lines about love and longing: “Come, fill the cup, and in the fire of spring / The winter garment of repentance fling: The bird of time has but a little way / To fly and Lo! the bird is on the wing.”
Khayyam could never have imagined that his words would be depicted, nearly a millennium later, in a far-off place called Kashmir, on four-foot-high, intricately designed, papier-mâché vases. His poems continue to inspire the masters of papier-mâché art, who live in the narrow bylanes of Srinagar’s Zadibal-Alamgari Bazaar. They have, for centuries, striven to bring to life the literary works of poets, Iranian kings and Mughal emperors, adding their familiar, local