Kashmiris describe Kashmir as Paradise on Earth, but in 2000 Bill Clinton called it “the most dangerous place in the world.” After the partition of the Indian subcontinent along religious lines in 1947 at independence, Kashmir hesitated to join Pakistan despite its 77% Muslim population.  Pakistan invaded and Kashmir called on India for assistance. India ousted the Pakistanis on the condition that Kashmir join India.  This was the beginning of the conflict over Kashmir. In 1965, they fought another India-Pakistan war, largely in Kashmir.  Some Islamic extremists demanded that Kashmir join Pakistan and used it as a battleground for religious Jihad, committing acts of terrorism.  India’s hundreds of thousands of troops in the region resulted in violent crackdowns and misbehavior that alienated many Kashmiris.  So some Kashmiris demanded independence and began their own campaign of violence.

1998, both India and Pakistan detonated nuclear weapons and revealed their nuclear capabilities to the world, bringing their relationship to the brink of a very frightening cliff.  Then in 1999, they fought a small war in Kargil on the border of Kashmir.  That short war was resolved without nuclear holocaust (thankfully), but Kashmir continued to be the battlefield for a proxy war between the Indian Army and Pakistani-backed terrorists. Surprisingly though, the level of conflict in Kashmir has decreased, possibly due to the war in Afghanistan and the focus of militants and Pakistan on that side of the country.  It seemed safe to travel, so I made my way here.  I’ve been fascinated by the region for a long time and my recent re-reading of Salman Rushdie’s Shalimar the Clown made me believe the trip was worth it.

I took a train from Delhi to Jammu.  Then I quickly boarded a shared jeep from Jammu to Srinagar.  The shared jeep trip was crazy because Indian drivers are crazy and the road is narrow, in poor shape, and weaves through the Himalayan mountains.  Honestly, I should just blindfold myself.  Indian driving is controlled chaos.  There’s a method to the madness that sees most cars through safely, but to a foreigner used to paved, well marked highways, death seems imminent every five minutes or so.  After 13 hours, a little mid-travel brake work (on a mountain road!) and a random 3 hour traffic jam in a tiny village caused by a holy day and a Sikh pilgrimage site, we finally reached Srinagar.  I grabbed a rickshaw to a hotel and washed and slept.

I’m tempted to say that Srinagar is a beautiful city on a lake, but I’m realizing that large portions of every Indian city will be ugly and dirty.  The beautiful parts of Srinagar are fantastic though.  It is famous for its houseboats.  These boats are intricately carved from wood and clustered on its lake.  They are filled with wooden furniture and kashmiri upholstery, cloth, etc.  I’m staying in one on Nageen Lake, which is a smaller, cleaner, quieter lake offshoot of the main Dal Lake.  It’s quite nice and the owner Altaf is very careful to make sure I’m happy.  I recommend him to anyone coming here.  He runs the Shahenshah group of houseboats.  You can see his houseboat here.
Altaf organized a ride around the lakes for me for the next day.  I rode in a shikara, which is a small wooden boat, often made up with a curtained cover and filled with cushions to sit on.  It’s supposed to make you feel like a maharaja and, paddling through the lotus filled lake, it doesn’t do a bad job.  Portions of the lake are gorgeous and are filled with lilies, birds and islands of vegetables.

Around the lake we visited several Mughal gardens which date back six centuries.  Like most Mughal sites in India I’ve seen so far, their splendor is dampened a little by wear and lack of upkeep, but at some angles, they’re spectacular and they provide a nice respite from a warm day.

We also visited a carpet store.  Around Kashmir, I am often pushed to buy handicrafts, which is typical of any tourist place.  But Kashmir is a little different because they have some really wonderful handmade crafts.  Kashmiri carpets, pashmina shawls, kashmir blue sapphires:  A lot of the names we know as top top quality are hand made in Kashmir.  So it’s a pretty good place to buy some things that aren’t just worthless knick knacks.

The next day I visited the old city.  Srinagar and the surrounding Kashmir valley are almost entirely Muslim.  Ages ago, they were Buddhist, like nearby Ladakh and Tibet across the mountains.  Then they shifted to Hinduism before being converted to Islam starting in the 1300s or so.  The most interesting sites in the old city are the ancient mosques which, unlike any other mosques in the world, are made of wood.  Check out the pictures to see the beautifully intricate wooden mosque from the 1300s, the first mosque in Kashmir, parts of which are made of paper mache! The largest mosque, Jama Masjid has hundreds of wooden pillars holding up four spires.  The old town itself lies wrapped around the river since, in ancient Kashmir, everything travelled by boat and the river was the only way in and out of the valley.

It happens to be Ramadan here, so everyone is fasting and religion is front and center.  I’ll end the entry by saying that I’ve seen and heard of no violence, and gotten positive reactions from everyone, even when I say I’m American.  Famous last words, but it feels more like paradise than the most dangerous place on earth.