Religion in Jammu-Kashmir-Ladakh

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Parvéz Dewân can send you to sleep about Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh. If anyone has the Ultimate Dossier on this region, it is he, after years of running about India’s northernmost state, administering and adventuring his way around its valleys, peaks and rivers. He once decided to climb up a steep, almost sheer, mountain, and trek through forests of the nearly extinct burza/ bhoj patr, to check tribal chief Haji Muhammad Rafique Bocken’s report that his son-in- law, Ghulam Quadir, had seen a cave temple dedicated to Lord Shiv… Some Shiite Muslims in Trespon told him that, unknown to the world, Kartse Khar, which was some distance away, had a seven-metre seventh-century, Bamiyan-style Buddha carved in stone… Some Ladakhi Buddhists informed him about the remotely located Wangchuk Chhenmo (Lord Shiv) cave, which could be the Amarnath of Ladakh. And on his own he noticed a Kargah-style Buddha sculpted into a sheer, impossible rockface on the highway near Khaltse. All this was possible only because of the Almighty One who also made sure that as the Convenor of the state Haj Committee Parvez was able to send almost three times as many people for Haj as the quota allotted to the state—a feat not even remotely equalled before or after. As the founder-CEO of the Sri Amarnath ji Shrine Board, he saw offerings at the shrine triple in his first year—and grow exponentially after that. The annual All-India Devotional Songs Competition that he founded at the base camp of the shrine of Sri Mata Vaishno Devi ji —a year or two before American Idol went on air—has become a national institution.The first competition was won by a Muslim (who won again later) and the second by a Sikh. And then there has been the unbelievable growth in pilgrim traffic to Shiv Khori…In this book, which covers (almost) every aspect of religion in Jammu,Kashmir and Ladakh, Parvez Dewan shares in detail his excitement and interest in the fabled land that has been the arena of his adult life: through an up-to-date yet timeless guide to the magical trinity of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh that crowns the sub-continent of India.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Parvez Dewan

Parvez Dewan was educated at St. Stephen's College, Delhi, and the University of Cambridge, and was elected a Visiting Research Fellow of Queen Elizabeth House, Oxford University. He hitchhiked through Nicaragua to study its total literacy miracle and trawled Cambodia and Central Asia for their architectural links to Kashmir's temples and shrines. An officer of the Indian Administrative Service, he is currently the Divisional Commissioner of Kashmir. Two of his libretti were recorded as rock operas in Denmark, a third was telecast on Britain's Channel Four (and none of the three was ever heard of again). At St. Stephen's he was elected President of the College Union society and was awarded the L. Raghubir singh History Prize for ranking first in his B.A. (Hons.) class. At Cambridge, he was awarded the Jennings Prize in 1987 for obtaining the highest marks, and a distinction, in the Development Studies class. He was the Senior Treasurer of the Cambridge University (C.U.) Friends of the Earth and was also with the C.U. Green Party. Most of the publications that Parvez has written for had to fold up (Youth Times, JS, The Hindustan times Evening News, The Metropolitan on Saturday, Shama (Urdu) and such sections of The Times of India as he regularly contributed to). However, some survived (notably the Times of India, India Today, The Hindustan Times, The Statesman and Stardust).