Jammu & the Kashmir Valley

Introducing Jammu & the Kashmir Valley

p>Hemmed in by the Pir Panjal mountains and the western Himalaya, the Kashmir Valley straddles India and Central Asia. In both culture and appearance, this Muslim heartland is closer to Afghanistan or Iran than the neighbouring states of Punjab and Himachal Pradesh. The countryside inside the valley is flat and heavily cultivated, with low, terraced fields delineated by fruit and nut orchards and rows of pin-straight poplar trees, backing onto a wall of snow-capped mountains. Kashmiris even look different to their southern and eastern neighbours, with their green eyes and grey flowing pheran (woollen tunics).

Unless you fly, there are only two routes into the Kashmir Valley – the summer-only highway from Srinagar to Kargil and the southern highway to Jammu, exiting the valley via the 2531m-long Jawahar Tunnel. Once a vision of tranquillity, the valley has been scarred by violence ever since Indian Independence, when the majority-Muslim kingdom joined with India instead of ceding to Pakistan. However, recent peace overtures have gone some way towards quelling the violence, and both Jammu and the Kashmir Valley are safer than they have been since 1989, when the tourist industry collapsed after a series of deadly attacks on foreign tourists.

As this book went to print, Jammu and the Kashmir Valley were the safest they have been for many years. The winter capital, Jammu, is a fascinating metropolis jammed with temples and museums, while the summer capital at Srinagar is a mesmerising sprawl of ancient wooden mosques and bobbing houseboats. In the north, the hill stations of Gulmarg and Pahalgam are once again attracting trekkers and skiers, and growing numbers of travellers are using Srina­gar as the western gateway to Ladakh.

However, certain caveats apply. Violence can flare up suddenly and it would be foolish to visit Kashmir without checking the political situation first.

Last updated: Jan 12, 2011