In Gurez Valley, a lone man is archiving the Dard-Shin story

The Dard-Shin tribe, which as soon as dominated giant elements of Kashmir within the Sixteenth Century and is now nestled within the Gurez valley with Pakistan border posts within the yard, has discovered an archiver in Basheer Ahmad Teroo.

For the previous three years, Mr. Teroo, 48, has been travelling the size and breadth of what was as soon as often known as Dardistan, accumulating vestiges of his neighborhood’s tradition – objects that he has begun storing and displaying at his house in Dawar city.

In 2022, simply as India was popping out of the COVID-19 pandemic, Mr. Teroo mentioned his mom had gifted him 75 objects – jewelry, kitchen utensils, footwear, clothes amongst others. “I bear in mind she mentioned it was for safekeeping. These had been issues that reminded her of our neighborhood and the way we have now lived. I simply thought one morning, why not do one thing with it,” he recalled. 

He began displaying the objects each time he would go to the Dard-Shin folks throughout the Gurez area, together with Tulail, the place the neighborhood is concentrated. In three years, Mr. Teroo has amassed 457 vintage objects – starting from a lady’s 20-year-old marriage ceremony pheran to a 107-year-old picket horse saddle – all donated or offered by folks of the neighborhood, most of whom have discovered Mr. Teroo as an alternative of him in search of them out.

“The web has helped. I put out pictures on Facebook, and my visits additionally assist. So, folks attain out to me themselves. Sometimes, they simply need to go away a bit that represents their neighborhood’s tradition in safekeeping, similar to my mom did. There are tons of of extra objects which are at the moment within the pipeline, and I’ve additionally began the work of logging and cataloguing them,” he informed The Hindu whereas exhibiting round his small house which additionally doubles up because the Dard-Shin Museum.

Right outdoors Mr. Teroo’s house sits a gray log with a deep washbasin-like despair. “This is a washer. We fill it up with water, put our garments in it, after which stomp on it with our toes to rinse it. It helps with heavy supplies that our neighborhood is used to sporting,” he mentioned, earlier than continuing to point out a room in his museum that displayed conventional clothes of the Dard-Shin folks, fabricated from sheep’s wool.

While one room of the museum homes clothes and jewelry objects, the second room has every day family and farm objects corresponding to horse saddles fabricated from wooden, footwear comprised of grass amongst others. There is a group of Shina literature and poetry written by eminent Dard-Shin writers. “These will remind the Dard-Shin folks of their neighborhood’s identification and which of it they need to protect,” Mr. Teroo mentioned, exhibiting a cigarette case gifted to a Dard-Shin man by Maharaja Hari Singh within the early Forties.

The Dard-Shin is classed as a Scheduled Tribe by the India authorities and the neighborhood traces its origins to Gilgit. Currently, the neighborhood in India is unfold over the areas of Gurez, Tulail, and Drass. The Chak dynasty, belonging to this neighborhood, dominated over Kashmir for over 25 years within the mid-Sixteenth Century earlier than surrendering to Akbar their territory often known as Dardistan. The 2011 Census recorded a complete of 48,440 Dard-Shin folks, for whom the principal technique of sustenance are farming and elevating livestock, and extra just lately, tourism.

The neighborhood’s geography in India has positioned it actually on the sting, with mountains within the yard housing Pakistan posts in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. However, the Indian Army within the Gurez sector has maintained that the safety forces and the Dard-Shin folks share an intimate bond that has helped India safe the area and the neighborhood reside peacefully.

Mr. Teroo mentioned that when he was beginning his museum, the Indian Army had approached him. “They wished to construct a Shina cultural centre to have a good time our tradition and had approached me to show my objects on the museum they had been constructing,” he mentioned.

“I requested the individuals who positioned their belief in me with this stuff. One or two mentioned I ought to promote these if it helps me financially, however most of them had been uncomfortable with the thought of me gifting away all of the issues that they trusted me with. So, I mentioned no,” Mr. Teroo mentioned.

A 12 months later, the Indian Army constructed the Shina Culture Centre in Dawar with knowledgeable anthropologists and historians reconstructing articles of Dard-Shin tradition as noticed by them in Mr. Teroo’s assortment.

Just outdoors Dawar city, the Shina Culture Centre sits on the banks of Kishanganga river. Inside the campus is a small hut, consultant of a standard Dard-Shin kitchen, with a picket construction framing the Habba Khatoon peak for vacationers to take pictures. The museum shows artefacts and particulars their makes use of and likewise homes sections on the historical past of the neighborhood. In the language part, there are posters exhibiting “widespread phrases” in Shina language and Sanskrit, and mentions of ‘Dardistan’ in works such because the Mahabharata and Rajatarangini.

“These specialists that helped construct the tradition centre came around my assortment. The objects within the museum are good and correct however, they had been constructed just lately for the shows. The objects in my assortment are on a regular basis objects that had been truly used and have recollections connected to them,” Mr. Teroo mentioned.

While his social media presence continues to get him extra articles for his assortment, Mr. Teroo mentioned he does consider monetising it. “But I can’t suppose in that route until I’ve a sure-shot plan of serving to my neighborhood with that.”