Jammu Kashmir Ladakh | Kashmir | Jammu | News | Ladakh | Photos Contact Us - Sitemap - Kashmir Song

Kargil with a population of 1.25 lakhs is scattered over an area of 14,086 Sq. Km. It is situated at a distance of 205 KM from Srinagar towards Leh. Kargil is called the land of Agas in the present day world. It is due to the fact that Kargil is mostly inhabited by Shia Muslims and Agas are the religious head and preachers.

The name Kargil is derived from two words Khar and rKil. Khar means castle and rKil means center thus a place between castles as the place lay between many kingdoms. In the views of many critics, the word Kargil has been derived from the words Gar and Khil. Gar in local language mean ‘Any where’ and Khil means a central place where people could stay. This has the support of the fact that the place is equidistant from Srinagar, Skardo, Leh and Padum with around 200 Kms. With the passage of time Khar rKil or Gar Khil came to be known as Kargil. The present bureaucrat and historian Parvez Dewan in his contribution to the book “Kargil Blunder” reveals that a pioneer namely Kargeel cleared the forests in Poyen and Shilikchay area before the advent of Thatha Khan to dwell in the area and later the place assumed its name.

People
The people of Kargil are generally quite different from those of the rest of India. Racially the people of Kargil have descended from the Mongols, the Dards of Central Asia and the Indo-Aryan Mon people.
Some might even have Tibetan ancestors. Pashkum is believed to be the first village to be inhabited in all of ancient Purig. But immigration from Tibet largely overwhelmed the culture of the Dards and obliterated their racial characteristics. In and around Kargil, the people's appearance suggests a mixed origin.

Religion

There are ancient Buddhist rock carvings all over the region, even in the areas like Drass and lower Suru Valley which today are inhabited by an exclusively Muslim population. The divide between Muslims and Buddhists Kargil passes through Mulbekh (on the Kargil-Leh road) and between the villages of Parkachik and Rangdum in the Suru Valley, though there are pockets of Muslim population further east, in Padum (Zanskar). The people of Kargil like those of neighboring Leh district, were Buddhists till the 14th Century, when all the people of present day Kargil minus Zanskar and some bordering Leh, converted to Shia Islam. In the centuries immediately preceding this conversion Kargil's Buddhism like Leh's had come under the influence of Tibet.

The languages spoken are Shina, Balti, Purig , Ladakhi Thus Buddhism remained sequeezed in Kargil to the places like Sapi, Phokar, Mulback, Wakha Bodh-Kharboo areas a Darchik Garkon and Zanskar

Kargil became a separate district in the Ladakh region during the year 1979 when it was bifurcated from the earstwhile Leh ditrict. Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council Kargil was commissioned in July 2003 in the district.
Kargil District
Leh District
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 


 
Education  |  Matrimonial  |  Christmas  |  River Jehlum  | Verinag  |  Real Estate  |  Insurance  |  Blogs | Zanskar |  Trekking  |  J & K Districts  |  Pilgrimage
Copyright 2011. All rights reserved