Facts about Kashmir
The first main influence on the cuisine was the food of the Kashmiri Pandits.
Azad Kashmir boasts some of Pakistan's most scenic mountains and river valleys.
Kashmiri music is closer to Central Asian music, using traditional Central Asian instruments and musical scales.
Kashmiri Pandit cuisine usually uses yoghurt and turmeric, and does not use onion and garlic.
Pakistan administered Kashmir is nominally autonomous, with its own elected president, prime minister, legislature, and high court.
Kashmir was originally an important center of Hinduism, and later of Buddhism.
The Kashmir Valley is famous for its beautiful mountainous landscape; Ladakh is renowned for its remote mountain beauty.
From 1989, Muslim Kashmiri separatist guerrilla attacks prompted India to deploy more troops.
Salwar kameez is a traditional dress worn by both women and men in the Kashmir region, as well as Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan.
Sufiana Kalam is popular in Kashmir, where the practice of Islam has heavy Sufi influences.
The Indo-Pakistani War of 1947 established the rough boundaries of today, with Pakistan holding roughly one-third of Kashmir, and India two-thirds.
China-administered Kashmir (Aksai Chin) has fewer than 10,000 inhabitants.
Often dubbed "paradise on Earth," Kashmir's mountainous landscape has attracted tourists for centuries.
China began military maneuvers in the eastern Kashmir border areas in the 1950s.
The Kashmir region is bordered by China to the east, India to the south, Pakistan to the west and Afghanistan to the north.
The practice of lobbying is a natural outgrowth of representative government but is vulnerable to abuse, most commonly to bribery.
Muslim Arghons, descendants of Kashmiri or Central Asian merchants and Ladakhi women mainly live in Leh.
Some consider the Kashmiri people descendants of one of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel.
The use of the Kashmiri language began with the poet Lalleshvari or Lal Ded (fourteenth century), who wrote mystical verses.
A section of the Muslim population of Kashmir demanded accession to Pakistan.
Henzae is a music form sung by Kashmiri Pandits on religious and cultural festivals.
Jammu and Kashmir can be divided into four geographical regions: the Siwalik Hills, the Kashmir valley and the surrounding Himalayas, the Pir Panjal range and the Indus River basin comprising of Leh and Kargil.
The Hindko dialects spoken in Azad Kashmir are both distantly related to Punjabi.
Sultan Sikandar Butshikan of Kashmir (1389-1413) is often considered the worst of these.
The Kashmir region has a total area of 206,552 square miles (332,413 square kilometers), which is bigger than California but smaller than Texas.
The River Jhelum is the only major Himalayan river which flows through the Kashmir valley.
The dynasty spearheaded a second spreading of Buddhism, importing religious ideas from north-west India, particularly from Kashmir.
Ongoing violence has internally displaced about 300,000 Kashmiri Pandits from Jammu and Kashmir since 1990, according to an estimate by the United States CIA World Factbook.
The Pakistani government's official death toll was 73,276, while officials say nearly 1400 people died in Indian-occupied Kashmir and 14 people in Afghanistan.
The Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 began with a Pakistani attempt to seize the rest of Kashmir, erroneously banking on support from then-ally the United States.
Many merchants in Poonch are Pathans; however, these individuals are not legally considered to be Kashmiris.
Kashmiri literature has a history of at least 2,500 years, going back to its glory days of Sanskrit.
The Northern Areas of Pakistan are also inhabited by Dardic people, but they do not refer to themselves as Kashmiris.
The Constitution of India grants Jammu and Kashmir special autonomous status as a temporary provision.
Azad Kashmir is cold and mountainous in the North whilst it has a hot and subtropical climate in the southern Mirpur regions.
University-level education is provided by University of Jammu and University of Kashmir.
Kashmiris are known to enjoy their music in its various local forms, and the dress of both sexes is quite colorful.
Buddhism came to western Ladakh from Kashmir in the second century when much of eastern Ladakh and western Tibet was still practicing the Bon religion.
The cuisine of Kashmir is famous for its delectable vegetarian as well as non-vegetarian dishes.
Jammu and Kashmir is an area of high earthquake risk, classified as zone four risk, a high damage risk zone, with areas classified as very high damage risk.
Srinagar, the ancient capital of Jammu and Kashmir, lies alongside Dal Lake] and is famous for its canals and houseboats.
According to the 2011 Census of India, the total population of the Indian-administered state of Jammu and Kashmir was 12,541,302.
MostHindus are either Dogras or people who migrated from Kotli, Mirpur, and the Kashmir Valley.
During 1950s, a number of well-educated youth turned to Kashmiri writing, both poetry and prose, and enriched modern Kashmiri writing by leaps and bounds.
an Indian emperor who ruled the Maurya Empire across the Indian subcontinent, introduced Buddhism to the Kashmir valley and the adjoining regions around Srinagar became a center of Buddhism.
Jammu and Kashmir had an average literacy rate of 54.46 percent in 2007.
The population living in the Valley of Kashmir is primarily homogeneous, despite the religious divide between Muslims and Hindus.
According to Mahabharata, the Kambojas ruled over Kashmir during the epic period, about the sixth century B.C.E.
India has control of about half the area of the former princely state of Jammu and Kashmir; Pakistan controls a third of the region, the Northern Areas and Azad Kashmir.
The Ahmadiyya movements also support an Israelite origin for Kashmiri people.
Fighting escalated and in October, 38 people were killed in an attack on the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly in Srinagar.
Originally, the Kashmiris were Buddhist and Hindu, however, after the conquest of Kashmir and much of India by Central Asian invaders, the majority of Kashmiri people became Muslim.
Kashmiri help restored Ladakhi rule on the condition of that a mosque be built in Leh and that the Ladakhi king convert to Islam.
The rise of Islamic fundamentalism in Muslim-dominated Kashmir, Hindu-dominated Jammu and Buddhist-dominated Ladakh poses a grave danger to the security of the region where mixed populations live in regions such as Doda and Kargil.
When the Mughal Empire started to disintegrate after the death of Aurangzeb in 1707, infiltrations to the Kashmir valley from the Pathan tribes increased, and they ruled the Srinagar for several decades.
According to Hindu mythology, Sage Kashyapa drained a lake to produce the land now known as Kashmir.
Ahmad Shah of the Afghan Durrani Empire consolidated control over the Punjab and Kashmir regions in 1756.
Kashmir is considered one of the world's most dangerous territorial disputes due to the nuclear capabilities of India and Pakistan.
The most popular folk instrument is santoor linked to the Goddess Sharada, the Goddess of learning and art in ancient Kashmir.
Notable higher education or research institutes in Jammu and Kashmir include College of Engineering and Technology, National Institute of Technology Srinagar and the Medical College of Jammu.
The inhabitants of the Kashmir Valley and the Pakistani areas speak Urdu and Kashmiri.
The Jammu and Kashmir region has loamy soil rich in magnesia, as well as clay, sandy soils, and peat.
Mughal ruler Jalal-ud-Din Akbar (1556 to 1605) conquered Kashmir between 1586 and 1592.
Kashmir (Kashmiri: ??????, ?????; Urdu: ?????) is the northwestern region of the Indian subcontinent.
Historically the term Kashmir was used to refer to the valley lying between the Great Himalayas and the Pir Panjal range.
The main political parties include the Jammu and Kashmir National Conference, the Indian National Congress and the Jammu and Kashmir People's Democratic Party.
An earthquake that registered 7.6 on the Richter scale struck Pakistan-administered Kashmir on October 8, 2005.
According to Rabbi Marvin Tokayer, the Kashmiri people have many Jewish cultural traits, including feasts, appearance, business practices, and other customs.
Sir Hari Singh, resisted, Pakistan launched a guerrilla onslaught, the maharaja signed the Instrument of Accession to the Indian Union, and Indian soldiers entered Kashmir and drove out the Pakistani-sponsored guerrillas.
In 1970, the State Government of Jammu and Kashmir established its own education board and university.
The dumhal is a famous dance in Kashmir, performed by men of the Wattal region.
Some Kashmiri rulers, such as Sultan Zain-ul-Abidin, were tolerant of all religions.
In 1752, the Sikhs under Maharajah Ranjit Singh (1780-1839), who ruled from his capital in Lahore, annexed the Kashmir valley in 1819, and held it until in 1846.
Jammu is the only region in Kashmir that has a Hindu majority population (in the east).
Wood from Kashmir is also used to make high-quality cricket bats, popularly known as Kashmir Willow.
In 1780, after the death of Ranjit Deo, the Raja of Jammu, the Hindu kingdom of Jammu (to the south of the Kashmir valley was captured by the Sikhs under Ranjit Singh.
Kashmiri music uses a wide variety of musical scales, everything from musical scales which are very similar to the Byzantine scale]], and harmonic minor scale, to the more melodic sounding major and minor scales.
Azad Kashmir has a 99 percent ethnic Punjabi population, consisting of variants such as Sudhans, Rajputs, Gujjars and Mirpuris who are the closest geographical and cultural relatives of the Potohari Punjabis.
Music in Kashmir performed by Hindus is mainly influenced by Indian classical music, using instruments such as the sitar.
The Dards around Dras, however, have converted to Islam and have been strongly influenced by their Kashmiri neighbors.
Only one S&P CNX 500 conglomerate, the Jammu and Kashmir Bank, has its head office in the state.
Kashmir has been noted for its fine arts for centuries, including poetry and handicrafts.
Another mystic of the time, equally revered in Kashmir and popularly known as Nunda Reshi, wrote powerful poetry like his senior Lal Ded.
The Kashmir Valley is a fertile area that is the economic backbone for Indian-controlled Kashmir.
The Muslims and Hindus of Kashmir lived in relative harmony, since the Sufi-Islamic way of life that ordinary Muslims followed in Kashmir complemented the Rishi tradition of Kashmiri Pandits.