"Fascinating experience visiting this museum with the owner’s explanation! It’s full of ancient boutiques and stories about the silkroad. If you pass Kargil, this place is a must go!"

崔婉倩

"The Story of Munshi Aziz Bhat and the Kargil Sarai and the Museum

The name Kargil is famous now. Mainly because it is associated with a War that was given its name as it was fought in this area almost 20 years back and it was the country’s first televised War. But few would imagine that once upon a time it was a major trading Route on the Silk Route which connected Northern and Peninsular India with Central Asia and China.

Traders from all over the region and beyond converged upon Kargil. There were Punjabis, Kashmiris, Baltis, Yarkandis, Ladakhi, Tibetans, Afghans, Arghuns, Pathans, Kirghiz and all other ethnicities from the neighbouring Regions. The Dogra Rulers as well as the British promoted this Trade after the Dogras came into power and consolidated their Rule in the Region. They also improved and facilitated the creation of the Treaty Road which was a Trade Route all the way from Srinagar to Yarkand.

At the time that the trade was flourishing there was a certain Gentleman by the name of Munshi Aziz Bhat of Kargil who was the official petition writer for the Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir for the Baltistan Wazarat. A Petition writer in those days was a powerful man, as if you had an issue that you wanted to bring to the higher authorities and the highest being the Maharaja, who had to approach the Petition writer to do it on your behalf. So the strength of your case basically lay on how the Petition writer presented it. As such Munshi Aziz Bhat was a very well respected man in Kargil.

Munshi Aziz Bhat was a trader also being on the Central Asian trade Route and owned a number of shops in Kargil and his trading company was called Munshi Aziz Bhat and Sons. He set up a Serai, the Kargil Serai in 1920 to offer boarding lodging and storage places to the Traders. Soon the Serai became a stopover place for all kinds of traders from all kinds of places in Kargil. The Kargil Serai also served as a kind of an unofficial Post Office which received a lot of mail especially from the Hoshiarpuri Punjabi traders. The Serai had in its front a couple of shops as well which the Traders could use to display their wares. The Serai was a busy one in the 1920s to about 1950 and it saw many traders come and go.

Janet Rizvi in her epic Trans-Himalayan Caravans, Merchant Princes and Peasant Traders in Ladakh (p 260) mentions “ …it would seem that for the transporters belonging to the villages downriver from Drass, Kargil (rather than Srinagar) was the centre to which they went in the first instance in search of work. The hub of this activity was Munshi Aziz Bhat’s sarai, which was a depot for goods going in all four directions...there was in particular plenty of coming and going between Kargil and Skardu…”

And then came the turmoil of 1947 when initially Kargil was occupied by invaders from the other side. And ofcourse with the Chinese occupation of Xinjiang and its move on Tibet the Trade Route was finally shut down by the Chinese in 1949. A once buzzing trade route and all its dependencies were suddenly shut. The Kargi Serai lost its guests as even the Hoshiarpuri merchants went away. The Serai fell into disrepair and meanwhile Munshi saab also passed away.

The Seari was however bethqued as family property to Aziz Saab’ descendents and so the three storied Serai remained for decades. A lonely relic in the Kar

Photos by Anil K Rajput"

Firdous Ahmad

"Excellent museum with an incredible collection and its owner and curator is an exceptional host and guide. Totally recommend a visit. Call first to make sure it’s open"

Maria Eugenia