WHERE MEMORY LIVES ON

ON A CLOUDY JULY AFTERNOON IN DAWAR, THE main hub of Gurez Valley and once the ancient capital of the Dards, I stood in its Tulaili bazaar waiting for a shared taxi.

- ISHTAYAQ RASOOL

As a child growing up here, I would often watch Tulail-bound villagers pass through, dust-caked and bent from the journey, eager to reach home before dark. Back then, transport was scarce and electricity was a rare luxury.

Now, decades later, I found myself among them again. I had returned many times as a journalist, but each trip felt like a rediscovery of a fading world, one still rooted in a shared past. To reach Tulail is to journey across centuries of history shaped by an Indo-Aryan people whose origins trace back to a region once known as Dardistan—now scattered across Gilgit-Baltistan, the Kashmir Valley, Ladakh, and parts of Afghanistan. They speak Shina, an ancient language of the high Himalayas, linked to the communities described by Greek and Roman writers like Ptolemy and Pliny the Elder.

THE ROAD TO TULAIL

The 125km journey from Srinagar to Gurez takes nearly five hours, winding through the dramatic curves of Tragbal Pass. At 11,672 feet, Razdan Pass marks the descent into Gurez, followed by a mountain road that runs 45km east from Dawar along the Kishanganga River to Tulail, near the Line of Control (LoC).

We passed Barnai and Kashpat, where traditional wooden homes cling to hillsides. The quiet urged reflection as the road curved toward Kilshay, near the LoC, where Partition's legacy divides families. Tulail, spanning nearly 30 villages, is a pristine western Himalayan frontier. Once on the Silk Route, it preserves the purest form of the Shina language, untouched by Kashmiri, Urdu, or Hindi.

LIFE IN A DARDIC VILLAGE

Purana Tulail, or PTL, is believed to be one of the oldest Dardic settlements in the valley. A narrow, muddy trail led me into the village, where wooden log homes stood like relics from the ancient past. The Satni Nalla, a gentle brook flowing from Satni village, gurgled through the hamlet.