The mosques of Ganderbal

Soon after you leave Srinagar by the Srinagar-Leh highway, you enter the district of Ganderbal. You exit from it only when you pass into the Kargil district of Ladakh. As a result, most of our first day’s drive was spent in Ganderbal district. From our previous visit to the Alchi monastery, I knew how strongly the woodworking tradition of Kashmir had influenced the architecture of that beautiful Drukpa Buddhist monastery. Now I found myself fascinated by how the influence diffused in the opposite direction and showed in the architecture of village mosques.

As you can see from all these photos, the dome that covers the main area of the mosque has been replaced by a multistory pagoda. This influence of the architecture of Tibet is the flip side of the influence that we saw in Alchi. In two of photos you see that a minaret has been added off to one side. This is clearly optional. The central prayer area covered by the multiple pagoda style roofs serves the function of providing a high space over the congregation, and being appropriate to the large amounts of snow that descends here.

Apart from this stylistic element, I noticed the use of fired bricks and tin, woodwork on doors and windows, and the traditional arches over them. Interestingly, dormer windows on the highest level of the pagoda were not unusual. I wonder where this element came from. In a few mosques small decorative domes were added on. They served no architectural purpose, but were probably only symbolic. I found this style to be a wonderful historical record of the movement of people and their cultures across the silk route, bringing influences eastwards as often as they travelled westwards.