The Dard-Shin museum curator

An ancient wooden saddle, an old loom, a wooden polo mallet, grass slippers, old silver jewellery, a crumbling Shina poetry manuscript, traditional combs used as ornaments for women in weddings and more. These are just some of the antiques of everyday life that Bashir Ahmad Teroo has on display in his museum.

Bashir belongs to the Dard-Shin tribe who live mostly in Gurez and Drass. For the last five years, from across Gurez valley, people have been handing over precious heirlooms and other old objects of daily use to the Dardshin museum that he curates and houses in Dawar.

“I have seen people throwing away antiques from their houses because they think these things are of no use, burning old clothes, throwing away farming tools no longer used,” he recalls. So, what was earlier discarded as outdated, thrown away or even burnt, has now found a warm home in his museum.

Bashir believes that his job as a state healthcare worker has helped him curate this museum of his people’s history. The 44-year-old state employee says people trust him, and that made the process of curating the museum so much easier. Here in Kashmir’s Gurez valley, winter snow cuts off residents for six months of the year, and state healthcare facilities are thin on the ground. Community health workers like Basheer’s work are critical, and people’s trust in him is absolute.

“I used to collect things from a very early age, be it old coins, currency, farming tools,” he said, recalling how as a child, he enjoyed listening to stories, and collecting small remembrances. He would also sit with his paternal grandfather who used to relate folk tales.

“[Later], I was always looking for artifacts. It has been so much on my mind,” he said. And during covid, when he along with other healthcare workers would visit homes for the vaccination drive, he continued looking. “Now I have almost 400 artifacts in my museum. This was possible only with support of the locals of Gurez, and the administration here,” he told PARI.

Like the half-a-century-old Zaildar coat, worn by prominent men in the community. Bashir says he made multiple trips to secure it, and it was on the sixth visit to Junrail village, roughly 25 kilometers away, that he finally caught the owner at home and got him to part with it.

“Bringing that coat to my museum costs me around 10,000 rupees. But as it is connected to our history, the expenses seem like nothing.” he told PARI, proud and serious as he dons the warm coat, still in good condition.

We are seated in a guest room adjacent to his museum, located on Mastan road in Dawar village. He has offered me hot tea with biscuits, very welcome after my long journey from Srinagar into the high mountains. He drops his serious manner for a bit and offers to sing me a Shina song before we start talking about the museum. He picks up an iron chang (an old musical instrument similar to a morsing) between his lips as he starts to sing and play. The chang is also part of his museum.

Dardic people have a distinct culture, and Gurez valley used to be the silk route for people of Kashmir who would travel from Bandipora through Gurez to Gilgit for trade and pilgrimage. This was also the route used by Haj pilgrims. The constant movement of people through the valley, brought varied influences to stay. Bashir said this can be seen in the way Shina people dress, their songs and music, similar to the Shina community in Gilgit, across the border in Pakistan, and Drass in India.

The Dard-Shin are a small community (37,992 Dardic people says Census 2011). “The language we speak is different, the dialect is entirely different,” adds Bashir. Their language – Shina – is under threat from migration and militarisation of the border with Pakistan. Read: In Gurez, home is not where the word is

The first person to hand him artifacts for the museum five years ago, was his own mother. “My mother Taja Begum gave me 70 items including her traditional wedding cap, and watch, and told me to keep these safe. That was the moment I thought of preserving these by opening a museum at my house,” he said.

Since then Bashir has travelled to every corner of the valley to collect items related to Shina culture be it clothes, tools, books and more. Sometimes visitors would bring things for the museum, underlining how the community sees it as their own. Or they would call him to come collect: “A girl called me recently to hand over her mother’s wedding ring which was some 70 years old. So, yes now people themselves call me and give me antiques that they feel should be preserved.”

But in the early months, Bashir had to work hard to make people aware of the museum and its importance in the history of Gurez valley. “Our younger generation has almost forgotten about our history. We are also losing our language. The aim behind this museum is to make our young ones aware about the beautiful past of Gurez.”

Opened in 2020, the Dardshin museum is housed in a two-storeyed building, brick below and wooden above. Bashir lives alone on the ground floor. His family, parents, his wife and five children live in Bandipora. His two sons and three daughters are all studying there. The upper floor of their home in Dawar village is the museum, spread across two rooms. A collection of clothes and jewellery is neatly arranged in one room, and farming tools, musical instruments and historical documents in the other. "Traditional jewelry and wedding caps has become the main attraction says Bashir, “everyone who enters the museum, wears this jewelry and caps”.

Five to six years after it began, the free-to-enter museum draws many visitors. “If this museum runs successfully, I am planning to keep a minimal entry fee and any revenue generated from it will be used for the benefit of widows, education of their children,” Bashir said.

Basheer’s place of work – the community health centre in Dawar Gurez where he is posted – is under a minute from his home. Having his house close to his work place helps when visitors arrive as he can quickly walk over.

But when he is busy, others from the community chip in. Like 65-year-old Mohammad Hussain Akhoon who wants to help Bashir preserve Shina history. “As Bashir is a health worker, he gets very busy sometimes. So, I take the tourists inside the museum and give them a tour of the museum and speak about the items placed there,” said Akhoon.

“So far, I have taken almost 30-40 groups inside his museum and all of them were very happy upon seeing how people dressed, lived and worked in Tulail once upon a time. Bashir is doing a great job and I feel it is my responsibility to help him in any way I can. He is preserving our history,” he added.

Muneer Ahmad Dar is a 34-year-old vlogger who is visiting the museum from Beerwah, in district Budgam of central Kashmir, 150 kilometres away. “I was told by many to visit the Dardshin museum to get a true glimpse of Shina culture,” he said.

Bashir is keen to grow his collection, and keep it going. “I am aiming to make this the best museum in Gurez valley where people will actually take a glimpse of Shina past. Our past has been so beautiful and I want many people to have knowledge about it,” he told PARI.

This story is published under the PARI Senior Fellowship 2025.