Source: blogs.wsj.com
INDIA, August 24, 2010: As the pilgrimage season to visit Amarnath in India-controlled Kashmir draws to a close today, the state government can count its blessings that the annual high-security event has not been embroiled in the troubles in the state.
Rakhi, the festival that celebrates the bond between sisters and brothers, is the official end to the two-month period when hundreds of thousands of devotees trek miles through the Himalayas to one of the most important shrines in Hinduism. The annual Amarnath journey is one of the world’s oldest religious pilgrimages with historical references dating back more than 2,000 years. Each winter an ice stalagmite forms in the sacred grotto there, forming a shape that Hindus associate with God Shiva.
While riots have engulfed much of Kashmir over the last two months, the pilgrimage, with tighter security than normal, carried on much as usual. More than 450,000 people from across India reportedly trekked through the snow clad peaks this year, with the help of Kashmiri porters and pony handlers and guides to pay obeisance at the cave shrine despite the fresh cycle of violence plaguing the rest of the region.
Separatist leaders in the Muslim-dominated (area) have made clear their beef is with the Indian state, not with the pilgrims who have provided much needed employment to Kashmiris while other kinds of tourism has suffered this summer.