Tuesday, May 12, 2015

Meeras Mahal, Kashmir


Meeras Mahal Museum Meeras Mahal Museum is a very young museum that houses the rich and diverse cultural and artistic heritage of Kashmir. Situated on the banks of famous Wular Lake at Noor Bagh near Sopore town in Kashmir, Meeras Mahal is a not-for- profit, non-commercial organization with a mission to preserve cultural heritage of Kashmir.

Founder
The Meeras Mahal Museum was established by Atiqa Bano in 2001. Born in Sopore town in a noble and educated family, Atiqa Bano received her Bachelor’s degree from Women’s college Srinagar followed by a double M.A. in Economics and Urdu and M.Ed from Banasthelay Vidya Peath, Rajasthan. Atiqa started her career as a school teacher in 1958, she became the inspector of Schools in 1965 and Chief Education officer in 1977. In 1994, she became the Joint Director for School Education and Director Libraries and Research, Jammu and Kashmir in 1997. The nature of her jobs made her travel across Jammu and Kashmir acquainting her with the cultural and artistic diversity of the state. It was during this time that the idea of establishing a museum came to her mind. After her retirement from government services in 1998, Atiqa began to pursue her idea which finally came to fruition in the shape of Meeras Mahal. A well known cultural and social activist  Atiqa Bano’s rigorous, passionate and devout  efforts for collecting artifacts from every nook and corner of J&K has resulted in a corpse of more than 3000 artifacts, housed in the museum.









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