Srinagar, July 29 -- Far from the noise of cities and the rush of modern life, an ancient world is still breathing in Kashmir.

In the high valleys of Gurez and Ladakh, the Dard tribes are holding on to their stories, rituals, and fading tongue.

They speak in a language older than any map, and sing to rivers that no longer know which flag they flow under.

But the silence is closing in, slow and certain, like snow falling on an empty path.

It is this silence that Suheel Rasool Mir breaks inCultural Encyclopedia of the Dard Tribe: Journey Through Gurez and Ladakh.

Page by page, village by village, he unearths a civilization long buried under snow, state apathy, and academic neglect. His work doesn't simply catalogue a community. It revi...