Kargil: People of Kargil celebrated Mamani the seasonal ethnic food festival and the traditional food festival of Purig, is observed to celebrate the end of winter and starting the new season.
Earlier the festival was celebrated on 21st January but after Islam came to these lands people celebrate it on Friday or Thursday before of after 21st January.
During the occasion, people of Kargil prepare traditional dishes like Thukpa, Popot (Grain Soup), Hrtsrap Khur (Yeast Bread), Markhur, Azoq (Skinn & Kabchey) (Puri), Poli (Pane Cakes of Buck Wheat), Curd , Suggoo (Kash or Pachae) etc.
With all the dishes they gathers at a specific place (Changrah).
According to the oral history, there was a tradition of a small Mamani called, Maqsoomi Mamani, which was celebrated on the same day at the dawn, by lighting a fire in the courtyard of every household which has been revoked by the society with the change in time.
There is another tradition related to this festival which still exists to this day.
A gift of every dish is sent to the house of those woman members who were married to other places.
The history of the celebration of this festival in Ladakh is narrated before Buddhism reached Ladakh. At that time, people used to worship Spirits called Lha and in that time the tradition was that whatever dish, one prepares at his home, they had to bring out a quantity of each item on this day in the name of the Dead Spirit.
With the passage of time there are a lot of new things introduced to the list of foods as nowadays people bring Rice, Briyani, Phoulwadi Snacks etc.
According to Mohammad Ilyas Ansari of Hundermo Brok, this festival can be a major attraction for the tourist which can attract them to Kargil in this lean season.
