Roza Bal
— a small shrine that carries an outsized story.
Not only on a wall.
“A modest stone shrine in the old town of Srinagar, with a green-painted lattice and a slate roof. Locals know it as the resting place of two Sufi figures. Beyond the valley, it is known to a wider world for the disputed tradition that one of those graves is older, and someone else's.
Roza Bal, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
Roza Bal sits in the Khanyar neighbourhood of old Srinagar, in the Kashmir Valley, at roughly 1,585 metres elevation. It is a small stone shrine with a wooden lattice and slate roof, in a street of close-packed houses west of the Jhelum River. The shrine is locally known as the resting place of the Sufi saint Mir Sayyid Naseeruddin and a figure called Yuz Asaf. The neighbourhood lies about a kilometre from the Jamia Masjid in Nowhatta and a short walk from the Khanqah-e-Moula on the river.
The structure is built of brick and timber in the regional Kashmiri style. A green-painted wooden lattice screens the inner chamber, where the cenotaphs lie aligned in the traditional Muslim direction. The slate roof and the small upper window are typical of older Srinagar shrines. The shrine is maintained by a local custodial family who have looked after the site across generations. Inside, the walls carry simple finishes and Arabic calligraphy, the texture of a working neighbourhood place of prayer rather than a monument built for visitors.
The shrine sits in a residential lane and is treated as a working place of prayer. Visitors are generally welcome outside prayer times; the custodial family decides access at the door. Modest dress is expected, shoes are removed, and women may be directed to a separate viewing point. There is no admission fee. The shrine is about a fifteen-minute walk from the Jamia Masjid in Nowhatta and a short auto-rickshaw ride from the Dal Lake boulevard. Photography inside is generally not permitted.