Documentary on Kargah Buddha
hi,
I'm writing to share an update. our first documentary focuses on the Kargah Buddha in Gilgit-Baltistan, a region disputed between Pakistan and India, currently administered by Pakistan. This region is famous for its majestic mountains: five of the world's fourteen eight-thousanders rise here, and it holds more glaciers than anywhere outside the polar regions.
The Kargah Buddha, locally known as Yashani, is a monument that reflects the region's cultural complexity in remarkable ways. While it remains an important religious site for Buddhists, who come here annually to perform rituals, it is also embedded in local mythology. According to folklore, the figure represents a man-eating ogress subdued by a saint, pinned to the cliff for eternity, her violence frozen into something that merely resembles peace.
Through this artifact, we have tried to tell the story of the region: how multiple histories are layered onto a single stone, and how different civilizations, ideologies, and religions such as Islam, Buddhism, and local animisms, have each tried to appropriate it. And how, quietly, ordinary people have taken it back and made it their own.
please watch it and share your feedback.