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Honoring our Roots:
Preserving Kashmiri Pandit Heritage

KOA's Heritage Committee has four main Pillars of Preservation, which you can read more about below. However, we want to highlight the 2025 focus of one of these Pillars of Preservation - the Heritage Sites pillar.

Click HERE to read more about our Heritage Sites pillar, donate directly to Pokhribal Temple and Roop Bhawani Temple below (Heritage sites focus), or read more about ALL of our Heritage initiatives further down this page.

Heritage Preservation Program (HPP)

The Kashmiri Overseas Association (KOA) USA has established the Kashmir Heritage Preservation Program to commit to protecting and celebrating Kashmiri Pandit heritage focused on four key pillars. These pillars of preservation include Language, Spiritual, Literature and Heritage Sites.

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Kashmiri Pandits, indigenous to the Kashmir Valley in India, are distinguished by their unique identity that blends traditional Hinduism with local Kashmiri Pandit customs. Following their unique Shaivite philosophy that reveres Shiva-Shakti, the Kashmiri Pandits maintain their distinctive festivals, rituals, cuisine, traditional attire, and speak the language originally written in the Sharada script, based on the Sanskrit language. Tragically, the community faced the most recent violence and forced mass displacement in 1990 due to religious and ethnic cleansing in Kashmir, compelling the majority to leave their ancestral homeland. Despite being attacked, maligned, and uprooted from their ancestral land and their livelihood, Kashmiri Pandits continue to preserve their rich cultural heritage. This sets them apart as one of the few remaining Kashmiri-speaking Hindus with a way of life derived from philosophy,  art, science, and spiritual maturity. 

Our Pillars of Preservation

Program Overview

Vision

Preserving Our Heritage, Securing Our Future

A future where Kashmiri Pandit heritage thrives through preservation, honoring our past while inspiring new generations to carry forward our unique identity with pride. Moving from survival to revival, we remain connected as one people across all borders.

Our Core Principles

  1. Preservation Through Participation: Our heritage thrives only when actively practiced, shared, and celebrated by community members of all ages.

  2. Intergenerational Transmission: We create pathways for knowledge to flow and refine itself between elders and youth in order to ensure continuity of our traditions based on today’s needs.

  3. Documentation and Accessibility: What is not recorded risks being lost; we commit to thorough documentation and making resources widely available.

  4. Innovation with Respect for Tradition: We embrace modern methods of preservation while honoring the authenticity of our heritage.

  5. Collaborative Action: Our preservation efforts require the coordinated work of dedicated individuals, formal organizations, and international partners.

Recent Developments

Following the 1990 exodus, Kashmiri Pandits focused primarily on rebuilding their lives in various locations across India and internationally. The 2019 revocation of Article 370 marked a turning point, creating new opportunities for community members to reconnect with their homeland without previous restrictions. Government programs now encourage resettlement, inspiring renewed optimism. These developments present two critical opportunities: safeguarding existing heritage sites in Kashmir while creating new cultural centers in the USA, and preserving intangible cultural elements—spiritual practices, language, literature, artistic traditions, and knowledge systems—for future generations. 

Structure

The initiatives involve partnerships with organizations to help preserve key sites, conduct language classes, safeguard spiritual traditions while rediscovering their relevance in the 21st century, promote artistic and literary works, and foster community engagement. The committee's core functions include networking, fundraising, mentorship, research, analysis, accountability, advocacy, and collaboration with global stakeholders while maintaining a non-political stance and a desired code of conduct. The program's structure follows KOA Bylaws, with committee members serving as volunteers. The core team brings diverse experiences and perspectives to help implement the program's objectives. Any project from either of the pillars of the committee for major initiatives demanding funding is prioritized for an efficient structure, resource utilization, transparency, regular reviews, measurable outcomes, and community involvement. 

Donation Information

The Kashmiri Overseas Association, Inc. (KOA) is a non-profit, tax-exempt socio-cultural organization registered in Maryland, USA. All donations to this initiative are tax-deductible.

Call to Action

Our heritage is not merely something to be admired from a distance—it is a living tradition that requires active participation. We call upon every member of the Kashmiri Pandit community to:

  1. Learn: Commit to learning aspects of our language, traditions, and history

  2. Share: Pass knowledge to the next generation through formal and informal channels

  3. Document: Record family stories, recipes, rituals, and memories

  4. Support: Contribute time, expertise, or resources to preservation initiatives

  5. Connect: Build relationships across generations and geographical boundaries

Meet the Team

Heritage Committee Leadership

Literature Preservation: Manoj Kaul, co-led by Vikram Khosa 
Spiritual Heritage Preservation: Vijay Dhar
Sites in Kashmir Preservation: Ashwani Kaul, co-led by Pamposh Zutshi
Outreach Lead: Anjana Kaul
Strategy, New Proposals & Fundraising: Rashmi Khosa 
India Collaboration Lead: Ghazal Raina

Kashmiri Overseas Association, Inc. (KOA)

is a 501(c) (3) non-profit, tax-exempt socio-cultural organization registered in Maryland, USA. 

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