Mela Kheer Bhawani

The most significant date in the Kashmiri Pandit calendar, and a rare annual instance of a displaced community returning in numbers to its own shrine.

It honours Ragnya Devi, and for Kashmiri Pandits it is the single most important annual gathering — for many displaced families, the one occasion they return to the valley.

Pilgrims gather at the sacred spring around the temple, offer milk and kheer, and keep vigil. Many arrive on buses organised for the day; Muslim neighbours in Tulmulla have traditionally helped with arrangements, and that reception is part of what the day is understood to mean.

Offerings of milk and kheer are made at the spring; devotees keep vigil through the day.

The colour of the spring water is believed to portend the year ahead, with darkening read as a warning.

The shrine at Tulmulla is ancient in local tradition and has been the focus of Kashmiri Pandit devotion for centuries. Since the displacement of the Pandit community from the valley around 1990, the mela has taken on a second meaning as an annual homecoming.