SRINAGAR: In a modest workshop filled with the fragrance of seasoned wood, 78-year-old Ghulam Mohammad Zaz continues a craft his family has preserved for eight generations — the making of the Kashmiri santoor.

Surrounded by tools that have outlived artisans, he works slowly, each strike and polish echoing centuries of tradition crafting the musical instrument.

“Seven generations have worked and I am the eighth; I have no guarantee anyone after me will do this work,” Zaz said softly, speaking in Kashmiri. Once, several of his family members shared this craft in the heart of Kashmir’s main city Srinagar, in the Indian-occupied part of the Himalayan territory. Today, he is the last in the city to make the instruments by hand.

“If I tell anyone to make something, they won’t know what to do or how to make it,” said Zaz, who produces around eight to 10 instruments every year, selling for around 50,000 rupees ($565) each.

“It is not as simple as just picking some wood — one needs to find the right kind of wood.” The santoor, a hundred-stringed zither-like instrument played with hammers, has long been central to Kashmir’s musical identity, giving the Muslim-majority region its cultural distinctiveness.

Published in Dawn, September 29th, 2025