Who are the Hanjis of Dal Lake? The boat-dwelling families behind Srinagar's houseboats, floating gardens and dawn vegetable market, their history, how life on the lake is changing, and how to visit respectfully.
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Quick Answer: The Hanjis of Dal Lake are Kashmir's boat-dwelling community: the families who built and run Srinagar's houseboats, farm the floating gardens, paddle the shikaras and sell vegetables at the dawn market on the water. Their lives have been tied to the lake for generations, and much of what visitors love about Dal exists because of them.
Last updated: 7 November 2026. By Kashmir Pulse Editorial. Kashmir Pulse is Via Kashmir's editorial channel, written by locals.
When you sip kahwa on a houseboat deck, buy a saffron packet from a passing boat, or watch a shikara slide past at dusk, you are almost always meeting the Hanjis of Dal Lake. Hanz, as we say in Kashmiri, means a person of the water. For many Srinagar families, the lake is not a view. It is the street outside the front door, the farm, the market and the workplace.
Who are the Hanjis of Dal Lake?
The Hanjis are a Kashmiri-speaking community whose work has always been on water: boating, fishing, gathering lake produce and, since the late nineteenth century, building and running houseboats. Within the community, families were long known by their trade. Some farm the floating gardens, some fish, some gather water chestnuts, and others run passenger boats and houseboats.
Their numbers are large. The National, citing census data, reported about 135,000 Hanjis living on Dal Lake and its edges. Many live on the lake's inner islands and channels, in wooden homes reached only by boat, with their own mosques, shops and boat-borne postmen.
How did the Hanjis come to run houseboats?
No one knows exactly when the first houseboat appeared, and Kashmir tells several stories. The most common one, repeated in Outlook Traveller's history of the houseboats, is that Dogra rules barred outsiders from owning land in the valley, so British visitors in the late nineteenth century had Hanji craftsmen build them floating homes instead. The craftsmen adapted their own large cargo and family boats, the doonga and the bahatch, into the carved cedarwood houseboats that now line Dal and Nigeen.
It is a fair thing to say that the houseboat, Srinagar's most famous image, is a Hanji invention shaped by a colonial-era rule. Today most houseboats are still owned and run by Hanji families, many in their third or fourth generation on the same boat.
Related reading: Shikara Making in Kashmir: How Dal Lake's Boats Are Built
What are the floating gardens of Dal Lake?
The floating gardens are the Hanjis' quietest achievement. Farmers cut strips of reeds and lake weed, bind them into mats, cover them with lake mud and grow vegetables on top. There are two kinds:
- ✓Radh: a mobile floating mat that can be towed to a new spot. Tomatoes, cucumbers, melons and pumpkins grow well on it.
- ✓Demb: fixed garden land built up along the shore or in shallow water, used for larger plots.
One report puts the number of families who depend on floating gardens in Dal Lake at more than 6,000. Their produce is sold at the floating vegetable market in the inner lake, which starts before sunrise and is over by around 7 am. Our Dal Lake floating market guide explains how to see it.
Radh vs demb: how the two gardens compare
| Radh | Demb | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Floating mat of reeds and lake weed topped with mud | Fixed plot built up on the shore or in shallows |
| Can it move? | Yes, it can be towed | No |
| Typical crops | Tomatoes, cucumbers, melons, pumpkins | Leafy greens and larger vegetable plots |
| Where you see it | Inner channels of the lake | Lake edges and island fringes |
Related reading: Kashmiri Samovar: The Copper Tea Urn at the Heart of Winter
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How is life changing for the Hanjis?
Life on Dal is under pressure. The lake has shrunk and silted over decades, and the Hanji community is often blamed for pollution, though reporting in The Wire argued that houseboats are not solely or even primarily responsible. The J&K government set up a lake authority in 1997, now the Lake Conservation and Management Authority, and since the late 2000s thousands of lake dwellers have been moved to resettlement colonies such as Rakh-e-Arth, away from the water. Farmers there say vegetable growing on the lake has fallen since the move.
New houseboat building is restricted, and many old boats need costly repairs. When you stay on a houseboat, you are helping keep a family's craft and income alive.
How to meet the Hanji world respectfully
- Take an early shikara into the inner lake, past the islands and the floating gardens, rather than only the Boulevard loop.
- Visit the floating market at dawn, buy something small, and ask before photographing anyone.
- Stay on a family-run houseboat and ask the owner about the boat's history; most are proud to tell it.
- Pay the fixed shikara rate without haggling it down to nothing. Our shikara guide explains how rates work.
Via Kashmir works with Hanji houseboat families and boatmen across the lake, and it is the easiest way to see the inner Dal with someone who grew up on it. We arrange houseboats on Dal and Nigeen, verified hotels on land, local cabs and complete Kashmir packages. Tell us your dates and we will set it up.
Frequently asked questions
Who are the Hanjis of Kashmir?
The Hanjis are a Kashmiri-speaking community whose livelihood is on water: houseboats, shikaras, fishing, floating gardens and lake produce. They live mainly on and around Dal, Nigeen and Wular lakes and along the Jhelum.
Did the Hanjis build the houseboats of Srinagar?
Yes. The most common account says Hanji craftsmen began building houseboats for British visitors in the late nineteenth century, when outsiders could not own land in the valley. Most houseboats today are still Hanji-owned.
What is a radh on Dal Lake?
A radh is a floating garden made from strips of reeds and lake weed bound into a mat and topped with mud. It can be towed from place to place, and Hanji farmers grow vegetables like tomatoes and cucumbers on it.
Can tourists visit the floating gardens?
Yes. An early morning shikara ride into the inner lake passes the floating gardens and the dawn vegetable market. Go before sunrise, keep your voice low and ask before taking photographs of people.
Are the Hanjis still living on Dal Lake?
Many still do, on the lake's islands and channels, though thousands have been resettled to colonies on land since the late 2000s as part of conservation work. Houseboat families still live on or beside their boats.
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