Paddar Sapphire Mines

The Paddar valley, northeast of Kishtwar town, sits at around 4,000 m and is one of the world's most historically important sapphire sources. Kashmiri sapphires — typically a velvety cornflower blue with exceptional clarity and a distinctive silky appearance caused by fine rutile inclusions — have been considered the finest in the world since their discovery in the 1880s.

Getting to Paddar from Kishtwar requires a full-day journey by jeep and then on foot; the mines themselves are in high-altitude terrain accessible only in summer. Most visitors settle for buying stones in the Kishtwar bazaar, where local traders sell rough and polished sapphires. Exercise the usual caution about provenance and get any significant purchase appraised independently. The journey to Paddar for its own sake — through increasingly dramatic mountain scenery above the treeline — is worthwhile for serious trekkers.

things to do sight
A story
Kishtwar sapphires were first reported to the outside world in the 1880s, when a landslide above the Paddar valley exposed a vein of cornflower-blue corundum. Within a decade, stones from this remote valley were commanding premium prices in London and Paris — the "Kashmiri blue" became the benchmark against which all other sapphires were judged. The original discovery vein was largely exhausted by the 1930s, but small-scale mining continues and new pockets are still occasionally found.