Jutial Stupa

On a terrace west of Jutial village and on east of Gilgit, there stands a stone monument, the so-called Minar of Taj Mughal. According to the legend Taj Mughal was a king from Badakhshan, who defeated and repulsed the ruler of Gilgit Tor Khan (1290-1335) and allegedly introduced Ismaili faith in the region. The monument was identified by Stein (1907) and Dani (1989) as a Buddhist stupa. The stupa in Jutial is still in an astonishingly good condition. This may be due to the fact that it lies high above the village and far away from the main path. From the valley it looks like a heap of stones, but on close inspection, it appears to been carefully built, but its contour has been blurred by numerous damages. The lower flat and square plinth is set in such a way, that it compensates the inclination of the terrain. Towards the valley it is 0.5 m high and has a length of 4.4 m. The stupa proper, erected on it, is composed of different storeys, five of which are still preserved. Two are square and the remaining followed octagonal to round in section. Only a few stone layers are still about 5.5 m. The building material is a schistone rock from the immediate vicinity, broken into slabs and set with a clay mortar. The whole surface of the stupa was plastered with it. Traces of it are preserved at its northern face 0.5 m high and has a length of 4.4 m.