| Kargil करगिल / ཀརགིལ་ |
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| Coordinates | |
| Country | India |
| State | Jammu and Kashmir |
| District(s) | Kargil |
| Population | 9,944 (2001[update]) |
| Time zone | IST (UTC+05:30) |
| Area |
• 2,676 metres (8,780 ft) |
Kargil (Hindi: करगिल[1] [kərɡɪl], Ladakhi: ཀར་གིལ་) is a town, which serves as the headquarters of Kargil District of Ladakh in the state of Jammu and Kashmir in India. It is the second largest town in Ladakh after Leh.[2] It is located 60 km and 204 km from Drass and Srinagar to the west respectively, 234 km from Leh to the east, 240 km from Padum to the southeast and 1,047 km to Delhi in the south.
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Kargil has an average elevation of 2,676 metres (8,780 feet), and is situated along the banks of the Suru River (Indus).
As of the 2001 Census of India,[3] Kargil had a population of 9944. Males constitute 61% of the population and females 39%. Kargil has an average literacy rate of 73%, 1 percent lower than the national average of 74%: male literacy is 83%, and female literacy is 58%. In Kargil, 10% of the population is under 6 years of age.
People in Kargil are of mixed Dard and Tibetan descent. The inhabitants of Kargil were adherents of Tibetan Buddhism until the 14th-15th centuries when Muslim missionaries began to proselytise to the local people. Today, 90% of Kargil's population are Shia Muslim, 5% Sunni and 5% Tibetan Buddhist. The architecture of older mosques in Kargil combines Tibetan and Iranian styles, while newer mosques architectural styles tend to follow those of modern Iranian and Arabic styles.
Disputed area