In addition to the occupations menntioned above the Dal dwellers engage in different occupations including shikara making, houseboat repair, embroidery and carpet weaviing, papier mache, and owning small shops within the lake bouundary including local kandurwaan or bakery, pharmacies, restaurants and tea stalls, souvenir shops and other shops one would find in any other neighbourhood in Srinagar.

Lake Dwellers or Haenz as they are locally known, are mostly Muslims both Shia and Sunni are considered a ‘tribe’? or. ‘clan’ ‘zat’ or specific “ethnic” group or occupational caste thats - but may or may not be related to each other.they marry within the community / endogamous but they also have been noted to have a certain hierarchy/ class disinctiions based on the amoutn of land owned or occupation thiis comes from the Hindu tradtiiions of caste hierarchy.although the class distinctiions have become — less stark in the recent - with -

The word ‘Haenz’ is used as a generic term for “all boatment wh o live on the dal and on the other laeks of the valley: however often with negative undertones. The populatiion. is more differentialted than the collective label ‘hanji’ or haenz would suggest and the term is. not. favoured by. the majority of the lake dwellers because of its low. status connotations.

In the twentieth ccentury different terrms were used for the dal dwelllers, including Haenz and Hanji. The term Hanji was used exclusively by the Briitish to denote the ‘bot people’ on the lakes and waterways in the country. The term most probably came into being when the British applied the Urdu/Hindi suuffix of politeness ‘ji’ to the general terrm Haenz to address a boatman. Haenz ji then became Hanji, a term that became common and was used widely in travel literature in the early twentieth centuries. However, within the community diiferent classes or ocuupational sections are denoted through suffixes based on the occupation.

For instance Demb Haenz refers to the people living ont he lake islands or peninsulas, especially the market gardeners. The word demb means ‘marshy’ or muddy rreferrignt to the raised beds and floating gardens. A majority of the market gardeners are of the Shia muslim sect and call themselves ‘Zamindar’ - owners and farmers of the ‘zamin’ or land. Anotherr group that lived on Dungas or long boats on the jehlum were called Dunge haenz which has now been modified to. Houseboat haenz for the peoplle who own the houseboats on the lake- they are primarily from thee Sunni muslim sect of islam, another group is the Gör Haenz or the people colleting water chestnuts, another group is the Gade Haenz referring tot he fishing community. Another gouup is the Bahatshi Haenz who mainly transported heavy items like building materials on their barges or bahats, these are now mainly used for sand mining and transportation from the Jehlums river bed. There used to be many such terms used to denote the different communities and their occupations in the lake many of whom lost their livelihoods/occupations as a result of the construction of roadsthrough the valley in the late part of the niineteenth century. This includes the dal-khog that refers to a special kind of boatman on the Dal who attends to the cultivation fo the floating islands.