SRINAGAR, India -- For half a century, Ghulam Butt's softly rocking houseboats drew some of the most famous and powerful people in the world to Dal Lake in the remote Himalayan land of Kashmir.

Beatle George Harrison, Britain's last viceroy to India, Lord Louis Mountbatten, and violinist Yehudi Menuhin were among those who came to enjoy the tranquility of the mirror-calm lake and the surrounding mountains.

Hopeful guests would often camp on Butt's office floor in the middle of a centuries-old Mughal Garden, waiting days for a bed.

But for more than a decade, his ornate, hand-carved boats have been mostly empty.

Butt's main guests now are journalists covering the Muslim uprising against Indian rule in Kashmir, a picturesque corner of the world locked between Afghanistan, China, India and Pakistan.

"Business now is not good," says Butt, a charming 70-year-old with youthful enthusiasm for his boats and guests. "It's mostly journalists who come to stay with us."

--- Tourism Hit --- The rebellion against Indian rule in which thousands have died, the kidnapping and presumed death of a group of Western tourists in 1992, and tough travel warnings by Western governments have ruined Kashmir's houseboat trade.

Almost all Dal Lake's 1,500 boats, with names such as New Australia, New Manila and Switzerland, reflecting the flow of Kashmiri money from overseas, now sit empty.

Since Islamic militants launched their rebellion in full in 1989, the government says 33,000 people have died in India's Muslim majority state of Jammu and Kashmir.

Separatists put the toll closer to 80,000.

The revolt sent tourism numbers crashing, and the military standoff this year and threat of a new war between India and Pakistan over Kashmir have driven them down further.

The number of tourists visiting Jammu and Kashmir state peaked at more than 722,000 in 1988, including almost 60,000 foreigners.

Numbers had fallen to one tenth of that by last year and dropped further in 2002.

Between January and May, 9,008 tourists had visited the state, including 248 foreigners, compared to 19,502 during same period a year earlier.

--- Peak Season Fails --- July is normally Kashmir's peak tourist season, coinciding with Europe's summer holidays and offering cool evenings and daytime temperatures below the 45-50 degrees Celsius (113-122 Fahrenheit) in the sweltering northern Indian plains.

"It's very difficult. otherwise, this time of the year would be the peak season," says Butt, dressed in a spotless white salwar kameez, a long flowing shirt over cotton trousers, pouring aromatic Kashmiri tea.

Butt, whose father began their houseboat business in 1942, has cut the number of his boats to four from nine.

The grand houseboat once used by Harrison now sits rotting and half-submerged at one end of Butt's property.

Houseboats across the lake range from the very basic to luxurious versions such as Butt's, with thick Kashmiri carpets covering the deck and telephones on each boat.

From turning people away or putting them up in the office a decade ago, he now averages just eight to 10 guests a month -- about the same number his largest boat can take.

"It's no joke sir, it's been 12 years," he says. "it's very sad. Maybe next year it will improve."