The Ancient Silk Road and its allied routes: a history of adventurous journey of thousands of miles crossing over high altitude mountain passes, covering countries and sovereign states of far distant lands. There were connecting routes to reach ancient cities, mainly for trade and commerce, but also used by visiting monks, saints or travelers. Along with trade in exchange of goods, there was an exchange of ideas, of different cultures, their kings, and the size of their economy in terms of gold or animal stocks.
A story of such adventurous journey, actually a trek route (one in use for hundreds of years), uniting two states of northern India, Himachal Pradesh (HP) and Ladakh, situated between Spiti and Ladakh…Changthang & Tibet. Walking by the side of Himalayan Lake at 16,000 feet or crossing over the mountain pass of Parang La (18,880 feet); enchanting scenery reflecting days of old: traders, travelers, families - some walking, some on horse-back, some on camel-back or else herding yaks and sheep.
A day in the middle of August, we reached Kibber village at noon and a sharp, cool, dry breeze welcomed us. After stepping only a few meters, we felt breathless. Kibber, at almost fifteen thousand feet from sea level, is the last village in the Spiti valley with barely forty households, a primary health centre, a post office, a bus strand and two gompa: one old, another one new. At the hotel entrance, a sweet little girl of four welcomed us.
In the evening, two people, each with a pair of horses arrived from Manali. We hired a cook, also from Manali, but didn’t hire any guide. Kibber was very dark and cool at night. Our only female member went out, with a torch in hand, to inspect the horses; those would carry all rations and tents for a ten-member team, for ten days.
Next morning, we went out for a few hours trek and acclimation purpose, towards the beautiful peak of Kanamo (19,600 feet). At noon, a meeting was held, mainly about our individual health ready for the start of the trek for Parang La Pass – Tso Morori Lake – Ladakh, Korzoc village, beginning next morning. But two members complained of breathing problems. The doctor at the primary health center advised to send them back to Kaza for admission to hospital there, because they needed oxygen support. Luckily, a share jeep was about to leave for Kaza; our two sick members, with another member to help them, left with it. Next day at noon, the fellow member returned and reported that the two sick members spent the night at Kaza hospital, and that morning had availed themselves of the first bus for Manali. They were fit.
In the evening, the hotel owner invited us to meet a group of army personnel – who had just finished crossing over the Parang La pass. They welcomed us but warned that the trek is tough and there are pockets of thin air. Moreover, after crossing the pass, the tail end of the glacier, the snout, should be negotiated very cautiously and “remember to descend by the left side of glacier.”
Next day we left Kibber not too early. The first day’s trek was easy, but breathing difficulties were experienced in places; it was a ten-kilometer march of ups and downs with no green anywhere. The sun was scorching but, most of the time, the snow white Kanamo peak appeared in the far distant, with the screen of deep blue sky behind. There were places a lone traveler might lose the track. There were tops of mounds indicating three directions, and a huge skull of a yak placed on a boulder top, in the middle of the mound: so confusing in finding the right track. However, we reached the day’s camp site by simple intuition.
Thuldak camp site - a green patch of mountain grass, under cover of mountain walls on three sides. Maybe, ancient travelers, traders or nomads, used to spend the night there. But, availability of drinking water was a problem. The only source of water was a thin line of water rolling down over the mountain wall, almost a dried fountain. The cook skillfully placed jerry cans and collected water for drinking and cooking.
Next day, after breakfast and cleaning the site, we left and immediately entered a chimney-like deep gorge. In two hours, we reached a riverbank covered in plenty of big and small boulders: the river Parelumbi – with its tremendous force. Hardly ten feet wide, but difficult to cross: two thin logs were placed over the river for crossing. Walking on the logs was impossible for us, so we decided to crawl over the thin logs, one by one. But the cook, very casually crossed the river walking on the two logs, though the thin logs bent like bows. In the meantime, a group of people on horseback reached the bank and ,to our surprise, crossed the river mounted, despite each horse carrying a full load of materials.
Crossing the river, we started ascending the edge of the mountain and, continuously ascending and descending for hours, finally came down to the same Parelumbi riverbed: much wider with the river flowing in many streams. Though the cook and horsemen told us not to camp here, we were so tired we decided to pitch tents on the riverbed. There’s plenty of water and the sweet natural chime of flowing streams. Night passed on the Parelumbi river bed with a refreshing sleep.
Morning broke, but sun rays come here much later since the eastern side is completely blocked by high cliffs. We started our day’s trek early and, right from the beginning, started climbing. The river down below was like a white thread and, finally, was lost in the midst of ridges. So many up and downs, crossing of ridges, but we gained altitude all along. No sign of green or any vegetation like bush or shrub or grass, anywhere. Silence, so profound, and suddenly a flow of very cool air whistling by; scorching sun overhead, no sign of cloud or any birds and the hovering deep blue sky. At the end of the day, we were so tired, our water bottles emptied, but we had to walk to ascend for another hour to reach the camp site.
Reaching the site, we felt very breathless. This place, not less than sixteen thousand feet from sea level, was covered by different huge cliffs of blackish brown, dark grey mountain walls from all sides, scattered patches of frost, and a very cool breeze whistling from all directions, but without the required oxygen level. We all felt uneasy and out of breath due to lack of oxygen. I had a feeling that it was as if dark Tibetan monsters were readying themselves from all corners of the cliffs: with the deeming dusk, the place was so ghostly. To my surprise, a pair of pigeons appeared from nowhere and fearlessly walked towards where I was sitting with a coffee mug and some dry food in hand.
Later at night, after an early dinner, we discussed our individual health conditions, and we agreed that, except for breathing difficulties, there’s no real problem. Then we discussed that, next morning at 4 am, we would start to reach the top of the pass. We would go early, for ice on glacier would be firm and better for walking. Next morning, we were going to cross Parang La Pass at 18,880 feet: the pass that connects Ladakh and HP, northern states of India. For hundreds of years, people had used this high-altitude route. Severe cold with thin air made sleeping uncomfortable. Moreover, waves of thoughts on tomorrow’s hiking to the top of the Pass and then the long stretch of the glacier disturbed our rest.
Day four. We reached the top of the pass around 9 am. Parang La at 5,570 meters offered spectacular views of both sides of the pass. A contour of opposite colors, black and white, on the sides of the famous pass: the blackish brown side of the pass, the mountainous stiff slope with just a few small patches of snow, the Spiti valley side of HP, through which we had ascended. On the other side, the Ladakh side, was the enormous Parelumbi glacier, as if it were long waves of a frozen river: no sign of any colors other than the white of snow and ice and surrounding blackish peaks. How come this difficult path was used for traders or travelers, even when accessibility remains for just four months in a year? But it was the most used path connecting the ancient silk route, from far away northern countries, to reach the Indian mainland. Crossing Karakoram Pass, traders and travelers, used to reach Ladakh and then use this adventurous trail to reach Kaza, Kinnour, Simla, Manali, Kullu and finally Delhi.
We successfully crossed the glacier. At the beginning, there was the joy of walking on the long-stretched ice slope, but the five-kilometer-long glacier started melting after a few hours. Moreover, when we reached near the mouth of the glacier, there we found two snouts on both side of the mouth. Then we remembered the warnings advised by the army men at Kibber - not to try crossing the snout from the right side but to try from the left side because the left side snout point has better accessibility. There is a uniqueness about these snouts - the right-side mouth produced the river Parelumbi and the left sided snout produced the river Pareechu.
This Pareechu River would be the course of our future days’ trek route until we reach near Lake Tso Morori. That River entered into Tibet and formed a lake there also. The Pareechu Lake, in the year 2000 and 2005 caused havoc when it exploded and caused huge destruction of livelihoods, infrastructure and socio-economic assets downstream, mainly in Kinnaur and Shimla districts of HP. Again, some say, there is another branch of Pareechu river, named after Tsangpo when it enters China and, finally, when it enters into India, takes the name Brahmaputra. The water in the main artery of the Brahmaputra, the Siang, turns dirty and grey when the stream enters India from Tibet.
After four more days trek, mainly besides the bank of river Pareechu, on both sides, and crossing sometimes, we reached a place named Norbu Sumdo. But in those four days, we experienced various spectacular views that gave immense joy. Daily we met two or three groups of people on horseback, or on camel back, coming from the opposite direction. Sometimes, while traversing the vast riverbed, we would see a procession of ten or twelve people walking; nomad women, kids in arms, using colorful cloth umbrellas for protection from the scorching sun. That was as if time rewound to the Old Silk Road days. All along the colorful banks, or the slopes of the edges of mountain, were patches of ash, white, golden or silvery, covered with dots of dark green broccoli like vegetation; this is actually a species of fungus that grows in high altitude. And, most surprising, was the formation of on the rock face sometimes as of a huge ancient castle or ruined cities. Sometimes, big boulders formed sculptures of different posture of beings. We became very amused when we saw a whole saffron mountain took up the formation of a bust of an ancient sage. Other times, when we were walking over the riverbed, at 16,000 feet, there was super fine silvery stone dust, so soft that it gave the feeling of walking on silk. There were many natural caves also: maybe ancient peoples on their long journey, used to spend the night in those caves.
When we reached Norbu Sumdo, on the bank of Pareechu, we didn’t know that we had already past the place from where we were supposed to cross the river and go north, towards the Tso-Moriri lake. Later in the evening, we were told that we were so lucky we didn’t go further. Stories of abduction of Indian people and their belongings, horse, yak or sheep herds by the Chinese army are very common.
What happened that day was that we had to walk until late night. There were misunderstandings between the horse owners; in the morning one horse owner was detached from the group with his two horses. Last night we walked on and on in search of the other two horses but couldn’t find them. So we had a dreadful night, without tents and food. The other two horses with us carried only a stove, fuel, utensils and food stuff for the horses. Therefore, we passed the night sitting with empty stomachs.
The following morning, we had further trouble. After walking some kilometers, we found the cook was missing. Our leader said the cook told him that he should go in advance for tracking the path and would try to locate the missing two horses. The owner of other two horses who was with us said he would do the packing and mounting materials on the horses back alone, so he needed time and would come later. None of us had any idea where to cross the river. We kept walking by the right bank of the Pareechu for hours and didn’t realize we had left behind the actual place for crossing the river. But that was a miraculous save for all of us. Ahead of us on the riverbank, we saw an oasis like green patch of shrubs and grass and there, grazing, were the missing two horses and the sleeping young keeper. On enquiry, the horse keeper said that yesterday the other horse owner told him to reach Norbu Sumdo, which would possibly be the night camp, but he had no idea of the place, as it’s his first time on this route. Since no one arrived, he didn’t go any further, selected this place and spent the night under the bare sky.
We prepared coffee and took some dry food. When we were discussing on the possible place for crossing the river, one of us said that last night he heard a conversation between the cook and horse owner that, where the river takes a right hand turn just before meeting with another river, that’s the place for crossing. Ruins of an age old gompa may be seen high above on the opposite bank. So, we returned to the place where the river took a right turn and searched for the possible crossing place. Here, the river was in such a spate, more than a thousand meters, and there were dozens of streams. We started crossing one after another of the streams, but when we reached the main stream we found it more than knee deep and the strong current made it impossible to cross.
Suddenly we heard someone shouting from the far end and then we found the tiny figure of the cook on the opposite bank, in front of the ruined gompa high above, waving his hands, asking us to wait there. Very expertly he crossed the river and reached us. He advised us to form a human chain, holding each other’s hand tightly. We crossed the river Pareechu and that was for the last time. Tents were pitched near the Bhanga gompa. We then had three days easy hiking, two days of which were a long walk by the side of Lake Tso-Moriri, (the length of the lake is thirty kilometers), to reach Korzoc village of Ladakh. From Korzok, a motor road connects Leh, Ladakh or Manali, HP.
A huge natural water body, at 4,000 meters above sea level, lake Tso-Moriri, feeds its excess water to Pareechu. That is why the river is so wide at Norbu Sumdo. Water is one of the most essential among pancha vutas (five main elements). Through the passage of the ancient Silk Route, the highly technical world now takes up the usage of water as a most needed element: for hydro- electricity and as an essential resource for hundreds of industries.
It was said that centuries before the demarcation of India, China, and Pakistan, there was an ancient caravan route through the passes – Sasser La and Karakoram La connecting the north of Ladakh and Yarkand, a town lying on the southern branch of the ancient Silk Road. Source water for drinking or cooking was known to those ancient people for sure.
A World Bank report said that India could store thirty days of rainfall in its dams. However, China with nearly 98,000 dams/water storage structures has the largest water storage assets in the world today: to monopolize green technology for zero emission vehicles or chip making. Such industries require huge amounts of fresh water. It is estimated, a large chip fabrication facility can use ten million gallons of ultrapure water per day – equivalent to domestic consumption of a quarter million families. The Report also stated that the major rivers of South Asia originate in the Tibetan plateau. This is the ‘Third Pole’ for water with nearly 46,000 glaciers. According to the Chinese Academy of Science, the Tibetan glaciers are melting at the rate of seven percent a year and two thirds of the glaciers on the plateau will be gone by 2050. According to the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development, the current rate of melting suggests that the Ganga, Indus, Brahmaputra, and other rivers across the north India plains could most likely become seasonal rivers in the near future. Indian satellites confirmed existence of the Zhangmu dam on the Brahmaputra at the Great Bend, forming the world’s deepest gorge for hydropower potential of 38,000 MW. China has dammed almost every river on the Tibetan plateau including Mekong, Brahmaputra, Yangtze, Yellow, Indus, Sutlej, and Karnali.
BIO-DATA
Satyajit Mukherjee was originally a librarian, and loves to roam, travel cycle, and trek. He draws, paints, and writes.
Though, he says, he tries to “focus big” his frame is “so small”. Fifty years of practicing spiritual drawing has given him the joy of achievement through SVD (Sree Vidya process of Drawing), namely – hymns of Ishaponishada, Shiva-mahimna Stotram, Gita -Purushottom Yoga (published).
At present, he is working on drawings of all 700 hymns of the Gita.