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| Lamayuru (from internet) |
Next morning in
Kargil was taken up by official work and at noon we had to attend an
interesting session with the local Brigadier. He had organized a lunch on the
banks of the Suru River that flows by Kargil. Suru is a tributary of the Indus
and it originates from a glacier. Covered with a lot of foliage, the banks were
very pleasant. The Army bandobast made it more so. The occasion was a visit to
the Army establishment by a Parliamentary Committee headed by Nandini Satpati,
who later became Chief Minister of Odisha.
While the lunch
was typical army fare the discussions were interesting. The Brigadier seemed to
have a congenital dislike for the netas and he let loose his artillery barrage
at them. That the Army fifty years ago was operating under great stress with
shortage of men and material couldn’t be gainsaid. Then, the general
inefficiency of the civilian control over defense matters made it worse. The
Brigade Commander obviously had a lot of grievances and he did not mince his
words.
I couldn’t see
much of the town. Whatever little I saw of it appeared to me more like Central
Asian towns we had seen in pictures. The people were more or less of Central
Asian stock and were mostly Muslims, very courteous and hospitable.
Next morning we
left for Leh. About 10 miles away was a town called Mulbek. It was at that time
the last outpost of Muslims and after Mulbek it was all Buddhist country. Quite
a few miles after Mulbek we came across a bridge over a small river guarded by
three soldiers – two on one side and one on the other. For miles around there
was no sign of human life. We were told that these guards would be changed
every month and sometimes the relievers wouldn’t turn up for days. Their
isolation, particularly at night, was so oppressive that one wondered how these
soldiers kept their mental balance. In the overbearing cold it should be worse
and unbearable.
After another
few miles we crossed Fatu-la, the highest pass on the route,. The pass is at
more than 13000 ft. We had not even got over the fact that we had crossed the
highest pass on the way when we came across a descent that was most
interesting. Called Hungroo Loops the road descended to scrape the bottom of
the valley taking eleven loops only to climb again another ridge. Vehicles do
have a tough time on this road climbing up and down on rough roads in rarified
atmosphere.
After Hungroo
Loops there was something more stunning that was in store for us. In a valley
on the right side of the road were some Buddhist structures the tops of which
were at the road level. The rest of the structures were in the valley. The
place is known as Lamayuru. Here the mountains all around are stark and bald,
and not a blade of grass grows; the place is just devoid of greenery barring a
few patches of green at the bottom of the valley. The mountain sides are,
however, of brilliant beige colour. It
has a monastery which is famous among the Tibetan Buddhist. Legend has it that
in prehistoric times the place had a water body. The water just happened to
disappear leaving the place for the small town to come up. Sounds far-fetched
but fossilized stone fragments could be picked up from the road even fifty
years ago.
What was once a sleepy Buddhist settlement has
now become a thriving tourist site. There are special buses for Lamayuru from
Leh and hordes of motorcyclists, the adventure tourists, throng the place.
Hotels and home-stays have since come up bringing the place up in the tourist
map of Jammu & Kashmir
Lamayuru to Leh
was more than a hundred kilometers and it was a good three hours drive. By the
time we left Lamayuru after a very brief halt it was already late evening. Soon
it was dark and with no mountains to keep us company on the sides it appeared
as if we were speeding down a road on the top of the world. We hit Leh around 9
o’clock in the evening.
We got two days
in Leh that were mostly spent in official work. There was no time for
sight-seeing. The town was like any other Buddhist Central Asian town. The Old
Town was dominated by the Leh Palace built
in the 17th Century- which the tourists now flock to Fifty years ago
it looked lonesome and isolated and Leh itself was not a bustling town like it
is reported to be today. In fact, one did not ever think of Leh as a tourist
spot then as, firstly, it was a prohibited place and secondly, travelling to it
was not easy. Planes were only from Chandigarh and mostly for armed forces.
I remember two
things about Leh. The Army people had a farm that grew vegetables. I had never
seen such magnum sized cauliflower, pumpkins, radishes and numerous other kinds
of vegetables. These were all consumed in the Army mess. Then there is one
thing I must make a mention of and that is the moonshine in Leh. The moon was only
about three days away from maturing into a full moon. I happened to wake up very
late one night because of the bright light falling on the bed through the open window.
It was the moonshine – very bright, almost dazzling. At more than 11000 ft
there was nothing in the atmosphere to obstruct the moonlight. I went out to
the verandah and took in the sight in
front. The whole plain in front was bathed in bright moonshine – a fabulous
sight.
The same
verandah of the Signals Mess offered a very good view of a maidan that seemed to extend to the
mountains beyond. Sitting there one
morning after breakfast I saw a caravan of fully loaded yaks and ponies trudging
from one side to the other. The men driving the animals were dressed up like the
Mexicans I happened to have seen in Wild West movies many years ago. Their high
boots kicking up a lot of dust and their what seemed like rough leather jerkins
resembled what the Mexican roughnecks would wear. I was told these men were
Tibetans and were on their way from one of their settlements to another. Ladakh
has a substantial number of Tibetan refugees
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