We reached Karsha in the afternoon where Nawang Lachok, the local Naib Tehsildar, had invited us to stay with him for the night. He had a very nice house with a good view from the top. As the jonga carrying our bags had not arrived yet, we decided to go up to the monastery to have a look. It was a steep climb along a stone paved staircase. The monastery is located on a commanding position and one can have a panoramic view of entire Zanskar valley from its top. The Lamas showed us around.

The monastery has a big prayer hall which has tall wooden columns. These are in fact pine trees which the lamas had carried to the monastery from Machail in Kishtwar area. These tall trees had been dragged all along across the 17,000 foot high Umasi La pass. It is no mean feat especially of those early days when the glaciers must have been tougher to cross. The Umasi La is the same pass across which General Zorawar Singh mounted his campaign against Ladakh. Even at present trekking across the pass is not an easy job! The monastery has also a nunnery. On one side the monastery is a shear cliff and there is a huge fall. I was wondering what would happen if someone goes out of a window in the night mistaking it for a door!

After visiting the Gompa, we came back to Nawang Lachok’s house. By now Asaf too had arrived. He had shot a couple of what he called migratory birds. These looked like Siberian teal or something like that. Nawang Lachok took these for preparing our dinner. He seemed to be a very good cook himself and prepared an excellent dinner for us. We very much enjoyed his hospitality. Before and after dinner we had a long chat with Nawang and some other relations of his. We heard many stories about Zanskar. One story related to the existence of flying fish in a lake above Padum. One had to climb up for a day or so to reach the lake. The fish would jump out of the lake to a significant height. People used to catch these while these fell back into the water. These were used by the local Amchis (traditional doctors) to make some medicine. The fish were supposed to have strong aphrodisiac properties.

The other lively topic of discussion was the life in Zanskar. They led a simple life. There was no crime and people would not lock their houses. We talked about the effect of tourism on the local people. The young and the old had totally differing views. The old felt that tourism was not good for their society. No doubt it was giving economic gains but it was at the cost of their cherished social values. Nawang told us that the older generation feels coming of bad times. According to them when a guest in a house has to pay for his stay that means something bad has come over their society. Even though Zanskar had a closed society virtually land locked for almost 7 to 8 months in a year, they used to be self sufficient in food and other things. In fact, with the excess barley they would brew the local beer Chang and some Liquor and consume it during winter. They enjoyed life in the isolated winters. However, the intrusion from outside had changed that life style. Innocent Zanskaris were exchanging their ancient jewellery with tourists for few material things without knowing the value of their antique possessions. Many other bad things were happening and it did not bode well for future.

In contrast to this, the younger generation was very happy especially for the completion of the road. Among these was the son in law of Nawang who had passed his matriculation examination. He was very much outspoken about the travails they had to undergo for getting education as well as for provisions especially salt and other things. They had to trek for a week to reach the college in Kargil. They had to carry bags of salt and other things on their backs. There was no real health care and they had to depend upon primitive system of local “doctors” prevalent in their area called the Amchi. He questioned us as to why this was in their fate to suffer all these travails? They were keen for all facilities of modern world being extended to them. Thus the debate between the old and the new generation continues. The new generation after experiencing the modern ways may feel the old ways were more innocent, honest, and good but the nature has its own course to follow. One realises all these values only after experiencing the whole process. Human curiosity does not allow one to listen to the wisdom of the old! Nawang wanted me to consider the appointment of his son in law in the tourism department in the newly opened up office in Padum. I told him to get an application from him for the same. The Youngman came with an application in English. I was surprised to find the application to be very precise and written in excellent English. Back home even graduates or higher qualification holders could not write so neatly. After all these people had to face tough conditions to get educated! I was very much impressed and on return took the application straight to the then Chief Secretary Noor Sahib. He got the boy appointed in the tourist office.

Next morning we started early for the return journey as it was cloudy and we could see some sleet falling. It was just the beginning of winter. We were very apprehensive of getting caught in the Zanskar valley for the entire winter. Till we crossed the Penzi la we were very sombre and subdued. The prospect of getting land locked had a depressive feeling. Only after moving ahead of Rangdum did we breathe freely. We had two incidents on the return trip. The radiator of our jeep started leaking. One of the tyres totally burst near Panikhar and one of the springs also broke. After our arrival in Srinagar, the Jeep had to stay in the workshop for over a month to become fully operational again. The Zanskar journey was quite tough for the vehicle. I left for London immediately on my return from Zanskar. The BBC people were not very happy when I told them that I had just visited the last place on Earth by a jeep! They told me not to mention this to any body.

Zanskar did not remain the mysterious peaceful land after the road came in. Dalai Lama gave a sermon in Sanni Gompa for which the Power Department had taken two generators there. After the completion of the sermon, the Power Department wanted to take back the generators but the local people resisted. They had seen the “light” and would not like it to go away. There were fights and two paramilitary personnel drowned after being showered with arrows by the lamas of Karsha. This was the beginning of modern civilisation in Zanskar!

Subsequently, I made a number of trips to Suru and Zanskar, mostly by helicopter for rescue of climbers and trekkers but the journey of the first road travel to Padum and Karsha is the best one I have had and is etched in my memory. I will describe the other adventures in the area in some later episodes. The next few episodes will be about my Pangong and Tsomoriri adventure.

(To be continued ……)