Leh, Ladakh Kashmir

MAY 22ND, 2010 SATURDAY
LEH, LADAKH

This is such an incredible world; here I am writing this on a notebook computer, looking down from my guest house balcony at two old (at least I think they are old, I have a feeling you age very quickly in this rugged climate) Ladakhi women toast barley over an open fire. In the background I hear the sounds of cows and yaks and once in awhile the sound of jet and prop planes from the Indian Air Force flying in the distance.
Before leaving McCleod Ganj, yesterday, I spent an hour writing and if I may shamelessly say a pretty good blog only to have erased it. Doug suggested that I work in a document and paste it into the blog....here is hoping it works.
The trip from MG to Jammu is about 150 miles. It took us about six and a half hours to travel the distance. Doug and Kristen did make the observation that we did have a very careful driver (which means he didn't make every effort to make scare the living daylight out of us) and when we crossed over into Kashmir we got held up at the border. Truck, buses, cars, beggars and vendors all trying to get through the boarder, pay their road taxes (our driver not only had to pay the tax but a bribe as well – he was really angry about it, telling the police “why do this to me, I'm from Kashmir”). The driver left us in the running car (thank goodness, it was over a hundred degrees outside) and went to pay a second tax, at that point in time I felt as if I was in a movie scene where the crowd turns on the car of a foreigner. People starred into the car window's looking at us, beggars knocked on the window, cows would saunter by (yes, in the mist of all this traffic.....cows walking or laying down wherever they pleased). Men were carrying around small round grills and grilling vegetables and some sort of meat (mutton or chicken?), these small grills were were placed on folding tray holders, which when the vendor moved to another location he would put under on arm and carry the grill with his other. He would then go up to cars and buses and sell his fare and move on his way.

When we entered Jammu, a city of approximately one million people and I was taken back by the military presence. XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX.
Early the next morning we went to the airport in Jammu for our Air India flight to Leh, Ladakh. Ladakh encompasses 56% of the land in Kashmir and only 2% of it's population. I read that it is one of the least populated places on the planet.
Cars are not allowed to walk into the airport, you walk in by foot, going through the first of what were to be six inspections: x-ray, metal detectors, frisking and for female passages hand inspections of your purse. Carry on bags are not allowed. Stationed throughout the airport were armed Indian soldier's. We had five more security checks and at the last inspection point my purse was emptied until they found what they felt was suspicious – an oberlite! Thirty year's of airport travel, at home and abroad, never once has an oberlite been confiscated!
Flying over The Himalayas was a breath taking, humbling experience. For whatever reason you were not allowed to photograph the mountains through the plane windows.....Kristen just finished taking picture's (she had the window seat) when the announcement was made that photography was prohibited. The approach to Leh was literally like coming down from the clouds....the white, rugged peaks of the Himalayans, their majesty was replaced by the brown, lunar like bleakness of the hills surrounding Leh. The Leh Airport is part of the Indian military and everywhere you looked you saw razor wire, camouflaged bunkers, soldier's and guns. I have never seen such a strong military presence but then again I have never been so close to a :hot spot” before. Doug read that the U.S. Special Forces sometime train here, along side the Indian Army because the terrain and condition's are similar to Afghanistan.. This morning I heard (here it is again.....another “sound”) airplane's flying overhead. My immediate, albeit irrational thought was “Pakistan is invading”. I have a new found recognition of the fear which Indian's and Pakistani live with each day.
I also have to mention this that right how I am closer to Kabul than to Delhi. Mother, I know hearing that will make your heart skip a beat.....but by the time you read this I'll be back in Delhi. I won't be able to send this until then...
We are staying at a little guest house called “Silver Cloud “, Our room has a lovely balcony over-looking the snow capped Himalayan mountain's and approximately a ten minute walk from the center of Leh. The guest house is built in the traditional Ladakhi style, mud baked bricks, covered with more mud and ornately carved pined trim. Straw is used for insulation and considering the fact they have long, cold and snowy winter's here it must work well. The interior of our room is in the traditional style, beamed ceilings, hand carved post and woodwork and a beautiful wooden floors with hand made Ladakhi rugs. We have three beds, each one of them about eighteen inches high, ( resembling a wooden platform with a three inch foam covering over the sleeping surface.. Note to reader: It isn't very comfortable so. I got up during the night and put one of the heavy bed quilt's under me and it did seem to make the bed a tad softer). There is no central heat in the guest house but we do have a space heater AND our own western toilet. Tonight at 8:30 we will have some hot water for showers. The owner of Silver Cloud speaks passable English and with Doug's Tibetan and his smattering of Ladakhi we manage. The owner's Mother is this smiling old woman who has a weather warned tanned skin and a big broad smile with white teeth .She is hunched over and is dressed in traditional Ladakhi dress and jewelry.

He also has a very nice wife, who speaks some English and two servants, one girl aged eleven and I guess the other woman to be around twenty. The eleven year old smiles at us all the time and speaks a little English, which she told me she learned in school. She is busy helping with putting in the garden and when we were served breakfast on the patio this morning she brought food back and forth from the kitchen. The older sister works all the time; from the time we go to sleep and when we wake up she is back outside working, she prepared our morning breakfast and tea and is busy inside as well as outside.
I was the first one up this morning and put on my down vest (I slept with long underwear under neath my pajamas) and went out to the balcony, right underneath me were two women toasting barley under a wooden fire. This went on all day. Both women were older and again dressed in traditional clothing were later joined by the older daughter of this family. The owner was outside and told me about what they were doing, I asked if it was OK to photograph them and he said yes. I told him I was interested in the local culture and later on he told Doug that a monk was coming to do a Puja (ritual ceremony – probably blessing and purifying the kitchen and home) and asked if we would like to watch. We of course, jumped at the opportunity, and sat cross-legged on cushions (truth be told; D and K sat cross-legged my old bones couldn't bend for a half hour). This wasn't your ordinary tourist experience, but then again I hope we are anything but ordinary tourist. Oh........we had some of the barley with our breakfast....it was delicious.
Doug hired a car and driver and we drove to three locations: 1) Thiskey Monastery 14th century 2) Shey Palace, the former summer capital of the Ladakhi Kings and 3) Stok, the former residence of the Ladakhi royal family. My personal favorite was Thiskey Monastery which looks like the Potala Palace in Tibet. Kristen and I were told by a monk that a Puja, (this particular one is held only once a year ) was going on and we could sit in the corner of the room and observe the ritual. We were given the unusual opportunity to sit, watch, and listen (SOUNDS AGAIN) to the monk's chanting, smelling incense burning and to witness an ancient Buddhist Puja . We were getting up to leave and another Monk approached us and wanted to show us the Mandala (made out of sand , which will be destroyed to represent the in-permanence of life), butter sculptures and numerous different Buddha's.


SUNDAY, MAY 25TH
We woke up to cold this morning.....I downed the silk long underwear I brought with me, put on a polartec shirt and down vest....that should keep me warm. In a relatively short period of time, my attire, kept me over-heated and hot! Fortunately, Doug had a backpack with him and it wasn't before too long he was shoving both Kristen and my jacket's into his pack. We walked through the the maze of stone fenced homes and said “Jew-Lay)” to everyone we met. People are very friendly. All the homes are surrounded by stone walls and dung covered lanes run through this community like a maze. Inside the walls you find tidy homes, terraced garden's and an occasional yak, cow or goat. The home's of Buddhist family's are marked by prayer flags flying proudly in the wind. The landscape here is for the most part brown but the bright yellow, green, red, and blue of the prayer flags compliment the green tree's (which are not indigenous to the country but have been brought from somewhere else and planted) and garden's and the landscape is cheerful and inviting. Currently the season is late spring; the lilac bushes, apple tree's , and iris are all in bloom. The garden is being planted at the Silver Cloud and when harvested will feed the family and the guest for the coming year.
We ventured into the old city where Muslim baker's were baking bread in the oven's that resembled the tandoori oven's used by the Indian's. Muslim butcher's were selling meat displayed (intestines, organs and cuts of meat I coudln't recognize) out on an open shelf next to their shop doors. The Muslim population is around 40% and the Buddhist population is around 60%. The vast majority of the Muslim population came as immigrant's about five hundred years ago and live, for the most part, problem free together. There are two Mosque's in town and we hear the sound's of the call to prayer during the day.

After a good climb to the top of the old Palace we had a quick lunch and went our separate way's. Kristen went back to the Silver Cloud, Doug went to check on our day trip to ALCHI tomorrow and I the roamed the shop's. Being the fun group we are we are spending the evening reading. We were without electric power awhile ago, but after hearing the sounds of a gasoline generator being started we now have power. It is almost nine o'clock......I think I'll call it a night and hopefully write more tomorrow.
Monday. May 24th

Kristen and I are back at the Silver Cloud after a exciting, adventurous day. I am amazed at all that Doug knows about Ladakh and this whole region. His study of comparative religion is extended way beyond Buddhism, etc. Doug is still in town using a telephone to make check on our reservation's for the trip to Agra. Incidentally, there will be a full moon when we are there.......how incredibly romantic, I hope D&K enjoy it.
When K and I opened the gate to come into the courtyard it looked like a party was going on.....in a way it was. The owner's of the Silver Cloud are having major stone work done on pathways and they have worker's here (complete with some cute little children who Kristen and I would have loved to brought up to our room to play with). The owner's work all the time; I am always up before six and when I go out on the balcony I see them sweeping, moving tables outside so we can have our breakfast downstairs on the terrace, or working in the garden. We found out that the eleven year old girl and the other girl who are here are not the children of the owner's but relatives children from a remote part of Ladakh called Zanskar. The owner's two children are in private boarding school's in Delhi and the daughter has just won a full scholarship to the United World College and plans to practice medicine. The work ethic of Sonam and his wife is incredible.
Doug hired a driver and a jeep to take us to Achi, a monastery which The Smithsonian Magazine had a major article about a few month's ago (thank you Daddy...because of you, I read it!)
Achi is an 11th century monastery, which because of its remote location was never sacked by any of the invaders who conquered Ladakh over the century's. (Note to reader: Ladakh became part of India in 1947 when the British partitioned the country, before then it was it's own kingdom) I'M STOPPING RIGHT NOW....NO POWER AND I'LL NEED TO WAIT UNTIL THE GASOLINE GENERATOR GETS STARTED. WHEN K AND I CAME BACK SONAM TOLD US HE WAS SO SORRY.....NO HOT WATER BUT HE WOULD BRING US A BUCKET OR TWO SO WE COULD WASH. A HOT HOUSE FLOWER I AM NOT!

Back to today......D and K had headlamps and I an oberlite in order to see the interiors of the two temple's at Achi. The color's were still vibrant and well preserved. One temple did have some deep cracks in the plaster, which have been made worse by blasting done by the Indian Army for a new dam being made on the Indus River. Speaking of the Indus, it was exciting seeing a river that in seemed so remote when I studied Geography in school. The road to Achi was a cross between a Great America roller coaster and Russian Roulette. I sat in the front seat with the driver so I could see just how close we were to the edge of the small, shoulder less road. In many places the road was a single lane, which doesn't matter all that much because Indian's drive as if they are the only driver on the road. We came within an inch of cars (no VGE) as he passed on curves, passed when he saw another driver approaching us. I actually felt very confident in the driving ability of Tashi, (Tibetan for “luck”), our driver......it was all the other driver's I was worried about.
Our second stop of the day was at the LikirMonastery, most notable because it was first founded in the 11th century and then re-established by another school of Buddhism in the 15th century. This ancient structure has a twenty five foot outdoor statue of the Future Buddha, Maitreya, built in the 1980's.......from my point of view it really corrupts the integrity of the monastery. Incidentally, the current Dali Lama's brother is the Lama running the Likir Monastery.
The next stop was the Basgo Gompa... one of the highlight's of the Indus Valley. It is a World Heritage site and was crumbling until UNESCO and some local forces have joined forces to restore it. The site sits on top of a mountain with panoramic views of the valley which is dotted with stupas. I have to admit that after the first flight of steps, D&K took their leave and went up to monastery and walked around the gompa, I 'm not sure if it was the altitude, the end of the day or my lack of being in shape but I said I'd be happy to wait. I was sitting enjoying the view and imagining what life must have been like during that time when Tashi climbed up the hill to join me. We had a limited conversation because of language limitations and I laughed to myself at his sense of chivalry not wanting me there alone! POWER IS OFF AGAIN AND I CAN'T SEE …..HOPE IT WILL COME ON AGAIN SO I CAN FINISH THIS BEFORE I FALL ASLEEP. I'm back and regret that my description's of what I am seeing do not do justice to Ladakh or for that matter McCleod Ganj (which I still need to write about) or India itself. I wish that I was a better writer, had more time and that at the end of the day I wasn't so tired.

Tuesday, May 25th

It is really easy getting settled into Leh, the rhythm of life has already been established for me. I'm up a little before I hear the jet planes in the distance, which is a few minutes after six. Shortly after that I hear the family of this guest house beginning their day. I hear the sound of the straw brooms sweeping the terrace and walks. The high pitched voice's of the women probably talking and the sound coming from the kitchen. Speaking of kitchens.........last night Sonam gave me a tour of the new kitchen being at the guest house. It is completely modern: custom made, which are being made by woodworkers from Nepal, cabinets, marble counter tops, a big stove, a huge sink and burled wood walls. I asked him what they were going to do with the old kitchen, which we were all in for the puja the second day we were here. He said they would use the new kitchen for preparation of the guest's food but the old kitchen, which is a traditional Ladhki kitchen will be used by them. He said that when Ladhki's entertain family and friend's it is always in the kitchen........not that different from being home in
Wheaton!

At approximately ten minutes after seven each day that we have been here an old man and woman come walking down the road with an unruly yak, a couple of cows and several donkey's. They both have switches to keep them moving and I hear them shouting, what I can only imagine are commands to the animals and not to each other. I haven't any idea of where they are coming from and where they are going to.
We have breakfast here each morning and except for the one morning when it was too cold we eat out on the terrace in front of the guest house The sun is bright and warm so even if it is a bit chilly we are soon warm and comfortable. Breakfast consists of : black tea, roti (Indian style bread), butter, apricot jam (apricots are grown here), honey and omelets.
Breakfast brings up the topic of food. I have to admit that I had reservations before coming here worrying about what I was going to eat. I had Dal before and I knew if nothing else I could eat Dal (beans) and rice. Lord knows it wouldn't hurt to drop a pound or ten. Needless to say, I have not lost any weight and probably gained a few. The variety of food available in McCleod Ganj was enormous and as a matter of fact the best food I have eaten so far was there. In MG, as in Delhi and here in Leh the restaurant menu has an Indian, Italian Israeli, Chinese and Continental section. I do have to admit that regardless of what I have eaten the food all seems to taste the same. Doug and Kristen love Indian food and it seems that they generally order it. I had a funny experience in a restaurant in Alchi yesterday. On a dessert menu they had “banana pan cake” and “chocolate pan cake.” The thought of a nice piece of chocolate cake sounded good to me and I assumed it would be a piece of cake baked in a single layer pan. When it was brought out to me it was a big crepe filled with chocolate. D&K knew it was it was what they call a pancake. Regardless, it was delicious and big enough for the three of us.
Doug had a beer with dinner last night and if you asked D&K what they miss the most in terms of US foods they would both say good beer. The beer Doug had was KINGFISHER beer. Kingfisher is a large Indian conglomerate owning an airline by the same name, dairy's along with other businesses The bottle reads that the alcohol contents MIGHT be between 3.5 and 5.5. If Forest Gump was in India he would say “beer is like a box of chocolates.....you never know what your going to get”. Beer and Wine are sold in stores called “English Wine and Beer Shop.” Kristen bought a bottle of Indian wine the day I arrived but we were too busy and then too tired to every drink it.
Kristen as you all know is this sweet Glen Ellyn girl who you would think of as being very vulnerable in this dog eat dog envirnoment (I think that would be a pretty fair broad assessment of Indian life). Well folks, think twice! Yesterday she and I were in a long line at a ATM station and after a long wait it was our turn to go into the room and this Indian man tried to step in front of Kristen and in a micro-second she shoved her body right in front of him and gave him a look a Clint Eastwood kind of “go ahead, make my day” look. He tried getting in front of her one other time and she wouldn't budge. She is good with merchants and taxi drivers as well.....firm but always giving them a smile. I am really impressed with the way Kristen has adapted to life in India.
One afternoon in Mcleod Ganj, I went to Kristen's English Conversation class. It was fun seeing her in the classroom and it was obvious that her student's (all adults) respect her (they address her as “Teacher”) and like her as well.
Another afternoon Douglas and I went to be volunteer English Conversation Partners' at The Gu-Chu-Sun, an association which provides free English and Computer Classes to former Tibetan Political Prisioner's. I was paired with a Tibetan nun, who was imprisioned by the Chinesse for three year's. She was arrested because she was protesting. After she was released from prision her family got enough money (she was the oldest of 8 children born to farmer's parent's) to help her get to Nepal and eventually she got to India and to Dharmasala. She told me two of her brother's became monks and were arrested and imprisioned for protesting in last year's demonstration's again the Chinesse. At one point I asked her if she had any questions she would like to ask me about my life and she perked up and wanted to know how old I was and if I had cake on my birthday? Her year studying at Gu-Chu-Sum was almost over and she will have to return to her nunnery about forty miles from MG ...she didn't seem too happy about the prospect since she said she would not be able to use her English skills. Needless to say, it was an eye opening experience for me and I know I gained far more from talking to her than she got in return.
Another day in MC Doug and I went to Dharmasala to the Gangchen Kyishong Complex (this is where the Tibetan Government in exile has their headquarter's). The Library of Tibetan Works and Arhives is in this complex and this is where Doug has been doing his Tibetan language training. The complex is relatively small and yet it is able to get the message of the Free Tibet movement out to the world. Apparently there is an entire government in place here ready to move in and take charge if Tibet is ever granted it's freedom. Unfortunately for these dedicated and proud people it will most likely never happen.
Doug and I also went for a little hike (we took a rickshaw up and down to the village) through a small Indian village above MG and The Tibetan Children's Village. The name of the village was Naddi and most of ithe inhabitant's are GADDI people. They are an ethnic group of shephards. The village was interesting...women doing laundry, tending gardens and talking to each other just like women do all over the world. There seemed to be an absence of men and I am assuming that they were probably with their flocks higher in the mountain's. The village was obviously poor, but for the most part clean and it's residents looked happy. The kids were cute and dressed in school uniforms on their way to a school we saw in the valley.
When we fly out of Leh tomorrow I will feel as if I am going back to India despite the fact that I have never left it. McCleod Ganj and to a greater sense Leh seem a world away from the India of Delhi, Amristar and Jammu. The air is clean, the pace is slower and the people are different; not only ethnically but, if I were to make a comparison with the US.....they are like midwesterner's.
Doug has been encouraging me to get up during the night and go out on the balcony and look at the stars. Last night I did and I have never seen anything like it. The heaven's looked like an astronomy book. I never imagined their could be so many stars in the sky, The moon is almost full so the only thing that could have made the stars brighter would have been no moon lighting the sky. Jim G....it would have been your star gazing dream come true!
Doug is woring for Rustic Pathways again this summer and beginning a few days after I leave he will be leading trips from Delhi to Ladahk taking, what I consider, very lucky teenager's to this part of the world. Hopefully it will make a lasting and meaningful impression on their life's.
Hopefully, we can find an internet cafe with a good connection and send this off today....otherwise it will be tomorrow in Agra.