Sometimes the beauty of a place is not in its surroundings or what you see, but is more internal and something that you feel and experience. It is in the people of the place. I had this experience in Zanskar. It will always remain a special place and I will cherish the memories forever.
After visiting the monastery at Dzongkhul, I went to see the nunnery at Tungri. I had just got out of the car at the nunnery that I came across a big group of foreigners who I initially thought were the visitors who had come there just like me. One of them came forward and said to me that Caroline would just come and show me the place. I started wondering who this Caroline is and why she would show me the place if she is also one of the tourists there. However, the story unfolded little later and I go to know who Caroline is and what she means to the nuns and the villagers of Tungri.
Caroline took me to kitchen of the nunnery and offered me tea. She then told me her story, a story which will always be an inspiration. She visited Tungri for the first time some 15 years ago when she was backpacking across India. She spent one full winter there with the nuns and the bond between her and the nuns grew so strong that she decided to come next year and then the year next and this continued till this year. She became a part of the nunnery, a part that the nuns and the villagers of Tungri revered. Caroline learnt their language and I was dumbstruck seeing her converse with the nuns in their language. The nuns who were until then confined to Zanskar (some had not even been to Kargil in their lifetime), they went with Caroline on a 4 month long tour across India covering main Buddhist sites and several other places. This journey was video graphed and Caroline shared the CD with me which I saw few days later when I was stuck in Himachal due to landslides. Caroline also took these nuns with her to France and years later when the nuns were trying to tell me their experiences in France, I could clearly see what it meant to them and how grateful they were to Caroline for all that she had done for them. Not just these travels, Caroline has been helping Tungri in every possible way. She was instrumental in opening up a school in the nunnery. The beauty of Tungri was in the bond between Caroline and the nuns, in the way the nuns were thankful to her and in the way the nuns and Caroline welcomed me to their world. I will forever be grateful for the amazing experience I had at that place. I ended up staying at this place for five nights.
The big group that I had met when I entered the nunnery was Caroline’s family from France who at that time were visiting Caroline and the gentleman who came forward and introduced me to Caroline was her husband. My first evening in Tungri and I got invited by Caroline to a feast that the villagers had organised for Caroline and her family. We got amazing welcome and equally amazing food and local drinks to enjoy. I was really touched by the hospitality and the warmth of the villagers. I was not even their invitee but I didn’t feel out of place at all. After food, we had an amazing time watching some local dance that the villagers put together. Even Caroline’s family reciprocated and they sang their own songs and danced till late in the night. It was an amazing evening, certainly one of the best ones of the entire trip!
One of the places that I wanted to see in Zanskar was the Phuktal monastery. It is one of the very few monasteries in Ladakh that are still accessible on foot only. I came to know that even Caroline was planning to take her family there. We decided to go together and also take the nuns along. Couple of vehicles were hired and we started the drive towards Cha village, the last motorable village from where the trek to Phuktal monastery starts. The road condition was miserable and it took us 3 hours to cover the 45 Km distance. The trek in itself took little more than 2 hours and was mostly downhill on the way to Phuktal.
Phuktal monastery is situated in the remotest parts of Jammu and Kashmir state. The main temple is inside a huge cave and rest of the structure is made around that. When we reached there, we saw many young monks, some helping in the construction work of the monastery, some going through their religious books and some just having fun with each other. The beauty of the place was just unparalleled!
We made a late start from Phuktal and driving on those narrow, winding mountain roads in the dark was not something that I was excited about. We reached back in Tungri quite late that night and in spite of all the exhaustion through the day, the nuns still went around making a full dinner for us which they served with broad smiles on their faces.
After a rest day in Tungri which was mostly spent lazing around, I decided to go to Zangla and see couple of monasteries on the way. Zangla was the old capital of Zanskar and had an old palace that I was looking forward to see. I was joined by few of Caroline’s family members and we first went to Karsha to check out the monastery there. It was a big monastery overlooking the Zanskar valley.
At Karsha I was stopped by the local taxi guys who were not happy with me ferrying the foreigners around, however, I somehow managed the situation. We then went to Zangla to see the old Palace and also the nunnery there. The road from Padum to Zangla was a nice double road which continued for half of the distance and then it became a loose gravel path which was still in okay condition as compared to some of the roads that I had traveled in the past one week. The palace at Zangla sits on top of a hill overlooking the Zangla valley.
The nunnery at Zangla was a small one and mostly had older nuns. As we arrived at their lunch time, they offered us lunch and some local tea. We said no to the lunch as we realized that they may have to cook again if we have their lunch. However, we relished the tea and returned from Zangla after thanking the nuns for their hospitality. On the way back from Zangla, we decided to stop at Stongdey and check out the monastery there. I would remember Stongdey more for the views from the monastery than the monastery itself.
From Stongdey, we headed back to Tungri after a brief stop at Padum. Padum is the only town in Zanskar where there is a petrol pump (the supply is very erratic), few eateries and places to stay. The petrol pump at Zanskar caught my attention as it had a manual pump to pump out the gas. This was just a reminder about how remote this place is!
I stayed at Tungri for one more day and then with a very heavy heart said goodbye to amazing people there. The nuns gifted me woolen socks and tied a sacred thread around my neck to wish me good luck for rest of the journey. I was humbled to see tears in their eyes as I was getting ready to leave, it was just a reflection of how pure their souls were. Their love and warmth touched something deep inside me and I returned from that place with some life lessons. I completed the drive from Tungri to Kargil in single day and spent the night in Kargil at the same spot where I had spent when I had arrived in Kargil from Lamayuru. For dinner, I went to a local restaurant and had amazing chicken curry with rice. The political tension had affected Kargil too and the town was locked down for last few days. I thanked my stars as I reached there on the day of Eid when the restrictions were relaxed for letting people celebrate the festival.
My next plan was to go to Jammu to see my parents and I had planned to go to Srinagar from Kargil and then head to Jammu. However, the situation in Kashmir Valley was not suitable for taking that route. I did ask few locals and they also sounded unsure about the situation. I then decided to take the longer route via Leh and Manali. It added 800 Kms, 4 extra days and lot of anxiety.
Kargil was supposed to get locked down again after Eid. I therefore left Kargil early morning next day and started the journey back to Leh. I had crossed Haniskot when I started seeing mud, small stones all over the road and started wondering if it had rained heavily there. I was approaching Lamayuru when I had someone scream my name. I made an immediate stop and saw Dora running to the car. It was so weird to see here there. We met again after we had said final goodbyes to each other at Pranav’s place. She was waiting there for a ride and had not found one for the last two hours. We soon came to know that the highway had got closed due to a landslide just after Lamayuru which was caused due to a cloud brust. Now I knew the reason for the mud and the stones that I had seen on the road. We waited there for couple of hours trying to figure out our next action plan. Luckily, Dora found the ride and I also discovered an alternative road that would by-pass Lamayuru and meet the national highway after the landslide area. The alternative road was a narrow unused road and the sudden traffic had caused traffic jam. I managed to come back to the highway in couple of hours and continued the journey to Leh. Pranav’s place was going to be the resting place for one more time in Leh.
Up next, Leh to Manali and then to Jammu….
sushil.is.out.of.office 