Photo and text
by
Shreya Sikder
A final year English Hons Student,
Shreya is an avid nature lover and enthusiastic photographer. Though she
is still learning the technical aspects of photography , specially with
high end equipments, but the inborn aesthetic sense helps her in
producing some great frame.This is her second post in this blog as a
guest blogger. Here she shares her experience of being amidst the
mesmerising beauties of Ladakh .
Handshaking
with Ladakh for the first time
With
the Ladakh Range sprawling towards the south and the Karakoram Range to the
north, the car zoomed off along the Leh-Srinagar NH1 Highway. Gulping down
regular sips of natural vistas and cool refreshing mountain wind caressing my
face –the journey seemed to have just started from Leh. As the snow-clad
pinnacles played hide ‘n seek amid and behind the contrasting limestone-based
barren hills, the fluffy clouds sometimes embraced the peaks with feathery
touch enjoying the camaraderie. Nature offers the starters with the smooth
pitch-dark highway laden in middle of far-stretched arid valley enclosed with
vibrant mountains. No patch of green will soothe your sight but the thorny
bushes, where you may find the lucky sight of Yellow-billed Blue Magpie or
Chukar Partridge. Small military barracks and the speedy adventurous bikers on
Royal Enfield's are the only human activity you will find.
The
Amazing "Magnetic hill" of Ladakh
Lost
in the heavenly canvas of Ladakh, I had covered around 50kms in euphoric
delight. And suddenly my driver slowed down. Confused and perplexed when I
asked if anything was wrong, he gave a confident nod and killed the ignition at
once taking his hands off the steering. To my utmost amazement, I was seeing
the car moving forward with a momentum of 20kms per hour as per shown on the
speedometer. The BRO (Border Roads Organization) has put up a signboard
indicating “Magnetic Hill –The phenomenon that defies gravity” on the left side
of the road and also engraved ‘Magnetic Hill’ on the Mountain wall right behind
it. Not only the vehicles traveling on the road are attracted by the magnetic
(and magical too, for the layman) power of this small stretch of area, even the aircraft and helicopters feel the same magnetic impact i.e. jerking, as per
claimed by the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) personnel, while passing
through this area. So it is advised to fly at a specific speed and height above
the Magnetic Hill to avoid inconvenience. The Indian Air Force pilots and the
airline pilots, aware of this phenomenon, usually avoid and steer clear of the
radius of the Magnetic Hill. As the lore goes among the locals, particularly villagers
that the version behind such phenomena is that there once laid a pathway that
led straight to heaven. Deserving people would be automatically get pulled up,
however non-deserving ones could never make it up the path, no matter how
earnestly they tried. Anyway the supernatural concept has nothing to do with
the magnetism of the hills. Actually the Magnetic Hill is located at a stretch
of road where the layout of the surroundings and the deceptive fields of
reference effectuate the optical illusion that a very slight downhill slant
appears to be an uphill one. Thus a vehicle left out of gear will appear to be
emerging uphill. There is a concept of optical illusion in neuroscience which
in layman’s language means that you either see something that is not there at
all or you see things different than how they physically appear. The phenomenon
can actually be attributed to an obstructed horizon, either completely or majorly.
Our minds and eyes are used to using the horizon as a reliable reference to be
able to tell if a particular gradient is straight or if there is a slant. The
obscurity of the horizon makes it difficult to judge the slope of a surface. If
the horizon is obstructed, our minds get confused and can often perceive things
to be horizontal or vertical when they are actually not. The short stretch of
the road that appears to be uphill as a matter of fact is downhill and this is
the reason why cars slowly gain momentum. The same concept is applicable in
aviation as well. Pilots up in the sky cannot see the horizon and if it were
not for the electronic equipments and gadgets, they would never be able to tell
if the plane is flying straight, upwards or downwards. Out of the several
enchanting places of Ladakh, the Magnetic Hill at an altitude of 14000 feet has
mystified people for long and still continues to do so.
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| Magnetic Hills along the road |
The
confluence of Indus and Zanskar: The main two rivers of Ladakh
Now
proceeding further, the Indus river runs side by side through the gorge down
the road. Originating from the cold desert namely Changthang in High Himalayas,
it goes to Pakistan with ever-changing colours from emerald green to teal blue,
from sea green to shining cyan, from Persian blue to moss green. The Indus
river drains the arid and deserted terrains of Ladakh’s landlocked valley and
serves as a lifeline to the desolate hamlets, since Ladakh experience rainfall
only 2-3 inches per year. As we drove forward, the awe-inspiring confluence of
Indus and Zanskar made me catch my breath. It is the valley of Nimu or Nimmu
which treasures the blending of colours –over the sky and down the rivers.
Zanskar, originated from the Zanskar Range, runs incessantly through the
spectacular Zanskar Gorge which offers the fascinating “Frozen Zanskar Trek” in
chilly winter months and merges into the shining blue Indus as a tributary from
the north-eastern direction. The sky with the glossy blue hue, the mountains
with their numerous shades of green, yellow, brown makes the confluence of
crystal clear sea-green Indus and the turbid grayish green Zanskar an
outstanding sight. During summer months (March-early September) the turgid
turbulent Zanskar overflows the relatively tranquil Indus river. But in
freezing winter (September-February), the tempestuous flow of the mountain
river Zanskar slows down, starting to freeze while the Indus takes up rapid
speed with the small ice floating on it. The bravehearts get the opportunity to
trek through the frozen Zanskar, also named as “Chadar Trek” (‘Chadar’ means
ice sheet i.e. the thick ice sheet on the Zanskar) during this time.
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Indus Zanskar confluence at Nimmu
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| Reflection of mountains on Indus |
Multicoloured
Prayer Flags in multicolored Landscape of Ladakh
The
Prayer Flags add to the magic with the maroon dressed lamas fiddling with
iphones! All around the way, the mesmerizing Prayer Flags were hanging and
fluttering around containing prayers. As my Tibetan driver pointed out, the
flags are hung in sequence –blue, white, red, green, yellow or in reverse. Each
colour represents an element –Sky (blue), Wind (white), Fire (red), Water
(green) and Earth (yellow). These symbolize prayers for safety i.e. for wind to
blow prayers of peace and happiness out into the world. My driver would fold
his hands off the steering and murmured some hymns whenever we crossed the
prayer flags in our perpetual motion throughout the journey. The Tibetan Prayer
Flags add numerous hues to the scenic beauty of the mountains with cocktail of
hues like gray, deep blue, brown, violet, dark green, yellow, deep maroon and
what not?
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Prayer flags hung before the confluence
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| shaded moonland |
Mesmerizing
Moonlands of Ladakh
The
road turned whirling and frequently uneven too with the bulldozers busy in
breaking the mountain walls to widen a new way. Not so regular sights of
schoolgirls with face and body fully covered to avoid tan and worn-out but
hardy school-buses gave the evidence of human activity at such obscure region.
Patchwork fields and small hamlets with around 20 families could be seen at
great distance as that region of Ladakh longs for green and hence longs for
water. The winding ways referred as ‘Silk Route’ bears an ancient trading
history. Local communities once proposed on an extraordinary Trans-Himalayan
trade which originated with the Silk Route. Comprising titanic mountains, yawning
valleys and vast uninhibited hinterlands, most of Ladakh’s boundaries may look
almost impenetrable on a map. Yet for centuries, great caravans of wool, cloth,
opium, spices, skins, coral, turquoise, gold, indigo etc negotiated several
winding routes and their hazardous passes mainly between Leh and
Yarkand(China). The already withering trade finally died in the late 1950’s
when China largely sealed its borders. The Silk Route of NH1-D, the
Srinagar-Leh highway gives glimpses of moonlike landscapes carved into the
Greater Himalayas –the mesmerizing Moonlands. As we entered the small village
named Lamayuru, around 125kms from Leh, we were dumbstruck seeing the houses
standing precariously on the carved Moonlands right after Fotu La (the highest
pass on Srinagar-Leh highway). The pleated landscape is a result of soil
erosion and deposits of glacial lake that used to exist here. People believe
that during the Buddhist scholar Neropa’s time, the lake drained out through
cracks in the hills. The landscape changes its colours with the rays of sun
–rock green, reddish brown, yellow ochre, tawny, purple, navy blue, bottle
green and so on. No wonder how ravishing it looks in full moon nights. Ladakh
never ceases to surprise you with its thousand blends of colour around the
rivers, landscapes and mountains under the sublime sky. A land of endless
vistas in form of dry land with vibrant monasteries and shaded mountains
dotting its landscape is so outlandish that you can only stand agape in awe. It
is made more heavenly by Indus, on the banks of which one can spend endless
days just looking at the refection of mountains on the calm water and the
thousand stars at night accentuating the vastness of Ladakh, the curvaceous
vibrant Moonland under the moonlit night and the blistering sun –reasonably
concluding that it is this virgin nature of the land mostly untouched.
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| Moonland |
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| Silk route along Moonland |
