Himalayas
Himalayas in Kashmir
July 30, 2008
I slept in today and I needed it. After grabbing a small breakfast of a strange
chewy bread and tea I made my way out to the Himalayas. Near the start of the drive
we drove through rice fields and sparse forests with little to no undergrowth. The
drive was beautiful as the mountains seemed to rise out of the earth very quickly
into rocky cliffs and hidden valley villages. We also passed two enormous hydroelectric
power plants, a motivation for both Indian and Pakistan to fight over the region.
As we approached our destination, nearly a two hour drive, I was informed that this
is known as a gypsy valley and the people who live in many of the small, more isolated
valleys are gypsies. This intrigued me because the capital of the Roma (the more
politically correct name for gypsies) is in Moldova, where I lived for some time.
In Russian, Roma are called Tighana, named after the valley in India from which
they came. The Tighana valley was one valley over.
I met my guide in Sonamarg, meaning Golden Mountain and started up the mountain.
The scenery began in what seemed to be a hilly forest, then leveled off as we entered
the fields. After passing the fields we were surrounded by rocky mountain walls.
The hike was peaceful and we crossed ice cold rivers running down from the melting
glaciers, over glaciers, and around rocks which had fallen from the mountains above.
The whole valley is sparsely populated, however there are a few temporary camp sites
for the Roma during the summer. The valley was also filled with wandering sheep,
goats, and cattle probably belonging to the Roma.
Herder in the Himalayas
Famous source of Kashmir wool
The Roma have been quite successful in polluting the valley; the river where all
the water converges is filled with wrappers and empty water bottles.
I met a group of teachers from Srinagar taking a day trip. Kashmir passed a law
a couple years ago that all schools must be taught in English so all of these teachers
had incredible English language skills and were very friendly and intrigued by me.
After a short conversation they continued on and I headed back down the mountain.
Just before leaving the mountain, I met five Roma children who just stared and smiled
at me. They spoke no English, but they seemed very interested in me. We rested for
10 minutes with them, but as I started walking, their mother saw them and yelled
at which point they started begging and following me for the next few minutes.
I was soon back on the road to Srinagar and couldn’t help but be amazed by the number
of military officers standing along the sides of the roads. There was a soldier
every 30-40 yards, but there wouldn’t be a village for miles. They were also stopping
everyone to see where they were from. There is a very holy Hindu temple in the mountains
and in the past the Kashmiri independence fighters have bombed these pilgrimage
buses so every Hindu must be accounted for.
As we neared Srinagar, we stopped at a small village to pick up some buffalo meat.
I found a man roasting corn here who asked me to take a picture of him. He seemed
intrigued by the camera, but has obviously seen them before because he asked to
see my picture of him.
As soon as we got back into Srinagar I already missed the mountains. The mountains
seem peaceful and honest, they convey the power of the planet and the almost nothingness,
which represents people's place on earth. The people in the mountains always
seem truer; cities like Delhi breed greed and instill poor values such as money
into peoples’ top priorities. The mountain people find happiness in other things
and don’t seem corrupted by wants. The air is clean, the scenery beautiful, the
people unthreatening. It’s a simpler way of life; the choices to partake in are
more exciting, more adventurous. Time seems to stop here; time doesn’t matter, only
people and life matter.
Roma children in the Himalayas
"Blow Horn," yes that really is lovely
Corn roaster in Kangan, Kashmir