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Published: April 27th 2005
Holidays are a getaway from one’s world of work, making a living and surviving through the day-to-day squabbles with nature. Travel to unknown destinations means that you switch off your mind - “let your hair down”. Mine was a similar endeavour - to come back home to Guwahati and go to a place that I had wanted to visit with my family. Little did I know that this would be far from just a getaway, that it would become one of the most astounding visual journeys of my life!
The trip to Tawang, Arunachal Pradesh was a final product of a two- yearlong venture. It had been discussed in many a) dinner table conversations and get-togethers in the Bordoloi and the Gokhale households - “we should go to Tawang and “October is the best time” and “we will plan it”.
The deliberations finally came to fruition. The two households prepared for the journey, with food and alcohol (no journey is complete without it) and other insignificant things that spring out of the woodwork when people travel to cold places… old shawls and mufflers, jackets of various sizes and colours, sweaters, caps, binoculars (!!) et al.
The journey from Guwahati began an hour-and-a-half behind schedule, mostly spent on packing in 7 adults, plus driver into a Sumo along with 10 pieces of luggage!! Once we’d dealt with the crucial elements of the journey -- getting the food packets and beer bottles in, ……… we were good to go.
Although epitomizing the model Indian tourist, I had not scanned every page of a lonely planet or any other travel journal looking for the popular sights and sounds of Tawang. The expectation was to enjoy each moment as it came. As in all of life’s journeys, this one too was enlightening and fascinating as it unfolded along the misty hills of Arunachal Pradesh. The journey took one night and two days of travel one way. The drive away from Guwahati was interesting as we drove away from the lush green plains of Assam into the mountains.
The imagination too travelled into the enchanted forests, to the haven of dragons and ogres of fairytales and fantasies that one read about as a child. You could almost envision the fierce battles and feel the magic that could’ve been part of its history.
The winding way up to Tawang
This is perhaps the unique quality of the northeastern hills - the stories and legends that resonate through them. The people and the hills carry forth these tales to give each meeting and each situation a surreal quality. This thought came overpoweringly to me when walking through the market in Bomdila at 5:30 in the evening. It was dark and each side of the road had little shops with glimpses of urbanization in the toys, clothes and sundry on display. The lights were blurred by the mist, limiting vision to two feet in front and back. Eager shoppers ambled up and down puffing out condensed air and the accompanying chatter gave it the feel as though it were a ghost town - a busy one with spirits!!! As it turned out, the region did have a legendary spirit - Jaswant Singh. He was the brave soldier who fought off the Chinese alone for two days till he fell to enemy bullets. This man’s spirit still floats through those hills like a guardian angel. His followers maintain a memorial for him at Jaswantgarh. They leave him a bed to rest, his uniform and food. He visits them occasionally and leaves the sheets crumpled and shoes soiled to reiterate that he is taking care of them. Everyone who visits Tawang must pay their respect at Jaswantgarh and all are greeted with a hot cup of tea and pakoras.
The ethereal quality was heightened through the drive up from Tawang toward Bumla and Klempta. The fierce battles I had visualized earlier on came to life - except that khaki-clad men replaced the dragons and ogres. The real story was far from a fairytale. The Chinese in a record eight days had built that road through the mountains in the middle of a bitter winter. That was the road through which they traversed in to the erstwhile NEFA. Those mountains had borne the bullets and blasts of the 1962 Indo-Chinese war.
Bumla: The China border in the horizon
Although the hills now were speckled by army bunkers and high altitude training camps, they were hiding the bloody trails that were laid out in the winter of 1962. Seemingly virgin and uninhabited, they were heavily patrolled by our jawaans a few kilometers away from the China border. There was a deceptive serenity as if to curtain the tension that bubbled under. However, our holiday reached the perfect pinnacle when we felt soft snow descend on us at 16000 ft. I could not resist jumping up and down with a silly grin on my face as I tried to feel those tiny white flakes on my tongue. The sudden change in weather at noontime also meant that we had to leave Bumla as soon as possible - those peaks were going to be white by the time we drove down to Tawang. Like any other high altitude region, such unpredictable weather is predictable…you could expect it to get worse!
Mountains have always fascinated me but the Arunachali ones gave me the urge to bow down in reverence. It was at Sela that I came to feel the absolute power and infallibility of those mountains. The seeming gentleness- of the breeze, the warm sunlight - was a soothing exterior as if beckoning you to fall into its cozy embrace. We were fooled by it and went about exploring and “claiming our space”. It turned out that generally getting excited at 13,700 ft left our heads spinning and legs caving in because of the lack of air. It must’ve been a comic sight to see the lot of us scampering to the car and grabbing bars of chocolate to balm the dizziness!! On our way back, with bowed heads we made sure there was no arrogance about being there and claiming our space, as it were. The mountains were not welcoming either - the entire stretch was covered in mist. One’s childhood fantasy of walking through clouds could come close to reality in Sela pass! That was the might of those mountains...it left you breathless…both literally and figuratively!
Sela Pass
If I were to name the highpoint of the trip, it would surely be the visit to the monastery. Although, toying with the idea of Buddhist practice for a couple of years, it wasn’t until I entered the prayer hall in Tawang monastery that I felt the urgency. We lit incense sticks at the altar of the grand statue of the Buddha, while the senior monks chanted the lotus sutra. Young little monks flitted in for their evening prayers and all of a sudden the sobriety in the atmosphere was replaced by mumbling chatter, giggling and restless shifting to grab the best seat in the house. The older “prefect” monks were trying to control their younger brethren to behave more respectfully in the house of God. Ironically, it was no different from a mess hall in a boys hostel!! You couldn’t expect a bunch of runny-nosed, rosy-cheeked little boys to understand the magnificence of their lot yet…!
The paradoxes that unfolded, along our journey, were astounding - the aura of serenity in the monastery belies Tawang’s history. The spiritual and the human seem to coexist beautifully at the two ends of the township. On one hilltop lies the war memorial celebrating the bravery of those soldiers who died during the Indo-China war and at another, one of Asia’s oldest monasteries. It is sheer poetry…the mystical aura of a city stippled with traces of human history.
The War Memorial at Tawang
Every journey is a search…a quest to find something that might add meaning to one’s relentless spirit of enquiry. Every experience changes the meaning of one’s existence or adds a different purpose to it. Tawang was such an experience for me. It was like taking a break from reality and stepping into another time and another space, into the realm of the fantastic. If you are one with active imaginings and wild visualization, Tawang would surely open those doors of perception wider for you.
It is an ideal tourist destination for those who like to explore and understand a region through its history. Tawang encompasses the present and the past beautifully. Nature lovers and history lovers will find the place both exciting and soothing. Its inhabitants are mostly Tibetans and Arunachali tribals. The shops and goods available therein are therefore Tibetan or local. The town has fairly decent places to stay and it isn’t as disconnected as one would imagine - there is one Internet café with reasonable connectivity!! The stay could be heightened in comfort if one has contacts in the army because the Cantt is perched on a hill overlooking both the monastery and the memorial. You could even catch an evening show in the army cinema hall if you aren’t inclined to a shot of brandy by the fire!! All in all Tawang is set apart from other hill station experiences because it is the right blend of the old and the new.
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Abhishek Pandit
non-member comment
bingo
That was a wonderful travelogue, partner. You took me right up to the peaks and back, right here on my chair! I loved the way you decsribed the majesty of the mountains. I'll try the best I can to incorporate it in my next novel, that's set in this region. Since I've not been there myself, this sure as ever has been an eye-opener. Good job and keeo it up!:)