Treks and travels: Ladakh day 7: Lake, plains, War memorials, Festival and an Astrophysics observatory!!

The night at Pangong Lake will be memorable for long time. It was cold, windy and above all we were in a tent. We had to drop our plan of night photography thanks to weather conditions. But we still wanted to experience sun rise on the banks of Pangong Lake. With great difficulty we got up at 5AM and headed towards lake. The sunrise was different than we had expected. Difficult to say whether we were satisfied or not!!

The conditions at Spangmik were not favorable to take bath. Anyway, we had prepared for that and did not give much importance to such hygiene factors. After a quick breakfast, we said goodbye to Spangmik village. Not for Pangong Lake as we be along the lake for few more hours!!

From Spangmik, we continued our journey along the Lake. We would not be finding asphalted roads for most of the stretch today. But this would be turning into the best place in our entire trip. The road meandered on the side of Pangong Lake providing great scenes that we never witnessed. The scene was different at each turn. And we stopped at every place to enjoy the scenery and take snaps. We were fortunate enough to be on this place.

When I provided Ladakh plan with all these shortcuts and less travelled routes, every travel agent ignored it complete. Theirs was a standard itinerary with exorbitant prices. Drivers were not enthusiastic to drive on those short cut roads. They were less maintained and bad stretches. One agent even claimed that places in our list were out of bounds for civilians. I was asked to get permission from Army top ranks and Home secretary!! But now we were there with a permit issued by DC Office at Leh (that is sufficient!!). But foreigners are not allowed on this road.

We crossed the villages of Man and Merek situated on the Lake side. It was near Merek we sighted “Cha Tung Tung” (called as Black necked crane). Listed as “vulnerable”, it is an endangered species of bird found in Tibetan plateau. Pangong Lake is also home to several species of birds like brown headed gull, bar headed goose and Ruddy shelduck to name a few.

At Merek village, our permits were checked. We were now nearing China border. The lake now bends towards left where the Chinese control starts. The India map still shows these places in Indian side but in reality China controls about 38,000 sq km of land known as Aksai Chin. We lost this land much before the 1962 war. China silently took control of it and built a highway connecting Tibet with Xinjiang province (In 1956-57). India discovered it only later. This was also one of the reasons for Indo China war in 1962.

Wiki says “Sovereignty over two separated pieces of territory was contested during the Sino-Indian War. One is Aksai Chin is located either in the Indian province of Kashmir or the Chinese province of Xinjiang in the west. It is a virtually uninhabited high-altitude wasteland crossed by the Xinjiang-Tibet Highway. The other disputed area lies to the east is referred to as Arunachal Pradesh by India and South Tibet by China. It is a sparsely inhabited area with numerous local tribes.”

One must be careful while driving on this road. The road is nothing but just a track containing tyre marks. Several deviations exist all along the road. Any mistake might take us right into the Chinese territory. Signboards or an indication does not exist here. The general principle is to keep right (to stay in Indian Territory!!). An ITBP post was visible at the far end of the Lake. We cannot go there and had to say good bye to this beautiful lake.

The ITBP establishment was visible all along the road. A small pass was crossed (name unknown) to reach the small town of Chushul. At was 9:30AM. Just before Chushul, we faced a major bottleneck. A bridge across a stream was damaged. The stream crossing was filled with slush. Ours was not a 4X4 vehicle and if struck in the slush, we would be in bad situation. We were not expecting any vehicles to pass by and the nearest help was Chushul still a few km away. After scanning the area for some minutes, we decided to get down and the driver alone would cross it. To our luck, things went fine and the vehicle reaches the other side safely.

Chushul turned out to be a bigger village than we anticipated. Driver asked us to have lunch here (at 9:30AM!!). “We will not find any places to eat further” was his words. The only available food item was “Maggie noodles” and we consumed it!! We would be eating our next food only at 8PM.

At Chushul, our permits were checked again. On the outskirts of Chushul was “Chushul war memorial”. Chushul was the site of attack by Chinese during 1962 war. The memorial is for the martyrs from 8th Gorkha rifles and 13 field regiment who laid down their life for our Motherland. The names of all the martyrs are written down on the wall. All we could do was silently respect these great guys who performed the supreme sacrifice to save our land.

We were now in the great plains of Changtang. The Morey plains that we saw during Manali-Leh journey looks dwarfed in front of Changtang. The China border was just 1-2 km away. We could see bunkers very close by. We were now closely watched by ITBP (and may be Chinese!!). We were thrilled to be so close to the border.

14km from Chushul is Rezang La memorial. It’s located in the most isolated place. The most horrific battle of 1962 was fought here. In the early hours of 18th November 1962 witnessed a fierce battle at Rezang La. The “Charlie” company 123 soldiers of 13 Kumoan led by Major Shaitan Singh had a choice of fleeing from the battle scene. But they chose to hold on by fighting against Chinese who came in several thousands. Out of 123 soldiers, 114 laid their life, 5 of them captured and only 4 could survive the bloody battle. But this was not before killing nearly 1000 Chinese soldiers. Major Shaitan Singh was awarded Param Vir Chakra posthumously.

“When Rezang La was later revisited dead jawans were found in the trenches still holding on to their weapons... every single man of this company was found dead in his trench with several bullet or splinter wounds. The 2-inch mortar man died with a bomb still in his hand. The medical orderly had a syringe and bandage in his hands when the Chinese bullet hit him... Of the thousand mortar bombs with the defenders all but seven had been fired and the rest were ready to be fired when the (mortar) section was overrun”.

For the Ashes of His Fathers and the Temples of His Gods, To the sacred memory of the Heroes of Rezang La, 114 Martyrs of 13 Kumaon who fought to the Last Man, Last Round, Against Hordes of Chinese on 18 November 1962. Built by All Ranks 13th Battalion, The Kumaon Regiment.

Majority of soldiers were Ahirs from Rewari district of Haryana, where a Rezang La memorial has been placed in their memory in Gudiani village.

With heavy hearts, we departed from Rezang La memorial. The plains continued and stream crossings were frequent. Wild ass were seen everywhere. We crossed a Tsaga La, a small pass to reach a small village of Tsaga. Here was an ITBP check post where our permits were checked. The asphalted road starts few km after Tsaga. Shortly later, we were driving along Indus River.

At Loma, we had to cross the Indus River. Our permits were checked again. Here we met ITBP soldier from Chikkodi from Karnataka. Seeing us, he was overjoyed and we had a short conversation. The road splits into two after Loma Bridge. The road to left goes along the Chinese border to Dungti. Civilians are not allowed on this road. The road to right leads to Hanley which was our destination. Hanley is 50km from Loma. The entire drive is along the plains. The road is in a very good condition.

Since the weather was hot, the number of stops was less. This last stretch was covered in just one hour. Hanley is not in regular tourist circuit. Less than 1% of tourists visiting Ladakh go to this place. Hanley is known for Indian Astronomical Observatory. Being very close to Tibet, Hanley is more of a Tibetan culture than Ladakki. There is also a moanstery.

When we entered Hanley village, it looked deserted. The time was 2PM and not a soul was seen. We directly headed towards the observatory. The person in charged asked us to come during evening. Observatory had a guest house but only reserved for research people. He suggested us to stay at a Home stay in the village. He showed us a two storey building and asked us to go there. But he cautioned that we would not find anyone there as entire village had gone for a festival held nearby. It was Dalai Lama’s birthday and festivals were held at many places in Ladakh.

We reached Home Stay and as expected did not find anyone. The festival would last till 6PM. Driver was excited about the festival and wanted to see it. The festival was held on plains behind a hill in Hanley. We could see people and celebrations on the other side of the plain. But we could not find a way to reach there. Driver went out and got some directions from a shepherd. But we could go a long distance as there were major stream crossings. But the driver was not ready to give up so easily. He again went to shepherds and found an alternate path. It was long path but it took us to the place of festival.

At festival seemed to going at full swing. Girls were dancing, gents were talking, and kids were playing with whatever they could find. A cricket match was drawing some crowds. People from Army were also participated. A horse race was also held. There were small shops selling all sorts of things. But we could not anything that we could eat.

We were the only three people from outside and looked like aliens!! Horse race was interesting but it was over in few minutes. We were lost in the crowd. Even our driver who was enthusiastic seemed to be in a lost state. An attempt to search for owner of the Home stay was done. We were not successful. It was extremely hot and standing outside seemed difficult. And so we decided to depart from the place.

Back again in Hanley it was a long wait for the owner. After 5:30PM, people started arriving. The owner was not still seen. His daughter had arrived and we informed her to keep a room for us and headed towards the observatory.

The observatory is situated on a hill. This site was chosen as it provided maximum clear days in a year. The scientists from Indian Institute of AstroPhysics remotely take control of the telescope from Bangalore and perform studies. It is one of the highest astronomical observatories in the world.

The person at the observatory explained us about the equipments and how studies are done. He also showed us few samples of images of various stars taken at the observatory. One interesting point was liquid Nitrogen used for telescopes. It was maintained at -170 °C!!