The Gompa circuit - The Kora of Drilbu Ri

The Kora of Drilbu Ri

Aug 13:

Last evening, at an internet cafe, I learn about what is possibly the best trek around Keylong - the kora ( parikrama) of Drilbu Ri (Bell Mountain). Drilbu Ri is holy for both Buddhists and Hindus and the kora is undertaken by people of both religions.

It is 7.30 by the time I have swallowed a parotha and packed a lunch of  boiled eggs, juice and fruit. According to the proprietor at my favorite dhaba, I am late. People usually leave for the kora by 5 am. She comfortingly adds that I walk fast - so I should be able to complete it by evening.

I start at a smart pace retracing the path I had taken a few days back down to the bridge over the Bhaga (2900 m). Then comes the steep ascent to Khardang. A boy in school uniform trots down the path. He is from Barbog village, located somewhat higher than the gompa. He tells me he  has done the kora twice. A group has left on the Kora from his village even today. More school children run by, this time belonging to Khardang village.

Drilbu RI from near Khardang village

I walk past the habitat of several nuns above the gompa and seek directions from a monk sitting on a rooftop. He tells me that a group has gone up a while back and points to the foot path that takes off from the road near a spring just beyond the gompa.  I fill water from the spring and try desperately to capture on my lens the sparrow sized birds - Fire Fronted Serin, it turns out - that flit about near the water body, finally managing a couple of half decent images. It is 9.30 by the time I hit the path.

The ramparts of the fortress like Drilbu Ri loom above. A thread of white beads visible on a sheer face of the mountain is resolved as a line of sheep making its way up when I zoom in on it with my camera. But that is not the path for ordinary humans - only gaddis can follow their sheep up such steep rock. Wild flowers cover the grassy flanks of the mountain in pink hues. Far below, the Bhaga is visible meandering from Jispa. Clouds and hills produce strange patterns of light and shadow.

I periodically measure my altitude using the GPS on my mobile. I know that the pass is at 4400 m and my altitude will tell me how much I still have to climb. At 10.30, I reach a clearing at 3700 m. At 11, I am standing on a ledge over a sheer drop at 3800 m.

First sight of prayer flags on the pass

The path is overall well marked, with prayer flags at intervals, signs painted on rocks and stone piles - cairns - marking the way. However, at one point, the signs are confusing and I make a choice. It turns out to be a wrong choice as I realize after some time. I have taken a goat path which just traverses the mountain and at some point fizzles out. I retrace and eventually find the right path which heads up the mountain

By 12, I am at 4030 m. The only person I have seen after leaving Khardang is a an old man mumbling prayers and counting beads going down. He is engrossed in his prayers and does not look at me. I am just beginning to get a bit anxious. It is nearly 5 hrs since I started the trek. The trek down - if I have to return the way I came - is going to be tougher as the path is steep and slippery in many places with loose gravel and dust. At 12.30, at 4170 m , I spot the prayer flags marking the pass directly above me. Self doubts vanish and I feel a new burst of energy. I gain a new appreciation of the importance of prayer flags and cairns marking the passes for travellers.

Rangcha Gali (4380 m)

There is still a stiff  climb ahead before I reach the chortens and prayer flags at Rangcha Gali. My altimeter shows 4380 m and it is a quarter past one. I have gained nearly 1.5 km height from the time I walked on the bridge over the Bhaga!

Shikar Beh (right) and Muker Beh

I sit down and feast my eyes over the panorama across the pass - the majestic Pir Panjal range in the clouds and the Chandra snaking its way west far below, a village with colorful rooftops on the flat lands above its banks.  The magnificent 6000+ m peaks, Shikar Beh and Mukar Beh stand directly ahead, abruptly falling to the banks of the Chandra at 3000 m. To their west, a giant glacier descends from the clouds.

The ridge extends up from the Gali to the west towards the sky in waves. Higher up on the ridge, a large group of men, young and old, all in red robes are just winding up after their lunch break and preparing to leave. Prayer flags and chortens adorn a portion of the ridge. A small tin shed painted yellow houses a temple besides a chorten.

Can you spot Keylong?

I pause to take in the view on the northern side of the pass, the side from which I came up. One can see all the way up  from Keylong spread at the foot of the valley to the imposing hills guarding it to the north and through a gap in the hills, a forbidding land of snow and glaciers. Towards the east, the Bhaga appears as a silver ribbon until it is hidden by a bend in the valley.

A Gaddi in typical dress is sitting on a rock sharing an apple carefully skinned and diced with another man and keeping an eye on his flock somewhere below. He remarks - "you have reached" and offers me a slice. He has been witness to what must seem to him an excruciatingly slow ascent.

The group in red start their descent towards the Chandra valley. It is somewhat late in the day for the mountains and I do not want to struggle with finding the path downward. I start my descent keeping the group in sight. The path down is far easier to negotiate than the path up.

From one of group, I learn that they are students of the Tibetan School of Medicine in Sarnath, Bihar. They come from many places - Nepal, Sikkim, Bhutan and Ladakh - and are here on an excursion and are doing the Kora today guided by a local monk who knows the way. Some of them are feeling the effects of altitude and that accounts for their slow pace - they started from Keylong at 5 am.

I follow a well marked trail - ever clearer as it is dotted with the red - till I reach the first fields of potato at 3500 m. In another half hour, I reach the highway at a point one km above the village of Gondla. The descent has taken just 2 hours.

Fields of cabbage and potato at 3500 m

Then follows a long wait for a lift at a puncture repair shop on the dusty Manali - Leh highway. I start talking to an army javan from Rajasthan who is getting his truck tires fixed. His unit has been transferred from somewhere in Haryana to the Chushul border with China. After a lot of searching questions about why and how I manage to trek alone in these parts, he agrees to give me a lift in his truck. Over a short ride he warms up to me and we part with a strong handshake. A bus ride takes me along the Chandra downstream to Tandi (where Chandra and Bhaga meet to become the Chandrabhaga) and then follows the Bhaga upstream to Keylong. Thus I complete my Kora.

Back in Keylong, I stop at my favorite Pau Gomba Sanju dhaba. The proprietor is a Pasang Dolma who is a Buddhist with Tibetan features similar to most locals of Keylong but belongs to Nepal. She runs the dhaba with her two sisters Jyoti and Sangmu and a Nepali man, Subhash. All of them belong to the village of Listi near the Chinese border which is famous for the Pau Gompa - hence the name of their dhaba. Pasang Dolma is not surprised that I am back - "He walks fast", she tells the others.

Fields above Gondla

Over several days, I have observed the dhaba and its workers/proprietors. The dhaba remains open from 6.30 in the morning to 10.30 at night. The food is cooked right in front of the tables where it is served. Pasang and Subhash do the main cooking while the two younger sisters help out. The food is tasty and fresh, the price reasonable, and the dhaba does a roaring business. The sisters take turns to go home and freshen up. The only time I see them relaxing is in the hours between lunch and dinner when business is slack. They sit around a table and munch some snacks.  Despite the grueling hours, Pasang Dolma seems always cheerful and keeps up a friendly banter with the numerous locals who visit the dhaba. It is hard to imagine that she is not a local.

Subhash, Pasang Dolma and Jyoti Dolma

One day in casual conversation I gather that Pasang is familiar with Delhi. On further probing I learn that Pasang spends the period from November to Feb in Delhi and runs a shop selling woolens from Nepal at a market near Lal Quila. She rents a place in the Tibetan colony in Majnu ka Tilla for this period. Post Delhi winter, she travels to her home in Nepal near the Chinese border. There are so may people from that area in Delhi that a direct bus runs from Majnu ka Tila to the area of her village in Nepal. Her son and in-laws live at their village in Nepal. She says she has land, house, vehicle - 'sab kuch hai ghar me'. In June she is back to Keylong renting the same place to run the dhaba and a dormitory. This is her annual routine. I ask the family if they ever take a holiday. The answer is - ours is not a government job that we can take a holiday. We have to work for our livelihood.

As I leave Keylong, my thoughts are centered on Pasang Dolma. Undoubtedly, here is a woman of substance. A Tibetan by religion and culture and a Nepali by citizenship, her livelihood is entirely in India. She, and countless others like her, seem to straddle these different identities with ease.

More treks around Keylong are described in my previous post The Gompa circuit: Small treks around Keylong

Himalayan Trek 14, Aug 2015