Face off in Tawang

Our next destination in Bharat Darshan (BD) was Tawang. A valley in Arunachal Pradesh, it has often been in news highlights because of Chinese claims over the valley and the district.

The road to Tawang is one of the most beautiful road sight-seeings in India. Treacherous and narrow, this road is maintained on a daily basis by the Border Roads Organisation (BRO). This road is quite inaccessible for at least four months in the winter season due to heavy snow fall over the far eastern reaches of Himalayas. At these times, only big vehicles using chain-strapped tyres (to increase the friction, as there is always the danger of tyres slipping over snow) ply over these roads. There is also a helicopter service from Guwahati that takes 3000 bucks and manages the distance in just an hour. Yet, for a first-timer I always suggest to take the road.

Our first stoppage en route Tawang was Tezpur. From there we went to Bhalukpong, a town on the border of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh. After a short rest (we met the other group from the academy there), we were off to Bomdila. After a comfortable night's stay at Bomdila, its about 5-6 hours journey to Tawang.

Prayers & Passes

A deep relation exists between Vajrayana Buddhism and mountain passes. Buddhists usually suffix the name of a pass with a "la", such as Bomdi-la, Se-la and Khardung-la. Mountain passes are critical to connectivity in these mountainous terrain. They seek to connect one "world" with another. For locals, every mountain range is a whole world. Passes are connections that connect one world with another, one life with another, and hence are symbolic of multiple lives and multiple worlds. Tibetans believe in an imaginary pass, the Shangri La, that connects Earth with the Liberated Land. People of Earth are bound by cycles of birth and death. Shangri La is a pass of enlightenment, a pass that helps one get liberation from cycles of birth and death.

During the festival of LOSSER, believers of this school of Buddhism write prayers in long cloths (of some 15 feet in length and 2 feet in breadth) and hoist these as flags on long poles. As the wind comes, these flags flutter and prayers are blown across the mountains to all places wind blows. Since we had just missed the Losser festival by a week, we could see these flags with prayers written on them magnificently fluttering over houses and village entrances, spreading prayers of well-being and peace all over. Interestingly, many such flags were hoisted on passes and either side of bridges that we crossed. When I asked a local the reason for such, he said because these are "bridge overs" connecting worlds.

Hindi, all the way

Bomdila was a cute, small town inhabited by happy, cheerful people. One survey of the market place and I met with a pleasant shock. People here mostly conversed in Hindi! In the far north-east of India, in a place so much different from heartland India in culture and tradition, people still talked in Hindi. That too fluent Hindi. Even in Orissa you won't find that many Hindi speakers once you cross the cities of Bhubaneswar-Puri region. I met people of Tibetan origin (in fact second generation refugees), ethnic Monpas (the local tribe) and Biharis. Yes Biharis. My friend from Bihar Amit Anand used to boast that you can find Bihari people in every corner of the country. Literally!

But then there are just a few families from Bihar here, mostly involved in commerce and construction work. It can not be concluded that Hindi is so widely spoken because of a Bihari influence. For a moment, I thought it might be Bollywood, the greatest evangelist missionary of Hindi world over. Why not... I could find CD shops displaying wide range of Hindi movies both old and new. The real reason I could decipher only in Tawang, after interaction with few local Monpa people there.

Reality is the zeal of Monpa people to assert themselves as Indians! As much as I am aware, even they are aware how drastically different Monpa tradition is from the dominant Hindu tradition of India. But they know India is any day a better option than the oppressive, communist regime of China. They are even aware of the ethnic cleansing of Tibetan population by Han Chinese, and live in a constant fear of Chinese aggression. Hence their need to assert themselves as Indian, and what better way to do this than by speaking in Hindi! Even in Tawang monastery the young lamas are taught in three languages: Bothi, English, and Hindi. Later when I deal Nagaland and the issue of "Greater Nagalim", I will come back to the issue of Tawang nationality and its essence to India as a country.

Gompas and Monasteries

If you ever get to visit the Tawang, East Kameng and West Kameng districts of AP, don't forget to check out the Buddhist gompas and monasteries. Monasteries are places where Monks live and study. Its more like an educational institute specializing in religious studies. Tawang monastery happens to be the largest Buddhist monastery in India and the second largest in the world. It is here that most Monpa families leave one of their kids to be tutored as lamas. They stay in dormitories inside the monastery and study from class 1 through class 10 in the school within the monastery.

Both Tawang monastery and Bomdila monastery are replete with colourful and intricate decorations. There are wall paintings that point towards episodes in Tibetan Buddhist mythology. Gompas are places of worship, hence much smaller than monasteries. While walking through Bomdila's Upper Gompa market I experienced a serene, calm feeling... a feeling that I can't express for it was just in the moment in the surrounding that I got charged up. I and Dora were taking a leisurely walk at around eight in the night (which means pitch darkness in the hills), having bought torches to show us the road. I was not quite ready to go ahead since it was just uphill from Upper Gompa market to the Gompa. But then this feeling came, and propelled me all through.

I never entered the Gompa, but returned few miles from it. Before returning, however, owing to the deep, serene feeling, I vowed that I would never again touch alcohol or any other substance giving a high. For that high is just temporary high... the real high is an eternal high that I experienced here... a happiness that was different and pure.

Downhill, when I was back in the hotel, Ashok Gautam called me up and said that a daaru party had started. At first I was reluctant. After all I had resolved. But then I thought - what the fcuk, we will worry about spirituality some other time. And again restarted - after an interval of hours (or was it minutes?) - another saga of boozing.

But it seems the monastery had immensely influenced Dora. He was ready to renounce the world, just like Buddha, and come down here permanently.

"So you ain't going back?" I ask him.

"Oh yes I am. But ultimately I am going to renounce all responsibility and come here"
Dora said.

"When is this ULTIMATELY going to come?" I ask.

"See, the problem is I don't have any responsibility now. I have to take on some responsibility - such as marry and have a child - so that I can renounce and come down here" Dora said.

Since you readers understand the futility of understanding what Dora Lama is upto, I leave the matter and get on to the next: Indo-China Border.

Indo-China Border

To the disappointment of many of my groupmates, we couldn't reach the Indo-China border ahead of Tawang. Marred by inhospitable terrain and stubborn snow, the road up to the border could not be traversed in small vehicles. Even though we had managed all necessary permits, we needed one of those huge defence trucks specially built for these roads to take us there. Since it was too late for defence personnel to help such a huge group, we went only a few kilometres ahead of Madhuri Falls. Still, it was a height of 14,600 KM.

A hindi movie named "Koyla" was shot in the lap of Tawang's natural beauty. It seems in one scene, the heroine Madhuri Dixit took a steamy bath on these falls. Thereafter the filmi people here named the falls as Madhuri Falls! In fact, my driver-cum-guide showed us many places and suggested which scene of Koyla was shot in that place. I wonder why Tawang was not renamed as Koyla-nagar!

From the farthest point we could go, the border was visible. Visible in the sense in the far horizon two peaks were visible. One army personnel posted in a checkpost said one peak belonged to India and the other to China! Taking me over a small hill in another direction he showed me another peak.

"Do you know which country it is?" he asked "It's Bhutan"

Lucky me! I could see two borders, the Indo-Bhutan and Indo-China border at the same time. Life gives few such opportunities. But then these opportunities are always open to defence personnel. Does it make them lucky? I bet no. Coming down to -20 degrees for a visit and staying here in checkposts for months on end are different altogether. Hats off to the army personnel - those I met and those I couldn't - who live on snow covered desert heights so that we can live at peace.

An interesting fact I found there was that the road from Tawang to the border was made by the Chinese when they had attacked in 1962. Of course BRO has developed it since and maintains it by making quick repairs, but can you believe this: it took the Chinese just a week's time to cut the road through the mighty Himalayas. When the Chinese had attacked, they had come as far as Tejpur in Assam. But then receded back. Some communist acquaintances say that it was because the attack was just a warning and China was in no mood to annex India. This is just silly argument. The real reason was that China had attacked at a time when Winter was fast approaching the area. In winters the weather becomes so harsh here that the valley is completely cut off from China. China couldn't maintain the supply line for its soldiers and hence withdrew.

In a way it was a big military blunder by China: trying to cross the Himalayas at the onset of winter. Himalayas are indeed a natural defence for Indian interests! Had China not withdrawn its forces would have been stranded in India. In a later attack in 1967, China had tried to annex Sikkim which was then an independent kingdom. Indian army had very successfully repulsed this attack. This fact is not very widely known, but I came across it while going through a history of North-East.

My friend Puneet, who takes cool, unconventional snaps, has come out with a collection of pics he took in North East. Check them out on his Picasa album:

http://picasaweb.google.com/puneetinder/BharatDarshanEastGroup

http://picasaweb.google.com/puneetinder/BDEastGroup2#