Highways and trade routes--The Darma route--The Dholi River--A
rough track connecting two valleys--Glaciers--Three ranges and
their peaks--Altitudes--_Darma, Johar_, and the _Painkhanda_
Parganas--The highest peak in the British Empire--Natural
boundaries.
THERE are two principal highways from Khela to Hundes: one by the valley
of the Dholi or Darma River, the other along the Kali River and over the
Lippu Pass.
[Illustration: VIEW OF THE HIMAHLYAS--SHOWING NANDA DEVI AND TRISUL
PEAKS]
The trade route _viâ_ Darma is less frequented than the one by the Lippu,
but it is nevertheless of considerable importance, inasmuch as a certain
portion of the trade of South-west Tibet with India is carried on through
the medium of the Darma Shokas. It consists mainly of borax, salt, wool,
skins, cloth, and utensils, in exchange for which the Tibetans take
silver, wheat, rice, _satoo_, _ghur_, lump candied sugar, pepper, beads
of all kinds, and articles of Indian manufacture. For a mountain track,
and considering the altitudes to which it rises, the Darma way is
comparatively good and safe, notwithstanding that in following upwards
the course of the Dholi River the narrow path in many places overhangs
deep ravines and precipices. There are many Shoka villages and
settlements on the banks of the stream, the most important ones being the
Nyu, Sobala, Sela, Nagling (9520 feet), Bahling (10,230 feet), Sona and
Tuktung (10,630 feet), Dansu and Yansu, where there is a bridge. On the
north-east bank is Goa, facing Dakar, and farther up, at an elevation of
10,400 feet, the Lissar, a rapid tributary with muddy water.
The Dholi springs from a series of comparatively small glaciers
north-east of a range forming a branch of the higher Himahlyan chain, and
extending in a south-easterly direction as far as the point where the two
streams meet. It receives, on its precipitous descent, many small
snow-fed tributaries, those from the Katz snowfields and the Nui glacier
being the most important. Its way lies in a tortuous channel amidst rocks
and ravines, first tending towards the South-East, then due South, and
last South-West down to the point where it is joined by the Lissar,
coming from the North-West along a line almost parallel on the opposite
watershed of the range.
[Illustration: DARMA SHOKAS AND TIBETANS]
Tyang, Sipu (11,400 feet), and Marcha (10,890 feet), are the three most
important Shoka villages on the Lissar.
[Illustration: VIEW OF THE HIMAHLYAS. SHOWING NANDA DEVI AND TRISUL
PEAKS.]
From Marcha there is a track connecting the valleys of the Lissar and
Gori. You ascend the high mountain range west of the Lissar by skirting
the northern edge of the Nipchung Kang glacier and keeping south of the
Kharsa glacier, and, on a route that is unpopular on account of its
constant difficulties and perils, you pass, as you descend in a westerly
direction, the Tertcha glacier. South of the Shun Kalpa glacier you reach
first Ralem and then Sumdu, which is situated on a tributary of the Gori
River, itself a tributary of the Kali. The rugged, barren chain of
mountains separating the Gori from the Lissar extends in a general
direction from S.S.E. to N.N.E. up to the Ralfo glacier, and there turns
in a curve North-West among a succession of perpetual snow-fields and
glaciers. The glaciers to the North-East and East of the range outnumber
those on the West, but there is one of importance called in its different
sections the Kala Baland, the Shun Kalpa, and the Tertcha. There are,
along the fifteen most northerly miles of the range, south of the point
where it joins the Himahlyan chain, other glaciers of considerable size
and importance, but I was not able to ascertain their names, excepting
that of the _Lissar seva_, the most northern of all, forming the source
of the Lissar. The inter-Lissar-Gori range is of considerable
geographical importance, not only because it forms the boundary between
the two parts of Bhot called Darma and Johar, but also because of the
magnificent peaks reaching in the Bambadhura an elevation of 20,760 feet,
and in a higher unnamed peak, South-East of it, 21,470 feet. There are
also the two Kharsa peaks, the one North-West of the glacier bearing its
name being 19,650 feet, the one South-West of it slightly over 20,900
feet, and S.S.W. one peak 21,360 feet, another 21,520 feet, and farther
still, North of the Telkot glacier, the highest of all, 22,660 feet. In a
South-East direction there are peaks 20,700 feet, 20,783 feet, and 21,114
feet high. At the point where the ridge turns South the elevations become
lower, the two highest being 19,923 feet and 19,814 feet, the latter
situated at the point where a smaller range branches off to the
South-East, the principal range running South for the next eleven or
twelve miles, with no very remarkable elevations. In the side range there
are peaks of 18,280 feet, 17,062 feet, 14,960 feet, 14,960 feet
respectively.
In Lat. 29° 59' 10" N. and Long. 80° 31' 45" E. the range again separates
into two secondary ridges, one extending South-East, the other
South-West, and in turn both these are again subdivided into minor hill
ridges, along which no summits are found surpassing 13,000 feet, except
the Basili, 13,244 feet.
The Bungadhura Mountain (9037 feet), in close proximity to Khela,
terminates the South-Easterly division of the range, separating the
Pargana of Darma from that of Askote. The actual boundary line, however,
does not follow the higher mountain range as far as the Kali River, but
swerves to the south along the ridge overlooking the valley of the River
Relegar. These mountains are called the Mangthil.
There is west of the above ridge a second and even more important chain,
running out parallel to it from the backbone of the Himahlyan great
mountain system. This second ridge contains the highest mountain in the
British Empire, Nanda Devi (25,660 feet) with its second peak (24,380
feet), also Trisul (23,406 feet), East Trisul (22,360 feet), and Nanda
Kot (22,530 feet). This range and its ramifications divide the valleys of
the Gori River (the Pargana of Johar) from the most Western portion of
Bhot, the Painkhanda Pargana.
The well-known Milam and Pindari glaciers are one on the Eastern, the
other on the South-West side of this range. The Milam highway to Tibet,
frequented by the Johari traders, traverses over the Kungribingri Pass
(18,300 feet), and the Uttadhura (17,590 feet) directly S.S.W. of it into
Hundes.
The Pargana Painkhanda, a region equally Alpine, similarly covered with
vast stretches of perpetual snow and extensive glaciers, is in the
North-East corner of Garwhal, bordering on Tibet, and along the Dhauli
River; intersecting it, another trade route finds its way into Western
Tibet by the Niti Pass. Leaving the course of the Dhauli at Jelam (10,100
feet), this track proceeds almost due east, rising to an altitude of
16,600 feet on the Niti, in Lat. 30° 57' 59" N. and Long. 79° 55' 3" E.,
which is, from all accounts, a very easy pass, and quite free from snow
during the summer months. The people of the Painkhanda Pargana use this
pass as well as the other passes of Malla Shilanch and Tumzun, besides
the Shorhoti, visited by H. R. Strachey some years ago, over which,
however, only a small portion of the trade with Hundes is carried, for it
is considered the most dangerous of the three. The cold and turbid waters
of the Dhauli, swollen by dozens of equally foaming and muddy
tributaries, become ultimately the sacred waters of the Ganges.
The three Alpine Parganas, viz., the Painkhanda, Johar, and Darma (Darma,
Chaudas, and Bias) are inhabited by races closely allied and akin to
those of Tibet proper. The region is collectively named Bhot, although
that designation is more particularly applied by the natives of India to
that portion of the country which includes Darma, Bias, and Chaudas, and
which has for natural boundaries the Kali River to the South-East,
separating it from Nepal and the great Himahlyan chain to the North-East,
extending from the Lissar Peak in a general direction of about 115°.
A ramification leaving the main range at the Darma Pass stretches across
from N.N.W. to S.S.E., separating the above-mentioned Darma Ganga from
the Kuti River, along which I eventually travelled on my way to Tibet.
The main elevations found on this ridge are 18,510 feet on the Darma
Pass; north-east of the Rama glacier a peak 20,760 feet; the Gurma
Mountain 20,320 feet; and others south of them as high as 20,380 feet,
20,330 feet, 20,260 feet. East of the latter summit is one 20,455 feet.