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Into the Untravelled Himalaya
Book covers explorations and trek in several parts of the Tibet, Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Bhutan, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, East Karakoram and Siachen Glacier. It includes more than 20 sketch-maps covering each region and trek with several photographs. Stories of each trip covers historical details, routes and events of each trip covering the region in detail. It can be used as a book of mountain events, climber's reference book or trekking guide as desired. The expeditions were with famous the British, French, American and Japanese climbers as members. Each of them leading climbers like Sir Chris Bonington, Hiroshi Sakai, Stephen Venables, Mark Richey and Jeff Tripard with many others.The book gives insight into the Himalayan areas, their history and people. For trekkers there are unknown valleys to discover, cross different passes, understand nomenclature of the area. There are invaluable references to hordes of peaks seen and stories of high passes like the Karakoram Pass and Indira Col on the Siachen glacier reached.Author Harish Kapadia is a Himalayan explorer for almost 5 decades and has covered most valleys. Many of them were as a first visitor to the region. He has received several wards like the Patrons Medal for the Royal Geographic Society and Piolet’s d’Or and Tensing Norgay Award from President of India for Life Time achievement.This book is an invaluable guide to all present and future mountaineers and trekkers.
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About the author
Harish Kapadia
36 books13 followersHe began climbing and trekking in the range around Mumbai, the Western Ghats. His first visit to the Himalayas was almost 40 years ago[when?]. His main contribution to Himalayan climbing has been to explore unknown areas and, in number of cases, to open up climbing possibilities. Among his major ascents are Devtoli (6,788 metres (22,270 ft)), Bandarpunch West (6,102 metres (20,020 ft)), Parilungbi (6,166 metres (20,230 ft)) in 1995, and Lungser Kangri (6,666 metres (21,870 ft)), the highest peak of Rupshu in Ladakh. He led eight international joint expeditions,[1][2] five with British, two with French and one with Japanese mountaineers, to high peaks, such as Rimo I (7,385 metres (24,229 ft)), Chong Kumdan Kangri I (7,071 metres (23,199 ft)), Sudarshan Parvat, Padmanabh (7,030 metres (23,060 ft)), and the Panch Chuli and Rangrik Rang groups.
In 1974, he fell into a crevasse at 6,200 metres (20,300 ft), deep inside the formidable Nanda Devi Sanctuary. He was carried by his companions for 13 days to the base camp where a helicopter rescued him. He was operated on for a dislocated hip-joint and had to spend two years walking on crutches, but that did not keep him out for too long and he has climbed for three decades after the injury.
Kapadia has a degree in commerce, law and management from University of Mumbai and he is a cloth merchant by profession. He has published twelve books. His Trek The Sahyadris has become a standard reference for all trekkers in the Western Ghats. His other books, Exploring the Hidden Himalaya (with Soli Mehta) and High Himalaya Unknown Valleys and Meeting The Mountains, cover his various trips to the Himalayas, while Spiti Adventures in the Trans-Himalaya covers climbing and trekking in that region. He has been the editor of the Himalayan Journal from 1980 to 1986, and since 1990, bringing the journal to international standards and continuing it as a major authentic reference on the range.
Kapadia has been elected an honorary member of the (British) Alpine Club. He was a vice president of the Indian Mountaineering Foundation (1997–1999). He was awarded the Indian Mountaineering Foundation (IMF) Gold Medal in 1993. In 2003, the Queen approved the award of the Patron's Gold Medal of the Royal Geographical Society to him. He has been invited to many countries to lecture on his Himalayan exploits, and is a member of several organisations. He is married and lives in Bombay.
His son, Lieutenant Nawang Kapadia, who was commissioned on 2 September 2000 in the Fourth Battalion the Third Gorkha Rifles,[5] died while fighting Pakistan-based terrorists in the jungles of Rajwar in the Kupwara district of Srinagar on 11 November 2000.[6] Since then, Kapadia has lectured about this conflict, particularly in the Siachen Glacier. He has been discussing a proposal for a peace park in the Siachen glacier region and cleaning up the environmental damage there.
Kapadia has donated a substantial number of photographs and maps to the American Alpine Club and to the Swiss National Museum, which are setting up the Lt. Nawang Kapadia Collection. This is in addition to the Lt. Nawang Kapadia Library already in existence at the Himalayan Club.
His book, Meeting The Mountains can be seen while standing in the queue at Disney's Animal Kingdom for Expedition Everest. While passing along the line, one passes by many glass cases displaying the history of mountains and, at one point, there is what is supposed to look like an office with his book on the top bookshelf.
Due his long work as editor of the Himalayan Journal, Kapadia became an important chronicler of mountaineering.
On 3 November 2017, in Seoul, South Korea, Kapadia was awarded the Piolets d'Or Asia Life Time Achievement Award. He is the first Indian to receive this prestigious award for his outstanding career in mountaineering and exploration.
In appreciation of his authorship of many books and his stewardship of the Himalayan Journal as an editor
In 1974, he fell into a crevasse at 6,200 metres (20,300 ft), deep inside the formidable Nanda Devi Sanctuary. He was carried by his companions for 13 days to the base camp where a helicopter rescued him. He was operated on for a dislocated hip-joint and had to spend two years walking on crutches, but that did not keep him out for too long and he has climbed for three decades after the injury.
Kapadia has a degree in commerce, law and management from University of Mumbai and he is a cloth merchant by profession. He has published twelve books. His Trek The Sahyadris has become a standard reference for all trekkers in the Western Ghats. His other books, Exploring the Hidden Himalaya (with Soli Mehta) and High Himalaya Unknown Valleys and Meeting The Mountains, cover his various trips to the Himalayas, while Spiti Adventures in the Trans-Himalaya covers climbing and trekking in that region. He has been the editor of the Himalayan Journal from 1980 to 1986, and since 1990, bringing the journal to international standards and continuing it as a major authentic reference on the range.
Kapadia has been elected an honorary member of the (British) Alpine Club. He was a vice president of the Indian Mountaineering Foundation (1997–1999). He was awarded the Indian Mountaineering Foundation (IMF) Gold Medal in 1993. In 2003, the Queen approved the award of the Patron's Gold Medal of the Royal Geographical Society to him. He has been invited to many countries to lecture on his Himalayan exploits, and is a member of several organisations. He is married and lives in Bombay.
His son, Lieutenant Nawang Kapadia, who was commissioned on 2 September 2000 in the Fourth Battalion the Third Gorkha Rifles,[5] died while fighting Pakistan-based terrorists in the jungles of Rajwar in the Kupwara district of Srinagar on 11 November 2000.[6] Since then, Kapadia has lectured about this conflict, particularly in the Siachen Glacier. He has been discussing a proposal for a peace park in the Siachen glacier region and cleaning up the environmental damage there.
Kapadia has donated a substantial number of photographs and maps to the American Alpine Club and to the Swiss National Museum, which are setting up the Lt. Nawang Kapadia Collection. This is in addition to the Lt. Nawang Kapadia Library already in existence at the Himalayan Club.
His book, Meeting The Mountains can be seen while standing in the queue at Disney's Animal Kingdom for Expedition Everest. While passing along the line, one passes by many glass cases displaying the history of mountains and, at one point, there is what is supposed to look like an office with his book on the top bookshelf.
Due his long work as editor of the Himalayan Journal, Kapadia became an important chronicler of mountaineering.
On 3 November 2017, in Seoul, South Korea, Kapadia was awarded the Piolets d'Or Asia Life Time Achievement Award. He is the first Indian to receive this prestigious award for his outstanding career in mountaineering and exploration.
In appreciation of his authorship of many books and his stewardship of the Himalayan Journal as an editor
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September 11, 2022
If one loves Himalaya, or mountaineering, the book is worth reading. Worth keeping for photographs, and maps.
Kapadia describes various separate regions of Himalaya, from Kailash and Manasarovar to Tibet in general, at least the parts thereof that he's visited, and then on to various parts within India and Bhutan, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and Ladakh, and more.
***
Kapadia has sentiments regarding the Himalaya but not exactly in line with India's love and reverence for Himalaya since antiquity.
Which can be as disconcerting as his declaring that Chinese individuals can be nice, despite India's doctrine to the contrary.
Even during the worst of 1962 war, there was no such propaganda to the effect Kapadia more than insinuates, from or in India. With the strongest possible feelings about 1962 for someone who saw neighbours leaving in trucks, neighbours who were fathers of schoolmates, and still would prefer to avoid buying anything made in China, this strong feeling didn't stop us loving Chinese food in India- or US or UK, for that matter, except for when the restaurant staff was hostile. Which happened more than once.
***
Kapadia is candid admitting -
"Not everyone likes the Karakoram. The barren and the rugged trail, leading on for miles and miles is not attractive to everyone. Due to security requirements there are several camps of the Indian army along the trail and these simple soldiers just fail to understand why anyone like us from Bombay or any part of the world would like to go there. As one officer put it, ‘What do you see in these Ganje Pahad (bald mountains)? This barren land?’."
And yet, such are the regions that inspired James Hilton's Lost Horizon and his Shangri-La.
"For almost 18 km towards the northwest and across for a similar distance, vast and flat plains extended. When I showed pictures of the Depsang Plains to one of my climber friends, he remarked, ‘Wow, this is a high altitude Golf Course!’ Some golf course and some imagination!
"Originally the trail from here till the Karakoram Pass was lined with bones so that caravans could follow a route in case of bad weather and in snow. However, many things have now changed. In 1962, the Chinese army invaded the Depsang plains, pushing the Indian Army down the Chhongtash gorge. The graves of the Indian soldiers are to be seen here. The Chinese army declared an unilateral ceasefire and withdrew towards the east, but at a vantage point overlooking the Depsang plains. We could see the aluminium sheets over the Chinese posts reflecting the sunlight. The bones are now replaced by jerry cans. There is a rough jeepable road. Yes, a jeepable road which leads from Depsang la almost till Karakoram Pass. On both sides of the road jerry cans line the route. These cans, named after German soldiers, (nick-named ‘jerrys’ during the World War II) are now playing their part on this historic plateau; apart from containing kerosene oil they guide travellers, army bunkers were built by making a wall by piling them up and they are even used as chairs."
Indeed, such are the regions that inspired James Hilton's Lost Horizon and his Shangri-La.
***
" ... Another fort was built at Sumur by the Ladakhi king to offer complete security. About 300 years before the Mongolian army had invaded Ladakh. This fort is known as Tsogmak (Tsog–Mongolian, mak-troops). Their army conquered territories till Leh where one of their senior generals was killed. He was buried under ‘Namgyal Tsemo’ the semo on a hill above Leh. However much of this history may be debatable and unknown, but certainly the forts are worth preserving as one of the landmarks of the past.2"
Throughout the book, Kapadia seems, not only anxious to credit muslims where traditions might have been of far older origin (or to claim that those traditions were due to the religion when in fact they were far older), but even anxious to veil historic facts, by discrediting implications of local nomenclature and traditional history, such as the name of a fort in Ladakh, which was even built specifically to defend against Mongol invasions!
And this is about a phenomenon unrelated to a religion.
So while left in India feels free to verbally offend West, even while taking care to go only thus far and no further, fear of giving offense to previous colonial regimes extends to kowtowing to Mongol invaders who'd not only invaded and sought to conquer India, but gone along and burned whole cities, villages and people therein, from Persia to Russia?
****
"We were staying in army bunkers at base camp on the Siachen Glacier. In the next room I could hear my son, Nawang, then a young man of 20 years, talking with equally young lieutenants and captains of the Indian army. They were discussing their exploits on the glacier, the war and agitatedly talking about the friends being wounded and killed all around them. ... They were ready to guard it with their life, they meant well. My son, excited with the prospect of defending the country with other young officers, worked hard and joined the Indian army as a Gorkha Officer. Soon thereafter he fell to a terrorist bullet in this bloody war in Kashmir. ... "
***
"Mountains have traditionally been haven for people seeking peace and spiritual solace. Nowhere has this been more so than in the Himalaya. It is ironical than that it is in the Himalaya, or to be more exact in the Karakoram, that a bitter and deadly, heroic but absurd conflict is being fought. Now for 20 long years armed forces of India and Pakistan have fought for the control of the Saltoro ridge which guards the Siachen Glacier towards its west. This is the highest battlefield in the world and India occupies the entire Siachen Glacier but at a great price."
This would be true of Tibet, if India had defended it. As it is China is claiming all of Himalaya and stray speakers of Chinese origin are laughing at India on television channels telling India "your problem is Himalaya ", not giving a fraction of a thought or consideration to love and reverence Himalaya us held throughout India for millennia since the very beginning of Himalaya rising out of the ocean that separated India from Asia.
But the first PM of India refused to even bring Tibet to attention of UN, or allow such a question by another nation, much less defend Tibet or even protest military occupation thereof.
So Kapadia speaks of Karakoram but not of Himalaya in all its reach being occupied by Chinese forces.
This is the moment before Krishna spoke, in Mahabharata war, prolonged to over half a century, because an Arjuna was sidelined by an elder in favour of a Yudhisthira who was always more amenable to opposite camp than to his own, and sitting with his head in his hands after losing a wife in a bet he had no right to make, as she pointed out. Neither India nor Himalaya were theirs to give, but the Arjuna had been exiled.
***
"It was in this situation that we started working for a proposal for Trans-boundary Peace Park. This would ultimately enable both the armies to withdraw in conditions of honour and dignity and it would not prejudice their positions in Kashmir as a whole. It would stop further degradation of a magnificent mountain area, save hundreds of lives, billions of rupees and possibly give an indicator to solve the Kashmir imbroglio."
It's naive thought, imagining that a movement copying Vinoba Bhave and his goodwill expeditions after independence - one regarding landlords, landholdings and redistribution of land to benefit landless, accomplished via goodwill and gifts; another that of surrender by dacoits of Chambal region.
"Boundary Parks are not a new idea. The first one, Waterton Glacier International Peace Park between Canada and US was established 70 years ago and today there are 169 such parks, involving 113 countries. Several of these trans-boundary parks are specifically designated as Peace Parks, which are intended to provide a peaceful solution to a conflict or a potential conflict or rehabilitation of an area after a conflict. In Asia and around India the concept of trans-boundary parks is well known for there are parks between India and Bhutan, India and Nepal, Pakistan and China and Nepal and China. There has been a dramatic increase in trans-boundary parks in the recent years, a demonstration of their viability and usefulness. In 1988 there were 50 parks as against 169 today. There are plans for few more trans-boundary parks."
Worse than naive, it's as dangerous, bordering on suicidal, as Gandhi insisting that the then new Government of India force refugees from across the new border in North-West, to return across the border, even if it were only to be massacred by those who had massacred over ten millions already.
Worse, it's as dangerous as the then PM of India subsequently not only stopping the Indian military from proceeding to liberate rest of Kashmir, but then going on to not protect occupation of Tibet by military forces of China, refusing to raise the question in Tibet, and doing nothing about Chinese appropriation of a huge amount of territory in Aksai Chin.
Withdrawal of forces in any region of Himalaya would only involve the two untrustworthy nations who have occupied the lands with force, to inch further - by several thousands of square miles.
***
"One very strong supporter and mover of this idea was Aamir Ali who lives in Geneva and having worked for the United Nations, knew how to approach this matter. We prepared brief notes and plans and sent it to various officials and organisations in India and Pakistan. But with these countries at the height of war in the 1990s, our proposals hit a blank wall. When I met one of the senior secretaries in the Government of India, he dismissed the idea with contempt and even raised the usual Indian question, ‘why is a foreigner and a Muslim (Aamir Ali) interested in the Siachen Glacier?’2 Officials refused to listen to my pleas, suggesting that all I could do was to file a public interest litigation in the Supreme Court. Fortunately the Indian army was more open to this idea. Today most of the senior officers are in know of this plan and supportive of it. Of course, without their political masters deciding in the matter no further aims can be achieved, at least in India."
The very next paragraph raises a question, were these efforts at correspondence being carried through the Kargil war, or begun thereafter?
It's hardly possible that the responses he quotes from Indian army were during or after that treacherous war, when several soldiers sacrificed their lives!
***
"The political tranquillity and climate again changed and stopped all rounds of negotiations between India and Pakistan. Finally on 13th December 2001, armed militants attacked the Indian Parliament and the troops were moved. The countries were on the brink of war. One had to keep the hope that situations change, people change and the dawn always comes only after the darkest period. And we waited for dawn on the Siachen. Positive signs seemed to emerge as the idea was kept alive."
Kapadia mentions 2001 attack specifically, but not the Kargil war!
Wonder why!
***
"I saw further signs of hope. First was at the Banff Film Festival in Canada where I could interact with a group of senior IUCN representatives. They seemed interested and we formed a small committee. With their contacts in Pakistan, we could carry the matter to the right quarters there too. But the advice from both the Governments was to keep the issue open, lie low and push it gently. That’s what we kept on doing. In 2001, the area of Aletsch, the longest glacier in the Alps, was designated as a World Heritage site. We thought, why not aim for the same for the longest glacier in the Himalaya? Major support from UIAA3 gave a major fillip to the Siachen Peace Park proposal, which in collaboration with the IUCN4 started taking keen interest in the matter. The UIAA supported and organised a ‘Summit Climb’ in the Alps where Indian and Pakistani mountaineers would participate together. And so it was Mandip Singh Soin and myself from India and Nazir Sabir and Col. Sher Khan who from Pakistan teamed up in Geneva and stood on the summit of the Monch peak. On the summit, perhaps for the first time in several years, flags of India and Pakistan were unfurled together on any mountain in the world signifying that we mountaineers and environmentalist appeal together for peace in the mountains, a fact particularly significant in the ‘International Year of Mountains’ in 2002."
Naiveté at best, dangerous in reality.
***
"No sooner, Indian and Pakistani mountaineers met in Geneva, we realised how much we had in common at a people to people level; we spoke the same language we had the same tastes in music, we had same interests (Nazir, a cricket buff like me, kept suggesting, to the former President of Switzerland5, ‘Sir lets play cricket between our two nations, even before we climb mountains’). There was a strong desire for all of us to visit each other’s countries. We realised that it was only political differences that kept us apart. At no time during the climb, tied to the same rope, did it matter to me that my companion was a Pakistani or a Muslim and to him that I was an Indian or a Hindu- our lives depended on each other. 6"
Be that as it may, to those who died for no fault of theirs by attacks through terrorists sent from the terrorist factory across the border, it did matter, one might bet safely - whether in Taj or in local trains, stadium in Hyderabad or while shopping in a middle class local suburban market in New Delhi.
***
"Several recent developments have led the world community, specially the mountain lovers, to pay attention to solving the conflict and lend help to rejuvenate the glacier. This includes the Italian Ev-K2-CNR Committee’s proposal to push for a Siachen Peace Park as part of its commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the first ascent of K2 and at the World Parks Congress in Durban in September 2003. Talks were held after a long time between India and Pakistan to discuss various issues, specially the Siachen. (I write this in March 2004 and perhaps situation may have turned for the better by the time you read this.). And – India and Pakistan played cricket in March 2004 after more than a decade!"
That certainly did not stop the terrorist attacks, in fact a major one came soon post this - the most famous one, in fact; attacks against Taj and other targets in Mumbai were within less than five years post his "India and Pakistan played cricket in March 2004 after more than a decade", and while congress was in power in centre!
***
"At present, armed military men still face each other across the ridges of the Siachen. On both sides of the line of control, it is said that to honour the blood of brave soldiers that has been spilled, not an inch of territory should be given up. One could say even with more force that the sacrifice of brave men could best be honoured by protecting this spectacular mountain area consecrated by their sacrifice. Again the wheels of peace are moving positively and there is a complete ceasefire in fighting in Kashmir and particularly on the heights of the Siachen for last few months. ... "
Naiveté bordering on stupidity, that!
Or is Kapadia attempting to make up for the sacrifice of his son's life, to a bullet from a terrorist, in Kashmir?
" ... If the peace returns, the concept of the trans-boundary peace park would fit well in giving a positive dimension to the process. It would work not only towards disengagement, but towards the creation of a park to protect the environment to allow the ibexes and snow leopards to roam, the wild roses to grow and the mountaineers to return to the Siachen Glacier. A majestic area of mountain landscape redolent with the romance of early exploration deserves the best. Our youth, be they soldier or civilian, Pakistani or Indian, they deserve to enjoy such an area."
Dangerous naiveté, considering not only that the nonstop terrorist attacks that were held back only a little, post surgical strikes by India, and the demonetisation, but basically continue.
True, it's far less post 2014 than it had been during UPA decade, but that won't happen if military were withdrawn at any point of border.
Dangerous naiveté, considering not only that the nonstop terrorist attacks that were held back only a little, post surgical strikes by India, and the demonetisation, but basically continue - but also Bharatpur.
As long ago as during early 1990s, it'd been noted that the famous bird sanctuary in Bharatpur was suffering, due to the migratory flocks from Central Asia and Siberia being reduced alarmingly to paltry numbers, due chiefly to bring shot fown in their flight over Pakistan.
Since then, starvation situation in that country was discussed on internet and on television shows in Pakistan channels, describing poor having been reduced to eating things one would not describe, apart from donkeys, used more relevantly for transport due to shortage of fuel and situation of financial disaster in Pakistan.
Whatever makes Kapadia imagine that Siachen, or any other part in or near Pakistan, would be safe haven for Ibex, or any other beautiful fauna, birds or anything else, as long as people of Pakistan can access the region without intervention and being stopped from hunting the fauna and birds to extinction?
A glacier wouldn't stop them!
***
"‘We are nations linked by Himalayan geography. Nations, which do not understand and respect geography are condemned by history. Governments and people of both countries should realise that there is a humanity that binds us together. Whatever our game, and whichever our side of the fence’.7
"With peace returning to the glacier, there are several proposals to clean up the glacier (involvement of world community and its finances are a very distinct possibility) and there is a proposal that civilian mountaineers from both sides could walk up the glacier from their respective fences and shake hands at the border pass, unfurl their own national flags and bring that spirit displayed in the Alps to reality on the Siachen Glacier."
Dangerous naiveté, indeed. There's no guarantee there won't be a terrorist amongst that handshaking mob, is there, or would they be frisked by Indian military before approaching the fence? Say, fifty miles before the border?
Really Kapadia should have known better, having trekked siachen strictly in dark of night, due to danger during day, during light hours, of enemy fire!
***
England didn't go to war eager either for WWI or WWII, remember! England had cheered Neville Chamberlain ....
Kapadia describes various separate regions of Himalaya, from Kailash and Manasarovar to Tibet in general, at least the parts thereof that he's visited, and then on to various parts within India and Bhutan, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and Ladakh, and more.
***
Kapadia has sentiments regarding the Himalaya but not exactly in line with India's love and reverence for Himalaya since antiquity.
Which can be as disconcerting as his declaring that Chinese individuals can be nice, despite India's doctrine to the contrary.
Even during the worst of 1962 war, there was no such propaganda to the effect Kapadia more than insinuates, from or in India. With the strongest possible feelings about 1962 for someone who saw neighbours leaving in trucks, neighbours who were fathers of schoolmates, and still would prefer to avoid buying anything made in China, this strong feeling didn't stop us loving Chinese food in India- or US or UK, for that matter, except for when the restaurant staff was hostile. Which happened more than once.
***
Kapadia is candid admitting -
"Not everyone likes the Karakoram. The barren and the rugged trail, leading on for miles and miles is not attractive to everyone. Due to security requirements there are several camps of the Indian army along the trail and these simple soldiers just fail to understand why anyone like us from Bombay or any part of the world would like to go there. As one officer put it, ‘What do you see in these Ganje Pahad (bald mountains)? This barren land?’."
And yet, such are the regions that inspired James Hilton's Lost Horizon and his Shangri-La.
"For almost 18 km towards the northwest and across for a similar distance, vast and flat plains extended. When I showed pictures of the Depsang Plains to one of my climber friends, he remarked, ‘Wow, this is a high altitude Golf Course!’ Some golf course and some imagination!
"Originally the trail from here till the Karakoram Pass was lined with bones so that caravans could follow a route in case of bad weather and in snow. However, many things have now changed. In 1962, the Chinese army invaded the Depsang plains, pushing the Indian Army down the Chhongtash gorge. The graves of the Indian soldiers are to be seen here. The Chinese army declared an unilateral ceasefire and withdrew towards the east, but at a vantage point overlooking the Depsang plains. We could see the aluminium sheets over the Chinese posts reflecting the sunlight. The bones are now replaced by jerry cans. There is a rough jeepable road. Yes, a jeepable road which leads from Depsang la almost till Karakoram Pass. On both sides of the road jerry cans line the route. These cans, named after German soldiers, (nick-named ‘jerrys’ during the World War II) are now playing their part on this historic plateau; apart from containing kerosene oil they guide travellers, army bunkers were built by making a wall by piling them up and they are even used as chairs."
Indeed, such are the regions that inspired James Hilton's Lost Horizon and his Shangri-La.
***
" ... Another fort was built at Sumur by the Ladakhi king to offer complete security. About 300 years before the Mongolian army had invaded Ladakh. This fort is known as Tsogmak (Tsog–Mongolian, mak-troops). Their army conquered territories till Leh where one of their senior generals was killed. He was buried under ‘Namgyal Tsemo’ the semo on a hill above Leh. However much of this history may be debatable and unknown, but certainly the forts are worth preserving as one of the landmarks of the past.2"
Throughout the book, Kapadia seems, not only anxious to credit muslims where traditions might have been of far older origin (or to claim that those traditions were due to the religion when in fact they were far older), but even anxious to veil historic facts, by discrediting implications of local nomenclature and traditional history, such as the name of a fort in Ladakh, which was even built specifically to defend against Mongol invasions!
And this is about a phenomenon unrelated to a religion.
So while left in India feels free to verbally offend West, even while taking care to go only thus far and no further, fear of giving offense to previous colonial regimes extends to kowtowing to Mongol invaders who'd not only invaded and sought to conquer India, but gone along and burned whole cities, villages and people therein, from Persia to Russia?
****
"We were staying in army bunkers at base camp on the Siachen Glacier. In the next room I could hear my son, Nawang, then a young man of 20 years, talking with equally young lieutenants and captains of the Indian army. They were discussing their exploits on the glacier, the war and agitatedly talking about the friends being wounded and killed all around them. ... They were ready to guard it with their life, they meant well. My son, excited with the prospect of defending the country with other young officers, worked hard and joined the Indian army as a Gorkha Officer. Soon thereafter he fell to a terrorist bullet in this bloody war in Kashmir. ... "
***
"Mountains have traditionally been haven for people seeking peace and spiritual solace. Nowhere has this been more so than in the Himalaya. It is ironical than that it is in the Himalaya, or to be more exact in the Karakoram, that a bitter and deadly, heroic but absurd conflict is being fought. Now for 20 long years armed forces of India and Pakistan have fought for the control of the Saltoro ridge which guards the Siachen Glacier towards its west. This is the highest battlefield in the world and India occupies the entire Siachen Glacier but at a great price."
This would be true of Tibet, if India had defended it. As it is China is claiming all of Himalaya and stray speakers of Chinese origin are laughing at India on television channels telling India "your problem is Himalaya ", not giving a fraction of a thought or consideration to love and reverence Himalaya us held throughout India for millennia since the very beginning of Himalaya rising out of the ocean that separated India from Asia.
But the first PM of India refused to even bring Tibet to attention of UN, or allow such a question by another nation, much less defend Tibet or even protest military occupation thereof.
So Kapadia speaks of Karakoram but not of Himalaya in all its reach being occupied by Chinese forces.
This is the moment before Krishna spoke, in Mahabharata war, prolonged to over half a century, because an Arjuna was sidelined by an elder in favour of a Yudhisthira who was always more amenable to opposite camp than to his own, and sitting with his head in his hands after losing a wife in a bet he had no right to make, as she pointed out. Neither India nor Himalaya were theirs to give, but the Arjuna had been exiled.
***
"It was in this situation that we started working for a proposal for Trans-boundary Peace Park. This would ultimately enable both the armies to withdraw in conditions of honour and dignity and it would not prejudice their positions in Kashmir as a whole. It would stop further degradation of a magnificent mountain area, save hundreds of lives, billions of rupees and possibly give an indicator to solve the Kashmir imbroglio."
It's naive thought, imagining that a movement copying Vinoba Bhave and his goodwill expeditions after independence - one regarding landlords, landholdings and redistribution of land to benefit landless, accomplished via goodwill and gifts; another that of surrender by dacoits of Chambal region.
"Boundary Parks are not a new idea. The first one, Waterton Glacier International Peace Park between Canada and US was established 70 years ago and today there are 169 such parks, involving 113 countries. Several of these trans-boundary parks are specifically designated as Peace Parks, which are intended to provide a peaceful solution to a conflict or a potential conflict or rehabilitation of an area after a conflict. In Asia and around India the concept of trans-boundary parks is well known for there are parks between India and Bhutan, India and Nepal, Pakistan and China and Nepal and China. There has been a dramatic increase in trans-boundary parks in the recent years, a demonstration of their viability and usefulness. In 1988 there were 50 parks as against 169 today. There are plans for few more trans-boundary parks."
Worse than naive, it's as dangerous, bordering on suicidal, as Gandhi insisting that the then new Government of India force refugees from across the new border in North-West, to return across the border, even if it were only to be massacred by those who had massacred over ten millions already.
Worse, it's as dangerous as the then PM of India subsequently not only stopping the Indian military from proceeding to liberate rest of Kashmir, but then going on to not protect occupation of Tibet by military forces of China, refusing to raise the question in Tibet, and doing nothing about Chinese appropriation of a huge amount of territory in Aksai Chin.
Withdrawal of forces in any region of Himalaya would only involve the two untrustworthy nations who have occupied the lands with force, to inch further - by several thousands of square miles.
***
"One very strong supporter and mover of this idea was Aamir Ali who lives in Geneva and having worked for the United Nations, knew how to approach this matter. We prepared brief notes and plans and sent it to various officials and organisations in India and Pakistan. But with these countries at the height of war in the 1990s, our proposals hit a blank wall. When I met one of the senior secretaries in the Government of India, he dismissed the idea with contempt and even raised the usual Indian question, ‘why is a foreigner and a Muslim (Aamir Ali) interested in the Siachen Glacier?’2 Officials refused to listen to my pleas, suggesting that all I could do was to file a public interest litigation in the Supreme Court. Fortunately the Indian army was more open to this idea. Today most of the senior officers are in know of this plan and supportive of it. Of course, without their political masters deciding in the matter no further aims can be achieved, at least in India."
The very next paragraph raises a question, were these efforts at correspondence being carried through the Kargil war, or begun thereafter?
It's hardly possible that the responses he quotes from Indian army were during or after that treacherous war, when several soldiers sacrificed their lives!
***
"The political tranquillity and climate again changed and stopped all rounds of negotiations between India and Pakistan. Finally on 13th December 2001, armed militants attacked the Indian Parliament and the troops were moved. The countries were on the brink of war. One had to keep the hope that situations change, people change and the dawn always comes only after the darkest period. And we waited for dawn on the Siachen. Positive signs seemed to emerge as the idea was kept alive."
Kapadia mentions 2001 attack specifically, but not the Kargil war!
Wonder why!
***
"I saw further signs of hope. First was at the Banff Film Festival in Canada where I could interact with a group of senior IUCN representatives. They seemed interested and we formed a small committee. With their contacts in Pakistan, we could carry the matter to the right quarters there too. But the advice from both the Governments was to keep the issue open, lie low and push it gently. That’s what we kept on doing. In 2001, the area of Aletsch, the longest glacier in the Alps, was designated as a World Heritage site. We thought, why not aim for the same for the longest glacier in the Himalaya? Major support from UIAA3 gave a major fillip to the Siachen Peace Park proposal, which in collaboration with the IUCN4 started taking keen interest in the matter. The UIAA supported and organised a ‘Summit Climb’ in the Alps where Indian and Pakistani mountaineers would participate together. And so it was Mandip Singh Soin and myself from India and Nazir Sabir and Col. Sher Khan who from Pakistan teamed up in Geneva and stood on the summit of the Monch peak. On the summit, perhaps for the first time in several years, flags of India and Pakistan were unfurled together on any mountain in the world signifying that we mountaineers and environmentalist appeal together for peace in the mountains, a fact particularly significant in the ‘International Year of Mountains’ in 2002."
Naiveté at best, dangerous in reality.
***
"No sooner, Indian and Pakistani mountaineers met in Geneva, we realised how much we had in common at a people to people level; we spoke the same language we had the same tastes in music, we had same interests (Nazir, a cricket buff like me, kept suggesting, to the former President of Switzerland5, ‘Sir lets play cricket between our two nations, even before we climb mountains’). There was a strong desire for all of us to visit each other’s countries. We realised that it was only political differences that kept us apart. At no time during the climb, tied to the same rope, did it matter to me that my companion was a Pakistani or a Muslim and to him that I was an Indian or a Hindu- our lives depended on each other. 6"
Be that as it may, to those who died for no fault of theirs by attacks through terrorists sent from the terrorist factory across the border, it did matter, one might bet safely - whether in Taj or in local trains, stadium in Hyderabad or while shopping in a middle class local suburban market in New Delhi.
***
"Several recent developments have led the world community, specially the mountain lovers, to pay attention to solving the conflict and lend help to rejuvenate the glacier. This includes the Italian Ev-K2-CNR Committee’s proposal to push for a Siachen Peace Park as part of its commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the first ascent of K2 and at the World Parks Congress in Durban in September 2003. Talks were held after a long time between India and Pakistan to discuss various issues, specially the Siachen. (I write this in March 2004 and perhaps situation may have turned for the better by the time you read this.). And – India and Pakistan played cricket in March 2004 after more than a decade!"
That certainly did not stop the terrorist attacks, in fact a major one came soon post this - the most famous one, in fact; attacks against Taj and other targets in Mumbai were within less than five years post his "India and Pakistan played cricket in March 2004 after more than a decade", and while congress was in power in centre!
***
"At present, armed military men still face each other across the ridges of the Siachen. On both sides of the line of control, it is said that to honour the blood of brave soldiers that has been spilled, not an inch of territory should be given up. One could say even with more force that the sacrifice of brave men could best be honoured by protecting this spectacular mountain area consecrated by their sacrifice. Again the wheels of peace are moving positively and there is a complete ceasefire in fighting in Kashmir and particularly on the heights of the Siachen for last few months. ... "
Naiveté bordering on stupidity, that!
Or is Kapadia attempting to make up for the sacrifice of his son's life, to a bullet from a terrorist, in Kashmir?
" ... If the peace returns, the concept of the trans-boundary peace park would fit well in giving a positive dimension to the process. It would work not only towards disengagement, but towards the creation of a park to protect the environment to allow the ibexes and snow leopards to roam, the wild roses to grow and the mountaineers to return to the Siachen Glacier. A majestic area of mountain landscape redolent with the romance of early exploration deserves the best. Our youth, be they soldier or civilian, Pakistani or Indian, they deserve to enjoy such an area."
Dangerous naiveté, considering not only that the nonstop terrorist attacks that were held back only a little, post surgical strikes by India, and the demonetisation, but basically continue.
True, it's far less post 2014 than it had been during UPA decade, but that won't happen if military were withdrawn at any point of border.
Dangerous naiveté, considering not only that the nonstop terrorist attacks that were held back only a little, post surgical strikes by India, and the demonetisation, but basically continue - but also Bharatpur.
As long ago as during early 1990s, it'd been noted that the famous bird sanctuary in Bharatpur was suffering, due to the migratory flocks from Central Asia and Siberia being reduced alarmingly to paltry numbers, due chiefly to bring shot fown in their flight over Pakistan.
Since then, starvation situation in that country was discussed on internet and on television shows in Pakistan channels, describing poor having been reduced to eating things one would not describe, apart from donkeys, used more relevantly for transport due to shortage of fuel and situation of financial disaster in Pakistan.
Whatever makes Kapadia imagine that Siachen, or any other part in or near Pakistan, would be safe haven for Ibex, or any other beautiful fauna, birds or anything else, as long as people of Pakistan can access the region without intervention and being stopped from hunting the fauna and birds to extinction?
A glacier wouldn't stop them!
***
"‘We are nations linked by Himalayan geography. Nations, which do not understand and respect geography are condemned by history. Governments and people of both countries should realise that there is a humanity that binds us together. Whatever our game, and whichever our side of the fence’.7
"With peace returning to the glacier, there are several proposals to clean up the glacier (involvement of world community and its finances are a very distinct possibility) and there is a proposal that civilian mountaineers from both sides could walk up the glacier from their respective fences and shake hands at the border pass, unfurl their own national flags and bring that spirit displayed in the Alps to reality on the Siachen Glacier."
Dangerous naiveté, indeed. There's no guarantee there won't be a terrorist amongst that handshaking mob, is there, or would they be frisked by Indian military before approaching the fence? Say, fifty miles before the border?
Really Kapadia should have known better, having trekked siachen strictly in dark of night, due to danger during day, during light hours, of enemy fire!
***
England didn't go to war eager either for WWI or WWII, remember! England had cheered Neville Chamberlain ....
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