Kargil: Mountain People
After spending 2 weeks in Kashmir, resting and enjoying the beautiful nature, Boye and I finally hit the road again. We now headed to the Northernmost part of India, the Mountainous Ladakh.
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The drive from Naranag to Kargil offered us quite some spectacular scenery.
Ladakh looks surprisingly different from Kashmir. Whereas Kashmir has large forests, and the mountains are green, and there are lots of rivers and lakes, Ladakh is quite a bit drier. Also there is a lot less vegetation in Ladakh, and the greenery is replaced by rocky landscape.
Kargil is a town in Western Ladakh, the population is a mixture of Buddhist and Muslim. The Buddhists are the majority religious group in Ladakh. What is unique with Ladakh compared to the rest of India is which type of Buddhists and Muslims you find here.
Buddhist verses tied up along the roadside.
Most Buddhists in India are Theravada Buddhists, but the Buddhists in Ladakh are mostly Mahayana (the same group as the Tibetans). Similarly the vast majority of Muslims in India (including in Kashmir) are Sunni, while most of the Muslims in Ladakh are Shia. As a result Ladakh stands out both naturally and culturally from Kashmir and also the rest of India.
We were only spending two days in Kargil and spent the first day settling in and taking a look around town. Kargil housed a small and cozy market. The second day we decided to go for a trek to the Hundurman Heritage Village.
We started out by walking on this road running along the beautifully colored Suru river.
Halfway to Hundruman village we encountered this building filled with binoculars looking towards the Pakistani border.
As we reached the village of Hundurman I was amazed to see how these people had carved out a settlement here, far up in the mountains and in this rocky and uneven landscape.
The villagers were really friendly, and a guy invited us into his house where his wife made us a cup of salty tea (a specialty tea they make in Ladakh).
The village felt peaceful, but the realities of geopolitics were clearly present. Far up on the mountain ridge we could see military outposts, and the Pakistani border was close by, signs with skulls warning us not to approach.
The agricultural fields, built in terraces that can be seen in the pictures, were very dry, and a villager explained that they had been so unfortunate to experience 4 years of drought. Still, here on the very edge of what is India, the village endured.
Kargil and Hundurman village offered us incredible landscapes, interesting culture and architecture and not least friendly locals. Next we headed for the capital of Ladakh, the city of Leh.
I’m sorry the Blog post was delayed this time, but expect the next post to be on time by the end of next week. Cheers, and have a nice weekend!
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