Bonhomie on the border
SANDEEP DIKSHIT
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An improving relationship between India and China seems to have a positive impact on places like Tawang and Bum-La.
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This is also a land guarded by the spirits of martyred soldiers, as every army man believes. Except when they go on leave, these Babas ensure that the jawans always remain alert at their posts.
Photos: Ritu Raj Konwar
No more bitterness: Regular interaction between the Chinese and the Indian army is now common.
AS the usual tourist spots lose their charm after frequent visits, it is perhaps time to explore India's extremities, especially those along the great Himalayan range close to the Chinese border. There was a time when permits were hard to come by. A sign close to the border would warn: "Caution! You are under enemy observation."
Bum-La was once such a destination but is now a little crowded with businessmen and others who have flocked there following the opening of the Indo-China border post. Bum-La does not have the non-commercial innocence of Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh separated from the plains by the Brahmaputra, reserve forests and the gradually ascending Himalayas.
Improved tourist inflow
Here one can find towns that entered public discourse after the Indo-China war of 1962. Frequent border meetings and the implementation of a pact to resolve all disputes without a show of force has improved tourist inflow to Tawang, the headquarters of a frontier district. The 190 Mountain Brigade and the district administration are more liberal with permits.
The time to visit Tawang is towards the end of the first or the beginning of last quarter of the year when the last tourist has packed his bag, expatriate tourist operators have left and Tawang with its people of Monpa origin is beginning to recover.
The first day at Tawang, after arrival from Tezpur or Guwahati, must be the most leisurely. Tawang has two helipads: one in the town and the other in Khirmu at a lower altitude. Helicopters with a heavy load take off only from Khirmu where the engines can function more effectively due to higher air density. If this happens to helicopters in Tawang...
Anyway, remember to take in the sights from the hotel lounge and imbibe fluids along with Vitamin C tablets. Don't ask why but that is the done thing if you aspire to be more than the ordinary tourist to whom Tawang is the last frontier.
In the town
The second day is devoted to the town. A trip to the handicrafts emporium is followed by a 1,000-feet trek to the monastery, one of the principal seats of Mahayana Buddhism. A 25-foot statue of the Buddha presides over the monastery, believed to be 400 years old.
This winter, the Buddha Mahotsava will see special fairs and prayers to mark the 2,550th year. Pay attention to the vigorous and superbly coordinated pantomime dances to mark the discovery of the Yak, the main source of livelihood of the region, by a magical bird many centuries ago.
But avoid the state administration's main calendar of events for that attracts the officialdom and politicians. Tawang would then resemble Ooty, Shimla or Nainital at double their height with whippier winds. The Tawang Monastery could be followed by trips to other holy places of Mahayana Buddhism, which established itself in Nepal, Tibet and the surrounding region after breaking away from the Hinayana school, which found favour in Sri Lanka and South-East Asia.
After visiting the Tawang Monastery's museum, a must see is the Urgelling Monastery's collection of Buddhist relics and foot and fingerprints of the Dalai Lama is a must.
I would vote to take a break en-route for a lunch of Momos and apertifs. Recommended fare: ask for the local stuff. It almost always is satisfying.
Spirit land
This is also a land guarded by the spirits of martyred soldiers, as every army man believes. Short of Tawang is the memorial to Jaswant Singh, a Garhwal Rifles soldier who helped by two local girls, defended his post against the Chinese for three days.
And between Tawang and Bum-La lies the memorial to Joginder Singh, winner of the highest award for gallantry in war. Except when they go on leave, these Babas ensure that the jawans always remain alert at their posts.
Film connections
The pattern of tree-less rocks specked by snow may be bewitching for visitors but the unchanging uniformity begins playing on the soldier's mind. The posts nearly always resemble a college dormitory for men. The latest blow-ups of every Bollywood actress are there. Variety according to the predilection of the unit on duty. A Madras regiment battalion will have Tamil film heroines while Marathi actresses find a place in posts manned by Maratha Light Infantry.
Then there are the myths about these Babas all along the line of actual control with China. Army men believe the Babas have cuffed many a jawan caught napping while on duty.
Bitterness, if any, about the battle and the deaths against the People's Liberation Army has receded. What remains is a professional army's salute to its unprepared colleagues in an unequal war.
War memorial
Between these two memorials is the Tawang War memorial. Unending tablets of black granite ring the memorial listing the nearly 2,500 who died in the 1962 war. Today the warning sign is missing on the road to Bum-La, the flat crest that demarcates India from China. Replacing them are signs exhorting your driver not to fall asleep.
As your lungs get used to the rarefied atmosphere at 11,000 feet, the mould of an everyday tourist could be broken. The scene on the first few kilometres outside Tawang on the way to Bum-La is uninspiring. Utilitarian army establishments and huts of road maintenance crew crowd the road along with an unfolding vista of snow-capped peaks.
The Y junction, where permits are examined, shows us a different world that is worth visiting at least twice.
An unmoving, solitary yak on the other slope could be your only company for 10 minutes, as the vehicle bounces gently over a road whose constant enemy is water — from melting snows and glaciers — that eats away at the black topping. Packed food and drinks are recommended because the only other possibility is the army posts. With the ebbing of tensions, that is not a guarantee for several miles since the number of troops has been reduced.
As the vehicle grinds its way up to the "Heap of Stones", the LAC with China, lakes appear — bright turquoise or brooding grey according to the mood of the sky. Madhuri Lake is the most famous, named after the Bollywood actress who starred in a film song canned here.
Symbol of peace
And finally the Bum-La hut, built by the Indian Army to serve as a permanent structure to host the Chinese twice a year. A short walk on this flat land, a couple of thousand feet above the tree line and the "heap of stones" — the symbol of peace and tranquillity — comes into view. It began with commanders from both armies together placing a couple of stones on the LAC when they first met several years ago.
It has now grown into a 20-feet mound, indicating the regularity of the interaction and a reduction of the bitterness that ruled for a couple of decades after the 1962 war.
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