‘KARCHAM’—Where Teal Colour Confluences with Grey
Karcham is the place that has its second USP in the form of this famous ‘Hindustan –Tibet’ road bifurcating into two –one going to ‘Sangla valley’ and the second heading to Kalpa near ‘Rekong Peo’ the district headquarters of district Kinnaur
By Colonel Satish Singh Lalotra
TRAVELOGUE
No other geographical entity has ever ruled the mental firmament of humans as that of the Himalayas; keeping its uniqueness of diversity fresh as ever in them. Even if the human race was to employ the proverbial ‘Time machine’ it would have been baffled by the timelessness presence of such a humongous range that has spanned not only the physicality of this earth , but also the way of living of millions of earthlings that came into its contact eons ago and even today.
In case of an avid traveller to these majestic mountains nothing more could encapsulate their grandeur than these simple words which I chanced upon to glance on the walls of a non-descript ‘Dhaba’ cum eatery on the famous ‘Hindustan-Tibet’ road near ‘Karcham’—‘Bus do hi toh shauk hai mere woh Barf ke pahad, Garam chai ka gilas aur tera Didar’( There are only two passions in my life O snowy mountain, a warm glass of tea & rendezvous with you’).The beauty of such earthy words inscribed in a gingerly handwriting only proves the allure that makes people from far and near come to such faraway places like Karcham that would make even the best of map reader cringe to find out its location. A very subtle point that is conveyed in these above lines is the sheer disarming nature of such places which reinforces the theme that while in the mountains all you need is the bare necessities of life and few good things to give you company.
The ever demanding way of life which armed forces willy-nilly impose on its members, take them to such places as described above more often out of compulsion and less out of choice. It is a different matter altogether that the same places later occupy a much bigger space in their sub-conscious when evaluated from the prism of simplicity that it escaped earlier on. ‘Karcham’ perched very gingerly on the world famous ‘Hindustan-Tibet’ road and by the banks of river Sutluj in the far eastern corner of HP is one such entity that casts the proverbial old world charm on anybody who comes in its contact irrespective of gender specification. I too had the opportunity to touch this wonderful place way back many years while still serving in the forces while heading to a much northerly place of Rupa valley that lies few miles ahead on this same iconic highway.
A cursory glance towards this place would not merit a second look by the way of its non-descript appearance, but for its USP which stays firmly as its signature value; the confluence of two very pious rivers. That of River Sutlej with its grey colour appearance and of River Baspa with its teal colour, both heavily dammed and yet in their own ways lifelines for the regions they flow through. For the uninitiated, Karcham is the place that has its second USP in the form of this famous ‘Hindustan –Tibet’ road bifurcating into two –one going to ‘Sangla valley’ and the second heading to Kalpa near ‘RekongPeo’ the district headquarters of district Kinnaur. The third USP of this non-descript place lies in the fact that over here is located the famous ‘Karcham- Wangtoo’ hydroelectric plant . This was the same place which saw a massive deluge few decades back in the year 1998 turning the location of Wangtoo into a huge lake and washing off a huge portion of (NH-22) Hindustan- Tibet road too in the bargain. It later turned out to be tourist hit and a hot spot with people from the neighboring areas flocking to get a ride in the rafts and motor boats. Since the place was enroute to the world famous ‘Delicious apples’of Himachal Pradesh that lay in areas like the ‘Ropa valley, Pooh, Garbyang etc the local army authorities were requisitioned to transfer apple boxes and trucks atop these rafts and motor boats.
According to a Kinnauri legend that I was fortunate to learn from some of the locals of Rupa Valley, the rivers of Sutlej and Baspa were both brothers with Sutlej being the elder one. Sutlej was the more serious one and sedate sibling with Baspa the mischievous one. Like all siblings the two were rivals for everything, including whose name should be retained where the waters joined at Karcham. It was decided that whoever reached Karcham first would get the honour of lending his name to the river from that point onwards. And so the two rivers set forth towards Karcham. Baspa, the faster one of the two rushed forth through the valleys and gorges, but was easily distracted and stopped to play with other streams and take mini diversions.
On the other hand, Sutlej flowed slowly and steadily towards Karcham. I am sure the readers know the end result; Sutlej reached Karcham first and that is how the river from Karcham onwards is known by that name even though it contains the water of Baspa as well. To me it all seems to be part of an ‘animistic thought’ process which believed that all objects, places, and creatures possessed a distinct spiritual essence. In fact the religion of ‘Bon’ one of the oldest in the world and still being practiced by some sects of Tibetans are ardent believers of this legend in Kinnaur.
Moreover the valley of Kinnaur is still one of the oldest vestiges of this ‘Bon’ religion and hence the propagation of this legend in this eastern part of HP. In fact the locals of district Kinnaur are ardent believers and place this river on a much higher pedestal than even river Ganges, since as per them Sutlej has its origin from lake Mansarovar the very abode of Lord Shiva in Tibet. So how can it be not superior to river Ganges that has its origin from Gangotri in Uttrakhand? It may sound a bit preposterous to a diehard Hindu, but the very fact that these Kinnauri people even cremate their dead on the banks of river Sutlej with a firm belief that ultimately this river ends up in the ocean where even river Ganga ends its epic journey, gives strength to their logic of finality of a human being’s long quest of merging with the sacred waters of Ganga after departure from this mortal world.
From Karcham , a mere distance of 17 kms all along the river Baspa will take us to the exotic place of ‘Sangla valley’ one of the most enchanting places to stay for a short vacation that seems just out of the world experience. Sangla valley has some of the most thrilling and tight passes for a hang glider pilot to try his luck in India leaving aside the Bir Billing site at Kangra, HP. Perched at an altitude of about 9000 feet above the Msl , it just about qualifies in army parlance the start of a typical high altitude area. This energetic town has derived its name after the village named ‘Sangla’, an eloquent place filled with scenic beauty. Since the area has lots of Tibetan influence in the surroundings as explained by me earlier, the word ‘Sangla’ too takes its origin from this Tibetan language where ‘Sang’ means light and ‘La’ means a mountain pass i.e. pass of the light.
Once you cross the beautiful mountains, you would suddenly see the emerging sunlight that is reflected in the surroundings of this enchanting place making it very surreal in its entirety. This unique treasure is also called as ‘Baspa valley’ owing to the river Baspa flowing nearby. Various majestic places in and around this impressive valley attracts numerous tourists year on year. Attractive tourist places like the Naga temple, Rackchham, Kamru fort, Kilba, and Sapni completely satiates a tourist’s penchant for footloose experiences in HP. In fact a few kilometers south of Karcham on way to the district headquarters of Rekong Peo, at Kalpa there stands a living testimony to the colonial saga of British outreach in the form of famous ‘Dalhousie cottage’ named after the famous British viceroy Lord Dalhousie who had developed a fancy for Kinnaur and built a cottage in the salubrious climes for his wife who was suffering from Tuberculosis.
The man who was responsible for initiating the infamous ‘Doctrine of lapse’ in colonial India and rubbing very many princely states on the wrong side has the credit of even egging on the commander in chief of India Sir Charles James Napier to help construct the Hindustan –Tibet road in 1850/51. This was part of Britain’s overall plan to dominate the frontier regions of this sub-continent as a countervailing force to the expansionist Czarist Russian plans to head for the warm waters of Indian ocean in the middle to early 19th /20th century that was shrouded in the ‘Great Game’ of the world. Though there is a slight misnomer in the minds of the travellers who commonly interchange the usage of term Hindustan-Tibet road with that to old NH-22.
Actually the former starts from Shimla and ends at Shipki La from the Indian side. Whereas the NH-22 starts from Ambala and has common sections with Hindustan –Tibet road from Shimla to Rampur and thereafter again merge with sections like Wangtu to Tapri, Pooh to Khab . In any case only when a motorist drives on this road does he know the differences and commonalities between these two roads that occupy much space on this section of eastern HP.
Since I was stationed along with my colleagues at Karcham on way to Rupa valley and some time to spare too, this write up is primarily a recollection of my experiences during those days of my service in the mid 1990s. It is places like these which are hidden away from the din of modernity that beckons an avid traveller to get the max out of his travel and preserve it too for posterity. Places like these as mentioned in my present write up are some of the snippets of India that need to be told in clarity to help the proverbial ‘Travel-bug’ pack both his mind and bag with factual information before he presses on the pedal of his accelerator.
(Author is a regular scribe of RK and can be approached on his email at: slalotra4729@gmail.com)
