Kargil –the hill over looking

Madugundu Krishna August 15, 2012

The past also occasionally comes to life: near Kargil, a village called Karkichu seemed to sprig at us straight from Biblical times.

Kargil, 200 km from Srinagar, is the overnight halt. It was once an important center of the trade routes between India, Russia and China, and, more recently, the scene of fierce fighting between India and Pakistan –the hill over looking the town changed hands five times in the 1965 war. Eighty km from Kargil, in the village of Garkon, lives a community of 700 people who are reputed to be the purest living descendants of the original Aryans. They grow their hair long and are said never to bathe in their entire life.

Mulbekh, 40 km from Kargil, on the road towards Leh, is another important historical landmark. It is the site of a statue of the Buddha, hewn out of the rock face and I a marvelous state of preservation, even though it probably dates back to the first century AD when Buddhist came to Ladakh. Mulbekh, in fact, divides Muslim Ladakh from Buddhist Ladakh: between Srinagar and Mulbekh the population is predominantly Muslim, while from Mulbekh to Leh the Majority is Buddhist.

From Mubekh onwards, the Buddhist influence also becomes visually more apparent. You begin to notice high cairn –like mounds with a prayer flag flutter from the top. These are chortens, sacred to the Buddhists- on them every traveler who has successfully negotiated the perils of the route lays a stone. There are also the countless mani stones- some no bigger than pebbles, others massive rock face4s –o which the ancient prayer, `Oh Jewel in the Lotus Flower’ has been lovingly carved.