Silk Road

• Nick Middleton

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Prepared by

K.T.Prasad, PGT English

JNV, Karimnagar

About the author

• Born in 1960
• A physical geographer and a supernumerary fellow of St. Anne’s college, Oxford
• Visited 50 countries

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Nick’s books (contd..)

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• - known for popularizing geography, environmental science and travel through his writings, public speaking and as a television presenter

Nick Middleton’s journey along the Silk Road

• Experiences during his sojourn in Hor and Darchen before setting out for Mount Kailash

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Darchen entrance

Genre - Travelogue

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• A piece of writing about travel
• Detailed descriptions of writer’s perceptions and comments about attractions of places

Silk Road – The Ancient Route between Asia and Europe

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Ravu

• A small town
• Beautiful descriptions of the morning sky

E.g. loaf shaped clouds

Mountain tops with a rose-tinted blush

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Lhamo’s Parting Gift – Mark of Tibetan Hospitality

A Tibetan woman

A Tibetan in a sheepskin coat

• Lhamo, a concerned host
• A sheepskin coat offered as a parting gift
• Daniel
• Tsetan
• The narrator like a drokba (drokpa) in the sheep-skin coat

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A shortcut to Mount Kailash

• Tsetan
• Choosing to drive south-west
• A shortcut towards Mount Kailash
• High mountain passes
• Snow the only problem
• Absence of certainty

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On the way to Hor

• Leaving the rolling hills of Ravu
• Gazelles grazing in the open plains
• The kyang gang ( a herd of asses
• Galloping en masse

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On the way to Hor - Drokbas(Drokpas)

• Vast open plains now behind
• Rocky wilderness
• Drokbas seen tending their flocks
• Well-wrapped men and women
• Simple people

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• Scattered tents of the nomads
• Set up in splendid isolation
• Guarded by huge, back dogs called Tibetan mastiffs

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Dark tents in ‘splendid isolation’

Tibetan Mastiffs

• Rare breed, ferocious monsters
• Popular in Chinese royal courts
• Protect their masters and herds
• Alert all the time
• Chase the strangers
• Fearless shaggy monster
• Black dogs wearing bright red collars

• Snow capped mountains
• Entering a valley
• River clogged with ice
• Path close to the bank of the river
• Turns sharper and the ride bumpier
• Steep slopes sporting rocks daubed with orange lichen

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Ice on the trail

On the way to Hor - driving on the snow-covered trail

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• 15 metres length of road covered in snow
• Dirty trail ahead
• At a height of 5.210 metres from sea level
• The strength of the ice tested
• Icy layer difficulty to grip
• Dirt sprinkled across the frozen surface by Tsetan and his companions
• The difficulty overcome comfortable
• Tsetan, an alert driver and knowledgeable about local conditions

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At 5,400 meters

• The sun shining brightly
• At a height of 5,400 metres
• The narrator feeling uncomfortable
• Head throbbing horribly
• Gulps of water taken

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• The top of the pass at 5,500 feet
• Marked by a large cairn of rocks
• Festooned with silk scarves and ragged prayer flags
• Checking the tyres
• The fuel tank unscrewed
• Atmospheric pressure on fuel

Climbing to 5,500 metres�

Salt Lake

• Smooth journey downslope
• Headache cleared
• Lunch inside a long canvas tent
• Workcamps beside a dry salt lake
• Hive of activity

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• History and geography of Tibet
• Tibet bordered by the Tethys Ocean
• Continental collision lifted the ocean, forming Tibet
• On the salt lake men working with pick axes - trucks carrying loads of salt
• Blinding whiteness of salt lake

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The Origin of the Tibetan Salt Flats

At Hor

• Reached Hor by late afternoon
• A small town
• On the main east-west high
• Connected to the old historical trade route from Lhasa to Kashmir
• Danie’s return to Lhasa
• Punctured tyres fixed at tyre-repair shop

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Filthy Hor

• Hor, a miserable place
• No vegetation - dust and rocks
• Piles of dust everywhere
• Close to Manasarovar
• Increasing pollution

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• Holy to the Tibetans
• Stories about the birth of rivers
• Mount Kailash not far
• Hindu and Buddhist cosmology and the stories regarding the origin of rivers - the Indus, the Ganges, the Sttlez and the Brahmaputra
• Mount Kailash not far
• Fresh energy at the sight of the popular mountain

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Holy Manasarovar

Cafe, Hor – One of its kind

• Journey delayed by an hour
• Nick advised to have tea from the cafe
• The cafe, badly painted concrete structure
• Three windows broken
• Watching Manasarovar a compensation
• Served tea by a Tibetan boy in chinese military uniform
• Journey resumed half an hour later
• Rocky and dusty path

• The reactions of the celebrated travellers and Nick at seeing Manasarovar
• Different reactions of Ekai Kavaguchi in 1900 and Steven Hedin, a Swede traveller
• Nick not exhilarated by filthy Hor and polluted lake

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Legends Vs Reality

Darchen – High Altitude Sickness

• Reaching a guest house in Darchen at 10.30 p.m.
• Troubled night
• Caught cold in Hor
• Herbal tea of little use
• Nostrils blocked again
• At a height of 4.700 meters
• Oxygen thin at high altitudes
• Problems worsen

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• Worried narrator
• Exhausting journey and hunger
• Heavy chest
• Relief when sitting up
• Emergency electrical impulses preventing the narrator from falling asleep
• Sits up to get relief
• Forced to stay awake the whole night

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Caught in A Fear of Eternal Sleep

A visit to the Darchen medical college:

• Tsetan accompanying Nick to the medical college
• monastery -like medical college
• Examination by the doctor
• Absence of paraphernalia
• Diagnosis - cold and high altitude
• Assurance about completing the kora as planned
• A five-day course prescribed
• Powder and small, spherical brown pellets
• Sound sleep

• Ensures the recovery of Nick
• An alert driver
• A concerned companion
• Interesting comments on death before leaving
• Not worried about death as a Buddhist
• Death of tourists bad for business

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A representational image: Medical college at Labrang, Tibet

Tsetan – True companion, Great person:

Darchen:

-A dusty town -Days bright and clear

-The Himalayas to the south -Supplies limited to the basic things

-Simple life - relaxed and unhurried

-The tourists not arriving yet -Hectic activity when visitors start arriving

-The narrator’s arrival a trifle early

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• Nick Middleton alone in Darchen’s only cafe
• Self-consolation
• The next part of the journey delayed
• Efforts to think positive
• Self-help programme
• Pilgrims still thin
• Nick not prepared to do the kora alone
• Ice still clinging to banks of the brook near
• No English-speaking people around
• Meeting Norbu

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Lonely at Darchen:

Norbu, a Tibetan from Chinese Academy of Social Sciences

• A Tibetan in western style costumes
• Worked at Beijing at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, in the institute of Ethnic Literature
• Writing about the Kailash kora and its importance in various works of Buddhist literature
• Wanted to do kora
• Nick suggests travelling together

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-Norbu not well-equipped for the pilgrimage

-Nick’s desire to perform the kora with devout Buddhists

-Norbu not a serious Buddhist

-Curious to do the kora

-Nick’s compromise to accept Norbu as his companion

-Norbu’s light-hearted talk

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Nick’s compromise:

Conclusion

The article Silk Road describes Nick Middleton’s remarkable journey to Darchen from Ravu. He faces serious physical challenges but never gives up. He is a keen observer of nature. He gives us a beautiful description of the rose-tinted mountain tops, the nibbling gazelles, the rolling hills, the well-wrapped nomadic shepherds, the kyang, the ice-covered trails, the snow-clogged rivers, the lichen covered rocks, cairns of rocks festooned with ribbons, the plateau pockmarked with salt flats, the café constructed from badly painted concrete, the Chinese youth at the café in military uniform, the hallowed waters of the Manasarovar, the Tibetan doctor with a thick pullover and a wolly hat, the small spherical brown pellets, Darchen punctuated with heaps of rubble and refuse, the narrow brook babbling down past the guest house, chunks of dirty ice clung to the Darchen brook, walls and ceilings wreathed in sheets of multicolored plastic and many more. His love for details is exhilarating. He is a very warm, lovable, unnerving explorer who easily wins the hearts of the people around. The lesson is a beautiful and inspirational travelogue throughout .

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Acknowledgements

I have taken many images from various sources to prepare this PPT and it is difficult to enlist all of them here.Some of them are representational only. The first of my acknowledgements are due to Nick Middleton, who is symbolic of passion and thirst for discovery, a sense of adventure, respect for the unknown, and an indefatigable urge to understand ourselves and the world around us. Everyone among us has a spark of these qualities waiting to be ignited. My presentation is deemed successful if it encourages our young readers to travel, and promotes their sense observation, sharing their experiences with others and voicing their concerns for environment-friendly practices in all spheres of our life. Acknowledgements are due to all my students, and NVS RO for throwing this challenge of e-content preparation.

K T Prasad

PGT English, JNV, Karimnagar, Telangana State

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