Journey to the Highest Peak

Nakchungla pass

“LA THONG SA GANG GE CHI THO KHA, GANG KEAI PAY KHAWA CHAG NU LU…..” Regardless of it being one of the popular songs of nineties. It sounded not more than like a howling of the solitary jackal under a bright full moon struggling to find a mate while we sang on the peak of Nakchungla. With up climb of every foot step, pace of my heartbeat increased proportionately making me difficult to breath.

Seeing for the first time, the beauty of Himalayan scree is indescribable with my limited vocabulary.  Huge boulders stacked over each other, enriched with crimson blooming drenched by fleck of snow harbored beneath respectfully bowing Rhododendron trees, depict the impressive atmosphere of Nakchungla pass located at 4100 m altitude.

Merak village

Blooming of Rhododendron

A half a decade back, journeying Merak was considered to be physically exhausting but an explorative trip for an enthusiastic nature lover. Walking via ancient trial under the canopy of cool broadleaf forest, a traveler will be privileged to encounter with a gardens of blooming Rhododendron and a typically beautiful flowering of Michelia trees exhaling a pleasant aroma. Perching over lush green trees, the flying feather welcomes the traveler with the melodies song sung by the flying flocks. But lately with construction of approach farm road, commuters opt to travel by the vehicle that shortens the journey by more than six hours. Charm of travelling is changed with limited opportunity to interact with the nature and traveler seems to be psychologically exhausted with the construction of the Merak farm road.

Signage

With constant two to three hours drive from the Phongmey, traveler will reach to road end point approaching to Merak. For first time visitors signage like “Entering to the Big Foot valley” pinned over the standing Cypress trees with gentle dropping leaves hold their breath for a moment, curiously trying to extract exact message form board.  Literally, big foot is associated   with the legend of mythical creature (Yeti) known to be dwelling in and around the hills of Merak.

Culture

Ethnically the inhabitants of Merak are more likely with the tribes of neighboring Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh and a trace of autonomous region of the Tibet.  Draped in a thick red or black woolen cloths resembling a skirt and a pent stitched from unprocessed hide of animals with a mini sword entangled over their waist and a peculiar black woolen cap over their head represents the formal male costume. But it’s not uncommon to see people wearing an unrefined hide of ungulates resembling a halve-sleeved coat during the informal hours. Decorated with the bulky precious stones in the form of necklace with a red apple colored cheeks and a cascading hair seldom plated represent the culture of the female. They wear cloth of mixed colored woven from the wools and a same cap of the gents to protect from the cold and rains respectively. 

Located at 3500 m altitude, winter season is very harsh with blanket of snow cover for most of the times with difficulty to travel and survive because of cold. Livestock migration towards lower altitude before the onset of the winter season is unavoidable due to extreme weather condition. From the centuries, “Brokpas” indigenous inhabitants of Merak were nomads and the tradition is still surviving with no much changes. Their nomadic life style can be attributed to extremely harsh weather conditions that hardly allow any agriculture crops to survive.

Jomo Kungkhor

Ama Jomo, an extraordinary lady from the Tibet is believed to be settled at the premises of Merak during an ancient time and these days, she is being worshiped as a protective local deity by the inhabitants. Present days the shrines of Ama Jomo in the form of impressions over the stones is seen spreading throughout valley in spite of her palace on the peak of Jomo Kungkhor at more than 4500 m altitude facing Merak.

For the first time visitor before crossing any passes of the peak on the way to the village, every visitor has to sing at least a song, so as to honor and please Ama Jomo. This tradition has been in practice since a time of their forefathers and believe to bring misfortune to the locality incase the new visitor enter without singing. Maintaining hygiene could be one of the issues when it comes to nomadic life style but Brokpas really concerns about the cleanliness of their hearth since it is believed to bring misfortune on dirtying of it.     

Practice of polyandry in terms of marriage is not uncommon in order to meet the demand of manpower to lead the nomadic lifestyle. “Bropka Yoeshay” a fermented cheese those are stored in an air tight leather pouch for several months are well know cheese across the nation and considered as the delicacy of the Brokpas.

On visiting the temple and monasteries along the villages, one will sight at least a portrait of H.H. Dalia Lama inside it unlike monasteries around other parts of the nation. It symbolizes the practice of Gyelokpa a branch of the Buddhism that is strongly practiced in Tibet. Culture and tradition is a sort of an identity chain that links us to our forefathers who have inherited from their ancestors. It is certain that culture and a tradition are being developed with convenience to the locality and it differs from one locality to another and they owe to be respected. So do here in Brokpas community instead of burning/cremation, they tend to slice body of death ones and throw in the river which sound little bit uneasy for the first time visitor.  

Mode of transportation

Their livestock comprises of Yak, Sheep, local cattle, Zoe and Zom and horses up to certain extend. Zoe and Zom are a typical hybrid of Yak and local cattle which bear less fur than the yak more than the cattle and fairly looks like a yak. “Kyoe”  the second generation of Zoe and Zom are slaughtered when they attend the age of not more than several weeks as they are considered to be unproductive.  This hybrid shows typical characters whereby they don’t entertain milking if their calves are not slaughtered and tend to become too aggressive. Regardless of horses people out here uses yak and cattle as a mode of transportation. 

Approximately, more than 3 hours uphill climb from Merak and six to seven hours from Sakteng,   Nakchung-la is unavoidable and one of the highest passes between the two settlements.  Coated with snow and fueled by   unpleasantly cold gusty atmosphere, the peak is renowned for its difficulty in crossing both by travelers and animal/pony without getting totally exhausted.  According to the oral history, people of Sakteng and Merak are said to be originated from the subordinates/ followers of Ama Jomo partitioned by Nakchung-la on their journey towards Merak. It’s believed that she was accompanied by a group of people on her way from Tibet in search of beautiful and peaceful place to reside. A huge group was known to consist of mixture of wealthy, healthy, poor and a weak people and livestock. When the expedition team reached to place called Lhondrojong (direct translation : returning place)  which is located few hours down the base of the peak of Nakchungla towards Sakteng, Amo Jomo envisioned that weak people won’t be able to cross it. Relating to those incidents at present; inhabitants of Sakteng are considered as little poor, weak and naïve comparative to Merak since they are believed to be the descendents of those weak and poor people of Ama Jomo’s expedition team returned from Lhondrojong and settled at Sakteng. But it’s all on account of oral history, which requires further validation. Both culturally and traditionally, native inhabitants of Merak and Sakteng are identical apart from insignificant difference in their accent of speaking.

Walking over a melting snow

Draped in a green uniform with ruck sack on my back and a handy cannon camera hanging over my neck supported by magnum boot and a bucket cap to protect from scorching heavenly eyes, enthusiastically we started our loop trail journey in early hours of the day break from the Merak; though actual loop starts from Khardung near Phongmey village.   

On progressive climbing of Nakchungla from its base, with every footstep, I could see the fading bird’s eye view of clustered settlement of Merak. With fading view my breathing shortened proportionately followed by bit of giddiness.   By then, we were on the mid of the peak from where it was vividly visible with a snow sparking over it. Zeal to climb didn’t subside in me and continued our journey over melting snow with sweets in my mouth to avoid catching from altitude sickness.                                  

At last, after more than three hours constant uphill walking through woodland, scorching sun and a melting snow, we could reach Nachungla pass whereby we sang a song to keep their tradition alive with our precious and limited energy left in us. Though fully exhausted, I could feel and notice the sense of satisfaction and joy among our team while enjoying the fresh air of Nakchungla.