Gurodongmar Revisited: April 2011

 

20 April 2011: Exactly 9 years and 5 days later I had another opportunity to go back to Gurudongmar. This time I was not alone but was accompanied by Sipra, my wife, to whom I had promised that someday I would take her to see the Gurudongmar Lake - one of the most scenic places that I had visited across the world. 

To begin with, there were dramatic, and at times drastic, changes in the experience this time around. A hundred or more tour operators were at hand to take us to the Gurudongmar Lake, which had by now become a well known and much sought after tourist destination in just a few years. SUVs of every make – Qualis, Toyota Innovas, Scorpios, Boleros and even the by comparison humbler Sumo – were all available for the trip along the mountains. Travel arrangements were far easier and smoother. All it took for my once-colleague, Mr Arup Chattopadhyay, then heading the Gangtok Branch of Axis Bank, to make some phone calls and everything – the permits, the car, the driver – was in place. All we needed to do was to start from Gangtok on 19 April early in the morning as usual and reach Lachen by early afternoon. There were plenty of roadside eateries, so stopping for lunch en route or for a cuppa was not a problem.

Lachen was a  scene  unbelievable! In  less  than 10  years it  had  grown – rather over-grown – into a bustling crowded “ganj”. Hotels, several storeys high and too many to count, had sprouted everywhere and with teeming crowds vying with many vehicles Lachen was at best rather noisy and not too clean. Where was the pristine, “one-with-nature” Lachen that I had left behind the last time? If “development” continued unabated at such a rapid pace, a disaster would be just waiting to happen!

Fortunately, the road beyond Lachen had not changed much but for some more “restaurants” along the way. Beyond Tsangu the cold desert plateau remained as beautiful as it was before and quite desolate. The mine-fields were still around ( although I do not remember the barbed-wire fencings – Sipra says they were very much there) and there were bunkers everywhere from the ground level to the middle-mountain tops. Obviously there had been concerted defence fortifications and understandably so with China only 5 kms away and tensions between the two countries escalating every now and then.

The lakeside itself at Gurudongmar had many, many tourists and at least 20/25 vehicles.  But  the  place is  fairly large  and  fortunately  there were  not any noisy  people  around ( perhaps a direct effect of the rarified atmosphere and lack of oxygen at 17,200 feet), so the beauty and the serenity of the place was not affected. The Lake and its surrounding mountains remained as pristine and beautiful as ever and the Temple had many more visitors. I fondly remembered the last time and missed the hot tea no more on offer this time around!

The Lake was not as frozen as it was during my last visit – the ice cover at its fringes had melted so that a rim of clear bluish water all around the Lake was quite visible. There seemed to be less of snow on the mountains too and the patch of barren brown at the foot of the mountains was much bigger in size. A comparison of the photos taken this time with those taken in 2002 would also reveal the larger expanse of brown. The water level also appeared lower than the last time. Or was I imagining this!  Lesser snowfall in  winter?  Lower water levels?  Global warming? I did not know the answer.

The majestic beauty of the Gurudongmar Lake and the mountains surrounding it was as magnificent as it was mind-blowing. Sipra was ecstatic and I even more so for being able to show the Lake off to her and to share with her this joy of seeing something truly wonderful. I also realized that 9 years is quite a long time to quietly eat away at your ability to withstand nature’s onslaughts! And a sedentary, city-based lifestyle only made matters worse. Soon we were both having some, albeit minor, difficulties in breathing and both of us felt a faint headache creeping up. Well, that was the signal to go back to where we belonged! With a few more longing looks and locking in beautiful memories in our mind, we began our return journey; with mixed feelings – happy and elated at this beautiful experience and rather sad, too, knowing we may not be back again.

It would have been in order to end this write-up here …. BUT…..

At just a few minutes past 6 pm on 18 September 2011, only 5 months after our visit, most of Sikkim and parts of  North Bengal were hit by a mammoth earthquake ( 6.9 Mw ) with Mangan as its epicenter. The earthquake wreaked havoc and brought forth massive destruction in the areas of Mangan, Chungthang, Dzongu, Lachen, etc., and caused loss of at least 111 lives. The road to Lachen was totally destroyed and Mangan remained in total ruins.  Thus Lachen and hence Gurudongmar remained cut-off from the rest of the world for several months. Thanks to the extremely defence-sensitive nature of these areas / places, roads were restored in record time and Gurudongmar was once again accessible to tourists by March/April 2012.  But again on 18 September 2012, at 5.55 pm,  as if to commemorate an anniversary, there was another medium scale (4.1Mw) earthquake near Chungthang. The resulting destruction and landslides once again cut off Chungthang and Lachen from access for quite some time. Intermittent  mini earthquakes do occur and despite expeditious restoration of roads, these are but a grim reminder for us NOT to fool around with nature in the name of development!