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| Kaul chronicles Ladakh mountains,slopes,rivers,runnels and springs | | Travel diary of a civil servant | | M.L Kak
Early Times Report
Jammu, June 5: As a senior bureaucrat P.N.Kaul had the reputation of being a simple and honest officer..However,during my interaction with him,when he used to be the Chief Secretary of Jammu and Kashmir I had no inkling about his capacity to write a book,a huge one about 607 pages which he rightly has called Travel diary of a civil servant.
The book is "Ladakh,My Journeys Up,Down and Across" is in fact a travelogue depicting flora and fauna of Ladakh,its villages,its tehsils.The author talks about his trip to Ladakh,up,down and across,during 1952 when actually Ladakh had not witnessed economic progress and development.
Another quality that one,who has come close to kaul,has noticed is his love for trekking.The book is simply a story told about his trekking from one village to another,one t ehsil to another.The book throws light on the habits and and ideologies of the two principal communities,the Buddhists and Muslims.
In reality the Book is a chronicle of mountains, slopes,rivers,runnels,bridges and the role of the Army in safeguarding people from the Pak aggression of 1947.
The bonding between the two communities has been quite strong and Kaul gives number of incidents of conversions.Buddists embracing Islam and some Muslims adopting Buddhism.
Kaul talks of engagement between the Pakistani trtibesmen and local youth. Despite the fact that the local youth were poor equipped with arms and ammunition,their grit and wit pushed the enemy back to they had come from.Intercaste marriage had been in vogue at that time and now the Buddhists have become very cautious and careful and do not allow their women to marry Muslims because intercaste marriages had changed the demographic character of Ladakh.
Kaul has given a detailed account of various fruit grown in Ladakh and about the agriculture practices being adopted by people in Leh and Kargil districts and in other villages.During his travels Kaul had displayed his love for his religion when he obser ved two fasts,one Purnima(Raksha Bandhan) and Janam Ashtami.On Janam Ashtami Kaul had the audacity of surviving on a cup of milk and apricots when he saw the moon in the sky.He did so after fasting for the full day.
Despite being religious he never believed in sharing food prepared by members of another community.Being a senior officer he could have visited Ladakh and its villages in an Army vehicle.But he travelled a foot and at times hired a pony.
In the book one gets the idea of heights of various villages,mountains and mountain roads and about the trade link that had existed between Tibet and Ladakh or between Ladakh and Xinxiang province of China.
Since in 1952 the import export routes still were operative Kaul has given details of items that people in Ladakh imported from Tibet and list of items that people from Ladakh exported to Tibet and central Asian provinces.
The book paints people,irrespective of their castes or community,as simple and innocent.That is something else if these simple people patronized polygamy.Kaul has given instances where women, before their marriage,had given birth to a baby or a couple of babies.This meant that adultery was also in vogue in some villages.
In short the Book is a walking dictionary on villages, their mountains, runnels, rivers, slopes and springs that dot Ladakh, usually called the land of Lamas. Those who have no idea about Ladakh,its flora and fauna,need to read this book by Kaul. |
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