The Silk Route or Silk Road refers to a network of ancient trade routes connecting Asia, Europe and Africa. Extending more than 6,500 kms, the Silk Route was majorly used to transport Chinese Silk to Europe through Central Asia from 2nd Century BC. Silk Route’s greatest contribution to world history was not mere trading of few commodities but exchange of ideas, art and science between Asia, Europe and Africa. It was the world’s first information superhighway. Greek art from Europe flowed into India whereas Buddhism from India reached out to the world through the Silk Route. Chinese travelers like Fa Hein (Faxian), Hiuen Tsang (Xuanxang) and others visited India through these ancient routes and Marco Polo witnessed the grandeur of the Chinese civilization while traveling through the Silk Route. The Arabs took the knowledge of mathematics and medicine from India and China and worked on it to bring up new sciences like Algebra, which were adopted by Europe in due course. Obscure cities like Lhasa became the seat of religious power and emerged as one of the finest cities in the remotest corners of the Himalayas. The advent of Silk Route is one the most remarkable events in world history. Almost all Ancient Trade routes across Asia and Europe merged with the Silk Route at some point and the whole network of trade routes became the world’s first international cultural phenomenon.
The Silk Route in Sikkim is an offshoot of an ancient trade route which came from Lhasa, crossing Chumbi Valley and passed through Nathula Pass and finally took the port of Tamralipta (present Tamluk in West Bengal). From Tamluk, this trade route took to the sea and reached Sri Lanka, Bali, Java and other parts of the Far East. We find the mention of Tamralipta as a busy sea-route on Bay of Bengal in Fa Hein’s accounts as early as 400 AD. This portion of the Old Silk Route through Bhutan, East Sikkim and West Bengal was quite less travelled but is expected to have been discovered by traders as early as First Century AD. Most popularly termed as the South West Silk Route, this is one of the most ancient parts of the route which connected the Yunan Province of China to Tibet and finally to India and as far as Afghanistan. Interestingly, silk was not the most treasured item traded in this part of the route – it was horses and tea, so the Chinese often referred this route as Dianzang Chama Gudao (ancient road of tea and horses between Yunnan, Tibet and India). Other important items traded in this route were sugar, salt, copper and cotton and unlike its counterparts in Central Asia, the caravans in this part of the South West Silk Route comprised horse caravans and not the Bactrian camel caravans. A section of the South West Silk Route crossed Lhasa and entered India through Nathu La from China whereas another section of the route crossed Burma (present Myanmar) and entered India through Assam (Kamrup) further to the sea ports of Bengal and present Bangladesh. During recent times, this part of South West Silk Route through Nathu La was mostly operated by the Lhasa Newars for the last 400 years. The Lhasa Newars were influential expatriate traders from Kathmandu Valley who traded in Tibet for centuries. They traded between Tibet, Nepal and Gangetic plains of Eastern India over the Silk Road, and were a major cultural and economic bridge between Central Asia and South Asia. The Lhasa Newars rode their caravans over the Nathu La and Jelep La passes which were approached from Kalimpong in West Bengal and Gangtok in Sikkim. The Lhasa Newar trading ended after Nathu La was shut down by the Sino-Indian War in 1962.
Much of the modern history of the South West Silk Route through Sikkim would remain unfinished without the mention of Sir Francis Edward Younghusband – the famous British Explorer and Army officer. In 1904, Major Francis Younghusband led a successful mission through Nathu La to capture Lhasa. He travelled through much of present North Sikkim and East Sikkim’s Silk Route corridor to enter Tibet with his troops.
Note: Generally tourists do not get permission to complete the round from Nathula and enter Old Silk Route. But probably they will allow if you are with your own vehicle. But it again depends.
There is something about high altitude lakes. You climb up the mountains, struggle through the hairpin bends and at the end you will greeted by a gleam of water body, a brilliant spectacle indeed. The Silk Route tour has several such high altitude beautiful lakes. And the very first lake anyone would see is Memencho Lake / Menmecho Lake (If following our route).
This lake is on the way to Jelep La Pass and is the source of river Rangpo Chu (Chu means river in local language). This is a very holy lake to localities and is famous for its Trout and has a large fish farm. It was earlier opened for tourists. But as usual, wherever tourist has gone, the place got devastated with all kind of social and environmental hazards. Same happened in this place as well where a group of tourist killed some of the fishes by throwing stones and thus it is closed to tourists years back. How cruel a creature can be is something we should learn from Human only. Thanks to the decision as at least some fish could survive in there arena J.
Being on the same state many times, I was guiding my team to all scenic beauty. So, we stopped to take pictures of the lake.
 |
| Memencho / Menmecho Lake |
 |
| Extreme enjoying view of the holy Memencho Lake |
The weather was not at all good and it was drizzling. So, I could not show my team the Jelep La Pass and army bunker’s on them, which we saw in 2012 visit. Jelep La pass is at an altitude of 13,999 ft. connecting Lhasa in Tibet to India. Jelep-La is Tibetan name which means ‘The Lovely Level Pass’. The pass was closed after the Sino-Indian War in 1962. Nathu-La pass was also closed after 1962 war but reopened again on July 6, 2006. There is plan to reopen Jelep-La which could result in an economic boom for the region.
We started moving again and reached Kupup village. Very few families stay there and they came to see us. One little boy, was so much excited seeing Indian National Flag hoisted on my black beauty. I had extra pairs and Ankan gifted him one. He was too happy to get it J
 |
| @ Kupup Village, The last habitat of Indo - China border |
 |
| Ankan giving our National Flag to a local excited Boy |
We enjoyed some snacks and gossiped with locals and left. After few meters we were in front of the highest golf course of the world, ‘Yak Golf Course’. This 18-hole golf course, affiliated to Indian Golf Union since 1985 nestles at an altitude of 13,025 feet from the sea level and has been included in Guinness Book of World Records. We took snaps and proceed further …
 |
| @ The Highest Golf Course of the World, Yak Golf Course |
 |
| @ The Highest Golf Course of the World, Yak Golf Course |
 |
| @ The Highest Golf Course of the World, Yak Golf Course |
Next halt was just after few meters at Kupup Lake or Elephant Lake. This lake is at an altitude of 13,066 ft. It looks like an elephant from top and thus named as Elephant Lake.
 |
| @ Kupup Lake / Elephant Lake |
 |
| Extreme enjoying beauty of Elephant Lake @ 13000 ft |
As soon as we started moving suddenly road was again engulfed in fog and started raining heavily. We started wearing our raincoat and some of us got wet already. By that time one tourist vehicle stopped and a lady at his 40’s came down to take pictures with us. Now, as per my plan we are about to go through Tukla valley towards Gnathang / Nathang.
 |
| Getting Congratulated by a group of tourist on the way to Gnathang |
Tukla Valley is located at an altitude of around 12500 ft. above sea level. Tukla Valley offers a majestic panoramic view of Mt. Kanchendzonga and its allied peaks. There is also a war memorial built in memory of the British soldiers who fell at the Battle of Tukla. From this memorial we can either go towards the Old Baba Mandir / Temple or towards Gnathang. Weather was totally odd and we decided to go ahead towards Gnathang / Nathang. There are two roads one is too steep and the other is through which tourists vehicle goes. Without having any idea we entered through the steep road.
After driving few meters we stopped as our tyres were skidding. We enquired with a army personnel and he suggested to continue as Nathang is only 3 kms ahead of us. I could remember watching a steep road from our homestay at Gnathang in last visit but never imagined it could be so tough. In addition Pratap’s, Ankan’s and mine’s companion are behaving horribly. We kept our faith on our companions and soon reached Nathang valley.
Nathang Valley is located at an altitude of 13,500 ft. this lush valley was the home to traditional yak herders who came from Tibet. Few streams crisscross the valley, and prayer flags flutter on the mountain edges on this vast plain of nothingness. Nathang Valley appears in different colours in different times of the year. There is a monastery, a temple and a small bridge over a small stream in the distance dotting the valley.
If you are eager to see all these images, please check my facebook profile (arupcbz). I stopped to check for stay. But Swarna requested me to go ahead further. No one of us got time to take snap. I couldn’t see anything to find my old memories with better half and show to my team due to bad weather. It was 4 pm and we started moving again through rain and fog.
I could remember staying in Old Silk Route, somewhere in between, when I came here through Jupiter Travels Kolkata. I have informed earlier them to check for accommodation there and they confirmed they will do it for me. I was leading team and suddenly hailstorm started. Not sure how other members are thinking about me, but I was enjoying, driving through hailstorm first time in life, at ultimate level. After driving for 30 minutes we finally reached that place. I enquired with the well-known owner of the homestay and came to know that our room is already booked.
I will not mention the name of this place as I would prefer to keep this place as beautiful as it was and is. But must mention that this place is a paradise for birds. From my last experience I could remember watching Munal (national bird of Nepal) on the road itself. It was 5:30 pm and we were shivering. We parked our motorcycle infront of a waterfall, covered with plastic and entered into the homestay.
 |
| World of Cloud |
 |
| Me, enjoying the cloud world |
 |
| Being stopped by a herd of Yak |
We just spend 4 hrs sitting on the kitchen, gossiping among ourselves and enjoying music on Swarna’s home theater. During that time we found another family, an economist and his better half, from our city. They also got indulged with us and it was a great time. He does private tuition as well in Kolkata and spends the earning roaming around. I like it J.
We woke up very early next morning and found …
It was 8 am and time to leave for plains. It was my dream to ride through the Old Silk Route and now is the time. We all packed our luggage and left after paying all hotel dues. It was another fantastic experience driving through twists and turns …
 |
| Old Silk Route |
 |
| Old Silk Route towards Zuluk |
 |
| Swarnadip with his Blue Bird |
 |
| Zuluk from Old Silk Route |
 |
| Extreme watching Zuluk from Old Silk Route |
We drove too well and reached Phadamchen Police Chekpost around 1 pm.
As we drove fast and came down from 3 deg. temp. to almost 20 deg. temp. within 4 hours. Pratap started feeling unwell. We took a halt for 15 mins. And started towards Silligury.
 |
| Teesta River |
 |
| Ankan with Angry Bird |
 |
| Swarnadip, Biranchi, Abhijit |
 |
| Land of Peace |
Our plan was to have lunch at Teesta Bazar but there was a huge traffic. We decided to go ahead and finally had our lunch around 5 pm after crossing Silligury. Again it started raining. Once it stopped we went ahead further. It took time to drive as in between we had to pour petrol as well on our motorcycle’s. Finally we decided to stay at Raiganj after crossing 4 hours traffic at Purnia crossing. We went ahead directly to hotel Vinayak as recommended by my manager, Arnab da, being a localite. We stayed there and left next day morning around 9:30 am.
The last day was horrible to drive through the hot and humid weather. We could not even drink water from our bottle as it was too hot due to heat wave. We were feeling too tired as we came down from 13,000 ft. with 2-3 deg. temp. to 40 deg. temp within a day. I could remember taking a halt before Berhampore for having water, which later found as dirty. We took rest behind a truck and left without having a single drop of drinking water. After lunch at Malda, we finally took halt at Krishnanagar. We had snacks and packed some sweets for home. We left for next halt at Fulia. We bid Swarna and Ankan and left for Kolkata. Finally we all reached home safely after an epic and successful ride on motorcycle to Sandakphu – Nathula – Old Silk Route, creating history as first motorcycle / bike club to reach Sandakphu, leaving our footprints and taking memories only with us J
Request everyone going through these details, please stop polluting environment, throwing plastic and garbage everywhere. This will create a healthy environment and we all could cherish the same nature even after 20 years.
Photo Courtsey: Arup, Swarnadip, Ankan, Sanjoy, Abhijit, Pratap
Photo Selection & Editing: Atreyi (my better half)
Please visit the following weblink for all those trips which i managed to write up
2 comments:
Post a Comment