My Spiti Saga – II

Historically, Spiti Valley has been a border area, even the name in Tibetian means ‘the middle land’, basically land between India and Tibet. Spiti has similar topography to that of Tibetian Autonomous Region and Ladakh.
I hope you enjoy this second post in my series on Spiti & get to learn more about the place.

After a healthy breakfast and packed lunch, we left for Lari Caves. At these caves primarily monks meditated. Inside the caves, there are stupas of monks who meditated here. There is also an idol for the safety of these stupas.

As we reached the base of the Caves, our guide, Durgen said ‘The climb might not be easy but let us try to enjoy it, together’ He had my heart at that moment. The climb was not easy as Durgen had mentioned, as the terrain was loose, with fine rocks and barely a path to walk on. But there was distant sound of the stream and breathtaking landscape that kept me going.

Few minutes in the walk and there was a difficult patch to cross. The path was narrow and one wrong step would mean a good fall. I crossed and few did too, I turned back and saw people struggling. I went back to help.

One person’s fear spread to the rest of the group and a few of us helped them all to walk through. But my big friend Rejo got stuck. I went to help him but he slipped. The path got lost and fine rocks started rolling, looking like a landslide. He glided down almost and luckily caught hold on a pipe. One of us helped him come up and walk it through. Now there was no path to walk on and I saw Sir approaching.

Sir tried but he got stuck in the same place where Rejo did. Sir has a bad knee. I and two others who were helping everybody till now stood there helpless. One of us went down near the pipe in case Sir glided till there too.

Padma and her friend came by, past Sir and stood with me. They were the owners of the home where we were staying and were accompanying us as they wished to do Pooja at the caves. Her friend went a bit ahead but Padma stayed with me.

Sir was still stuck and there came a suggestion for him to go back and sit there until we returned from the caves. Padma asked me what is happening, I told her that our Sir is stuck and might not be able to complete the climb.

‘No, after coming till here and missing the caves, I won’t let that happen’ she called her friend and within the next few minutes both of them took big stones from around and carved a path for Sir to walk on.

As I walked with Padma for a while, I figured she and her friend had come from this route for the first time, they had taken the route near the stream always which is steeper and had zero experience of making a path as they just did.

I was in complete awe for all three of them, Padma, her friend, and Sir. Even when Sir was stuck he didn’t think of heading back, people asked him to but he didn’t move. He always says that ‘world takes care of me’ and I saw it happening for the first time. Almost magically, he was out of a dangerous situation!

There were a few more patches ahead but we all managed to reach the Caves. We sat inside the caves as Durgen spoke about the caves, Buddhism in general and answered our queries while Padma served us all some tea and biscuits after the Pooja.

We stepped out and Sir gave us time to eat our packed lunch. After which, I picked a corner where I could only hear the stream and sat there quietly. I registered how amazing a human Padma is and tried to think if I was in her position would I ever have the heart to do so, be so kind, be so helpful. I barely knew Padma but her warmth as a person touched my soul.

Being inspired by Padma I gave in more efforts to help on the walk down. Some steep patches made it harder for people with a fear of heights and hence I carried bottles, bags, whatever to ease the walk down.

On our way to the Tabo Monastery, we saw some petra glyphs. A lot of them are being studied by researchers to understand what they tried to depict. I could only point out a few ibex and human figures.

We reached Tabo Monastery, also referred to as the ‘Ajanta of Himalayas’. The monastery is famous for murals and striking stucco sculptures. The contrast between simple mud exterior and the fabulously detailed interior is why Tabo Monastery is a must visit.

Once we were back Sir gave us time to do what we wanted for a few hours as it was very evident that Lari had exhausted everyone. I had time in hand, a village around me, I just had to go and explore. I didn’t wish to go alone as I suck at roads.

Abhishek, my junior from college agreed to come with me. He is as bad with roads but he said we will figure it out. We stepped out and I thanked him for accompanying me when even I didn’t know where I am heading.

We were walking in the village as I said Juley to a lady. She greeted back. Her name was Anju Bota, I got talking to her a bit and asked her if I could see her home. She agreed and her kid took us in. We walked into a beautiful home with colorful carpets, curtains, and beddings.

Traditionally at least in the Buddhism followed in Tabo village, girls are not given family property. And since, Anju is the only child; her husband gets the property but has to stay with her family like what we understand as ghar-jamai.

Her husband and her mother were out working. She was also working with the cattle until she came across us. She and her husband are both educated and can take up a job as well but wish to work on this family land.

After conversing and taking some adorable pictures of her kid we left. On the way back I imagined what a wonderful life Anju has, almost dreamlike. imagine living a life in a small cozy house in the mountains with your husband, kid and even your mother, oh wow! I wonder if she thought about it the same way!

As we reached our homestay, I thanked Abhishek again. I was strolling around and got talking to the owner of our homestay Amir, a civil engineer. He and his family own both homestays we were staying in and it was his brain behind the structure of them.

It was the land of his forefathers which was given to him. He divided the land part for farming and another part, especially for homestays. He had traveled and learned what hikers, trekkers, tourists wish for in a homestay or a hotel. He has tried his best to combine homestay and hotel features for a pleasant stay experience.

He then took me to their old home which was just next door where the entire family actually stays. His mother was cooking our dinner as we entered. We were a lot to be fed so some food was also being cooked here. She was happy to see me and asked for tea, I politely denied. Amir took me in to show the house.

The structure was similar to what I had just seen at Anju’s house. However, the color scheme of this wasn’t as bright and well done. It did look like they don’t really stay here. Only Amir’s mother’s room looked well kept. I saw their prayer room and it was magical. I sat there quietly for a while.

It was time for me to return to our dining area for soup and session with Sir. I told his mother that her room was pretty and the house, in general, was really beautiful. I and Amir then headed to the dining area.

The mystery of the luxury at the homestay was solved. Sir resolved other questions about everything we saw that day. After which we had dinner and a comfortable sleep. Only if I knew about what was in store next day I would have eaten more and slept earlier.