SERIES: HIMALAYAN JOURNALS by Joseph Dalton Hooker – Episode 34 Vol II
Posted by barunroy on October 18, 2009
THIS SERIES WAS MADE POSSIBLE THROUGH THE CONTRIBUTION OF ABDUL KALAM EZANI
THE HIMALAYAN BEACON [BEACON ONLINE] EXCLUSIVE
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS
JOSEPH DALTON HOOKER, M.D., R.N., F.R.S.
Volume II
ARRANGEMENTS FOR SECOND JOURNEY INTO SIKKIM– Opposition of Dewan
After my return from the Terai, I was occupied during the month of April in preparations for an expedition to the loftier parts of Sikkim. The arrangements were the same as for my former journey, except with regard to food, which it was necessary should be sent out to me at intervals; for we had had ample proof that the resources of the country were not equal to provisioning a party of from forty to fifty men, even had the Dewan been favourable to my travelling, which was clearly not the case.
Dr. Campbell communicated to the Rajah my intention of starting early in May for the upper Teesta valley, and, in the Governor-General’s name, requested that he would facilitate my visiting the frontier of Sikkim, north-east of Kinchinjunga. The desired permission was, after a little delay, received; which appeared to rouse the Dewan to institute a series of obstructions to my progress, which caused so many delays that my exploration of the country was not concluded till October, and I was prevented returning to Dorjiling before the following Christmas.
Since our visit to the Rajah in December, no Vakeel (agent) had been sent by the Durbar to Dorjiling, and consequently we could only communicate indirectly with his Highness, while we found it impossible to ascertain the truth of various reports promulgated by the Dewan, and meant to deter me from entering the country. In April, the Lassoo Kajee was sent as Vakeel, but, having on a previous occasion been dismissed for insolence and incapacity, and again rejected when proposed by the Dewan at Bhomsong, he was refused an audience; and he encamped at the bottom of the Great Rungeet valley, where he lost some of his party through fever. He retired into Sikkim, exasperated, pretending that he had orders to delay my starting, in consequence of the death of the heir apparent; and that he was prepared to use strong measures should I cross the frontier.
No notice was taken of these threats: the Rajah was again informed of my intended departure, unless his own orders to the contrary were received through a proper accredited agent, and I left Dorjiling on the 3rd of May, accompanied by Dr. Campbell, who insisted on seeing me fairly over the frontier at the Great Rungeet river.
Arrangements were made for supplies of rice following me by instalments; our daily consumption being 80 lbs., a man’s load. After crossing into Sikkim, I mustered my party at the Great Rungeet river. I had forty-two in all, of whom the majority were young Lepchas, or Sikkim-born people of Tibetan races: all were active and cheerful looking follows; only one was goitred, and he had been a salt-trader. I was accompanied by a guard of five Sepoys, and had a Lepcha and Tibetan interpreter. I took but one personal servant, a Portuguese half-caste (John Hoffman by name), who cooked for me: he was a native of Calcutta, and though hardy, patient, and long-suffering, and far better-tempered, was, in other respects, very inferior to Clamanze, who had been my servant the previous year, and who, having been bred to the sea, was as handy as he was clever; but who, like all other natives of the plains, grew intolerably weary of the hills, and left me.
LEGEND OF FLOOD
The first part of my route lay over Tendong, a very fine mountain, which rises 8,613 feet, and is a conspicuous feature from Dorjiling, where it is known as Mount Ararat. The Lepchas have a curious legend of a man and woman having saved themselves on its summit, during a flood that once deluged Sikkim. The coincidence of this story with the English name of Ararat suggests the probability of the legend being fabulous; but I am positively assured that it is not so, but that it was current amongst the Lepchas before its English name was heard of, and that the latter was suggested from the peculiar form of its summit resembling that given in children’s books as the resting-place of the ark.
The ascent from the Great Rungeet (alt. 818 feet) is through dry woods of Sal and Pines (_P. longifolia_). I camped the first night at the village of Mikk (alt. 3,900 feet), and on the following day ascended to Namtchi (alt. 5,600 feet).
LASSOO KAJEE
On the route I was met by the Lama of Silokfoke Goompa. Though a sident on the Lassoo Kajee’s estates, he politely brought me a present, at the same time apologising for not waiting till I had encamped, owing to his excessive fat, which prevented his climbing. I accepted his excuses, though well aware that his real reason was that he wished to pay his respects, and show his good feeling, in private. Besides his ordinary canonicals, he carried a tall crozier-headed staff, and had a curious horn slung round his neck, full of amulets; it was short, of a transparent red colour, and beautifully carved, and was that of the small cow of Lhassa, which resembles the English species, and is not a yak (it is called “Tundro”).
NAMTCHI
Namtchi was once a place of considerable importance; and still possesses a mendong, with six rows of inscribed slabs; a temple, and a Lama attached thereto: the latter waited on me soon after I had encamped, but he brought no present, and I was not long kept in suspense as to his motives. These people are poor dissemblers; if they intend to obstruct, they do it clumsily and hesitatingly: in this instance the Lama first made up to my people, and, being coolly received, kept gradually edging up to my tent-door, where, after an awkward salute, he delivered himself with a very bad grace of his mission, which was from the Lassoo Kajee to stop my progress. I told him I knew nothing of the Lassoo Kajee or his orders, and should proceed on the following morning: he then urged the bad state of the roads, and advised me to wait two days till he should receive orders from the Rajah; upon which I dismissed him.
Soon afterwards, as I sat at my tent-door, looking along the narrow bushy ridge that winds up the mountain, I saw twenty or thirty men rapidly descending the rocky path: they were Lepchas, with blue and white striped garments, bows and quivers, and with their long knives gleaming in the sun: they seemed to be following a figure in red Lama costume, with a scarlet silk handkerchief wound round his head, its ends streaming behind him. Though expecting this apparition to prove the renowned Kajee and his myrmidons, coming to put a sudden termination to my progress, I could not help admiring the exceeding picturesqueness of the scenery and party. My fears were soon dissipated by my men joyfully shouting, “The Tchebu Lama! the Tchebu Lama!” and I soon recognised the rosy face and twinkling eyes of my friend of Bhomsong, the only man of intelligence about the Rajah’s court, and the one whose services as Vakeel were particularly wanted at Dorjiling.
He told me that the Lassoo Kajee had orders (from whom, he would not say) to stop my progress, but that I should proceed nevertheless, and that there was no objection to my doing so; and he despatched a messenger to the Rajah, announcing my progress, and requesting him to send me a guide, and to grant me every facility, asserting that he had all along fully intended doing so.
TENDONG
On the following morning the Lama proceeded to Dorjiling, and I continued the ascent of Tendong, sending my men round the shoulder to Temi in the Teesta valley, where I proposed to pass the night. The road rapidly ascends by a narrow winding path, covered with a loose forest of oaks, rhododendrons, and various shrubs, not found at equal elevations on the wetter Dorjiling ranges: amongst, them the beautiful laburnum-like _Piptanthus Nepalensis,_ with golden blossoms, was conspicuous. Enormous blocks of white and red stratified quartz, and slate, some 20 and even 40 yards long, rest on the narrow ridge at 7000 feet elevation. The last ascent is up a steep rounded cone with a broad flat top, covered with dwarf bamboo, a few oaks, laurels, magnolias, and white-flowered rhododendron trees (_R. argenteum_), which obstructed the view. I hung the barometers near one of the many chaits on the summit, where there is also a rude temple, in which worship is performed once a year. The elevation is 8,671 feet by my observations.* [8,663 by Col. Waugh's trigonometrical observations.] The geological formation of Tendong in some measure accounts for its peculiar form. On the conical summit are hard quartzoze porphyries, which have apparently forced up the gneiss and slates, which dip in all directions from the top, and are full of injected veins of quartz. Below 7000 feet, mica-schist prevails, always inclined at a very high angle; and I found jasper near Namtchi, with other indications of Plutonic action.
The descent on the north side was steep, through a rank vegetation, very different from that of the south face. The oaks are very grand, and I measured one (whose trunk was decayed, and split into three, however), which I found to be 49 feet in girth at 5 feet from the ground. Near Temi (alt. 4,770 feet) I gathered the fruit of _Kadsura,_ a climbing plant allied to Magnolia, bearing round heads of large fleshy red drupes, which are pleasantly acid and much eaten; the seeds are very aromatic.
From Temi the road descends to the Teesta, the course of which it afterwards follows. The valley was fearfully hot, and infested with mosquitos and peepsas. Many fine plants grew in it:* [Especially upon the broad terraces of gravel, some of which are upwards of a mile long, and 200 feet above the stream: they are covered with boulders of rock, and are generally opposite feeders of the river.]
I especially noticed _Aristolochia saccata,_ which climbs the loftiest trees, bearing its curious pitcher-shaped flowers near the ground only; its leaves are said to be good food for cattle. _Houttuynia,_ a curious herb allied to pepper, grew on the banks, which, from the profusion of its white flowers, resembled strawberry-beds; the leaves are eaten by the Lepchas. But the most magnificent plant of these jungles is _Hodgsonia,_ (a genus I have dedicated to my friend, Mr. Hodgson), a gigantic climber allied to the gourd, bearing immense yellowish-white pendulous blossoms, whose petals have a fringe of buff-coloured curling threads, several inches long. The fruit is of a rich brown, like a small melon in form, and contains six large nuts, whose kernels (called “Katior-pot” by the Lepchas) are eaten. The stem, when cut, discharges water profusely from whichever end is held downwards. The “Took” (_Hydnocarpus_) is a beautiful evergreen tree, with tufts of yellow blossoms on the trunk: its fruit is as large as an orange, and is used to poison fish, while from the seeds an oil is expressed. Tropical oaks and Terminalias are the giants of these low forests, the latter especially, having buttressed trunks, appear truly gigantic; one, of a kind called ”Sung-lok,” measured 47 feet in girth, at 5 feet, and 21 at 15 feet from the ground, and was fully 200 feet high. I could only procure the leaves by firing a ball into the crown. Some of their trunks lay smouldering on the ground, emitting a curious smell from the mineral matter in their ashes, of whose constituents an account will be found in the Appendix.
Birds are very rare, as is all animal life but insects, and a small fresh-water crab, _Thelphusa,_ (”Ti-hi” of the Lepchas). Shells, from the absence of lime, are extremely scarce, and I scarcely picked up a single specimen: the most common are species of _Cyclostoma._ The rains commenced on the 10th of May, greatly increasing the discomforts of travelling, but moderating the heat by drenching thunder-storms, which so soaked the men’s loads, that I was obliged to halt a day in the Teesta valley to have waterproof covers made of platted bamboo-work, enclosing Phrynium leaves. I was delighted to find that my little tent was impervious to water, though its thickness was but of one layer of blanket: it was a single ridge with two poles, 7 feet high, 8 feet long, and 8 feet broad at the base, forming nearly an equilateral triangle in front.
Bhomsong was looking more beautiful than ever in its rich summer clothing of tropical foliage. I halted during an hour of heavy rain on the spot where I had spent the previous Christmas, and could not help feeling doubly lonely in a place where every rock and tree reminded me of that pleasant time. The isolation of my position, the hostility of the Dewan, and consequent uncertainty of the success of a journey that absorbed all my thoughts, the prevalence of fevers in the valleys I was traversing, and the many difficulties that beset my path, all crowded on the imagination when fevered by exertion and depressed by gloomy weather, and my spirits involuntarily sank as I counted the many miles and months intervening between me and my home.
The little flat on which I had formerly encamped was now covered with a bright green crop of young rice. The house then occupied by the Dewan was now empty and unroofed; but the suspension bridge had been repaired, and its light framework of canes, spanning the boiling flood of the Teesta, formed a graceful object in this most beautiful landscape. The temperature of the river was 58 degrees, only 7 degrees above that of mid-winter, owing to the now melting snows.
I had rather expected to meet either with a guide, or with some further obstruction here, but as none appeared, I proceeded onwards as soon as the weather moderated. Higher up, the scenery resembles that of Tchintam on the Tambur: the banks are so steep as to allow of no road, and the path ascends from the river, at 1000 feet, to Lathiang village, at 4,800 feet, up a wild, rocky torrent that descends from Mainom to the Teesta.
The cliffs here are covered with wild plantains and screw-pines (_Pandanus_), 50 feet high, that clasp the rocks with cable-like roots, and bear one or two crowns of drooping leaves, 5 feet long: two palms, Rattan (_Calamus_) and _Areca gracilis,_ penetrate thus far up the Teesta valley, but are scarcely found further. From the village the view was superb, embracing the tropical gulley below, with the flat of Bhomsong deep down in the gorge, its bright rice-fields gleaming like emeralds amid the dark vegetation that surrounded it; the Teesta winding to the southward, the pine-clad rocky top of Mainom, 10,613 feet high, to the south-west, the cone of Mount Ararat far to the south, to the north black mountains tipped with snow, and to the east the magnificent snowy range of Chola, girdling the valley of the Ryott with a diadem of frosted silver.
The coolies, each carrying upwards of 80 lb. load, had walked twelve hours that day, and besides descending 2000 feet, they had ascended nearly 4000 feet, and gone over innumerable ups and downs besides. Beyond Lathiang, a steep and dangerous path runs along the east flank of Mainom, sometimes on narrow ledges of dry rock, covered with long grass, sometimes dipping into wooded gullies, full of _Edgeworthia Gardneri_ and small trees of Andromeda and rhododendron, covered with orchids* [Especially some species of _Sunipia_ and _Cirrhopetalum,_ which have not yet been introduced into England.] of great beauty.
OPPOSITION OF LAMA
Descending to Gorh (4,100 feet), I was met by the Lama of that district, a tall, disagreeable-looking fellow, who informed me that the road ahead was impassable. The day being spent, I was obliged to camp at any rate; after which he visited me in full canonicals, bringing me a handsome present, but assuring me that he had no authority to let me advance. I treated him with civility, and regretted my objects being so imperative, and my orders so clear, that I was obliged to proceed on the following morning: on which he abruptly decamped, as I suspected, in order to damage the paths and bridges. He came again at daylight, and expostulated further; but finding it of no use, he volunteered to accompany me, officiously offering me the choice of two roads. I asked for the coolest, knowing full well that it was useless to try and out-wit him in such matters.
At the first stream the bridge was destroyed, but seeing the planks peeping through the bushes in which they had been concealed, I desired the Lama to repair it, which he did without hesitation. So it was at every point: the path was cumbered with limbs of trees, crossing-stones were removed from the streams, and all natural difficulties were increased. I kept constantly telling the Lama that as he had volunteered to show me the road, I felt sure he intended to remove all obstacles, and accordingly I put him to all the trouble I possibly could, which he took with a very indifferent grace. When I arrived at the swinging bridge across the Teesta, I found that the canes were loosened, and that slips of bamboo, so small as nearly to escape observation, were ingeniously placed low down over the single bamboo that formed the footing, intended to trip up the unwary passenger, and overturn him into the river, which was deep, and with a violent current. Whilst the Lama was cutting these, one of my party found a charcoal writing on a tree, announcing the speedy arrival from the Rajah of my old guide, Meepo; and he shortly afterwards appeared, with instructions to proceed with me, though not to the Tibetan frontier. The lateness of the season, the violence of the rains, and the fears, on the Rajah’s part, that I might suffer from fever or accident, were all urged to induce me to return, or at least only to follow the west branch of the Teesta to Kinchinjunga.
These reasons failing, I was threatened with Chinese interference on the frontier. All these objections I overruled, by refusing to recognise any instructions that were not officially communicated to the Superintendent of Dorjiling.
The Gorh Lama here took leave of me: he was a friend of the Dewan, and was rather surprised to find that the Rajah had sent me a guide, and now attempted to pass himself off as my friend, pompously charging Meepo with the care of me, and bidding me a very polite farewell. I could not help telling him civilly, but plainly, what I thought of him; and so we parted.
Meepo was very glad to join my party again: he is a thorough Lepcha in heart, a great friend of his Rajah and of Tchebu Lama, and one who both fears and hates the Dewan. He assured me of the Rajah’s good wishes and intentions, but spoke with great doubt as to the probability of a successful issue to my journey: he was himself ignorant of the road, but had brought a guide, whose appearance, however, was against him, and who turned out to be sent as a spy on us both.
Instead of crossing the Teesta here, we kept on for two days up its west bank, to a cane bridge at Lingo, where the bed of the river is still only 2000 feet above the sea, though 45 miles distant from the plains, and flowing in a valley bounded by mountains 12,000 to 16,000 feet high. The heat was oppressive, from the closeness of the atmosphere, the great power of the sun, now high at noon-day, and the reflection from the rocks. Leeches began to swarm as the damp increased, and stinging flies of various kinds. My clothes were drenched with perspiration during five hours of every day, and the crystallising salt irritated the skin. On sitting down to rest, I was overcome with languor and sleep, and, but for the copious supply of fresh water everywhere, travelling would have been intolerable.
The Coolies were all but naked, and were constantly plunging into the pools of the rivers; for, though filthy in their persons, they revel in cold water in summer. They are powerful swimmers, and will stem a very strong current, striking out with each arm alternately. It is an animated sight when twenty or thirty of these swarthy children of nature are disporting their muscular figures in the water, diving after large fish, and sometimes catching them by tickling them under the stones.
Of plants I found few not common at similar elevations below Dorjiling, except another kind of Tree-fern,* [_Alsophila spinulosa,_ the "Pugjik" of the Lepchas, who eat the soft watery pith: it is abundant in East Bengal and the Peninsula of India. The other Sikkim Tree-fern, _A. gigantea,_ is far more common from the level of the plains to 6,500 elevation, and is found as far south as Java.] whose pith is eaten in times of scarcity. The India-rubber fig penetrates thus far amongst the mountains, but is of small size. A Gentian, _Arenaria,_ and some sub-alpine plants are met with, though the elevation is only 2000 feet, and the whole climate thoroughly tropical: they were annuals usually found at 7000 to 10,000 feet elevation, and were growing here on mossy rocks, cooled by the spray of the river, whose temperature was only 56.3 degrees. My servant having severely sprained his wrist by a fall, the Lepchas wanted to apply a moxa, which they do by lighting a piece of puff-ball, or Nepal paper that burns like tinder, laying it on the skin, and blowing it till a large open sore is produced: they shook their heads at my treatment, which consisted in transferring some of the leeches from our persons to the inflamed part.
After crossing the Teesta by the cane bridge of Lingo, our route lay over a steep and lofty spur, round which the river makes a great sweep. On the ascent of this ridge we passed large villages on flats cultivated with buckwheat. The saddle is 5,500 feet high, and thence a rapid descent leads to the village of Singtam, which faces the north, and is 300 feet lower, and 3000 feet above the river, which is here no longer called the Teesta, but is known as the Lachen-Lachoong, from its double origin in the rivers of these names, which unite at Choongtam, twenty miles higher up. Of these, the source of the Lachen is in the Cholamoo lakes in Tibet; while the Lachoong rises on the south flank of Donkia mountain, both many marches north of my present position. At Singtam the Lachen-Lachoong runs westward, till joined by the Rihi from the north, and the Rinoong from the west, after receiving which it assumes the name of Teesta: of these affluents, the Rinoong is the largest, and drains the south-east face of Kinchinjunga and Pundim, and the north of Nursing: all which mountains are seen to the north-north-west of Singtam. The Rinoong valley is cultivated for several miles up, and has amongst others the village and Lamasery of Bah. Beyond this the view of black, rugged precipices with snowy mountains towering above them, is one of the finest in Sikkim. There is a pass in that direction, from Bah over the Tckonglah to the Thlonok valley, and thence to the province of Jigatzi in Tibet, but it is almost impracticable.
WILD MEN
A race of wild men, called “Harrum-mo,” are said to inhabit the head of the valley, living in the woods of a district called Mund-po, beyond Bah; they shun habitations, speak an unintelligible tongue, have more hair on the face than Lepchas, and do not plait that of their heads, but wear it in a knot; they use the bow and arrow, and eat snakes and vermin, which the Lepchas will not touch. Such is the account I have heard, and which is certainly believed in Sikkim: similar stories are very current in half civilized countries; and if this has any truth, it possibly refers to the Chepangs,* [Hodgson, in "Bengal Asiatic Society's Journal" for 1848.] a very remarkable race, of doubtful affinity and origin, inhabiting the Nepal forests.
Monday 19 October 2009
THIS SERIES WAS MADE POSSIBLE THROUGH THE CONTRIBUTION OF ABDUL KALAM EZANI
THE HIMALAYAN BEACON [BEACON ONLINE] EXCLUSIVE
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS
JOSEPH DALTON HOOKER, M.D., R.N., F.R.S.
Volume II
SINGTAM SOUBAH
At Singtam I was waited on by the Soubah of the district, a tall portly Bhoteea, who was destined to prove a most active enemy to my pursuits. He governs the country between Gorh and the Tibet frontier, for the Maha-Raanee (wife of the Rajah), whose dowry it is; and she being the Dewan’s relative, I had little assistance to expect from her agent. His conduct was very polite, and he brought me a handsome offering for myself; but after delaying me a day on the pretext of collecting food for my people, of which I was in want, I was obliged to move on with no addition to my store, and trust to obtaining some at the next village, or from Dorjiling. Owing, however, to the increasing distance, and the destruction of the roads by the rains, my supplies from that place were becoming irregular: I therefore thought it prudent to reduce my party, by sending back my guard of Sepoys, who could be of no further use.
From this point the upper portion of the course of the Teesta (Lachen-Lachoong) is materially different from what it is lower down; becoming a boisterous torrent, as suddenly as the Tambur does above Mywa Guola. Its bed is narrower, large masses of rock impede its course, nor is there any place where it is practicable for rafts at any season; the only means of passing it being by cane bridges thatare thrown across, high above the stream.
The slope on either side of the valley is very steep; that on the north, in particular, appearing too precipitous for any road, and being only frequented by honey seekers, who scale the rocks by cane ladders, and thus reach the pendulous bees’-nests, which are so large as in some instances to be conspicuous features at the distance of a mile. This pursuit appeared extremely perilous, the long thread-like canes in many places affording the only footing, over many yards of cliff: the procuring of this honey, however, is the only means by which many of the idle poor raise the rent which they must pay to the Rajah.
LANDSLIPS
The most prominent effect of the steepness of the valleys is the prevalence of land-slips, which sometimes descend for 3000 feet, carrying devastation along their course: they are caused either by the melting of the snow-beds on the mountains, or by the action of the rains on the stratified rocks, and are much increased in effect and violence by the heavy timber-trees which, swaying forwards, loosen the earth at their roots, and give impetus to the mass.
This phenomenon is as frequent and destructive as in Switzerland, where, however, more lives are lost; from the country being more populous, and from the people recklessly building in places particularly exposed to such accidents. A most destructive one had, however, occurred here the previous year, by which a village was destroyed, together with twelve of its inhabitants, and all the cattle. The fragments of rock precipitated are sometimes of enormous size, but being a soft mica-schist, are soon removed by weathering.
It is in the rainy season that landslips are most frequent, and shortly after rain they are pretty sure to be heard far or near. I crossed the debris of the great one alluded to, on the first march beyond Singtam: the whole face of the mountain appeared more or less torn up for fully a mile, presenting a confused mass of white micaceous clay, full of angular masses of rock. The path was very difficult and dangerous, being carried along the steep slope, at an angle, in some places, of 35 degrees; and it was constantly shifting, from the continued downward sliding, and from the action of streams, some of which are large, and cut deep channels. In one I had the misfortune to lose my only sheep, which was carried away by the torrent. These streams were crossed by means of sticks and ricketty bamboos, and the steep sides (sometimes twenty or thirty feet high), were ascended by notched poles.
The weather continued very hot for the elevation (4000 to 5000 feet), the rain brought no coolness, and for the greater part of the three marches between Singtam and Chakoong, we were either wading through deep mud, or climbing over rocks. Leeches swarmed in incredible profusion in the streams and damp grass, and among the bushes: they got into my hair, hung on my eyelids, and crawled up my legs and down my back. I repeatedly took upwards of a hundred from my legs, where the small ones used to collect in clusters on the instep: the sores which they produced were not healed for five months afterwards, and I retain the scars to the present day. Snuff and tobacco leaves are the best antidote, but when marching in the rain, it is impossible to apply this simple remedy to any advantage. The best plan I found to be rolling the leaves over the feet, inside the stockings, and powdering the legs with snuff.
Another pest is a small midge, or sand-fly, which causes intolerable itching, and subsequent irritation, and is in this respect the most insufferable torment in Sikkim; the minutest rent in one’s clothes is detected by the acute senses of this insatiable bloodsucker, which is itself so small as to be barely visible without a microscope.
We daily arrived at our camping-ground, streaming with blood, and mottled with the bites of peepsas, gnats, midges, and mosquitos, besides being infested with ticks.
As the rains advanced, insects seemed to be called into existence in countless swarms; large and small moths, cockchafers, glow-worms, and cockroaches, made my tent a Noah’s ark by night, when the candle was burning; together with winged ants, May-flies, flying earwigs, and many beetles, while a very large species of _Tipula_ (daddy-long-legs) swept its long legs across my face as I wrote my journal, or plotted off my map. After retiring to rest and putting out the light, they gradually departed, except a few which could not find the way out, and remained to disturb my slumbers.
CHAKOONG
Chakoong is a remarkable spot in the bottom of the valley, at an angle of the Lachen-Lachoong, which here receives an affluent from Gnarem, a mountain 17,557 feet high, on the Chola range to the east.* [This is called Black Rock in Col. Waugh's map. I doubt Gnarem being a generally known name: the people hardly recognise the mountain as sufficiently conspicuous to bear a name.] There is no village, but some grass huts used by travellers, which are built close to the river on a very broad flat, fringed with alder, hornbeam, and birch: the elevation is 4,400 feet, and many European genera not found about Dorjiling, and belonging to the temperate Himalaya, grow intermixed with tropical plants that are found no further north. The birch, willow, alder, and walnut grow side by side with wild plantain, _Erythrina, Wallichia_ palm, and gigantic bamboos: the _Cedrela Toona,_ figs, _Melastoma, Scitamineae,_ balsams, _Pothos,_ peppers, and gigantic climbing vines, grow mixed with brambles, speedwell, _Paris,_ forget-me-not, and nettles that sting like poisoned arrows.
The wild English strawberry is common, but bears a tasteless fruit: its inferiority is however counterbalanced by the abundance of a grateful yellow raspberry. Parasitical Orchids (_Dendrobium nobile,_ and _densiflorum,_ etc.), cover the trunks of oaks, while _Thalictrum_ and _Geranium_ grow under their shade. _Monotropa_ and _Balanophora,_ both parasites on the roots of trees (the one a native of north Europe and the other of a tropical climate), push their leafless stems and heads of flowers through the soil together: and lastly, tree-ferns grow associated with the _Pteris aquilina_ (brake) and _Lycopodium clavatum_ of our British moors; and amongst mosses, the superb Himalayan _Lyellia crispa,_* [This is one of the most remarkable mosses in the Himalaya mountains, and derives additional interest from having been named after the late Charles Lyell, Esq., of Kinnordy, the father of the most eminent geologist of the present day.] with the English _Funaria hygrometrica._
The dense jungles of Chakoong completely cover the beautiful flat erraces of stratified sand and gravel, which rise in three shelves to 150 feet above the river, and whose edges appear as sharply cut as if the latter had but lately retired from them. They are continuous with a line of quartzy cliffs, covered with scarlet rhododendrons, and in the holes of which a conglomerate of pebbles is found, 150 feet above the river. Everywhere immense boulders are scattered about, some of which are sixty yards long: their surfaces are water-worn into hollows, proving the river to have cut through nearly 300 feet of deposit, which once floored its valley. Lower down the valley, and fully 2000 feet above the river, I had passed numerous angular blocks resting on gentle slopes where no landslips could possibly have deposited them; and which I therefore refer to ancient glacial action: one of these, near the village of Niong, was nearly square, eighty feet long, and ten high.
It is a remarkable fact, that this hot, damp gorge is never malarious; this is attributable to the coolness of the river, and to the water on the flats not stagnating; for at Choongtam, a march further north, and 1500 feet higher, fevers and ague prevail in summer on similar flats, but which have been cleared of jungle, and are therefore exposed to the sun.
I had had constant headache for several mornings on waking, which I did not fail to attribute to coming fever, or to the unhealthiness of the climate; till I accidentally found it to arise from the wormwood, upon a thick couch of the cut branches of which I was accustomed to sleep, and which in dry weather produced no such effects.* [This wormwood (_Artemisia Indaca_) is one of the most common Sikkim plants at 2000 to 6000 feet elevation, and grows twelve feet high: it is a favourite food of goats.]
From Chakoong to Choongtam the route lay northwards, following the course of the river, or crossing steep spurs of vertical strata of mica-schist, that dip into the valley, and leave no space between their perpendicular sides and the furious torrent. Immense landslips seamed the steep mountain flanks; and we crossed with precipitation one that extended fully 4000 feet (and perhaps much more) up a mountain 12,000 feet high, on the east bank: it moves every year, and the mud and rocks shot down by it were strewn with the green leaves and twigs of shrubs, some of the flowers on which were yet fresh and bright, while others were crushed: these were mixed with gigantic trunks of pines, with ragged bark and scored timbers. The talus which had lately been poured into the valley formed a gently sloping bank, twenty feet high, over which the Lachen-Lachoong rolled, from a pool above, caused by the damming up of its waters. On either side of the pool were cultivated terraces of stratified sand and pebbles, fifty feet high, whose alder-fringed banks, joined by an elegant cane bridge, were reflected in the placid water; forming a little spot of singular quiet and beauty, that contrasted with the savage grandeur of the surrounding mountains, and the headstrong course of the foaming torrent below, amid whose deafening roar it was impossible to speak and be heard.
CHOONGTAM
The mountain of Choongtam is about 10,000 feet high; it divides the Lachen from the Lachoong river, and terminates a lofty range that runs for twenty-two miles south from the lofty mountain of Kinchinjhow. Its south exposed face is bare of trees, except clumps of pines towards the top, and is very steep, grassy, and rocky, without water. It is hence quite unlike the forest-clad mountains further south, and indicates a drier and more sunny climate. The scenery much resembles that of Switzerland, and of the north-west Himalaya, especially in the great contrast between the southern and northern exposures, the latter being always clothed with a dense vegetation. At the foot of this very steep mountain is a broad triangular flat, 5,270 feet above the sea, and 300 feet above the river, to which it descends by three level cultivated shelves.
The village, consisting of a temple and twenty houses, is placed on the slope of the hill. I camped on the flat in May, before it became very swampy, close to some great blocks of gneiss, of which many lie on its surface: it was covered with tufts of sedge (like _Carex stellulata_), and fringed with scarlet rhododendron, walnut, _Andromeda, E1aeagnus_ (now bearing pleasant acid fruit), and small trees of a _Photinia,_ a plant allied to hawthorn, of the leaves of which the natives make tea (as they do of _Gualtheria, Andromeda, Vaccinium,_ and other allied plants). Rice, cultivated* [Choongtam is in position and products analogous to Lelyp, on the Tambur (vol. i, Chapter IX). Rice cultivation advances thus high up each valley, and at either place Bhoteeas replace the natives of the lower valleys.]
in pools surrounded by low banks, was just peeping above ground; and scanty crops of millet, maize, and buckwheat flourished on the slopes around.
INHABITANTS OF CHOONGTAM
The inhabitants of Choongtam are of Tibetan origin; few of them had seen an Englishman before, and they flocked out, displaying the most eager curiosity: the Lama and Phipun (or superior officer) of the Lachoong valley came to pay their respects with a troop of followers, and there was lolling out of tongues, and scratching of ears, at every sentence spoken, and every object of admiration. This extraordinary Tibetan salute at first puzzled me excessively, nor was it until reading MM. Huc and Gabet’s travels on my return to England, that I knew of its being the _ton_ at Lhassa, and in all civilised parts of Tibet.
As the valley was under the Singtam Soubah’s authority, I experienced a good deal of opposition; and the Lama urged the wrath of the gods against my proceeding. This argument, I said, had been disposed of the previous year, and I was fortunate in recognising one of my Changachelling friends, who set forth my kindly offices to the Lamas of that convent, and the friendship borne me by its monks, and by those of Pemiongchi. Many other modes of dissuading me were attempted, but with Meepo’s assistance I succeeded in gaining my point. The difficulty and delays in remittance of food, caused by the landslips having destroyed the road, had reduced our provisions to a very low ebb; and it became not only impossible to proceed, but necessary to replenish my stores on the spot. At first provisions enough were brought to myself, for the Rajah had issued orders for my being cared for, and having some practice among the villagers in treating rheumatism and goitres, I had the power of supplying my own larder; but I found it impossible to buy food for my people. At last, the real state of the case came out; that the Rajah having gone to Choombi, his usual summer-quarters in Tibet, the Dewan had issued orders that no food should be sold or given to my people, and that no roads were to be repaired during my stay in the country; thus cutting off my supplies from Dorjiling, and, in short, attempting to starve me out. At this juncture, Meepo received a letter from the Durbar purporting to be from the Rajah, commanding my immediate return, on the grounds that I had been long enough in the country for my objects: it was not addressed to me, and I refused to receive it as an official communication; following up my refusal by telling Meepo that if he thought his orders required it, he had better leave me and return to the Rajah, as I should not stir without directions from Dr. Campbell, except forwards. He remained, however, and said he had written to the Rajah, urging him to issue stringent orders for my party being provisioned.
We were reduced to a very short allowance before the long-expected supplies came, by which time our necessities had almost conquered my resolution not to take by force of the abundance I might see around, however well I might afterwards pay. It is but fair to state that the improvident villagers throughout Sikkim are extremely poor in vegetable food at this season, when the winter store is consumed, and the crops are still green. They are consequently obliged to purchase rice from the lower valleys, which, owing to the difficulties of transport, is very dear; and to obtain it they barter wool, blankets, musk, and Tibetan produce of all kinds. Still they had cattle, which they would willingly have sold to me, but for the Dewan’s orders. There is a great difference between the vegetation of Dorjiling and that of similar elevations near Choongtam situated far within the Himalaya: this is owing to the steepness and dryness of the latter locality, where there is an absence of dense forest, which is replaced by a number of social grasses clothing the mountain sides, many new and beautiful kinds of rhododendrons, and a variety of European genera,* [_Deutzia, Saxifraga caliata, Thalictrum, Euphorbia,_ yellow violet, _Labiatae, Androsace, Leguminosae, Coriaria, Delphinium,_ currant, _Umbelliferae,_ primrose, _Anemone, Convallaria, Roscoea, Mitella, Herminium, Drosera.] which (as I have elsewhere noticed) are either wholly absent from the damper ranges of Dorjiling, or found there several thousand feet higher up. On the hill above Choongtam village, I gathered, at 5000 to 6000 feet, _Rhododendron arboreum_ and _Dalhousiae,_ which do not generally grow at Dorjiling below 7,500 feet.* [I collected here ten kinds of rhododendron, which, however, are not the social plants that they become at greater elevations. Still, in the delicacy and beauty of their flowers, four of them, perhaps, excel any others; they are, _R. Aucklandii,_ whose flowers are five inches and a half in diameter; _R. Maddeni, R. Dalhousiae,_ and _R. Edgeworthii,_ all white-flowered bushes, of which the two first rise to the height of small trees.]
The yew appears at 7000 feet, whilst, on the outer ranges (as on Tonglo), it is only found at 9,500 to 10,000 feet; and whereas on Tonglo it forms an immense tall tree, with long sparse branches and slender drooping twigs, growing amongst gigantic magnolias and oaks, at Choongtam it is small and rigid, and much resembling in appearance our churchyard yew.* [The yew spreads east from Kashmir to the Assam Himalaya and the Khasia mountains; and the Japan, Philippine Island, Mexican, and other North American yews, belong to the same widely-diffused species. In the Khasia (its most southern limit) it is found as low as 5000 feet above the sea-level.] At 8000 feet the _Abies Brunoniana_ is found; a tree quite unknown further south; but neither the larch nor the _Albies Smithiana_ (Khutrow) accompanied it, they being confined to still more northern regions.
I have seldom had occasion to allude to snakes, which are rare and shy in most parts of the Himalaya; I, however, found an extremely venomous one at Choongtam; a small black viper, a variety of the cobra di capello,* [Dr. Gray, to whom I am indebted for the following information, assures me that this reptile is not specifically distinct from the common Cobra of India; though all the mountain specimens of it which he has examined retain the same small size and dark colour. Of the other Sikkim reptiles which I procured seven are _Colubridae_ and innocuous; five _Crotalidae_ are venomous, three of which are new species belonging to the genera _Parias_ and _Trimesurus._ Lizards are not abundant, but I found at Choongtam a highly curious one, _Plestiodon Sikkimensis,_ Gray; a kind of Skink, whose only allies are two North American congeners; and a species of _Agama_ (a chameleon-like lizard) which in many important points more resembled an allied American genus than an Asiatic one. The common immense earth-worm of Sikkim, _Ichthyophis glutinosus,_ is a native of the Khasia mountains, Singapore, Ceylon and Java. It is a most remarkable fact, that whereas seven out of the twelve Sikkim snakes are poisonous, the sixteen species I procured in the Khasia mountains are innocuous.] which it replaces in the drier grassy parts of the interior of Sikkim, the large cobra not inhabiting in the mountain regions. Altogether I only collected about twelve species in Sikkim, seven of which are venomous, and all are dreaded by the Lepchas.
An enormous hornet (_Vespa magnifica,_ Sm.), nearly two inches long, was here brought to me alive in a cleft-stick, lolling out its great thorn-like sting, from which drops of a milky poison distilled: its sting is said to produce fatal fevers in men and cattle, which may very well be the case, judging from that of a smaller kind, which left great pain in my hand for two days, while a feeling of numbness remained in the arm for several weeks. It is called Vok by the Lepchas, a common name for any bee: its larvae are said to be greedily eaten, as are those of various allied insects.
Choongtam boasts a profusion of beautiful insects, amongst which the British swallow-tail butterfly (_Papilio Machaon_) disports itself in company with magnificent black, gold, and scarlet-winged butterflies, of the Trojan group, so typical of the Indian tropics. At night my tent was filled with small water-beetles (_Berosi_) that quickly put out the candle; and with lovely moths came huge cockchafers (_Encerris Griffithii_), and enormous and foetid flying-bugs (of the genus _Derecterix_), which bear great horns on the thorax.
The irritation of mosquito and midge bites, and the disgusting insects that clung with spiny legs to the blankets of my tent and bed, were often as effectual in banishing sleep, as were my anxious thoughts regarding the future.
The temple at Choongtam is a poor wooden building, but contains some interesting drawings of Lhassa, with its extensive Lamaseries and temples; they convey the idea of a town, gleaming, like Moscow, with gilded and copper roofs; but on a nearer aspect it is found to consist of a mass of stone houses, and large religious edifices many stories high, the walls of which are regularly pierced with small square ornamented windows.* [MM. Huc and Gabet's account of Lhassa is, I do not doubt, excellent as to particulars; but the trees which they describe as magnificent, and girdling the city, have uniformly been represented to me as poor stunted willows, apricots, poplars, and walnuts, confined to the gardens of the rich. No doubt the impression left by these objects on the minds of travellers from tree-less Tartary, and of Sikkimites reared amidst stupendous forests, must be widely different. The information concerning Lhassa collected by Timkowski, "Travels of the Russian Mission to China" (in 1821) is greatly exaggerated, though containing much that is true and curious. The dyke to protect the city from inundations I never heard of; but there is a current story in Sikkim that Lhassa is built in a lake-bed, which was dried up by a miracle of the Lamas, and that in heavy rain the earth trembles, and the waters bubble through the soil: a Dorjiling rain-fall, I have been assured, would wash away the whole city. Ermann (Travels in Siberia, i., p. 186), mentions a town (Klinchi, near Perm), thus built over subterraneous springs, and in constant danger of being washed away. MM. Huc and Gabet allude to the same tradition under another form. They say that the natives of the banks of the Koko-nor affirm that the waters of that lake once occupied a subterranean position beneath Lhassa, and that the waters sapped the foundations of the temples as soon as they were built, till withdrawn by supernatural agency.]
There is nothing remarkable in the geology of Choongtam: the base of the hill consists of the clay and mica slates overlain by gneiss, generally dipping to the eastward; in the latter are granite veins, containing fine tourmalines. Actinolites are found in some highly metamorphic gneisses, brought by landslips from the neighbouring heights. The weather in May was cloudy and showery, but the rain which fell was far less in amount than that at Dorjiling: during the day the sun’s power was great; but though it rose between five and six a.m., it never appeared above the lofty peaked mountains that girdle the valley till eight a.m. Dark pines crest the heights around, and landslips score their flanks with white seams below; while streaks of snow remain throughout the month at 9000 feet above; and everywhere silvery torrents leap down to the Lachen and Lachoong.
THE HIMALAYAN BEACON [BEACON ONLINE] EXCLUSIVE
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS
JOSEPH DALTON HOOKER, M.D., R.N., F.R.S.
Volume II
SINGTAM SOUBAH
At Singtam I was waited on by the Soubah of the district, a tall portly Bhoteea, who was destined to prove a most active enemy to my pursuits. He governs the country between Gorh and the Tibet frontier, for the Maha-Raanee (wife of the Rajah), whose dowry it is; and she being the Dewan’s relative, I had little assistance to expect from her agent. His conduct was very polite, and he brought me a handsome offering for myself; but after delaying me a day on the pretext of collecting food for my people, of which I was in want, I was obliged to move on with no addition to my store, and trust to obtaining some at the next village, or from Dorjiling. Owing, however, to the increasing distance, and the destruction of the roads by the rains, my supplies from that place were becoming irregular: I therefore thought it prudent to reduce my party, by sending back my guard of Sepoys, who could be of no further use.
From this point the upper portion of the course of the Teesta (Lachen-Lachoong) is materially different from what it is lower down; becoming a boisterous torrent, as suddenly as the Tambur does above Mywa Guola. Its bed is narrower, large masses of rock impede its course, nor is there any place where it is practicable for rafts at any season; the only means of passing it being by cane bridges thatare thrown across, high above the stream.
The slope on either side of the valley is very steep; that on the north, in particular, appearing too precipitous for any road, and being only frequented by honey seekers, who scale the rocks by cane ladders, and thus reach the pendulous bees’-nests, which are so large as in some instances to be conspicuous features at the distance of a mile. This pursuit appeared extremely perilous, the long thread-like canes in many places affording the only footing, over many yards of cliff: the procuring of this honey, however, is the only means by which many of the idle poor raise the rent which they must pay to the Rajah.
LANDSLIPS
The most prominent effect of the steepness of the valleys is the prevalence of land-slips, which sometimes descend for 3000 feet, carrying devastation along their course: they are caused either by the melting of the snow-beds on the mountains, or by the action of the rains on the stratified rocks, and are much increased in effect and violence by the heavy timber-trees which, swaying forwards, loosen the earth at their roots, and give impetus to the mass.
This phenomenon is as frequent and destructive as in Switzerland, where, however, more lives are lost; from the country being more populous, and from the people recklessly building in places particularly exposed to such accidents. A most destructive one had, however, occurred here the previous year, by which a village was destroyed, together with twelve of its inhabitants, and all the cattle. The fragments of rock precipitated are sometimes of enormous size, but being a soft mica-schist, are soon removed by weathering.
It is in the rainy season that landslips are most frequent, and shortly after rain they are pretty sure to be heard far or near. I crossed the debris of the great one alluded to, on the first march beyond Singtam: the whole face of the mountain appeared more or less torn up for fully a mile, presenting a confused mass of white micaceous clay, full of angular masses of rock. The path was very difficult and dangerous, being carried along the steep slope, at an angle, in some places, of 35 degrees; and it was constantly shifting, from the continued downward sliding, and from the action of streams, some of which are large, and cut deep channels. In one I had the misfortune to lose my only sheep, which was carried away by the torrent. These streams were crossed by means of sticks and ricketty bamboos, and the steep sides (sometimes twenty or thirty feet high), were ascended by notched poles.
The weather continued very hot for the elevation (4000 to 5000 feet), the rain brought no coolness, and for the greater part of the three marches between Singtam and Chakoong, we were either wading through deep mud, or climbing over rocks. Leeches swarmed in incredible profusion in the streams and damp grass, and among the bushes: they got into my hair, hung on my eyelids, and crawled up my legs and down my back. I repeatedly took upwards of a hundred from my legs, where the small ones used to collect in clusters on the instep: the sores which they produced were not healed for five months afterwards, and I retain the scars to the present day. Snuff and tobacco leaves are the best antidote, but when marching in the rain, it is impossible to apply this simple remedy to any advantage. The best plan I found to be rolling the leaves over the feet, inside the stockings, and powdering the legs with snuff.
Another pest is a small midge, or sand-fly, which causes intolerable itching, and subsequent irritation, and is in this respect the most insufferable torment in Sikkim; the minutest rent in one’s clothes is detected by the acute senses of this insatiable bloodsucker, which is itself so small as to be barely visible without a microscope.
We daily arrived at our camping-ground, streaming with blood, and mottled with the bites of peepsas, gnats, midges, and mosquitos, besides being infested with ticks.
As the rains advanced, insects seemed to be called into existence in countless swarms; large and small moths, cockchafers, glow-worms, and cockroaches, made my tent a Noah’s ark by night, when the candle was burning; together with winged ants, May-flies, flying earwigs, and many beetles, while a very large species of _Tipula_ (daddy-long-legs) swept its long legs across my face as I wrote my journal, or plotted off my map. After retiring to rest and putting out the light, they gradually departed, except a few which could not find the way out, and remained to disturb my slumbers.
CHAKOONG
Chakoong is a remarkable spot in the bottom of the valley, at an angle of the Lachen-Lachoong, which here receives an affluent from Gnarem, a mountain 17,557 feet high, on the Chola range to the east.* [This is called Black Rock in Col. Waugh's map. I doubt Gnarem being a generally known name: the people hardly recognise the mountain as sufficiently conspicuous to bear a name.] There is no village, but some grass huts used by travellers, which are built close to the river on a very broad flat, fringed with alder, hornbeam, and birch: the elevation is 4,400 feet, and many European genera not found about Dorjiling, and belonging to the temperate Himalaya, grow intermixed with tropical plants that are found no further north. The birch, willow, alder, and walnut grow side by side with wild plantain, _Erythrina, Wallichia_ palm, and gigantic bamboos: the _Cedrela Toona,_ figs, _Melastoma, Scitamineae,_ balsams, _Pothos,_ peppers, and gigantic climbing vines, grow mixed with brambles, speedwell, _Paris,_ forget-me-not, and nettles that sting like poisoned arrows.
The wild English strawberry is common, but bears a tasteless fruit: its inferiority is however counterbalanced by the abundance of a grateful yellow raspberry. Parasitical Orchids (_Dendrobium nobile,_ and _densiflorum,_ etc.), cover the trunks of oaks, while _Thalictrum_ and _Geranium_ grow under their shade. _Monotropa_ and _Balanophora,_ both parasites on the roots of trees (the one a native of north Europe and the other of a tropical climate), push their leafless stems and heads of flowers through the soil together: and lastly, tree-ferns grow associated with the _Pteris aquilina_ (brake) and _Lycopodium clavatum_ of our British moors; and amongst mosses, the superb Himalayan _Lyellia crispa,_* [This is one of the most remarkable mosses in the Himalaya mountains, and derives additional interest from having been named after the late Charles Lyell, Esq., of Kinnordy, the father of the most eminent geologist of the present day.] with the English _Funaria hygrometrica._
The dense jungles of Chakoong completely cover the beautiful flat erraces of stratified sand and gravel, which rise in three shelves to 150 feet above the river, and whose edges appear as sharply cut as if the latter had but lately retired from them. They are continuous with a line of quartzy cliffs, covered with scarlet rhododendrons, and in the holes of which a conglomerate of pebbles is found, 150 feet above the river. Everywhere immense boulders are scattered about, some of which are sixty yards long: their surfaces are water-worn into hollows, proving the river to have cut through nearly 300 feet of deposit, which once floored its valley. Lower down the valley, and fully 2000 feet above the river, I had passed numerous angular blocks resting on gentle slopes where no landslips could possibly have deposited them; and which I therefore refer to ancient glacial action: one of these, near the village of Niong, was nearly square, eighty feet long, and ten high.
It is a remarkable fact, that this hot, damp gorge is never malarious; this is attributable to the coolness of the river, and to the water on the flats not stagnating; for at Choongtam, a march further north, and 1500 feet higher, fevers and ague prevail in summer on similar flats, but which have been cleared of jungle, and are therefore exposed to the sun.
I had had constant headache for several mornings on waking, which I did not fail to attribute to coming fever, or to the unhealthiness of the climate; till I accidentally found it to arise from the wormwood, upon a thick couch of the cut branches of which I was accustomed to sleep, and which in dry weather produced no such effects.* [This wormwood (_Artemisia Indaca_) is one of the most common Sikkim plants at 2000 to 6000 feet elevation, and grows twelve feet high: it is a favourite food of goats.]
From Chakoong to Choongtam the route lay northwards, following the course of the river, or crossing steep spurs of vertical strata of mica-schist, that dip into the valley, and leave no space between their perpendicular sides and the furious torrent. Immense landslips seamed the steep mountain flanks; and we crossed with precipitation one that extended fully 4000 feet (and perhaps much more) up a mountain 12,000 feet high, on the east bank: it moves every year, and the mud and rocks shot down by it were strewn with the green leaves and twigs of shrubs, some of the flowers on which were yet fresh and bright, while others were crushed: these were mixed with gigantic trunks of pines, with ragged bark and scored timbers. The talus which had lately been poured into the valley formed a gently sloping bank, twenty feet high, over which the Lachen-Lachoong rolled, from a pool above, caused by the damming up of its waters. On either side of the pool were cultivated terraces of stratified sand and pebbles, fifty feet high, whose alder-fringed banks, joined by an elegant cane bridge, were reflected in the placid water; forming a little spot of singular quiet and beauty, that contrasted with the savage grandeur of the surrounding mountains, and the headstrong course of the foaming torrent below, amid whose deafening roar it was impossible to speak and be heard.
CHOONGTAM
The mountain of Choongtam is about 10,000 feet high; it divides the Lachen from the Lachoong river, and terminates a lofty range that runs for twenty-two miles south from the lofty mountain of Kinchinjhow. Its south exposed face is bare of trees, except clumps of pines towards the top, and is very steep, grassy, and rocky, without water. It is hence quite unlike the forest-clad mountains further south, and indicates a drier and more sunny climate. The scenery much resembles that of Switzerland, and of the north-west Himalaya, especially in the great contrast between the southern and northern exposures, the latter being always clothed with a dense vegetation. At the foot of this very steep mountain is a broad triangular flat, 5,270 feet above the sea, and 300 feet above the river, to which it descends by three level cultivated shelves.
The village, consisting of a temple and twenty houses, is placed on the slope of the hill. I camped on the flat in May, before it became very swampy, close to some great blocks of gneiss, of which many lie on its surface: it was covered with tufts of sedge (like _Carex stellulata_), and fringed with scarlet rhododendron, walnut, _Andromeda, E1aeagnus_ (now bearing pleasant acid fruit), and small trees of a _Photinia,_ a plant allied to hawthorn, of the leaves of which the natives make tea (as they do of _Gualtheria, Andromeda, Vaccinium,_ and other allied plants). Rice, cultivated* [Choongtam is in position and products analogous to Lelyp, on the Tambur (vol. i, Chapter IX). Rice cultivation advances thus high up each valley, and at either place Bhoteeas replace the natives of the lower valleys.]
in pools surrounded by low banks, was just peeping above ground; and scanty crops of millet, maize, and buckwheat flourished on the slopes around.
INHABITANTS OF CHOONGTAM
The inhabitants of Choongtam are of Tibetan origin; few of them had seen an Englishman before, and they flocked out, displaying the most eager curiosity: the Lama and Phipun (or superior officer) of the Lachoong valley came to pay their respects with a troop of followers, and there was lolling out of tongues, and scratching of ears, at every sentence spoken, and every object of admiration. This extraordinary Tibetan salute at first puzzled me excessively, nor was it until reading MM. Huc and Gabet’s travels on my return to England, that I knew of its being the _ton_ at Lhassa, and in all civilised parts of Tibet.
As the valley was under the Singtam Soubah’s authority, I experienced a good deal of opposition; and the Lama urged the wrath of the gods against my proceeding. This argument, I said, had been disposed of the previous year, and I was fortunate in recognising one of my Changachelling friends, who set forth my kindly offices to the Lamas of that convent, and the friendship borne me by its monks, and by those of Pemiongchi. Many other modes of dissuading me were attempted, but with Meepo’s assistance I succeeded in gaining my point. The difficulty and delays in remittance of food, caused by the landslips having destroyed the road, had reduced our provisions to a very low ebb; and it became not only impossible to proceed, but necessary to replenish my stores on the spot. At first provisions enough were brought to myself, for the Rajah had issued orders for my being cared for, and having some practice among the villagers in treating rheumatism and goitres, I had the power of supplying my own larder; but I found it impossible to buy food for my people. At last, the real state of the case came out; that the Rajah having gone to Choombi, his usual summer-quarters in Tibet, the Dewan had issued orders that no food should be sold or given to my people, and that no roads were to be repaired during my stay in the country; thus cutting off my supplies from Dorjiling, and, in short, attempting to starve me out. At this juncture, Meepo received a letter from the Durbar purporting to be from the Rajah, commanding my immediate return, on the grounds that I had been long enough in the country for my objects: it was not addressed to me, and I refused to receive it as an official communication; following up my refusal by telling Meepo that if he thought his orders required it, he had better leave me and return to the Rajah, as I should not stir without directions from Dr. Campbell, except forwards. He remained, however, and said he had written to the Rajah, urging him to issue stringent orders for my party being provisioned.
We were reduced to a very short allowance before the long-expected supplies came, by which time our necessities had almost conquered my resolution not to take by force of the abundance I might see around, however well I might afterwards pay. It is but fair to state that the improvident villagers throughout Sikkim are extremely poor in vegetable food at this season, when the winter store is consumed, and the crops are still green. They are consequently obliged to purchase rice from the lower valleys, which, owing to the difficulties of transport, is very dear; and to obtain it they barter wool, blankets, musk, and Tibetan produce of all kinds. Still they had cattle, which they would willingly have sold to me, but for the Dewan’s orders. There is a great difference between the vegetation of Dorjiling and that of similar elevations near Choongtam situated far within the Himalaya: this is owing to the steepness and dryness of the latter locality, where there is an absence of dense forest, which is replaced by a number of social grasses clothing the mountain sides, many new and beautiful kinds of rhododendrons, and a variety of European genera,* [_Deutzia, Saxifraga caliata, Thalictrum, Euphorbia,_ yellow violet, _Labiatae, Androsace, Leguminosae, Coriaria, Delphinium,_ currant, _Umbelliferae,_ primrose, _Anemone, Convallaria, Roscoea, Mitella, Herminium, Drosera.] which (as I have elsewhere noticed) are either wholly absent from the damper ranges of Dorjiling, or found there several thousand feet higher up. On the hill above Choongtam village, I gathered, at 5000 to 6000 feet, _Rhododendron arboreum_ and _Dalhousiae,_ which do not generally grow at Dorjiling below 7,500 feet.* [I collected here ten kinds of rhododendron, which, however, are not the social plants that they become at greater elevations. Still, in the delicacy and beauty of their flowers, four of them, perhaps, excel any others; they are, _R. Aucklandii,_ whose flowers are five inches and a half in diameter; _R. Maddeni, R. Dalhousiae,_ and _R. Edgeworthii,_ all white-flowered bushes, of which the two first rise to the height of small trees.]
The yew appears at 7000 feet, whilst, on the outer ranges (as on Tonglo), it is only found at 9,500 to 10,000 feet; and whereas on Tonglo it forms an immense tall tree, with long sparse branches and slender drooping twigs, growing amongst gigantic magnolias and oaks, at Choongtam it is small and rigid, and much resembling in appearance our churchyard yew.* [The yew spreads east from Kashmir to the Assam Himalaya and the Khasia mountains; and the Japan, Philippine Island, Mexican, and other North American yews, belong to the same widely-diffused species. In the Khasia (its most southern limit) it is found as low as 5000 feet above the sea-level.] At 8000 feet the _Abies Brunoniana_ is found; a tree quite unknown further south; but neither the larch nor the _Albies Smithiana_ (Khutrow) accompanied it, they being confined to still more northern regions.
I have seldom had occasion to allude to snakes, which are rare and shy in most parts of the Himalaya; I, however, found an extremely venomous one at Choongtam; a small black viper, a variety of the cobra di capello,* [Dr. Gray, to whom I am indebted for the following information, assures me that this reptile is not specifically distinct from the common Cobra of India; though all the mountain specimens of it which he has examined retain the same small size and dark colour. Of the other Sikkim reptiles which I procured seven are _Colubridae_ and innocuous; five _Crotalidae_ are venomous, three of which are new species belonging to the genera _Parias_ and _Trimesurus._ Lizards are not abundant, but I found at Choongtam a highly curious one, _Plestiodon Sikkimensis,_ Gray; a kind of Skink, whose only allies are two North American congeners; and a species of _Agama_ (a chameleon-like lizard) which in many important points more resembled an allied American genus than an Asiatic one. The common immense earth-worm of Sikkim, _Ichthyophis glutinosus,_ is a native of the Khasia mountains, Singapore, Ceylon and Java. It is a most remarkable fact, that whereas seven out of the twelve Sikkim snakes are poisonous, the sixteen species I procured in the Khasia mountains are innocuous.] which it replaces in the drier grassy parts of the interior of Sikkim, the large cobra not inhabiting in the mountain regions. Altogether I only collected about twelve species in Sikkim, seven of which are venomous, and all are dreaded by the Lepchas.
An enormous hornet (_Vespa magnifica,_ Sm.), nearly two inches long, was here brought to me alive in a cleft-stick, lolling out its great thorn-like sting, from which drops of a milky poison distilled: its sting is said to produce fatal fevers in men and cattle, which may very well be the case, judging from that of a smaller kind, which left great pain in my hand for two days, while a feeling of numbness remained in the arm for several weeks. It is called Vok by the Lepchas, a common name for any bee: its larvae are said to be greedily eaten, as are those of various allied insects.
Choongtam boasts a profusion of beautiful insects, amongst which the British swallow-tail butterfly (_Papilio Machaon_) disports itself in company with magnificent black, gold, and scarlet-winged butterflies, of the Trojan group, so typical of the Indian tropics. At night my tent was filled with small water-beetles (_Berosi_) that quickly put out the candle; and with lovely moths came huge cockchafers (_Encerris Griffithii_), and enormous and foetid flying-bugs (of the genus _Derecterix_), which bear great horns on the thorax.
The irritation of mosquito and midge bites, and the disgusting insects that clung with spiny legs to the blankets of my tent and bed, were often as effectual in banishing sleep, as were my anxious thoughts regarding the future.
The temple at Choongtam is a poor wooden building, but contains some interesting drawings of Lhassa, with its extensive Lamaseries and temples; they convey the idea of a town, gleaming, like Moscow, with gilded and copper roofs; but on a nearer aspect it is found to consist of a mass of stone houses, and large religious edifices many stories high, the walls of which are regularly pierced with small square ornamented windows.* [MM. Huc and Gabet's account of Lhassa is, I do not doubt, excellent as to particulars; but the trees which they describe as magnificent, and girdling the city, have uniformly been represented to me as poor stunted willows, apricots, poplars, and walnuts, confined to the gardens of the rich. No doubt the impression left by these objects on the minds of travellers from tree-less Tartary, and of Sikkimites reared amidst stupendous forests, must be widely different. The information concerning Lhassa collected by Timkowski, "Travels of the Russian Mission to China" (in 1821) is greatly exaggerated, though containing much that is true and curious. The dyke to protect the city from inundations I never heard of; but there is a current story in Sikkim that Lhassa is built in a lake-bed, which was dried up by a miracle of the Lamas, and that in heavy rain the earth trembles, and the waters bubble through the soil: a Dorjiling rain-fall, I have been assured, would wash away the whole city. Ermann (Travels in Siberia, i., p. 186), mentions a town (Klinchi, near Perm), thus built over subterraneous springs, and in constant danger of being washed away. MM. Huc and Gabet allude to the same tradition under another form. They say that the natives of the banks of the Koko-nor affirm that the waters of that lake once occupied a subterranean position beneath Lhassa, and that the waters sapped the foundations of the temples as soon as they were built, till withdrawn by supernatural agency.]
There is nothing remarkable in the geology of Choongtam: the base of the hill consists of the clay and mica slates overlain by gneiss, generally dipping to the eastward; in the latter are granite veins, containing fine tourmalines. Actinolites are found in some highly metamorphic gneisses, brought by landslips from the neighbouring heights. The weather in May was cloudy and showery, but the rain which fell was far less in amount than that at Dorjiling: during the day the sun’s power was great; but though it rose between five and six a.m., it never appeared above the lofty peaked mountains that girdle the valley till eight a.m. Dark pines crest the heights around, and landslips score their flanks with white seams below; while streaks of snow remain throughout the month at 9000 feet above; and everywhere silvery torrents leap down to the Lachen and Lachoong.
Sunday 18 October 2009
SERIES: HIMALAYAN JOURNALS by Joseph Dalton Hooker – Episode 34 Vol II
Posted by barunroy on October 18, 2009
THIS SERIES WAS MADE POSSIBLE THROUGH THE CONTRIBUTION OF ABDUL KALAM EZANI
THE HIMALAYAN BEACON [BEACON ONLINE] EXCLUSIVE
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS
JOSEPH DALTON HOOKER, M.D., R.N., F.R.S.
Volume II
ARRANGEMENTS FOR SECOND JOURNEY INTO SIKKIM– Opposition of Dewan
After my return from the Terai, I was occupied during the month of April in preparations for an expedition to the loftier parts of Sikkim. The arrangements were the same as for my former journey, except with regard to food, which it was necessary should be sent out to me at intervals; for we had had ample proof that the resources of the country were not equal to provisioning a party of from forty to fifty men, even had the Dewan been favourable to my travelling, which was clearly not the case.
Dr. Campbell communicated to the Rajah my intention of starting early in May for the upper Teesta valley, and, in the Governor-General’s name, requested that he would facilitate my visiting the frontier of Sikkim, north-east of Kinchinjunga. The desired permission was, after a little delay, received; which appeared to rouse the Dewan to institute a series of obstructions to my progress, which caused so many delays that my exploration of the country was not concluded till October, and I was prevented returning to Dorjiling before the following Christmas.
Since our visit to the Rajah in December, no Vakeel (agent) had been sent by the Durbar to Dorjiling, and consequently we could only communicate indirectly with his Highness, while we found it impossible to ascertain the truth of various reports promulgated by the Dewan, and meant to deter me from entering the country. In April, the Lassoo Kajee was sent as Vakeel, but, having on a previous occasion been dismissed for insolence and incapacity, and again rejected when proposed by the Dewan at Bhomsong, he was refused an audience; and he encamped at the bottom of the Great Rungeet valley, where he lost some of his party through fever. He retired into Sikkim, exasperated, pretending that he had orders to delay my starting, in consequence of the death of the heir apparent; and that he was prepared to use strong measures should I cross the frontier.
No notice was taken of these threats: the Rajah was again informed of my intended departure, unless his own orders to the contrary were received through a proper accredited agent, and I left Dorjiling on the 3rd of May, accompanied by Dr. Campbell, who insisted on seeing me fairly over the frontier at the Great Rungeet river.
Arrangements were made for supplies of rice following me by instalments; our daily consumption being 80 lbs., a man’s load. After crossing into Sikkim, I mustered my party at the Great Rungeet river. I had forty-two in all, of whom the majority were young Lepchas, or Sikkim-born people of Tibetan races: all were active and cheerful looking follows; only one was goitred, and he had been a salt-trader. I was accompanied by a guard of five Sepoys, and had a Lepcha and Tibetan interpreter. I took but one personal servant, a Portuguese half-caste (John Hoffman by name), who cooked for me: he was a native of Calcutta, and though hardy, patient, and long-suffering, and far better-tempered, was, in other respects, very inferior to Clamanze, who had been my servant the previous year, and who, having been bred to the sea, was as handy as he was clever; but who, like all other natives of the plains, grew intolerably weary of the hills, and left me.
LEGEND OF FLOOD
The first part of my route lay over Tendong, a very fine mountain, which rises 8,613 feet, and is a conspicuous feature from Dorjiling, where it is known as Mount Ararat. The Lepchas have a curious legend of a man and woman having saved themselves on its summit, during a flood that once deluged Sikkim. The coincidence of this story with the English name of Ararat suggests the probability of the legend being fabulous; but I am positively assured that it is not so, but that it was current amongst the Lepchas before its English name was heard of, and that the latter was suggested from the peculiar form of its summit resembling that given in children’s books as the resting-place of the ark.
The ascent from the Great Rungeet (alt. 818 feet) is through dry woods of Sal and Pines (_P. longifolia_). I camped the first night at the village of Mikk (alt. 3,900 feet), and on the following day ascended to Namtchi (alt. 5,600 feet).
LASSOO KAJEE
On the route I was met by the Lama of Silokfoke Goompa. Though a sident on the Lassoo Kajee’s estates, he politely brought me a present, at the same time apologising for not waiting till I had encamped, owing to his excessive fat, which prevented his climbing. I accepted his excuses, though well aware that his real reason was that he wished to pay his respects, and show his good feeling, in private. Besides his ordinary canonicals, he carried a tall crozier-headed staff, and had a curious horn slung round his neck, full of amulets; it was short, of a transparent red colour, and beautifully carved, and was that of the small cow of Lhassa, which resembles the English species, and is not a yak (it is called “Tundro”).
NAMTCHI
Namtchi was once a place of considerable importance; and still possesses a mendong, with six rows of inscribed slabs; a temple, and a Lama attached thereto: the latter waited on me soon after I had encamped, but he brought no present, and I was not long kept in suspense as to his motives. These people are poor dissemblers; if they intend to obstruct, they do it clumsily and hesitatingly: in this instance the Lama first made up to my people, and, being coolly received, kept gradually edging up to my tent-door, where, after an awkward salute, he delivered himself with a very bad grace of his mission, which was from the Lassoo Kajee to stop my progress. I told him I knew nothing of the Lassoo Kajee or his orders, and should proceed on the following morning: he then urged the bad state of the roads, and advised me to wait two days till he should receive orders from the Rajah; upon which I dismissed him.
Soon afterwards, as I sat at my tent-door, looking along the narrow bushy ridge that winds up the mountain, I saw twenty or thirty men rapidly descending the rocky path: they were Lepchas, with blue and white striped garments, bows and quivers, and with their long knives gleaming in the sun: they seemed to be following a figure in red Lama costume, with a scarlet silk handkerchief wound round his head, its ends streaming behind him. Though expecting this apparition to prove the renowned Kajee and his myrmidons, coming to put a sudden termination to my progress, I could not help admiring the exceeding picturesqueness of the scenery and party. My fears were soon dissipated by my men joyfully shouting, “The Tchebu Lama! the Tchebu Lama!” and I soon recognised the rosy face and twinkling eyes of my friend of Bhomsong, the only man of intelligence about the Rajah’s court, and the one whose services as Vakeel were particularly wanted at Dorjiling.
He told me that the Lassoo Kajee had orders (from whom, he would not say) to stop my progress, but that I should proceed nevertheless, and that there was no objection to my doing so; and he despatched a messenger to the Rajah, announcing my progress, and requesting him to send me a guide, and to grant me every facility, asserting that he had all along fully intended doing so.
TENDONG
On the following morning the Lama proceeded to Dorjiling, and I continued the ascent of Tendong, sending my men round the shoulder to Temi in the Teesta valley, where I proposed to pass the night. The road rapidly ascends by a narrow winding path, covered with a loose forest of oaks, rhododendrons, and various shrubs, not found at equal elevations on the wetter Dorjiling ranges: amongst, them the beautiful laburnum-like _Piptanthus Nepalensis,_ with golden blossoms, was conspicuous. Enormous blocks of white and red stratified quartz, and slate, some 20 and even 40 yards long, rest on the narrow ridge at 7000 feet elevation. The last ascent is up a steep rounded cone with a broad flat top, covered with dwarf bamboo, a few oaks, laurels, magnolias, and white-flowered rhododendron trees (_R. argenteum_), which obstructed the view. I hung the barometers near one of the many chaits on the summit, where there is also a rude temple, in which worship is performed once a year. The elevation is 8,671 feet by my observations.* [8,663 by Col. Waugh's trigonometrical observations.] The geological formation of Tendong in some measure accounts for its peculiar form. On the conical summit are hard quartzoze porphyries, which have apparently forced up the gneiss and slates, which dip in all directions from the top, and are full of injected veins of quartz. Below 7000 feet, mica-schist prevails, always inclined at a very high angle; and I found jasper near Namtchi, with other indications of Plutonic action.
The descent on the north side was steep, through a rank vegetation, very different from that of the south face. The oaks are very grand, and I measured one (whose trunk was decayed, and split into three, however), which I found to be 49 feet in girth at 5 feet from the ground. Near Temi (alt. 4,770 feet) I gathered the fruit of _Kadsura,_ a climbing plant allied to Magnolia, bearing round heads of large fleshy red drupes, which are pleasantly acid and much eaten; the seeds are very aromatic.
From Temi the road descends to the Teesta, the course of which it afterwards follows. The valley was fearfully hot, and infested with mosquitos and peepsas. Many fine plants grew in it:* [Especially upon the broad terraces of gravel, some of which are upwards of a mile long, and 200 feet above the stream: they are covered with boulders of rock, and are generally opposite feeders of the river.]
I especially noticed _Aristolochia saccata,_ which climbs the loftiest trees, bearing its curious pitcher-shaped flowers near the ground only; its leaves are said to be good food for cattle. _Houttuynia,_ a curious herb allied to pepper, grew on the banks, which, from the profusion of its white flowers, resembled strawberry-beds; the leaves are eaten by the Lepchas. But the most magnificent plant of these jungles is _Hodgsonia,_ (a genus I have dedicated to my friend, Mr. Hodgson), a gigantic climber allied to the gourd, bearing immense yellowish-white pendulous blossoms, whose petals have a fringe of buff-coloured curling threads, several inches long. The fruit is of a rich brown, like a small melon in form, and contains six large nuts, whose kernels (called “Katior-pot” by the Lepchas) are eaten. The stem, when cut, discharges water profusely from whichever end is held downwards. The “Took” (_Hydnocarpus_) is a beautiful evergreen tree, with tufts of yellow blossoms on the trunk: its fruit is as large as an orange, and is used to poison fish, while from the seeds an oil is expressed. Tropical oaks and Terminalias are the giants of these low forests, the latter especially, having buttressed trunks, appear truly gigantic; one, of a kind called ”Sung-lok,” measured 47 feet in girth, at 5 feet, and 21 at 15 feet from the ground, and was fully 200 feet high. I could only procure the leaves by firing a ball into the crown. Some of their trunks lay smouldering on the ground, emitting a curious smell from the mineral matter in their ashes, of whose constituents an account will be found in the Appendix.
Birds are very rare, as is all animal life but insects, and a small fresh-water crab, _Thelphusa,_ (”Ti-hi” of the Lepchas). Shells, from the absence of lime, are extremely scarce, and I scarcely picked up a single specimen: the most common are species of _Cyclostoma._ The rains commenced on the 10th of May, greatly increasing the discomforts of travelling, but moderating the heat by drenching thunder-storms, which so soaked the men’s loads, that I was obliged to halt a day in the Teesta valley to have waterproof covers made of platted bamboo-work, enclosing Phrynium leaves. I was delighted to find that my little tent was impervious to water, though its thickness was but of one layer of blanket: it was a single ridge with two poles, 7 feet high, 8 feet long, and 8 feet broad at the base, forming nearly an equilateral triangle in front.
Bhomsong was looking more beautiful than ever in its rich summer clothing of tropical foliage. I halted during an hour of heavy rain on the spot where I had spent the previous Christmas, and could not help feeling doubly lonely in a place where every rock and tree reminded me of that pleasant time. The isolation of my position, the hostility of the Dewan, and consequent uncertainty of the success of a journey that absorbed all my thoughts, the prevalence of fevers in the valleys I was traversing, and the many difficulties that beset my path, all crowded on the imagination when fevered by exertion and depressed by gloomy weather, and my spirits involuntarily sank as I counted the many miles and months intervening between me and my home.
The little flat on which I had formerly encamped was now covered with a bright green crop of young rice. The house then occupied by the Dewan was now empty and unroofed; but the suspension bridge had been repaired, and its light framework of canes, spanning the boiling flood of the Teesta, formed a graceful object in this most beautiful landscape. The temperature of the river was 58 degrees, only 7 degrees above that of mid-winter, owing to the now melting snows.
I had rather expected to meet either with a guide, or with some further obstruction here, but as none appeared, I proceeded onwards as soon as the weather moderated. Higher up, the scenery resembles that of Tchintam on the Tambur: the banks are so steep as to allow of no road, and the path ascends from the river, at 1000 feet, to Lathiang village, at 4,800 feet, up a wild, rocky torrent that descends from Mainom to the Teesta.
The cliffs here are covered with wild plantains and screw-pines (_Pandanus_), 50 feet high, that clasp the rocks with cable-like roots, and bear one or two crowns of drooping leaves, 5 feet long: two palms, Rattan (_Calamus_) and _Areca gracilis,_ penetrate thus far up the Teesta valley, but are scarcely found further. From the village the view was superb, embracing the tropical gulley below, with the flat of Bhomsong deep down in the gorge, its bright rice-fields gleaming like emeralds amid the dark vegetation that surrounded it; the Teesta winding to the southward, the pine-clad rocky top of Mainom, 10,613 feet high, to the south-west, the cone of Mount Ararat far to the south, to the north black mountains tipped with snow, and to the east the magnificent snowy range of Chola, girdling the valley of the Ryott with a diadem of frosted silver.
The coolies, each carrying upwards of 80 lb. load, had walked twelve hours that day, and besides descending 2000 feet, they had ascended nearly 4000 feet, and gone over innumerable ups and downs besides. Beyond Lathiang, a steep and dangerous path runs along the east flank of Mainom, sometimes on narrow ledges of dry rock, covered with long grass, sometimes dipping into wooded gullies, full of _Edgeworthia Gardneri_ and small trees of Andromeda and rhododendron, covered with orchids* [Especially some species of _Sunipia_ and _Cirrhopetalum,_ which have not yet been introduced into England.] of great beauty.
OPPOSITION OF LAMA
Descending to Gorh (4,100 feet), I was met by the Lama of that district, a tall, disagreeable-looking fellow, who informed me that the road ahead was impassable. The day being spent, I was obliged to camp at any rate; after which he visited me in full canonicals, bringing me a handsome present, but assuring me that he had no authority to let me advance. I treated him with civility, and regretted my objects being so imperative, and my orders so clear, that I was obliged to proceed on the following morning: on which he abruptly decamped, as I suspected, in order to damage the paths and bridges. He came again at daylight, and expostulated further; but finding it of no use, he volunteered to accompany me, officiously offering me the choice of two roads. I asked for the coolest, knowing full well that it was useless to try and out-wit him in such matters.
At the first stream the bridge was destroyed, but seeing the planks peeping through the bushes in which they had been concealed, I desired the Lama to repair it, which he did without hesitation. So it was at every point: the path was cumbered with limbs of trees, crossing-stones were removed from the streams, and all natural difficulties were increased. I kept constantly telling the Lama that as he had volunteered to show me the road, I felt sure he intended to remove all obstacles, and accordingly I put him to all the trouble I possibly could, which he took with a very indifferent grace. When I arrived at the swinging bridge across the Teesta, I found that the canes were loosened, and that slips of bamboo, so small as nearly to escape observation, were ingeniously placed low down over the single bamboo that formed the footing, intended to trip up the unwary passenger, and overturn him into the river, which was deep, and with a violent current. Whilst the Lama was cutting these, one of my party found a charcoal writing on a tree, announcing the speedy arrival from the Rajah of my old guide, Meepo; and he shortly afterwards appeared, with instructions to proceed with me, though not to the Tibetan frontier. The lateness of the season, the violence of the rains, and the fears, on the Rajah’s part, that I might suffer from fever or accident, were all urged to induce me to return, or at least only to follow the west branch of the Teesta to Kinchinjunga.
These reasons failing, I was threatened with Chinese interference on the frontier. All these objections I overruled, by refusing to recognise any instructions that were not officially communicated to the Superintendent of Dorjiling.
The Gorh Lama here took leave of me: he was a friend of the Dewan, and was rather surprised to find that the Rajah had sent me a guide, and now attempted to pass himself off as my friend, pompously charging Meepo with the care of me, and bidding me a very polite farewell. I could not help telling him civilly, but plainly, what I thought of him; and so we parted.
Meepo was very glad to join my party again: he is a thorough Lepcha in heart, a great friend of his Rajah and of Tchebu Lama, and one who both fears and hates the Dewan. He assured me of the Rajah’s good wishes and intentions, but spoke with great doubt as to the probability of a successful issue to my journey: he was himself ignorant of the road, but had brought a guide, whose appearance, however, was against him, and who turned out to be sent as a spy on us both.
Instead of crossing the Teesta here, we kept on for two days up its west bank, to a cane bridge at Lingo, where the bed of the river is still only 2000 feet above the sea, though 45 miles distant from the plains, and flowing in a valley bounded by mountains 12,000 to 16,000 feet high. The heat was oppressive, from the closeness of the atmosphere, the great power of the sun, now high at noon-day, and the reflection from the rocks. Leeches began to swarm as the damp increased, and stinging flies of various kinds. My clothes were drenched with perspiration during five hours of every day, and the crystallising salt irritated the skin. On sitting down to rest, I was overcome with languor and sleep, and, but for the copious supply of fresh water everywhere, travelling would have been intolerable.
The Coolies were all but naked, and were constantly plunging into the pools of the rivers; for, though filthy in their persons, they revel in cold water in summer. They are powerful swimmers, and will stem a very strong current, striking out with each arm alternately. It is an animated sight when twenty or thirty of these swarthy children of nature are disporting their muscular figures in the water, diving after large fish, and sometimes catching them by tickling them under the stones.
Of plants I found few not common at similar elevations below Dorjiling, except another kind of Tree-fern,* [_Alsophila spinulosa,_ the "Pugjik" of the Lepchas, who eat the soft watery pith: it is abundant in East Bengal and the Peninsula of India. The other Sikkim Tree-fern, _A. gigantea,_ is far more common from the level of the plains to 6,500 elevation, and is found as far south as Java.] whose pith is eaten in times of scarcity. The India-rubber fig penetrates thus far amongst the mountains, but is of small size. A Gentian, _Arenaria,_ and some sub-alpine plants are met with, though the elevation is only 2000 feet, and the whole climate thoroughly tropical: they were annuals usually found at 7000 to 10,000 feet elevation, and were growing here on mossy rocks, cooled by the spray of the river, whose temperature was only 56.3 degrees. My servant having severely sprained his wrist by a fall, the Lepchas wanted to apply a moxa, which they do by lighting a piece of puff-ball, or Nepal paper that burns like tinder, laying it on the skin, and blowing it till a large open sore is produced: they shook their heads at my treatment, which consisted in transferring some of the leeches from our persons to the inflamed part.
After crossing the Teesta by the cane bridge of Lingo, our route lay over a steep and lofty spur, round which the river makes a great sweep. On the ascent of this ridge we passed large villages on flats cultivated with buckwheat. The saddle is 5,500 feet high, and thence a rapid descent leads to the village of Singtam, which faces the north, and is 300 feet lower, and 3000 feet above the river, which is here no longer called the Teesta, but is known as the Lachen-Lachoong, from its double origin in the rivers of these names, which unite at Choongtam, twenty miles higher up. Of these, the source of the Lachen is in the Cholamoo lakes in Tibet; while the Lachoong rises on the south flank of Donkia mountain, both many marches north of my present position. At Singtam the Lachen-Lachoong runs westward, till joined by the Rihi from the north, and the Rinoong from the west, after receiving which it assumes the name of Teesta: of these affluents, the Rinoong is the largest, and drains the south-east face of Kinchinjunga and Pundim, and the north of Nursing: all which mountains are seen to the north-north-west of Singtam. The Rinoong valley is cultivated for several miles up, and has amongst others the village and Lamasery of Bah. Beyond this the view of black, rugged precipices with snowy mountains towering above them, is one of the finest in Sikkim. There is a pass in that direction, from Bah over the Tckonglah to the Thlonok valley, and thence to the province of Jigatzi in Tibet, but it is almost impracticable.
WILD MEN
A race of wild men, called “Harrum-mo,” are said to inhabit the head of the valley, living in the woods of a district called Mund-po, beyond Bah; they shun habitations, speak an unintelligible tongue, have more hair on the face than Lepchas, and do not plait that of their heads, but wear it in a knot; they use the bow and arrow, and eat snakes and vermin, which the Lepchas will not touch. Such is the account I have heard, and which is certainly believed in Sikkim: similar stories are very current in half civilized countries; and if this has any truth, it possibly refers to the Chepangs,* [Hodgson, in "Bengal Asiatic Society's Journal" for 1848.] a very remarkable race, of doubtful affinity and origin, inhabiting the Nepal forests.
Posted by barunroy on October 18, 2009
THIS SERIES WAS MADE POSSIBLE THROUGH THE CONTRIBUTION OF ABDUL KALAM EZANI
THE HIMALAYAN BEACON [BEACON ONLINE] EXCLUSIVE
HIMALAYAN JOURNALS
JOSEPH DALTON HOOKER, M.D., R.N., F.R.S.
Volume II
ARRANGEMENTS FOR SECOND JOURNEY INTO SIKKIM– Opposition of Dewan
After my return from the Terai, I was occupied during the month of April in preparations for an expedition to the loftier parts of Sikkim. The arrangements were the same as for my former journey, except with regard to food, which it was necessary should be sent out to me at intervals; for we had had ample proof that the resources of the country were not equal to provisioning a party of from forty to fifty men, even had the Dewan been favourable to my travelling, which was clearly not the case.
Dr. Campbell communicated to the Rajah my intention of starting early in May for the upper Teesta valley, and, in the Governor-General’s name, requested that he would facilitate my visiting the frontier of Sikkim, north-east of Kinchinjunga. The desired permission was, after a little delay, received; which appeared to rouse the Dewan to institute a series of obstructions to my progress, which caused so many delays that my exploration of the country was not concluded till October, and I was prevented returning to Dorjiling before the following Christmas.
Since our visit to the Rajah in December, no Vakeel (agent) had been sent by the Durbar to Dorjiling, and consequently we could only communicate indirectly with his Highness, while we found it impossible to ascertain the truth of various reports promulgated by the Dewan, and meant to deter me from entering the country. In April, the Lassoo Kajee was sent as Vakeel, but, having on a previous occasion been dismissed for insolence and incapacity, and again rejected when proposed by the Dewan at Bhomsong, he was refused an audience; and he encamped at the bottom of the Great Rungeet valley, where he lost some of his party through fever. He retired into Sikkim, exasperated, pretending that he had orders to delay my starting, in consequence of the death of the heir apparent; and that he was prepared to use strong measures should I cross the frontier.
No notice was taken of these threats: the Rajah was again informed of my intended departure, unless his own orders to the contrary were received through a proper accredited agent, and I left Dorjiling on the 3rd of May, accompanied by Dr. Campbell, who insisted on seeing me fairly over the frontier at the Great Rungeet river.
Arrangements were made for supplies of rice following me by instalments; our daily consumption being 80 lbs., a man’s load. After crossing into Sikkim, I mustered my party at the Great Rungeet river. I had forty-two in all, of whom the majority were young Lepchas, or Sikkim-born people of Tibetan races: all were active and cheerful looking follows; only one was goitred, and he had been a salt-trader. I was accompanied by a guard of five Sepoys, and had a Lepcha and Tibetan interpreter. I took but one personal servant, a Portuguese half-caste (John Hoffman by name), who cooked for me: he was a native of Calcutta, and though hardy, patient, and long-suffering, and far better-tempered, was, in other respects, very inferior to Clamanze, who had been my servant the previous year, and who, having been bred to the sea, was as handy as he was clever; but who, like all other natives of the plains, grew intolerably weary of the hills, and left me.
LEGEND OF FLOOD
The first part of my route lay over Tendong, a very fine mountain, which rises 8,613 feet, and is a conspicuous feature from Dorjiling, where it is known as Mount Ararat. The Lepchas have a curious legend of a man and woman having saved themselves on its summit, during a flood that once deluged Sikkim. The coincidence of this story with the English name of Ararat suggests the probability of the legend being fabulous; but I am positively assured that it is not so, but that it was current amongst the Lepchas before its English name was heard of, and that the latter was suggested from the peculiar form of its summit resembling that given in children’s books as the resting-place of the ark.
The ascent from the Great Rungeet (alt. 818 feet) is through dry woods of Sal and Pines (_P. longifolia_). I camped the first night at the village of Mikk (alt. 3,900 feet), and on the following day ascended to Namtchi (alt. 5,600 feet).
LASSOO KAJEE
On the route I was met by the Lama of Silokfoke Goompa. Though a sident on the Lassoo Kajee’s estates, he politely brought me a present, at the same time apologising for not waiting till I had encamped, owing to his excessive fat, which prevented his climbing. I accepted his excuses, though well aware that his real reason was that he wished to pay his respects, and show his good feeling, in private. Besides his ordinary canonicals, he carried a tall crozier-headed staff, and had a curious horn slung round his neck, full of amulets; it was short, of a transparent red colour, and beautifully carved, and was that of the small cow of Lhassa, which resembles the English species, and is not a yak (it is called “Tundro”).
NAMTCHI
Namtchi was once a place of considerable importance; and still possesses a mendong, with six rows of inscribed slabs; a temple, and a Lama attached thereto: the latter waited on me soon after I had encamped, but he brought no present, and I was not long kept in suspense as to his motives. These people are poor dissemblers; if they intend to obstruct, they do it clumsily and hesitatingly: in this instance the Lama first made up to my people, and, being coolly received, kept gradually edging up to my tent-door, where, after an awkward salute, he delivered himself with a very bad grace of his mission, which was from the Lassoo Kajee to stop my progress. I told him I knew nothing of the Lassoo Kajee or his orders, and should proceed on the following morning: he then urged the bad state of the roads, and advised me to wait two days till he should receive orders from the Rajah; upon which I dismissed him.
Soon afterwards, as I sat at my tent-door, looking along the narrow bushy ridge that winds up the mountain, I saw twenty or thirty men rapidly descending the rocky path: they were Lepchas, with blue and white striped garments, bows and quivers, and with their long knives gleaming in the sun: they seemed to be following a figure in red Lama costume, with a scarlet silk handkerchief wound round his head, its ends streaming behind him. Though expecting this apparition to prove the renowned Kajee and his myrmidons, coming to put a sudden termination to my progress, I could not help admiring the exceeding picturesqueness of the scenery and party. My fears were soon dissipated by my men joyfully shouting, “The Tchebu Lama! the Tchebu Lama!” and I soon recognised the rosy face and twinkling eyes of my friend of Bhomsong, the only man of intelligence about the Rajah’s court, and the one whose services as Vakeel were particularly wanted at Dorjiling.
He told me that the Lassoo Kajee had orders (from whom, he would not say) to stop my progress, but that I should proceed nevertheless, and that there was no objection to my doing so; and he despatched a messenger to the Rajah, announcing my progress, and requesting him to send me a guide, and to grant me every facility, asserting that he had all along fully intended doing so.
TENDONG
On the following morning the Lama proceeded to Dorjiling, and I continued the ascent of Tendong, sending my men round the shoulder to Temi in the Teesta valley, where I proposed to pass the night. The road rapidly ascends by a narrow winding path, covered with a loose forest of oaks, rhododendrons, and various shrubs, not found at equal elevations on the wetter Dorjiling ranges: amongst, them the beautiful laburnum-like _Piptanthus Nepalensis,_ with golden blossoms, was conspicuous. Enormous blocks of white and red stratified quartz, and slate, some 20 and even 40 yards long, rest on the narrow ridge at 7000 feet elevation. The last ascent is up a steep rounded cone with a broad flat top, covered with dwarf bamboo, a few oaks, laurels, magnolias, and white-flowered rhododendron trees (_R. argenteum_), which obstructed the view. I hung the barometers near one of the many chaits on the summit, where there is also a rude temple, in which worship is performed once a year. The elevation is 8,671 feet by my observations.* [8,663 by Col. Waugh's trigonometrical observations.] The geological formation of Tendong in some measure accounts for its peculiar form. On the conical summit are hard quartzoze porphyries, which have apparently forced up the gneiss and slates, which dip in all directions from the top, and are full of injected veins of quartz. Below 7000 feet, mica-schist prevails, always inclined at a very high angle; and I found jasper near Namtchi, with other indications of Plutonic action.
The descent on the north side was steep, through a rank vegetation, very different from that of the south face. The oaks are very grand, and I measured one (whose trunk was decayed, and split into three, however), which I found to be 49 feet in girth at 5 feet from the ground. Near Temi (alt. 4,770 feet) I gathered the fruit of _Kadsura,_ a climbing plant allied to Magnolia, bearing round heads of large fleshy red drupes, which are pleasantly acid and much eaten; the seeds are very aromatic.
From Temi the road descends to the Teesta, the course of which it afterwards follows. The valley was fearfully hot, and infested with mosquitos and peepsas. Many fine plants grew in it:* [Especially upon the broad terraces of gravel, some of which are upwards of a mile long, and 200 feet above the stream: they are covered with boulders of rock, and are generally opposite feeders of the river.]
I especially noticed _Aristolochia saccata,_ which climbs the loftiest trees, bearing its curious pitcher-shaped flowers near the ground only; its leaves are said to be good food for cattle. _Houttuynia,_ a curious herb allied to pepper, grew on the banks, which, from the profusion of its white flowers, resembled strawberry-beds; the leaves are eaten by the Lepchas. But the most magnificent plant of these jungles is _Hodgsonia,_ (a genus I have dedicated to my friend, Mr. Hodgson), a gigantic climber allied to the gourd, bearing immense yellowish-white pendulous blossoms, whose petals have a fringe of buff-coloured curling threads, several inches long. The fruit is of a rich brown, like a small melon in form, and contains six large nuts, whose kernels (called “Katior-pot” by the Lepchas) are eaten. The stem, when cut, discharges water profusely from whichever end is held downwards. The “Took” (_Hydnocarpus_) is a beautiful evergreen tree, with tufts of yellow blossoms on the trunk: its fruit is as large as an orange, and is used to poison fish, while from the seeds an oil is expressed. Tropical oaks and Terminalias are the giants of these low forests, the latter especially, having buttressed trunks, appear truly gigantic; one, of a kind called ”Sung-lok,” measured 47 feet in girth, at 5 feet, and 21 at 15 feet from the ground, and was fully 200 feet high. I could only procure the leaves by firing a ball into the crown. Some of their trunks lay smouldering on the ground, emitting a curious smell from the mineral matter in their ashes, of whose constituents an account will be found in the Appendix.
Birds are very rare, as is all animal life but insects, and a small fresh-water crab, _Thelphusa,_ (”Ti-hi” of the Lepchas). Shells, from the absence of lime, are extremely scarce, and I scarcely picked up a single specimen: the most common are species of _Cyclostoma._ The rains commenced on the 10th of May, greatly increasing the discomforts of travelling, but moderating the heat by drenching thunder-storms, which so soaked the men’s loads, that I was obliged to halt a day in the Teesta valley to have waterproof covers made of platted bamboo-work, enclosing Phrynium leaves. I was delighted to find that my little tent was impervious to water, though its thickness was but of one layer of blanket: it was a single ridge with two poles, 7 feet high, 8 feet long, and 8 feet broad at the base, forming nearly an equilateral triangle in front.
Bhomsong was looking more beautiful than ever in its rich summer clothing of tropical foliage. I halted during an hour of heavy rain on the spot where I had spent the previous Christmas, and could not help feeling doubly lonely in a place where every rock and tree reminded me of that pleasant time. The isolation of my position, the hostility of the Dewan, and consequent uncertainty of the success of a journey that absorbed all my thoughts, the prevalence of fevers in the valleys I was traversing, and the many difficulties that beset my path, all crowded on the imagination when fevered by exertion and depressed by gloomy weather, and my spirits involuntarily sank as I counted the many miles and months intervening between me and my home.
The little flat on which I had formerly encamped was now covered with a bright green crop of young rice. The house then occupied by the Dewan was now empty and unroofed; but the suspension bridge had been repaired, and its light framework of canes, spanning the boiling flood of the Teesta, formed a graceful object in this most beautiful landscape. The temperature of the river was 58 degrees, only 7 degrees above that of mid-winter, owing to the now melting snows.
I had rather expected to meet either with a guide, or with some further obstruction here, but as none appeared, I proceeded onwards as soon as the weather moderated. Higher up, the scenery resembles that of Tchintam on the Tambur: the banks are so steep as to allow of no road, and the path ascends from the river, at 1000 feet, to Lathiang village, at 4,800 feet, up a wild, rocky torrent that descends from Mainom to the Teesta.
The cliffs here are covered with wild plantains and screw-pines (_Pandanus_), 50 feet high, that clasp the rocks with cable-like roots, and bear one or two crowns of drooping leaves, 5 feet long: two palms, Rattan (_Calamus_) and _Areca gracilis,_ penetrate thus far up the Teesta valley, but are scarcely found further. From the village the view was superb, embracing the tropical gulley below, with the flat of Bhomsong deep down in the gorge, its bright rice-fields gleaming like emeralds amid the dark vegetation that surrounded it; the Teesta winding to the southward, the pine-clad rocky top of Mainom, 10,613 feet high, to the south-west, the cone of Mount Ararat far to the south, to the north black mountains tipped with snow, and to the east the magnificent snowy range of Chola, girdling the valley of the Ryott with a diadem of frosted silver.
The coolies, each carrying upwards of 80 lb. load, had walked twelve hours that day, and besides descending 2000 feet, they had ascended nearly 4000 feet, and gone over innumerable ups and downs besides. Beyond Lathiang, a steep and dangerous path runs along the east flank of Mainom, sometimes on narrow ledges of dry rock, covered with long grass, sometimes dipping into wooded gullies, full of _Edgeworthia Gardneri_ and small trees of Andromeda and rhododendron, covered with orchids* [Especially some species of _Sunipia_ and _Cirrhopetalum,_ which have not yet been introduced into England.] of great beauty.
OPPOSITION OF LAMA
Descending to Gorh (4,100 feet), I was met by the Lama of that district, a tall, disagreeable-looking fellow, who informed me that the road ahead was impassable. The day being spent, I was obliged to camp at any rate; after which he visited me in full canonicals, bringing me a handsome present, but assuring me that he had no authority to let me advance. I treated him with civility, and regretted my objects being so imperative, and my orders so clear, that I was obliged to proceed on the following morning: on which he abruptly decamped, as I suspected, in order to damage the paths and bridges. He came again at daylight, and expostulated further; but finding it of no use, he volunteered to accompany me, officiously offering me the choice of two roads. I asked for the coolest, knowing full well that it was useless to try and out-wit him in such matters.
At the first stream the bridge was destroyed, but seeing the planks peeping through the bushes in which they had been concealed, I desired the Lama to repair it, which he did without hesitation. So it was at every point: the path was cumbered with limbs of trees, crossing-stones were removed from the streams, and all natural difficulties were increased. I kept constantly telling the Lama that as he had volunteered to show me the road, I felt sure he intended to remove all obstacles, and accordingly I put him to all the trouble I possibly could, which he took with a very indifferent grace. When I arrived at the swinging bridge across the Teesta, I found that the canes were loosened, and that slips of bamboo, so small as nearly to escape observation, were ingeniously placed low down over the single bamboo that formed the footing, intended to trip up the unwary passenger, and overturn him into the river, which was deep, and with a violent current. Whilst the Lama was cutting these, one of my party found a charcoal writing on a tree, announcing the speedy arrival from the Rajah of my old guide, Meepo; and he shortly afterwards appeared, with instructions to proceed with me, though not to the Tibetan frontier. The lateness of the season, the violence of the rains, and the fears, on the Rajah’s part, that I might suffer from fever or accident, were all urged to induce me to return, or at least only to follow the west branch of the Teesta to Kinchinjunga.
These reasons failing, I was threatened with Chinese interference on the frontier. All these objections I overruled, by refusing to recognise any instructions that were not officially communicated to the Superintendent of Dorjiling.
The Gorh Lama here took leave of me: he was a friend of the Dewan, and was rather surprised to find that the Rajah had sent me a guide, and now attempted to pass himself off as my friend, pompously charging Meepo with the care of me, and bidding me a very polite farewell. I could not help telling him civilly, but plainly, what I thought of him; and so we parted.
Meepo was very glad to join my party again: he is a thorough Lepcha in heart, a great friend of his Rajah and of Tchebu Lama, and one who both fears and hates the Dewan. He assured me of the Rajah’s good wishes and intentions, but spoke with great doubt as to the probability of a successful issue to my journey: he was himself ignorant of the road, but had brought a guide, whose appearance, however, was against him, and who turned out to be sent as a spy on us both.
Instead of crossing the Teesta here, we kept on for two days up its west bank, to a cane bridge at Lingo, where the bed of the river is still only 2000 feet above the sea, though 45 miles distant from the plains, and flowing in a valley bounded by mountains 12,000 to 16,000 feet high. The heat was oppressive, from the closeness of the atmosphere, the great power of the sun, now high at noon-day, and the reflection from the rocks. Leeches began to swarm as the damp increased, and stinging flies of various kinds. My clothes were drenched with perspiration during five hours of every day, and the crystallising salt irritated the skin. On sitting down to rest, I was overcome with languor and sleep, and, but for the copious supply of fresh water everywhere, travelling would have been intolerable.
The Coolies were all but naked, and were constantly plunging into the pools of the rivers; for, though filthy in their persons, they revel in cold water in summer. They are powerful swimmers, and will stem a very strong current, striking out with each arm alternately. It is an animated sight when twenty or thirty of these swarthy children of nature are disporting their muscular figures in the water, diving after large fish, and sometimes catching them by tickling them under the stones.
Of plants I found few not common at similar elevations below Dorjiling, except another kind of Tree-fern,* [_Alsophila spinulosa,_ the "Pugjik" of the Lepchas, who eat the soft watery pith: it is abundant in East Bengal and the Peninsula of India. The other Sikkim Tree-fern, _A. gigantea,_ is far more common from the level of the plains to 6,500 elevation, and is found as far south as Java.] whose pith is eaten in times of scarcity. The India-rubber fig penetrates thus far amongst the mountains, but is of small size. A Gentian, _Arenaria,_ and some sub-alpine plants are met with, though the elevation is only 2000 feet, and the whole climate thoroughly tropical: they were annuals usually found at 7000 to 10,000 feet elevation, and were growing here on mossy rocks, cooled by the spray of the river, whose temperature was only 56.3 degrees. My servant having severely sprained his wrist by a fall, the Lepchas wanted to apply a moxa, which they do by lighting a piece of puff-ball, or Nepal paper that burns like tinder, laying it on the skin, and blowing it till a large open sore is produced: they shook their heads at my treatment, which consisted in transferring some of the leeches from our persons to the inflamed part.
After crossing the Teesta by the cane bridge of Lingo, our route lay over a steep and lofty spur, round which the river makes a great sweep. On the ascent of this ridge we passed large villages on flats cultivated with buckwheat. The saddle is 5,500 feet high, and thence a rapid descent leads to the village of Singtam, which faces the north, and is 300 feet lower, and 3000 feet above the river, which is here no longer called the Teesta, but is known as the Lachen-Lachoong, from its double origin in the rivers of these names, which unite at Choongtam, twenty miles higher up. Of these, the source of the Lachen is in the Cholamoo lakes in Tibet; while the Lachoong rises on the south flank of Donkia mountain, both many marches north of my present position. At Singtam the Lachen-Lachoong runs westward, till joined by the Rihi from the north, and the Rinoong from the west, after receiving which it assumes the name of Teesta: of these affluents, the Rinoong is the largest, and drains the south-east face of Kinchinjunga and Pundim, and the north of Nursing: all which mountains are seen to the north-north-west of Singtam. The Rinoong valley is cultivated for several miles up, and has amongst others the village and Lamasery of Bah. Beyond this the view of black, rugged precipices with snowy mountains towering above them, is one of the finest in Sikkim. There is a pass in that direction, from Bah over the Tckonglah to the Thlonok valley, and thence to the province of Jigatzi in Tibet, but it is almost impracticable.
WILD MEN
A race of wild men, called “Harrum-mo,” are said to inhabit the head of the valley, living in the woods of a district called Mund-po, beyond Bah; they shun habitations, speak an unintelligible tongue, have more hair on the face than Lepchas, and do not plait that of their heads, but wear it in a knot; they use the bow and arrow, and eat snakes and vermin, which the Lepchas will not touch. Such is the account I have heard, and which is certainly believed in Sikkim: similar stories are very current in half civilized countries; and if this has any truth, it possibly refers to the Chepangs,* [Hodgson, in "Bengal Asiatic Society's Journal" for 1848.] a very remarkable race, of doubtful affinity and origin, inhabiting the Nepal forests.
Monday 12 October 2009
Nobel Geopolitics
October 12, 2009 1908 GMT
By George Friedman
U.S. President Barack Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize last week. Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established the prize, which was to be awarded to the person who has accomplished “the most or the best work for fraternity among nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the promotion of peace congresses.” The mechanism for awarding the peace prize is very different from the other Nobel categories. Academic bodies, such as the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, decide who wins the other prizes. Alfred Nobel’s will stated, however, that a committee of five selected by the Norwegian legislature, or Storting, should award the peace prize.
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Special Series: Obama’s Foreign Policy Landscape
The committee that awarded the peace prize to Obama consists of chairman Thorbjorn Jagland, president of the Storting and former Labor Party prime minister and foreign minister of Norway; Kaci Kullmann Five, a former member of the Storting and president of the Conservative Party; Sissel Marie Ronbeck, a former Social Democratic member of the Storting; Inger-Marie Ytterhorn, a former member of the Storting and current senior adviser to the Progress Party; and Agot Valle, a current member of the Storting and spokeswoman on foreign affairs for the Socialist Left Party.
The peace prize committee is therefore a committee of politicians, some present members of parliament, some former members of parliament. Three come from the left (Jagland, Ronbeck and Valle). Two come from the right (Kullman and Ytterhorn). It is reasonable to say that the peace prize committee faithfully reproduces the full spectrum of Norwegian politics.
A Frequently Startling Prize
Prize recipients frequently have proved startling. For example, the first U.S. president to receive the prize was Theodore Roosevelt, who received it in 1906 for helping negotiate peace between Japan and Russia. Roosevelt genuinely sought peace, but ultimately because of American fears that an unbridled Japan would threaten U.S. interests in the Pacific. He sought peace to ensure that Japan would not eliminate Russian power in the Pacific and not hold Port Arthur or any of the other prizes of the Russo-Japanese War. To achieve this peace, he implied that the United States might intervene against Japan.
In brokering negotiations to try to block Japan from exploiting its victory over the Russians, Roosevelt was engaged in pure power politics. The Japanese were in fact quite bitter at the American intervention. (For their part, the Russians were preoccupied with domestic unrest.) But a treaty emerged from the talks, and peace prevailed. Though preserving a balance of power in the Pacific motivated Roosevelt, the Nobel committee didn’t seem to care. And given that Alfred Nobel didn’t provide much guidance about his intentions for the prize, choosing Roosevelt was as reasonable as the choices for most Nobel Peace Prizes.
In recent years, the awards have gone to political dissidents the committee approved of, such as the Dalai Lama and Lech Walesa, or people supporting causes it agreed with, such as Al Gore. Others were peacemakers in the Theodore Roosevelt mode, such as Le Duc Tho and Henry Kissinger for working toward peace in Vietnam and Yasser Arafat and Yitzhak Rabin for moving toward peace between the Israelis and Palestinians.
Two things must be remembered about the Nobel Peace Prize. The first is that Nobel was never clear about his intentions for it. The second is his decision to have it awarded by politicians from — and we hope the Norwegians will accept our advance apologies — a marginal country relative to the international system. This is not meant as a criticism of Norway, a country we have enjoyed in the past, but the Norwegians sometimes have an idiosyncratic way of viewing the world.
Therefore, the award to Obama was neither more or less odd than some of the previous awards made by five Norwegian politicians no one outside of Norway had ever heard of. But his win does give us an opportunity to consider an important question, namely, why Europeans generally think so highly of Obama.
Obama and the Europeans
Let’s begin by being careful with the term European. Eastern Europeans and Russians — all Europeans — do not think very highly of him. The British are reserved on the subject. But on the whole, other Europeans west of the former Soviet satellites and south and east of the English Channel think extremely well of him, and the Norwegians are reflecting this admiration. It is important to understand why they do.
The Europeans experienced catastrophes during the 20th century. Two world wars slaughtered generations of Europeans and shattered Europe’s economy. Just after the war, much of Europe maintained standards of living not far above that of the Third World. In a sense, Europe lost everything — millions of lives, empires, even sovereignty as the United States and the Soviet Union occupied and competed in Europe. The catastrophe of the 20th century defines Europe, and what the Europeans want to get away from.
The Cold War gave Europe the opportunity to recover economically, but only in the context of occupation and the threat of war between the Soviets and Americans. A half century of Soviet occupation seared Eastern European souls. During that time, the rest of Europe lived in a paradox of growing prosperity and the apparent imminence of another war. The Europeans were not in control of whether the war would come, or where or how it would be fought. There are therefore two Europes. One, the Europe that was first occupied by Nazi Germany and then by the Soviet Union still lives in the shadow of the dual catastrophes. The other, larger Europe, lives in the shadow of the United States.
Between 1945 and 1991, Western Europe lived in a confrontation with the Soviets. The Europeans lived in dread of Soviet occupation, and though tempted, never capitulated to the Soviets. That meant that the Europeans were forced to depend on the United States for their defense and economic stability, and were therefore subject to America’s will. How the Americans and Russians viewed each other would determine whether war would break out, not what the Europeans thought.
Every aggressive action by the United States, however trivial, was magnified a hundredfold in European minds, as they considered fearfully how the Soviets would respond. In fact, the Americans were much more restrained during the Cold War than Europeans at the time thought. Looking back, the U.S. position in Europe itself was quite passive. But the European terror was that some action in the rest of the world — Cuba, the Middle East, Vietnam — would cause the Soviets to respond in Europe, costing them everything they had built up.
In the European mind, the Americans prior to 1945 were liberators. After 1945 they were protectors, but protectors who could not be trusted to avoid triggering another war through recklessness or carelessness. The theme dominating European thinking about the United States was that the Americans were too immature, too mercurial and too powerful to really be trusted. From an American point of view, these were the same Europeans who engaged in unparalleled savagery between 1914 and 1945 all on their own, and the period after 1945 — when the Americans dominated Europe — was far more peaceful and prosperous than the previous period. But the European conviction that the Europeans were the sophisticated statesmen and prudent calculators while the Americans were unsophisticated and imprudent did not require an empirical basis. It was built on another reality, which was that Europe had lost everything, including real control over its fate, and that trusting its protector to be cautious was difficult.
The Europeans loathed many presidents, e.g., Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan. Jimmy Carter was not respected. Two were liked: John F. Kennedy and Bill Clinton. Kennedy relieved them of the burden of Dwight D. Eisenhower and his dour Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, who was deeply distrusted. Clinton was liked for interesting reasons, and understanding this requires examining the post-Cold War era.
The United States and Europe After the Cold War
The year 1991 marked the end of the Cold War. For the first time since 1914, Europeans were prosperous, secure and recovering their sovereignty. The United States wanted little from the Europeans, something that delighted the Europeans. It was a rare historical moment in which the alliance existed in some institutional sense, but not in any major active form. The Balkans had to be dealt with, but those were the Balkans — not an area of major concern.
Europe could finally relax. Another world war would not erase its prosperity, and they were free from active American domination. They could shape their institutions, and they would. It was the perfect time for them, one they thought would last forever.
For the United States, 9/11 changed all that. The Europeans had deep sympathy for the United States post-Sept. 11, sympathy that was on the whole genuine. But the Europeans also believed that former U.S. President George W. Bush had overreacted to the attacks, threatening to unleash a reign of terror on them, engaging in unnecessary wars and above all not consulting them. The last claim was not altogether true: Bush frequently consulted the Europeans, but they frequently said no to his administration’s requests. The Europeans were appalled that Bush continued his policies in spite of their objections; they felt they were being dragged back into a Cold War-type situation for trivial reasons.
The Cold War revolved around Soviet domination of Europe. In the end, whatever the risks, the Cold War was worth the risk and the pain of U.S. domination. But to Europeans, the jihadist threat simply didn’t require the effort the United States was prepared to put into it. The United States seemed unsophisticated and reckless, like cowboys.
The older European view of the United States re-emerged, as did the old fear. Throughout the Cold War, the European fear was that a U.S. miscalculation would drag the Europeans into another catastrophic war. Bush’s approach to the jihadist war terrified them and deepened their resentment. Their hard-earned prosperity was in jeopardy again because of the Americans, this time for what the Europeans saw as an insufficient reason. The Americans were once again seen as overreacting, Europe’s greatest Cold War-era dread.
For Europe, prosperity had become an end in itself. It is ironic that the Europeans regard the Americans as obsessed with money when it is the Europeans who put economic considerations over all other things. But the Europeans mean something different when they talk about money. For the Europeans, money isn’t about piling it higher and higher. Instead, money is about security. Their economic goal is not to become wealthy but to be comfortable. Today’s Europeans value economic comfort above all other considerations. After Sept. 11, the United States seemed willing to take chances with the Europeans’ comfortable economic condition that the Europeans themselves didn’t want to take. They loathed George W. Bush for doing so.
Conversely, they love Obama because he took office promising to consult with them. They understood this promise in two ways. One was that in consulting the Europeans, Obama would give them veto power. Second, they understood him as being a president like Kennedy, namely, as one unwilling to take imprudent risks. How they remember Kennedy that way given the Bay of Pigs, the Cuban Missile Crisis and the coup against Diem in Vietnam is hard to fathom, but of course, many Americans remember him the same way. The Europeans compare Obama to an imaginary Kennedy, but what they really think is that he is another Clinton.
Clinton was Clinton because of the times he lived in and not because of his nature: The collapse of the Soviet Union created a peaceful interregnum in which Clinton didn’t need to make demands on Europe’s comfortable prosperity. George W. Bush lived in a different world, and that caused him to resume taking risks and making demands.
Obama does not live in the 1990s. He is facing Afghanistan, Iran and a range of other crises up to and including a rising Russia that looks uncannily similar to the old Soviet Union. It is difficult to imagine how he can face these risks without taking actions that will be counter to the European wish to be allowed to remain comfortable, and worse, without ignoring the European desire to avoid what they will see as unreasonable U.S. demands. In fact, U.S.-German relations already are not particularly good on Obama’s watch. Obama has asked for troops in Afghanistan and been turned down, and has continued to call for NATO expansion, which the Germans don’t want.
The Norwegian politicians gave their prize to Obama because they believed that he would leave Europeans in their comfortable prosperity without making unreasonable demands. That is their definition of peace, and Obama seemed to promise that. The Norwegians on the prize committee seem unaware of the course U.S.-German relations have taken, or of Afghanistan and Iran. Alternatively, perhaps they believe Obama can navigate those waters without resorting to war. In that case, it is difficult to imagine what they make of the recent talks with Iran or planning on Afghanistan.
The Norwegians awarded the Nobel Peace Prize to the president of their dreams, not the president who is dealing with Iran and Afghanistan. Obama is not a free actor. He is trapped by the reality he has found himself in, and that reality will push him far away from the Norwegian fantasy. In the end, the United States is the United States — and that is Europe’s nightmare, because the United States is not obsessed with maintaining Europe’s comfortable prosperity. The United States cannot afford to be, and in the end, neither can President Obama, Nobel Peace Prize or not.
October 12, 2009 1908 GMT
By George Friedman
U.S. President Barack Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize last week. Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established the prize, which was to be awarded to the person who has accomplished “the most or the best work for fraternity among nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the promotion of peace congresses.” The mechanism for awarding the peace prize is very different from the other Nobel categories. Academic bodies, such as the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, decide who wins the other prizes. Alfred Nobel’s will stated, however, that a committee of five selected by the Norwegian legislature, or Storting, should award the peace prize.
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The committee that awarded the peace prize to Obama consists of chairman Thorbjorn Jagland, president of the Storting and former Labor Party prime minister and foreign minister of Norway; Kaci Kullmann Five, a former member of the Storting and president of the Conservative Party; Sissel Marie Ronbeck, a former Social Democratic member of the Storting; Inger-Marie Ytterhorn, a former member of the Storting and current senior adviser to the Progress Party; and Agot Valle, a current member of the Storting and spokeswoman on foreign affairs for the Socialist Left Party.
The peace prize committee is therefore a committee of politicians, some present members of parliament, some former members of parliament. Three come from the left (Jagland, Ronbeck and Valle). Two come from the right (Kullman and Ytterhorn). It is reasonable to say that the peace prize committee faithfully reproduces the full spectrum of Norwegian politics.
A Frequently Startling Prize
Prize recipients frequently have proved startling. For example, the first U.S. president to receive the prize was Theodore Roosevelt, who received it in 1906 for helping negotiate peace between Japan and Russia. Roosevelt genuinely sought peace, but ultimately because of American fears that an unbridled Japan would threaten U.S. interests in the Pacific. He sought peace to ensure that Japan would not eliminate Russian power in the Pacific and not hold Port Arthur or any of the other prizes of the Russo-Japanese War. To achieve this peace, he implied that the United States might intervene against Japan.
In brokering negotiations to try to block Japan from exploiting its victory over the Russians, Roosevelt was engaged in pure power politics. The Japanese were in fact quite bitter at the American intervention. (For their part, the Russians were preoccupied with domestic unrest.) But a treaty emerged from the talks, and peace prevailed. Though preserving a balance of power in the Pacific motivated Roosevelt, the Nobel committee didn’t seem to care. And given that Alfred Nobel didn’t provide much guidance about his intentions for the prize, choosing Roosevelt was as reasonable as the choices for most Nobel Peace Prizes.
In recent years, the awards have gone to political dissidents the committee approved of, such as the Dalai Lama and Lech Walesa, or people supporting causes it agreed with, such as Al Gore. Others were peacemakers in the Theodore Roosevelt mode, such as Le Duc Tho and Henry Kissinger for working toward peace in Vietnam and Yasser Arafat and Yitzhak Rabin for moving toward peace between the Israelis and Palestinians.
Two things must be remembered about the Nobel Peace Prize. The first is that Nobel was never clear about his intentions for it. The second is his decision to have it awarded by politicians from — and we hope the Norwegians will accept our advance apologies — a marginal country relative to the international system. This is not meant as a criticism of Norway, a country we have enjoyed in the past, but the Norwegians sometimes have an idiosyncratic way of viewing the world.
Therefore, the award to Obama was neither more or less odd than some of the previous awards made by five Norwegian politicians no one outside of Norway had ever heard of. But his win does give us an opportunity to consider an important question, namely, why Europeans generally think so highly of Obama.
Obama and the Europeans
Let’s begin by being careful with the term European. Eastern Europeans and Russians — all Europeans — do not think very highly of him. The British are reserved on the subject. But on the whole, other Europeans west of the former Soviet satellites and south and east of the English Channel think extremely well of him, and the Norwegians are reflecting this admiration. It is important to understand why they do.
The Europeans experienced catastrophes during the 20th century. Two world wars slaughtered generations of Europeans and shattered Europe’s economy. Just after the war, much of Europe maintained standards of living not far above that of the Third World. In a sense, Europe lost everything — millions of lives, empires, even sovereignty as the United States and the Soviet Union occupied and competed in Europe. The catastrophe of the 20th century defines Europe, and what the Europeans want to get away from.
The Cold War gave Europe the opportunity to recover economically, but only in the context of occupation and the threat of war between the Soviets and Americans. A half century of Soviet occupation seared Eastern European souls. During that time, the rest of Europe lived in a paradox of growing prosperity and the apparent imminence of another war. The Europeans were not in control of whether the war would come, or where or how it would be fought. There are therefore two Europes. One, the Europe that was first occupied by Nazi Germany and then by the Soviet Union still lives in the shadow of the dual catastrophes. The other, larger Europe, lives in the shadow of the United States.
Between 1945 and 1991, Western Europe lived in a confrontation with the Soviets. The Europeans lived in dread of Soviet occupation, and though tempted, never capitulated to the Soviets. That meant that the Europeans were forced to depend on the United States for their defense and economic stability, and were therefore subject to America’s will. How the Americans and Russians viewed each other would determine whether war would break out, not what the Europeans thought.
Every aggressive action by the United States, however trivial, was magnified a hundredfold in European minds, as they considered fearfully how the Soviets would respond. In fact, the Americans were much more restrained during the Cold War than Europeans at the time thought. Looking back, the U.S. position in Europe itself was quite passive. But the European terror was that some action in the rest of the world — Cuba, the Middle East, Vietnam — would cause the Soviets to respond in Europe, costing them everything they had built up.
In the European mind, the Americans prior to 1945 were liberators. After 1945 they were protectors, but protectors who could not be trusted to avoid triggering another war through recklessness or carelessness. The theme dominating European thinking about the United States was that the Americans were too immature, too mercurial and too powerful to really be trusted. From an American point of view, these were the same Europeans who engaged in unparalleled savagery between 1914 and 1945 all on their own, and the period after 1945 — when the Americans dominated Europe — was far more peaceful and prosperous than the previous period. But the European conviction that the Europeans were the sophisticated statesmen and prudent calculators while the Americans were unsophisticated and imprudent did not require an empirical basis. It was built on another reality, which was that Europe had lost everything, including real control over its fate, and that trusting its protector to be cautious was difficult.
The Europeans loathed many presidents, e.g., Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan. Jimmy Carter was not respected. Two were liked: John F. Kennedy and Bill Clinton. Kennedy relieved them of the burden of Dwight D. Eisenhower and his dour Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, who was deeply distrusted. Clinton was liked for interesting reasons, and understanding this requires examining the post-Cold War era.
The United States and Europe After the Cold War
The year 1991 marked the end of the Cold War. For the first time since 1914, Europeans were prosperous, secure and recovering their sovereignty. The United States wanted little from the Europeans, something that delighted the Europeans. It was a rare historical moment in which the alliance existed in some institutional sense, but not in any major active form. The Balkans had to be dealt with, but those were the Balkans — not an area of major concern.
Europe could finally relax. Another world war would not erase its prosperity, and they were free from active American domination. They could shape their institutions, and they would. It was the perfect time for them, one they thought would last forever.
For the United States, 9/11 changed all that. The Europeans had deep sympathy for the United States post-Sept. 11, sympathy that was on the whole genuine. But the Europeans also believed that former U.S. President George W. Bush had overreacted to the attacks, threatening to unleash a reign of terror on them, engaging in unnecessary wars and above all not consulting them. The last claim was not altogether true: Bush frequently consulted the Europeans, but they frequently said no to his administration’s requests. The Europeans were appalled that Bush continued his policies in spite of their objections; they felt they were being dragged back into a Cold War-type situation for trivial reasons.
The Cold War revolved around Soviet domination of Europe. In the end, whatever the risks, the Cold War was worth the risk and the pain of U.S. domination. But to Europeans, the jihadist threat simply didn’t require the effort the United States was prepared to put into it. The United States seemed unsophisticated and reckless, like cowboys.
The older European view of the United States re-emerged, as did the old fear. Throughout the Cold War, the European fear was that a U.S. miscalculation would drag the Europeans into another catastrophic war. Bush’s approach to the jihadist war terrified them and deepened their resentment. Their hard-earned prosperity was in jeopardy again because of the Americans, this time for what the Europeans saw as an insufficient reason. The Americans were once again seen as overreacting, Europe’s greatest Cold War-era dread.
For Europe, prosperity had become an end in itself. It is ironic that the Europeans regard the Americans as obsessed with money when it is the Europeans who put economic considerations over all other things. But the Europeans mean something different when they talk about money. For the Europeans, money isn’t about piling it higher and higher. Instead, money is about security. Their economic goal is not to become wealthy but to be comfortable. Today’s Europeans value economic comfort above all other considerations. After Sept. 11, the United States seemed willing to take chances with the Europeans’ comfortable economic condition that the Europeans themselves didn’t want to take. They loathed George W. Bush for doing so.
Conversely, they love Obama because he took office promising to consult with them. They understood this promise in two ways. One was that in consulting the Europeans, Obama would give them veto power. Second, they understood him as being a president like Kennedy, namely, as one unwilling to take imprudent risks. How they remember Kennedy that way given the Bay of Pigs, the Cuban Missile Crisis and the coup against Diem in Vietnam is hard to fathom, but of course, many Americans remember him the same way. The Europeans compare Obama to an imaginary Kennedy, but what they really think is that he is another Clinton.
Clinton was Clinton because of the times he lived in and not because of his nature: The collapse of the Soviet Union created a peaceful interregnum in which Clinton didn’t need to make demands on Europe’s comfortable prosperity. George W. Bush lived in a different world, and that caused him to resume taking risks and making demands.
Obama does not live in the 1990s. He is facing Afghanistan, Iran and a range of other crises up to and including a rising Russia that looks uncannily similar to the old Soviet Union. It is difficult to imagine how he can face these risks without taking actions that will be counter to the European wish to be allowed to remain comfortable, and worse, without ignoring the European desire to avoid what they will see as unreasonable U.S. demands. In fact, U.S.-German relations already are not particularly good on Obama’s watch. Obama has asked for troops in Afghanistan and been turned down, and has continued to call for NATO expansion, which the Germans don’t want.
The Norwegian politicians gave their prize to Obama because they believed that he would leave Europeans in their comfortable prosperity without making unreasonable demands. That is their definition of peace, and Obama seemed to promise that. The Norwegians on the prize committee seem unaware of the course U.S.-German relations have taken, or of Afghanistan and Iran. Alternatively, perhaps they believe Obama can navigate those waters without resorting to war. In that case, it is difficult to imagine what they make of the recent talks with Iran or planning on Afghanistan.
The Norwegians awarded the Nobel Peace Prize to the president of their dreams, not the president who is dealing with Iran and Afghanistan. Obama is not a free actor. He is trapped by the reality he has found himself in, and that reality will push him far away from the Norwegian fantasy. In the end, the United States is the United States — and that is Europe’s nightmare, because the United States is not obsessed with maintaining Europe’s comfortable prosperity. The United States cannot afford to be, and in the end, neither can President Obama, Nobel Peace Prize or not.
How Much Leverage Does China Have?
Prof. Peter Morici
8/7/2009
U.S.-China talks won’t accomplish much on economic issues because the Obama Administration is reluctant to push China on its purposeful manipulation of currency markets and undervaluation of the yuan.Analysts argue, and the White House seems to agree, that the United States can’t push China much on the yuan or on many other issues, because it buys so much U.S. debt. That is silly.Each month China buys dollars with yuan printed by the People’s Bank of China to keep the value of the yuan low. In turn, this creates two things—a huge trade surplus with the United States and a large addition to China’s dollar holdings. China holds more than $2 trillion in foreign currency, mostly dollars, and has limited options for investing additional dollars. Essentially, it must hold those dollars or put them into Treasuries and other U.S. debt instruments. If it had other options, it would already be using them.If China chooses to buy U.S. Treasuries with its monthly additions to its dollar hoard, it gets interest. If it chooses not to buy U.S. Treasuries, it will be stuck with dollars that do not pay interest and those dollars will be removed from circulation. In turn, the Federal Reserve can simply replace those dollars in circulation by buying the Treasuries that China chooses not to purchase. In the end, China does not get the interest and the Federal Reserve does—meaning the United States does not pay interest on the debt. By statute, all the interest on those Federal Reserve purchases of additional Treasuries must be remitted back to the Treasury.If China does not want to buy the Treasuries, so what! They can paper the walls of the Peoples Bank of China with them—it would have no effect.Of course, China could dump those dollars on world currency markets, but the resulting adjustments in currency values would be much more damaging to China’s export economy than any consequences felt here. That damage to China’s export economy would cause unemployment and likely social unrest of a scope and duration the Communist Party could not tolerate.It would be better for China to cooperate with the United States and undertake an orderly revaluation of the yuan to a level that eliminates its trade surplus over a period of three years. That would be plenty of time for everyone to adjust.In the end, China only has the leverage President Obama gives it.
(Prof. Peter Morici teaches at Robert H. Smith School of Business at University of Maryland.)
Prof. Peter Morici
8/7/2009
U.S.-China talks won’t accomplish much on economic issues because the Obama Administration is reluctant to push China on its purposeful manipulation of currency markets and undervaluation of the yuan.Analysts argue, and the White House seems to agree, that the United States can’t push China much on the yuan or on many other issues, because it buys so much U.S. debt. That is silly.Each month China buys dollars with yuan printed by the People’s Bank of China to keep the value of the yuan low. In turn, this creates two things—a huge trade surplus with the United States and a large addition to China’s dollar holdings. China holds more than $2 trillion in foreign currency, mostly dollars, and has limited options for investing additional dollars. Essentially, it must hold those dollars or put them into Treasuries and other U.S. debt instruments. If it had other options, it would already be using them.If China chooses to buy U.S. Treasuries with its monthly additions to its dollar hoard, it gets interest. If it chooses not to buy U.S. Treasuries, it will be stuck with dollars that do not pay interest and those dollars will be removed from circulation. In turn, the Federal Reserve can simply replace those dollars in circulation by buying the Treasuries that China chooses not to purchase. In the end, China does not get the interest and the Federal Reserve does—meaning the United States does not pay interest on the debt. By statute, all the interest on those Federal Reserve purchases of additional Treasuries must be remitted back to the Treasury.If China does not want to buy the Treasuries, so what! They can paper the walls of the Peoples Bank of China with them—it would have no effect.Of course, China could dump those dollars on world currency markets, but the resulting adjustments in currency values would be much more damaging to China’s export economy than any consequences felt here. That damage to China’s export economy would cause unemployment and likely social unrest of a scope and duration the Communist Party could not tolerate.It would be better for China to cooperate with the United States and undertake an orderly revaluation of the yuan to a level that eliminates its trade surplus over a period of three years. That would be plenty of time for everyone to adjust.In the end, China only has the leverage President Obama gives it.
(Prof. Peter Morici teaches at Robert H. Smith School of Business at University of Maryland.)
Is China behind Musen’s intrusion to Indian Waters?
Rajaram Panda, Ph.D.
8/19/2009
The North Korean issue has finally haunted the Indian shores. As international noose begins to tighten on North Korea following its nuke tests and missile launches, its belligerent behaviour does not show any sign of waning. North Korea has remained under suspect for its nuclear links with Iran and Myanmar. Now the news that a North Korean merchant vessel MV Musen dropped anchor just five km off Hut Bay Island in Little Andamon without authorization has surprised the Indian authorities. The Indian Coast Guard detained the ‘suspicious’ North Korean ship on 6 August 2009 after more than six hours of high drama that ended with Indian sailors firing in the air. The question that puzzles security analysts in India is why did the vessel violate international law and come to India’s territorial water without permission. Given the close liaison with China, is it a Chinese ploy to use the North Korean vessel to engage in surveillance activities? Though it would be hard to get into the truth, this possibility cannot be discounted, given that China’s maritime ambition is too huge. Though, as admitted by Navy Chief Admiral Sureesh Mehta in a speech on 10 August 2009, Indian Navy is no match to the Chinese Navy in terms of capability, India obviously cannot remain as a mute spectator if illegal activities take place in its neighbourhood. No wonder, Admiral Mehta said that “the North Korean vessel had no business being there”.The suspect ship, with 39 sailors onboard, was escorted to Port Blair for further investigations. The paperwork onboard the Musen was found to be incomplete. Though the cargo ship’s captain claimed during interrogation that the vessel had anchored due to a mechanical fault, maritime agencies rarely would take chances with North Korean ships, thanks to Pyongyang’s track record on proliferation of nuclear and missile technology.According to K.R. Nautiyal, DIG, Coast Guard, Andaman and Nicobar Region, several things were amiss about Musen, which declared during interrogation that it was carrying 16,500 tonnes of sugar from Thailand to Umm Qasr in Iraq. Even if the vessel was carrying genuine merchandise, it should have responded when the Indian Coast Guard plane flew over Musen. The very fact that Coast Guard vessel Kanakalata Barua had to fire twice in the air after nearing the spot when Musen tried to move out gave ground for suspicion.It is widely known that North Korean vessels have been found to be carrying nuclear or missile-related cargo in the past for regimes pursuing clandestine nuclear programmes. North Korea itself is a recipient of clandestine transfers of weapons technology and materials from China and since then, it has emerged as a major source of proliferation. Its alleged clientele include Pakistan, Syria, Iran, and now Myanmar. In June 2009, the US military tracked one such “proliferator” ship, Kang Nam, along the coast of China. Kang Nam was believed to be sailing towards Myanmar, suddenly turned back towards home, though Pyongyang had made belligerent statement that it would consider it as an act of war if the Kang Nam is detained and searched by any country during its journey. India is not shy of detecting erring vessels if they intrude into Indian waters. In 1999, when the Kargil conflict with Pakistan was at its peak, North Korean vessel MV Ku Wol San was impounded off the Kandla port and found to be carrying 177 tonnes of missile compon3e4nts, blueprints and manuals, even though the ship’s manifest claimed it was carrying 13,000 tonnes of sugar and water purification equipment. Ku Wol San was seized on 29 June 1999, after tip-offs that it was transporting missile and nuclear components to Pakistan’s Karachi port, even though North Korea claimed the consignment was headed for Malta.Indian authorities are investigating the unscheduled stop of the vessel. Musen left Laem Chabang port in Thailand on 27 July, made an unscheduled stop at Singapore on 30 July, left Singapore the following day without stamping done, and dropped anchor at Hut Bay Island of Andaman and Nicobar Islands. There are several dimensions that need to be probed. Musen had made several voyages between North Korea and China without maintaining proper records. The ship had also berthed in Singapore in June, though the log book does not show it. After the vessel was detained and the captain questioned, it emerged that the ship dropped anchor off Hut Bay on 5 August without anybody noticing for almost two days. Why were the passports of crew members not stamped in Singapore? This seems to be the most sensational security breach since the Mumbai attack on 26 September 2008.There were several inconsistencies in the statements made during interrogation. The initial claim of mechanical snag that forced the captain to drop anchor at Hut Bay turned out to be false. Later, the captain said that the vessel’s destination (Iraq) was changed midway and he was asked to drop anchor somewhere till the new destination was decided. When asked why the vessel tried to escape, the captain said he mistook Kanakalata Barua for a pirate vessel. The captain also said that the impromptu change in schedule was made in order to take the cargo to Kakinada. Though merchant vessels do change course sometimes, there was no satisfactory explanation in this case. According to Interocean, the Delhi-based agent of the ship in India, Kakinada was not a port of call for Musen on this voyage. In fact, Interocean knew about Musen’s intended journey to Kakinada from the Coast Guard only after it was detained. The fact that the vessel ventured into the isolated stretch, which is mostly avoided because of its strong currents, evoked legitimate suspicion.Myanmar LinkAs North Korea is suspected of helping Myanmar’s bomb-making program and Pakistani scientists are allegedly boosting Myanmar’s nuclear ambitions, India has legitimate reasons to worry of a possible nuclear alliance between Myanmar and Pakistan. In such a scenario, peace and stability in South Asia will be disturbed.UN member states are authorized to inspect North Korea sea, air and land cargo, and seize and destroy any goods transported in violation of a Security Council resolution in June 2009 following North’s nuclear tests. The search is in compliance with the UN resolution.The Indian external intelligence is believed to have “definite reports” that North Korea was transferring equipment and material to Myanmar to help it build a nuclear reactor. India is trying to find out whether the Musen was anywhere near Myanmar. New Delhi is wary of a possible North Korea-Myanmar nuclear cooperation and had therefore stepped up security near the Andaman Islands, which is close to Myanmar. With increasing reports of North Korea helping Myanmar build a nuclear reactor, India would have the legitimate right to check any vessel floating in Indian waters without a possible reason. It was the first time a ship has been seized and boarded under sanctions adopted by the UN Security Council in June 2009. The UNSC Resolution, intended to punish North Korea for its nuclear test, forbids North Korea to traffic in a wide range of nuclear and conventional weaponry and calls on UN members to search North Korean ships, with crews’ consent, if there are “reasonable grounds” to suspect that banned cargo is abroad. North Korea, which walked out of the Six-Party Talks aimed at reining in its nuclear weapons programme, fired a barrage of short-range missiles in launch tests in May 2009 and exploded a nuclear device on 25 May 2009, is facing tougher UN sanctions. It is likely to face more international pressure in the coming months. Pyongyang seems to have realized that the eyes of the world are on them. The incident in Andaman and Nicobar Islands, India’s territory in the Bay of Bengal, shows that it is getting more pressure from countries around the world. (1,301 words)
(Rajaram Panda, Ph.D. is a Senior Fellow at the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, New Delhi, a premier think tank on security and defence related issues, in India.)
Rajaram Panda, Ph.D.
8/19/2009
The North Korean issue has finally haunted the Indian shores. As international noose begins to tighten on North Korea following its nuke tests and missile launches, its belligerent behaviour does not show any sign of waning. North Korea has remained under suspect for its nuclear links with Iran and Myanmar. Now the news that a North Korean merchant vessel MV Musen dropped anchor just five km off Hut Bay Island in Little Andamon without authorization has surprised the Indian authorities. The Indian Coast Guard detained the ‘suspicious’ North Korean ship on 6 August 2009 after more than six hours of high drama that ended with Indian sailors firing in the air. The question that puzzles security analysts in India is why did the vessel violate international law and come to India’s territorial water without permission. Given the close liaison with China, is it a Chinese ploy to use the North Korean vessel to engage in surveillance activities? Though it would be hard to get into the truth, this possibility cannot be discounted, given that China’s maritime ambition is too huge. Though, as admitted by Navy Chief Admiral Sureesh Mehta in a speech on 10 August 2009, Indian Navy is no match to the Chinese Navy in terms of capability, India obviously cannot remain as a mute spectator if illegal activities take place in its neighbourhood. No wonder, Admiral Mehta said that “the North Korean vessel had no business being there”.The suspect ship, with 39 sailors onboard, was escorted to Port Blair for further investigations. The paperwork onboard the Musen was found to be incomplete. Though the cargo ship’s captain claimed during interrogation that the vessel had anchored due to a mechanical fault, maritime agencies rarely would take chances with North Korean ships, thanks to Pyongyang’s track record on proliferation of nuclear and missile technology.According to K.R. Nautiyal, DIG, Coast Guard, Andaman and Nicobar Region, several things were amiss about Musen, which declared during interrogation that it was carrying 16,500 tonnes of sugar from Thailand to Umm Qasr in Iraq. Even if the vessel was carrying genuine merchandise, it should have responded when the Indian Coast Guard plane flew over Musen. The very fact that Coast Guard vessel Kanakalata Barua had to fire twice in the air after nearing the spot when Musen tried to move out gave ground for suspicion.It is widely known that North Korean vessels have been found to be carrying nuclear or missile-related cargo in the past for regimes pursuing clandestine nuclear programmes. North Korea itself is a recipient of clandestine transfers of weapons technology and materials from China and since then, it has emerged as a major source of proliferation. Its alleged clientele include Pakistan, Syria, Iran, and now Myanmar. In June 2009, the US military tracked one such “proliferator” ship, Kang Nam, along the coast of China. Kang Nam was believed to be sailing towards Myanmar, suddenly turned back towards home, though Pyongyang had made belligerent statement that it would consider it as an act of war if the Kang Nam is detained and searched by any country during its journey. India is not shy of detecting erring vessels if they intrude into Indian waters. In 1999, when the Kargil conflict with Pakistan was at its peak, North Korean vessel MV Ku Wol San was impounded off the Kandla port and found to be carrying 177 tonnes of missile compon3e4nts, blueprints and manuals, even though the ship’s manifest claimed it was carrying 13,000 tonnes of sugar and water purification equipment. Ku Wol San was seized on 29 June 1999, after tip-offs that it was transporting missile and nuclear components to Pakistan’s Karachi port, even though North Korea claimed the consignment was headed for Malta.Indian authorities are investigating the unscheduled stop of the vessel. Musen left Laem Chabang port in Thailand on 27 July, made an unscheduled stop at Singapore on 30 July, left Singapore the following day without stamping done, and dropped anchor at Hut Bay Island of Andaman and Nicobar Islands. There are several dimensions that need to be probed. Musen had made several voyages between North Korea and China without maintaining proper records. The ship had also berthed in Singapore in June, though the log book does not show it. After the vessel was detained and the captain questioned, it emerged that the ship dropped anchor off Hut Bay on 5 August without anybody noticing for almost two days. Why were the passports of crew members not stamped in Singapore? This seems to be the most sensational security breach since the Mumbai attack on 26 September 2008.There were several inconsistencies in the statements made during interrogation. The initial claim of mechanical snag that forced the captain to drop anchor at Hut Bay turned out to be false. Later, the captain said that the vessel’s destination (Iraq) was changed midway and he was asked to drop anchor somewhere till the new destination was decided. When asked why the vessel tried to escape, the captain said he mistook Kanakalata Barua for a pirate vessel. The captain also said that the impromptu change in schedule was made in order to take the cargo to Kakinada. Though merchant vessels do change course sometimes, there was no satisfactory explanation in this case. According to Interocean, the Delhi-based agent of the ship in India, Kakinada was not a port of call for Musen on this voyage. In fact, Interocean knew about Musen’s intended journey to Kakinada from the Coast Guard only after it was detained. The fact that the vessel ventured into the isolated stretch, which is mostly avoided because of its strong currents, evoked legitimate suspicion.Myanmar LinkAs North Korea is suspected of helping Myanmar’s bomb-making program and Pakistani scientists are allegedly boosting Myanmar’s nuclear ambitions, India has legitimate reasons to worry of a possible nuclear alliance between Myanmar and Pakistan. In such a scenario, peace and stability in South Asia will be disturbed.UN member states are authorized to inspect North Korea sea, air and land cargo, and seize and destroy any goods transported in violation of a Security Council resolution in June 2009 following North’s nuclear tests. The search is in compliance with the UN resolution.The Indian external intelligence is believed to have “definite reports” that North Korea was transferring equipment and material to Myanmar to help it build a nuclear reactor. India is trying to find out whether the Musen was anywhere near Myanmar. New Delhi is wary of a possible North Korea-Myanmar nuclear cooperation and had therefore stepped up security near the Andaman Islands, which is close to Myanmar. With increasing reports of North Korea helping Myanmar build a nuclear reactor, India would have the legitimate right to check any vessel floating in Indian waters without a possible reason. It was the first time a ship has been seized and boarded under sanctions adopted by the UN Security Council in June 2009. The UNSC Resolution, intended to punish North Korea for its nuclear test, forbids North Korea to traffic in a wide range of nuclear and conventional weaponry and calls on UN members to search North Korean ships, with crews’ consent, if there are “reasonable grounds” to suspect that banned cargo is abroad. North Korea, which walked out of the Six-Party Talks aimed at reining in its nuclear weapons programme, fired a barrage of short-range missiles in launch tests in May 2009 and exploded a nuclear device on 25 May 2009, is facing tougher UN sanctions. It is likely to face more international pressure in the coming months. Pyongyang seems to have realized that the eyes of the world are on them. The incident in Andaman and Nicobar Islands, India’s territory in the Bay of Bengal, shows that it is getting more pressure from countries around the world. (1,301 words)
(Rajaram Panda, Ph.D. is a Senior Fellow at the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, New Delhi, a premier think tank on security and defence related issues, in India.)
Will China go for Limited War under nuclear umbrella against India?
bY Neha Kumar
10/12/2009
China continues to be a cause of worry for India despite of rapidly growing trade relationship between the two countries. India’s total trade to China has crossed US $ 13.6 billion with Indian exports to China touching to $ 7677.43 million and imports from China at $ 5926.67 million. The political relationships between the two countries are always tense due to China’s continuous claim over Indian Territory, especially Arunachal Pradesh. Recently, there have been reports that Chinese troops have entered into 1.5km into Indian Territory in Ladakh and put red paint marks written as ‘China’ on boulders and stones. This is not the first time when China has violated LAC. According to Indian defence officials, there were 270 line of control violations by the People’s Liberation Army and 2,285 instances of ‘aggressive border patrolling’ in the last year. Soon after news of China’s intrusion in Ladakh, India declared its plan for converting Andaman and Nicobar Island into a military base, which will consist of Nuclear Submarine base at South Andaman, Permanent Sukhoi base at car Andaman, Aircraft carrier base, Permanent Tactical Vertical Recon Base at Campbell Bay and also expansion of INS Kardip Advance Naval Base at Nicobar. India is also bringing up its tanks in mountains of Sikkim and also deploying two additional army mountain divisions and two squadrons of the advanced Sukhoi 30 MKI bomber aircraft in Assam which is backed by three airborne early warning and control systems.
However, the question is whether there can be repeat of Sino-Indian 1962 war given the fact that both countries are recognised as nuclear weapon state . Clausewitz has done a remarkable work on limited war and has specified the conditions under which a state could opt for limited war, as mentioned below: a) Clausewitz said that vital interests of state calls for unlimited war while secondary interests of state call for limited war which involve limited investment and limited use of resources. Thus, the importance of belligerents’ stakes in the war as defined by their political leaders as well as their reciprocal interaction determines whether the war remains limited in scope. b) The availability of relative strength of the belligerents also determines whether to go for limited war or full scale war. c) The third reason given is that limited war will happen if defending side has no incentive to wage a war or when weaker side is attacked by the stronger one.
In such cases, the weaker side will try to wage a war at the lowest possible cost.d) If the objective of states is only to occupy a relative amount of territory, it will wage a limited war. Clausewitz also mentioned that limited offensives will strengthen the attacker if the territory to be acquired is adjacent to it. However, the attacker would be weaken if the territory to be acquired is non-contiguous.However, what Clausewitz has ignored is the technological development which force states to go for limited war. It was noted by Liddle Hart and he mentioned that ‘Where both sides have atomic power, total wars make nonsense and any unlimited war fought by nuclear weapons would be worse than nonsense, it will be mutually suicidal.’ The possession of nuclear weapons is one of the reasons for keeping warfare limited.
South Asia faced limited war under nuclear umbrella with Pakistan during Kargil conflict.
However, the question is that whether China will go for limited war so as to achieve its territorial aims in India. Regarding China, it has some history of waging limited warfare to achieve its aim of ‘national unification.’ China had border skirmish with Russia in 1969 for Island in river Ussari and also it fought a limited war with Vietnam in 1979 over the issue of Cambodia. Similarly, Sino-India 1962 war also came under the category of limited war which was fought on India’s north east border. Therefore, there are examples from history which shows that China has interest in waging limited war to achieve its territorial aims. However, the present situation is much different from what was during cold war. Applying Cluasewitz reasons, one can see draw following conclusions: a) The first requirement for limited war is based on vital interests or secondary interests of the state on the basis of which state will decide whether to go for limited war or full scale conventional war. It is important to note here that China regards its ‘national reunification’ as most important goal and for achieving it China is going for rapid economic and military modernisation. China considers Tibet as palm which has five fingers namely, Nepal,
Sikkim, Bhutan, NEFA (Arunachal Pradesh) and Ladakh. They consider it has ‘an integral part of Han physique.’ Out of these, three belongs to India (Sikkim, Arunchal Pradesh and Ladakh). Beside this, China also claims Andaman and Nicobar Island and also tried to have its influence into Indian Ocean. This refuted two of the requirements for limited war, i.e. limited war on secondary interests and claim over limited territory. China regards this unification plan as ‘vital’ to its security interests and not as of secondary importance. b) The next reason for going for limited war is availability of limited resources. It is to note here that China is superior to India in both the realm of conventional and nuclear weapons. China has invested its resources to obtain such supremacy. Also, from economical viewpoint, China is more developed than India.
Therefore, there is no such limitation of resources from China’s view point. c) The fourth reason given above is that weaker side is attacked by stronger side and former wage limited war. This is also not applicable to India-China case because the ladder of escalation lies in the hands of China and not in the hand of India. It will be China who will be in the position to decide whether to go for limited war or for full scale conventional war. In addition to this, China’s strategy does not aim at waging limited warfare against India. China is encircling India by having close relationship with Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. China is in fact taking advantage of the loopholes in the relationship between India and its neighboring countries. China is investing lot in having good relationship with all these countries and it would not invest so much of energies and resources just to wage a limited war against India. Now, coming to the question whether China could wage a full scale when both states possess nuclear weapons. One can find answer of this question by putting situations in the context of game theory.
Here, there are two players and there payoffs wary from 0 to 4, 0 being the worst outcome and 4 being the best outcome for each player. It is described below: State BCooperate Don’t Cooperate Cooperate 3,3 2, 4 Don’t Cooperate 4,2 0,0 State A Here, if both states cooperate, status quo will prevail (3, 3). If one state cooperate but other not, the non-cooperative state win game (2, 4) while if both states decide not to cooperate with each other war occurs giving worst outcome (0, 0). However, the advantage of state lies when they do not cooperate while other cooperates. Here each state prefer status quo to the winning of other state and prefers wining of other state to war. This can be seen from the following equation. Status Quo > Wining of adversary >War If applied to the decision for the China to wage full scale conventional war, we can see it has following options: (1) Do not wage war but continue to claim territories and try to influence these areas by using soft powers or by supporting insurgencies in India. (This has been already done but it does not provide full scale control of China on these territories) (2) Do not wage war and gave up its claim on Indian territories (This will fuel domestic opposition of Chinese people against their own government. This option is very unlikely as it is well known that China seldom gave up its claim on territories) (3) Wage limited war and obtain these territories ( This will avoid nuclear war and also gave China a chance to completely assimilate these territories into China) (4) Wage full scale war and obtain these territories (There is fear of nuclear weapon use under such circumstances. If china uses nuclear weapons, these territories will be damaged and will be of no use to China. It will also gave rise to international criticism of China’s behavior and may also involve the US) From the above analysis, it is clear that it would be irrational for China to go for full scale war under nuclear umbrella. The question than arise that why China is projecting that it is preparing for some big conflict and not for limited war. The strategy of China is to have limited warfare (due to presence of nuclear weapons) and than to escalate it to full scale conventional war depending on the circumstances. China would give India two options: to give up limited war and loose territories or else china will escalate it to a high level causing large scale economic and civilian damage to India. China will wage limited war only because of presence of nuclear weapons in the continent. However, it will not hesitate to go for full scale war if its interests are not achieved. The reason is that China can go to any level to achieve its aim of national unification which is vital to its security interests. It is true that India’s defence preparedness could be compared to 1962 war. However, China stands superior to India in the realm of conventional weapons. India is also facing shortage of army officers which make the condition much worse. In case, India try to struggle with China or try to escalate the issue at international level, China will definitely gave threat of its nuclear weapons. China is even making itself strong enough to deal with any interference of the US. China has carried out military exercises involving 50,000 troops mainly by keeping the US in mind. China is also accumulating oil which is important for wining war in modern times. China has also planning to have DF-41 missile by October 2009 which pose threat to the US. Therefore, China wants to resist all the interference by the US while achieving its territorial aims. China has constructed a grand strategy to achieve its so called ‘national unification’ and also to keep the US at bay. The problem with India is that it continues to ignore military threat coming from China and depend lot on the US and other international community in case of any conflict. India should understand that China is not like Pakistan which will bow before the diplomatic pressure of the US. The only option before India is only to have good conventional forces along with nuclear weapons so that it can wage successful limited war against China. It is high time for India to realise military threat coming from its neighborhood and to prepare itself for such contingencies.
bY Neha Kumar
10/12/2009
China continues to be a cause of worry for India despite of rapidly growing trade relationship between the two countries. India’s total trade to China has crossed US $ 13.6 billion with Indian exports to China touching to $ 7677.43 million and imports from China at $ 5926.67 million. The political relationships between the two countries are always tense due to China’s continuous claim over Indian Territory, especially Arunachal Pradesh. Recently, there have been reports that Chinese troops have entered into 1.5km into Indian Territory in Ladakh and put red paint marks written as ‘China’ on boulders and stones. This is not the first time when China has violated LAC. According to Indian defence officials, there were 270 line of control violations by the People’s Liberation Army and 2,285 instances of ‘aggressive border patrolling’ in the last year. Soon after news of China’s intrusion in Ladakh, India declared its plan for converting Andaman and Nicobar Island into a military base, which will consist of Nuclear Submarine base at South Andaman, Permanent Sukhoi base at car Andaman, Aircraft carrier base, Permanent Tactical Vertical Recon Base at Campbell Bay and also expansion of INS Kardip Advance Naval Base at Nicobar. India is also bringing up its tanks in mountains of Sikkim and also deploying two additional army mountain divisions and two squadrons of the advanced Sukhoi 30 MKI bomber aircraft in Assam which is backed by three airborne early warning and control systems.
However, the question is whether there can be repeat of Sino-Indian 1962 war given the fact that both countries are recognised as nuclear weapon state . Clausewitz has done a remarkable work on limited war and has specified the conditions under which a state could opt for limited war, as mentioned below: a) Clausewitz said that vital interests of state calls for unlimited war while secondary interests of state call for limited war which involve limited investment and limited use of resources. Thus, the importance of belligerents’ stakes in the war as defined by their political leaders as well as their reciprocal interaction determines whether the war remains limited in scope. b) The availability of relative strength of the belligerents also determines whether to go for limited war or full scale war. c) The third reason given is that limited war will happen if defending side has no incentive to wage a war or when weaker side is attacked by the stronger one.
In such cases, the weaker side will try to wage a war at the lowest possible cost.d) If the objective of states is only to occupy a relative amount of territory, it will wage a limited war. Clausewitz also mentioned that limited offensives will strengthen the attacker if the territory to be acquired is adjacent to it. However, the attacker would be weaken if the territory to be acquired is non-contiguous.However, what Clausewitz has ignored is the technological development which force states to go for limited war. It was noted by Liddle Hart and he mentioned that ‘Where both sides have atomic power, total wars make nonsense and any unlimited war fought by nuclear weapons would be worse than nonsense, it will be mutually suicidal.’ The possession of nuclear weapons is one of the reasons for keeping warfare limited.
South Asia faced limited war under nuclear umbrella with Pakistan during Kargil conflict.
However, the question is that whether China will go for limited war so as to achieve its territorial aims in India. Regarding China, it has some history of waging limited warfare to achieve its aim of ‘national unification.’ China had border skirmish with Russia in 1969 for Island in river Ussari and also it fought a limited war with Vietnam in 1979 over the issue of Cambodia. Similarly, Sino-India 1962 war also came under the category of limited war which was fought on India’s north east border. Therefore, there are examples from history which shows that China has interest in waging limited war to achieve its territorial aims. However, the present situation is much different from what was during cold war. Applying Cluasewitz reasons, one can see draw following conclusions: a) The first requirement for limited war is based on vital interests or secondary interests of the state on the basis of which state will decide whether to go for limited war or full scale conventional war. It is important to note here that China regards its ‘national reunification’ as most important goal and for achieving it China is going for rapid economic and military modernisation. China considers Tibet as palm which has five fingers namely, Nepal,
Sikkim, Bhutan, NEFA (Arunachal Pradesh) and Ladakh. They consider it has ‘an integral part of Han physique.’ Out of these, three belongs to India (Sikkim, Arunchal Pradesh and Ladakh). Beside this, China also claims Andaman and Nicobar Island and also tried to have its influence into Indian Ocean. This refuted two of the requirements for limited war, i.e. limited war on secondary interests and claim over limited territory. China regards this unification plan as ‘vital’ to its security interests and not as of secondary importance. b) The next reason for going for limited war is availability of limited resources. It is to note here that China is superior to India in both the realm of conventional and nuclear weapons. China has invested its resources to obtain such supremacy. Also, from economical viewpoint, China is more developed than India.
Therefore, there is no such limitation of resources from China’s view point. c) The fourth reason given above is that weaker side is attacked by stronger side and former wage limited war. This is also not applicable to India-China case because the ladder of escalation lies in the hands of China and not in the hand of India. It will be China who will be in the position to decide whether to go for limited war or for full scale conventional war. In addition to this, China’s strategy does not aim at waging limited warfare against India. China is encircling India by having close relationship with Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. China is in fact taking advantage of the loopholes in the relationship between India and its neighboring countries. China is investing lot in having good relationship with all these countries and it would not invest so much of energies and resources just to wage a limited war against India. Now, coming to the question whether China could wage a full scale when both states possess nuclear weapons. One can find answer of this question by putting situations in the context of game theory.
Here, there are two players and there payoffs wary from 0 to 4, 0 being the worst outcome and 4 being the best outcome for each player. It is described below: State BCooperate Don’t Cooperate Cooperate 3,3 2, 4 Don’t Cooperate 4,2 0,0 State A Here, if both states cooperate, status quo will prevail (3, 3). If one state cooperate but other not, the non-cooperative state win game (2, 4) while if both states decide not to cooperate with each other war occurs giving worst outcome (0, 0). However, the advantage of state lies when they do not cooperate while other cooperates. Here each state prefer status quo to the winning of other state and prefers wining of other state to war. This can be seen from the following equation. Status Quo > Wining of adversary >War If applied to the decision for the China to wage full scale conventional war, we can see it has following options: (1) Do not wage war but continue to claim territories and try to influence these areas by using soft powers or by supporting insurgencies in India. (This has been already done but it does not provide full scale control of China on these territories) (2) Do not wage war and gave up its claim on Indian territories (This will fuel domestic opposition of Chinese people against their own government. This option is very unlikely as it is well known that China seldom gave up its claim on territories) (3) Wage limited war and obtain these territories ( This will avoid nuclear war and also gave China a chance to completely assimilate these territories into China) (4) Wage full scale war and obtain these territories (There is fear of nuclear weapon use under such circumstances. If china uses nuclear weapons, these territories will be damaged and will be of no use to China. It will also gave rise to international criticism of China’s behavior and may also involve the US) From the above analysis, it is clear that it would be irrational for China to go for full scale war under nuclear umbrella. The question than arise that why China is projecting that it is preparing for some big conflict and not for limited war. The strategy of China is to have limited warfare (due to presence of nuclear weapons) and than to escalate it to full scale conventional war depending on the circumstances. China would give India two options: to give up limited war and loose territories or else china will escalate it to a high level causing large scale economic and civilian damage to India. China will wage limited war only because of presence of nuclear weapons in the continent. However, it will not hesitate to go for full scale war if its interests are not achieved. The reason is that China can go to any level to achieve its aim of national unification which is vital to its security interests. It is true that India’s defence preparedness could be compared to 1962 war. However, China stands superior to India in the realm of conventional weapons. India is also facing shortage of army officers which make the condition much worse. In case, India try to struggle with China or try to escalate the issue at international level, China will definitely gave threat of its nuclear weapons. China is even making itself strong enough to deal with any interference of the US. China has carried out military exercises involving 50,000 troops mainly by keeping the US in mind. China is also accumulating oil which is important for wining war in modern times. China has also planning to have DF-41 missile by October 2009 which pose threat to the US. Therefore, China wants to resist all the interference by the US while achieving its territorial aims. China has constructed a grand strategy to achieve its so called ‘national unification’ and also to keep the US at bay. The problem with India is that it continues to ignore military threat coming from China and depend lot on the US and other international community in case of any conflict. India should understand that China is not like Pakistan which will bow before the diplomatic pressure of the US. The only option before India is only to have good conventional forces along with nuclear weapons so that it can wage successful limited war against China. It is high time for India to realise military threat coming from its neighborhood and to prepare itself for such contingencies.
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