The Mystery of the Kailash Trail - Chapter 3 - Part 2

Chapter 3: Part 2: Pilgrims who spoke an ancient form of the Pharsi language. 

The rainstorm had damaged the tented eateries at Shiquanhe through the night. Hariram Maharaj and Luo Tsering went about examining the tents and the damage. They seemed to have been lucky as compared to other tented eateries in the region outside Shiquanhe, on the road to Darchen. Most other eateries and their sheds were blown away or destroyed. Luo Tsering’s eatery seemed to be quite intact. It must have been due to the protection from the nearby police station that was taller than the eatery, and stood in the way of the direction of the rainstorm and the wind that blew it around.

The vehicles that had been brought inside the tent were safe and it had been sensible to do so, thought Maharaj. It had been Luo’s sudden idea and initially Maharaj had thought it was a crazy thing to do. The morning after the rainstorm showed the damage done to the vehicles that had been left out in the open during the night. More than fifty pilgrims had stayed inside the tented eatery through the night. Some were going towards Darchen and some were on their return from the kora. There were some local townspeople with their bicycles who had rushed in at night.

Maharaj and Luo knew most of the locals, pilgrim guides and were also familiar with some of the pilgrim groups, for they had stopped at the eatery earlier. They got their kitchen boys to start preparing soup and noodles for breakfast. Luo’s wife began preparing the extra-sweet tea and Tsampa separately for the local Tibetans. One of the boys began to heat up the earlier night’s leftover yak meat soup and potatoes in a separate bowl in the adjoining tent. The pilgrim groups knew about Luo’s separation of vegetarian and non-vegetarian food and accordingly began to move about.

There were two pilgrims sitting near the stove, warming themselves, and looking outside the tent, perhaps wondering about if it was safe enough to travel. Luo was curious about them. He spoke to Maharaj in a low voice, in Tibetan, “Maharaj, do you see those two there, near the stove? They came in quite late, when it was almost sure that it would be a bad night. They were walking on their own. They are not local Tibetans and neither do they look like Changpa nomads. Do you know anything about them?”

Maharaj had picked up more than a good understanding of Tibetan, but could not speak it fluently, and spoke in his pidgin language that he had made up. Luo could understand it, for the conversation usually was about activity within the eatery or about religion or god and godmen. Maharaj said, “I do not know them. They are not from any pilgrim group. They look quite rested and are not tired. They must be going to the kora, or may be trading in goods in this region. Are you sure that they are not Changpa? Their dress looks quite like the villagers from Eastern Tibet.”

Luo was sure. He knew the Changpas, for they came in regularly to trade with him. He bought meat, salt and other spices that they brought to sell. They had an easy smuggling route from Eastern Tibet to Ladakh that they had used for more than hundreds of years. It was said that there were more Changpas in Ladakh in India than there should have been in their own lands in Eastern Tibet. They were good tradesmen and brought in a good reliable supply of spices, grains, pulses and branded goods from India. Maharaj needed those spices and pulses to cook his trademark food for the Hindu, Sikh, Jain and Buddhist pilgrims from India. He would never have eaten such food at Qinhai, from where he had come from, and neither had his wife in her village.

Maharaj went to the stove and began getting his special utensils ready. The “strictly vegetarian” pilgrims from India liked to see him in action, and actually see him cook. They knew that he could be trusted to keep his utensils and plates and bowls separately and “clean” and not to pollute them with the beef-eaters. A group of pilgrims from Gujarat, especially from Navsari, had come on an exclusive pilgrimage to the Mount Kailash, to the Hindus among them, and to the Ashtapad, to the Jains among them. The great Mountain Kang Renpoche, was all-inclusive, and was known by different names to the different religious groups who struggled and made their once-in-a-lifetime journey to do the ultimate of all pilgrimages.

The Navsari pilgrims were on their return journey from the sacred Mountain. The pilgrim guide with them was also from Navsari, though he was settled in Ahmedabad. The Jain group amongst them had a junior monk from the Navsari area. The pilgrim guide and the Jain monk were whispering between them and looking furtively at the two strange pilgrims sitting near the stove. Maharaj called out to them, and spoke in Gujarati, “Bapu, Pranaam. Greetings. It was a terrible night. We are all lucky. The blessings that your holy man has sought during the kora has stayed with you, and we are all safe. Come and get some honest and good Indian Tea. I have put real ginger, brought all the way from India. It will make you feel better. Bring your entire group nearby to the stove. It will be warm here.”

The local townspeople and Tibetans and policemen from the nearby outpost were gathering at the other tent. Luo and his wife served local Chiang breakfast. The lunch and dinner was usually cooked in three cuisines, Chiang, Sichuan and Xinjiang. But breakfast was always the fast way out, and the easy way, simple Chiang style. It was all meat, in the soup, in the noodles and mixed up in the Tsampa. The earlier evening’s yak meat curry was gulped down as soon as it had been served. The bowls were welcomed with happy grunts and smiles. They now waited for the slower cooked breakfast with happiness, since they now had something inside their stomachs.

Maharaj was getting curiouser about the two strange pilgrims. They should have gone to the other tent and grabbed the meat soup and yak meat. They did not seem to be interested. They were waiting for vegetarian breakfast? That was really unusual. Did Changpa nomads eat vegetarian food exclusively? The pilgrim guide and the Jain monk from Navsari came to stand alongside Maharaj. They stretched their hands towards the fire at the stove and warmed them. The helper boys passed on cups of Tea to all the pilgrims including the two mysterious men.

Maharaj began to roll out his famous aloo-parathas, the ones that local Tibetans were very curious about, and were always standing around watching him stuff spicy and cooked mashed potatoes inside rolled out wheat bread, ready to be heated and made ready to eat with curry. The pilgrim guide from Navsari spoke to Maharaj in Hindi, “O Maharaj, thank you for giving us tea that makes us feel that we are already back in Gujarat. I want to ask you something, and that’s why I speak to you in Hindi and not in Gujarati. Is that ok? I spoke with my Jain brother, and holy master, and we wanted to ask you if you know anything about these two men? They look like they are from this place, but we want to know if you know them?”

The Jain monk said, also in Hindi, “There is a reason, Maharaj, why we speak in Hindi and not in Gujarati. These two men were with us at the kora. They were not with us, but they were nearby and we saw them on many occasions. We did not think too much about them but what we heard at night, when we were all sheltering during the rainstorm, makes us curious. And what we saw or did not see during the kora, about these two men, makes us more curious. Do you know them?”

Maharaj was puzzled. He had thought that these two men had come to Shiquanhe to proceed to Darchen, for they did not look too tired or exhausted. Why would Navsari pilgrims want to talk in Hindi and not in Gujarati? That was really strange, he thought. He replied, “No, my brothers. I do not know them. What was strong about what you heard at this place, during the night?”

The pilgrim guide said, “Maharaj, you know that we are from Navsari. We are therefore familiar with different types of Gujarati, Hindi and Kutchi languages. These two men who look like they are from Tibet, they were talking a strange and not-so-familiar language that we have hard only in Navsari. It’s not Gujarati. They talked the language of the ancient priests of the people from Iran, the Parsis. It was not actually the language that we hear from everyday from the Parsis we meet. It was very different. But we sensed it to be the type of ancient Parsi that their priests recite when we attend their weddings and religious functions. It was not entirely the same, but was similar.”

The Jain monk added, “Yes. It was that. What was strange was that these two men were with twelve other pilgrims when they came by our group at Darchen, when we had completed our kora, and they went ahead with them and returned from Tarboche itself. The twelve other pilgrims went ahead. Why would you go all the way to Tarboche to leave your companions?”