This is Part 2 in a three-part series. For more, read Part 1 and Part 3.
After our few days in and around the city of Leh, we set out toward the remote Zanskar Valley. This trek began with a six-hour drive through the mountains to the city of Kargil, the site of the 1999 Kargil War fought between India and Pakistan.
From L to R: Dr. Thomas and Midshipmen Crispell, McInerney, Pankratz, Lane, Sirianni, and Malick.
Once in Kargil, the heights which the two countries fought over towered in front of our hotel balcony. This provided the perfect setting for our local guide, Jigmat Lundup, to give us his memories of the war, as well as a ground-eye view of the Kashmir Conflict. He was able to summarize the conflict and the emotions swirling around it more than any website or newspaper article ever could.
The next day we set out for the capital of Zanskar, Padum. Though just 120 miles away, the drive to Padum took 11 hours over rocky dirt roads. As slow as this was, the glaciers and 20,000-u7foot peaks flanking either side of the road kept our necks craned out the windows the entire time.
The Himalayas make it hard to take a bad photo.
The people of Zanskar had little contact with the rest of India until about 40 years ago. Despite the vast area the valley covers, even now it is only accessible by one dirt road. As a result of this remoteness, much of the culture of Zanskar remains unchanged. Many of the people dress traditionally and English speakers are hard to find. The people grow barley and alfalfa for subsistence and tend herds of goats, sheep, and yak for milk. In the winter when food is scarce, some of these animals will be slaughtered for meat. This lack of meat in the summer months has turned some of us into unwilling vegetarians (the rugby player in our group is not pleased).
Women working in a barley field in the village of Pishu, Zanskar Valley.
Central to understanding the culture of Zanskar is Buddhism. Every village, no matter how small, has some type of temple or monastery. We set out to some of these monasteries with Jigmat to learn about this vital part of the culture. While much of the conversations were more serious, the “little monks,” boys as young as seven sent to become monks, kept things light. Despite pledging their lives to peace, we learned that little boys are still little boys, as we watched them hunt spiders and shoot cap guns at us.
“Little monks” reciting lessons in school.
Before getting into more stories and photos from our travels in the next segment, I would like to take the time to thank the U.S. Naval Academy alumni and supporters whose generous donations make trips such as ours possible. Travels like ours provide experiences that supplement the leadership and character development that our fleet cruises in the summers provide. Of the six mids traveling, three of us completed Leatherneck in Quantico, one completed a SEAL cruise in Coronado, and two went on PROTRAMID earlier in the summer. While certainly different from fleet experience, trips to remote places like Zanskar prepare us for the the volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous environments in which we will operate in as leaders in the fleet.
