Kashmir & Tibet (An Old and Rare Book)

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Our planet-Earth-continues to be a veritable paradise for those who are in search of new adventures and who are fired with an insatiable wander-lust for discovering hitherto unknown lands and the people inhabiting them. During the last century a large number of European travellers and adventure-seekers vied with each other and made most perilous journeys to such inaccessible regions as Kashmir, Laddakh, and Tibet which were devoid of means of any communication with bleak and barren mountain ranges all around. These travellers have left behind most interesting stories of their dangerous journeys. The present volume contains an exciting account of this genre. Its author and his companions the two British officers of the then Indian Army, struck by wander-lust took six months' leave in 1860 just three years after the sensational Sepoy Mutiny of 1857, and undertook an expedition to Kashmir, Ladakh and adjoining Tibet. The author's other sole companion who travelled throughout the journey, was his Hindu bearer, Rajoo who acted to the expedition with the title and role of qua rter master general (O.M.G.).

During those days the means_of communication were most difficult. The railways had yet to start and the air journey has not yet been dreamt of. Leaving Kanpur on 21st May 1860 and travelling by bullock cart, they reached Delhi on the 25th May after braving the heat, dust and other inconvenience of the road. Then further braving the gruelling heat and swarms of files at various intermediary stations, they managed to reach Simla on 29 May 1960.

In Simla they plan their expedition to Kashmir and then on to Laddakh. After making another journey through the hot and dusty plains of Punjab, including Lahore, they reached the territory of the Maharaja of Kashmir an 13th June 1860 at a place known as "Bimber" The author was not very sure about the correct pronunciation of various towns, cities and other places in India. That explains his mispronouncement of Ambala as 'Umballa, Kasauli as 'Kassowlie Gilgit as 'Girgit, Tibet as Tibet Aligarh and Allyghur and so on and on.

In Kashmir, the author had a vast and varied experience of the scenic grandeur, the geographical features, the beauty of its snowcald mountains, shining nevers and smiling lakes. He has given detailed description of the social, political and the administrative apparatus of the Maharaja's Government. On entering the capital of Kashmir on 1st July, the author describes the lure of the city in these words: Our path was occasionally studded with the most superb sycamores and lime trees, and as we approached the town we entered a long avenue of poplars, planted as closely together as possible completely hiding all the buildings until close upon them". After enjoying the hospitality of the Maharaja and witnessing a dance of natch girls in his Durba and after enjoying the trips to several historical sites and monuments, he left for Ladakh on 27th July accompanied by a large number of porters and attendents of course under the supervision of 'QMG' Rajoo.

It is the adventures during the journey, to Laddakh and the reminiscences of their stay in Laddakh which from the core of the volume and which makes it one of most exciting accounts of adventure and travel. There is superb description of the Buddhist Monastery of Hemis, the abode of Lamas in Laddakh, which adds to the beauty of the book. Finally they (the author and his friend) leave Laddakh on 21th August and undertake the return journey by the same old but meeting new and novel adventures. After spending 50 days in Kashmir and Laddakh they return to British territory and reach their duty station of Kanpur on 31st

October 60 on the expiry of 6 months leave. Added at the end is a supplementary chapter which deals with the religions of Cashmere and Thibet (tibet) viz Hinduism, Buddhism and Islam as they were then practised by respective followers of these faiths and as witnessed by the author from close quarters. Then at the end are three Appendices describing the Temples of Cashmere, the Mystic sentence of Thibet (written in French) and a sketch of the History of Cashmere.

From all accounts the present volume is a unique and indespensable eye-witness account of the fabulous lands of Kashmir, Laddakh and Tibet of more than 100 years ago. It comes from the prolific pen of a writer who travelled in these in hospitable regions and difficult mountaneous country when travelling was nothing short of an adventure full of perils. A book of this genre must be the coveted possession of all libraries in India and abroad and of all lovers of travel and adventure.

WITH the fullest sense of the responsibility incurred by the addition of another volume to the countless numbers already existing, and daily appearing in the world, the following Diary has been committed to the press, trusting that, as it was not written with intent to publication, the unpremeditated nature of the offence may be its extenuation, and that as a faithful picture of travel in regions where excursion trains are still unknown, and Travellers' Guides unpublished, the book may not be found altogether devoid of interest or amusement. Its object is simply to bring before the reader's imagination those scenes and incidents of travel which have already been a source of enjoyment to the writers and to impart, perhaps, by their description, some portion of the gratification which has been derived from their reality. With this view, the original Diary has undergone as little alteration of form or matter as possible, and is laid before the reader as it was sketched and written during the leisure moments of a wandering life, hoping that faithfulness of detail may atone in it for faults and failings in a literary and artistic point of view.

Although the journey it describes was written without the advantages of a previous acquaintance with the writings of those who had already gone over the same ground, subsequent research has added much to the interest of the narrative, and information thus obtained has been added either in the form of Notes or Appendix. Under the latter head, acknowledgment is principally due to an able and interesting essay on the architecture of Cashmere, by Capt. Cunningham, and also to a paper by M. Klaproth, both of whom appear to have treated more fully than any other writers the subjects to which they refer.

MORE than a year and a half had been spent in the hottest parts of the plains of India, and an- other dreaded hot season was rapidly making its approach, when, together with a brother officer, I applied for and obtained six months' leave of absence for the purpose of travelling in Cashmere and the Himalayas, otherwise called by Anglo- Indians "The Hills."

"We had been long enough in the country to have discovered that the gorgeous East of our imagination, as shadowed forth in the delectable pages of the "Arabian Nights," had little or no connexion with the East of our experience-the dry and dusty East called India, as it appeared, wasted and dilapidated, in its first convalescence from the fever into which it had been thrown by the Mutiny of 1857-58. We were not long, there- fore, in making our arrangements for escaping from Allahabad, with the prospect before us of exchanging the discomforts of another hot season in the plains, for the pleasures of a sojourn in the far-famed valley of Cashmere, and a tramp through the mountains of the Himalayas-the mountains, whose very name breathes of comfort and consolation to the parched up dweller in the plains. The mountains of "the abode of snow!"

Our expeditionary force consisted at starting of but one besides the brother officer above alluded to-the F. of the following pages-and myself. This was my Hindoo bearer, Mr. Rajoo, whose duty it was to make all the necessary arrangements for our transport and general welfare, and upon whose shoulders devolved the entire management of our affairs. He acted to the expedition in the capacity of quartermaster- general, adjutant-general, commissary-general, and paymaster to the forces; and, as he will figure largely in the following pages, under the title of the "Q. M. G.," and comes, moreover, under the head of "a naturally dark subject," a few words devoted to his especial description and illumination may not be out of place.

With the highest admiration for England, and a respect for the Englishuman, which extended to the very lining of their pockets, Mr. Rajco possessed, together with many of the faults of his race, a certain humour, and an amount of energy most unusual among the family of the mild Hindoo. He had, moreover, travelled much with various masters, in what are, in his own country, deemed "far lands:" and having been wounded before Delhi, he had become among the rest of his people an authority, and to the Englishman in India an invaluable medium for their coercion and general management.