Hunza Episode 2

THIS LAND OF OURS IS A BEAUTIFUL LAND

REMINISCENCES OF TRAVEL TO HUNZA ON KKH 

"When we get closer to nature, be it untouched wilderness or a backyard tree – we do our overstressed brains a favour” - National Geographic Magazine (January 2016).

This is the third episode of our reminisces of travel to Hunza. It narrates our visit to Attabad Lake, also known as Gojal Lake and Passu where we not only saw the glacier and the cathedral or cones identified and recognised by the name of Passu. We subsequently visited the carpet manufacturing factory managed and operated solely by the women artisans at Gulmit, which is the capital of upper Hunza and boasts several peaks of 6,000 ft or higher.  The most interesting and cherished part of our visit to upper Hunza was  interaction with a local family at Ghulkin. We stayed with the family overnight and the following day visited a local school before returning back to our hotel in Hunza/Karimabad. This episode also includes a visit to the Baltit Fort, which we went to see soon after our return.   

From Karimabad Hunza (Point 'A') to Attabad Lake (Point 'B') and Gulmit/Ghulkin (Point 'C') on KKH
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THE ATTABAD LAKE
The Attabad Lake is some 25 km from Altit Fort towards Khunjrab Pass on KKH. It was formed due to a massive landslide at Attabad village 9 miles (14 km) upstream (east) of Karimabad that occurred on 4 January 2010. The landslide blocked the flow of the Hunza River for five months. The lake flooding inundated over 12 miles (19 km) of the Karakoram Highway. The lake reached 13 miles (21 km) long and over 100 metres (330 ft) in depth by the first week of June 2010 when it began flowing over the landslide dam, completely submerging lower Shishkat and partly flooding Gulmit. The Karakoram Highway was blocked and the only possibility for travel and transporting of goods was by ferry crossing. Work began on the realignment of KKH soon after and on 14 September 2015, realigned 24 km patch of KKH containing five tunnels were inaugurated. The seven kilometer long five tunnels are part of the 24 km long portion of the Karakorum Highway (KKH) which was damaged due to land sliding at Attabad. The realignment project is a construction masterpiece completed at the cost of $275 million. The realignment restored the road link between Pakistan and China and it is expected that significant amount of trade will be conducted between China and Pakistan using it. The KKH is also a part of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and is expected to significantly increase economic integration between the two nations. 

The Attabad Lake 

   

                       Part of the Land Sliding Mountain

Having seen the gigantic project comprising multiple number of tunnels 7 kilometer of total length completed in a record period of just over three years, we wondered as to why the 8.75 km long Lowari Tunnel linking Dir and Chitral Valleys still remains incomplete after the work started on it in 1975. We saw the site of Lowari Tunnel when we went to Chitral with the WWF in the summer of 2015. There was enormous amount of machinery and paraphernalia lying waste on extensive land without any work being carried out. The promised Lowari Tunnel will reduce the current fourteen-hour drive from Chitral to Peshawar by 50%. It will also facilitate all-weather transportation, as during the long winter season the Lowari Pass is closed, and people of Chitral have to travel into Afghanistan and then back into Pakistan to reach the rest of the country. When the border is closed Chitral remains virtually inaccessible during the winter. Besides it has a strategic importance, which has assumed heightened significance in the recent times. Investigating a little, we came to know that most of the interior of the tunnel lacks its shotcrete lining, retaining walls or a metalled road. The tunnel is also not yet properly ventilated. The situation had not improved by the winter of 2015–2016. It is now expected to be completed by October 2017. Under the revised budget, it is estimated to cost Rs 18.13 billion. What was to be blamed: engineering incompetence, lack of funds or total neglect and disinterest? To say the least we were horrifyingly appalled. 

A Tunnel bypassing the Attabad Lake

PASSU GLACIER AND PASSU CONES

We drove on leaving the villages Gulmit and Ghulkin behind to see the Passu Glacier  at a distance of 15 km from Gulmit. It is linked with Batura Glacier, which is 57 km long and is one of the largest and longest glaciers outside the polar region. The Passu Glacier is 20.5 km long and spread over 115 sq km. The Passu Peak, which is 7,478 m (24,534 ft) high was first climbed by Captain Sher Khan (later Colnel) who was part of joint Pakistan Japan army expedition in 1978.  It might be of interest to point out that his village is now named after him. It is situated by the side of M2 Motorway from Islamabad to Peshawar and an Interchange on the M2 Motorway leads to his village. 

The Passu Glacier

We took lunch at the nearby Passu Inn situated on KKH and facing the Tupopdan, 6106 meters (20,033 ft), also known as Passu Cones or Passu Cathedral. We were told those were the most photographed peaks in the region. 

  Scenes of Passu Cathedrals from the winding KKH

 

The Passu Cones as seen from the Passu Inn

VISIT TO CARPET WEAVING FACTORY

On our return we visited a small home based carpet weaving factory at Gulmit. The factory was setup in a rented dilapidated but cozy mud and stone house with low entrance doors. The setup had been erected in the living room of the house with a central fire-place. The girls of the area came there weaving little carpets on the looms all the day long making use of fine woolen threads. They prepared their meals and tea there too and remained happily engaged as they worked for their livelihood. 

An Artisan Woman is Weaving a Carpet on Loom  

The workers were contracted by an individual entrepreneur or a firm, often through an intermediary. They are usually given the raw materials and paid per piece. They typically do not sell the finished goods. They do, however, cover many costs of production: workplace, equipment, supplies, utilities, and transport. We were told that many of the artisan girls leave on getting married besides they now also prefer to go to school rather than working at the factory. The status of the factory was as such on the decline in general. Another reason for the decline could also be the cost of the finished product. A carpet piece measuring 10 square feet could cost as high as Rs 30,000 – 50,000, which quite certainly was beyond the purchasing power of local customers.

A Beautiful Piece of Carpet Woven at the Factory

INTERACTION WITH A LOCAL FAMILY AT GHULKIN

Our next stop was to visit the house of a local entrepreneur by the name Wazir Aman Rustam in Ghulkin and interact his family.  Prior arrangements for our night stay with the family had been made by the WWF. Ghulkin is only next door to Gulmit and it took us less than half an hour to reach the center of the town where our hosts were waiting for us. Our retreat: the house of Wazirs (Wazir Aman and his wife Zahida) was at a 15 minutes walk into the inner sanctum of the village, which we reached just before the sunset. We were greeted by the family, who immediately set about to make hospitality arrangements, which included heating besides laying high tea for us. Before we narrate the interaction with the family it is necessary to introduce the family at large and describe the house setting. 

The House of Wazir Aman at Ghulkin

The larger family of Wazir Aman included beside his own, his mother Misri and the families of his elder brother who works with a NGO in Sind but had a resident wife by the name Pari. We also met with his younger brother by the name Saleem. Each individual family lived in their own respective houses beside the main house that belonged to Wazir Aman after his father. Wazir Aman had three school going sons, while his elder brother had two sons and two daughters. The younger brother had one son and one daughter. Being Wakhi, the family conversed among themselves in Wakhi but also spoke and understood urdu, which is lingua franca of the region. It would be of interest to mention that a daughter of the elder brother studied in Islamabad, where she boards in the college hostel and his elder son studies on scholarship in Beijing (China). 

The house of Wazir Aman in conformity with the design and architecture of upper mountain region had one central room built around the hearth. The room was laid out in raised platforms at different heights, each for a certain purpose, with five symbolic pillars and a diamond-shaped hole in the roof for smoke and light. The pillars had a peculiar four-spiral device with a fifth spike, said to represent the fingers of the hand, and the five holy personalities of Ismailism. As per traditional Wakhi houses, the house of Wazir Aman too was single storied, built of mud and stones. The floor was mud with carpets or animal skins and the door, roof-hole, pillars, and the platforms were made of wood. There was an entrance room, which kept the cold from outside at bay. In contrast to the older houses his house had normal size doors. Light came from a skylight, the door, the fire, and oil lamps. The fireplace at the center was fed with brush or yak dung. It helped keeping the room warm as well as cooking and making tea. The central living room is a place where entire family lives in winter. This allows strong bonding to be developed between members of the family. As it gets dark quickly in the mountainous region, we made ourselves comfortable making use of ample stock of blankets that had been quickly made available by Wazir Aman. We noticed that the women of the house with respect and dignity about them were truly emancipated. They freely participated in the discussion about their lives and culture as we took tea and later supper, sitting at different levels around the fireplace with the family. Of the things we were served and of especial mention were the roasted bread prepared on the electric oven. Dipped in apricot kernel oil that provided very especial flavor and taste. 

Day 4 (Monday November 7, 2016):

The discourse with the family continued in the kitchen the following morning. The kitchen, which is separated from the main living room by a narrow corridor had a separate entrance of its own. It was coziest of the places in the entire house.  The layout of the kitchen was of special interest. From the utility point of view it was next best to the communal living room, talked about earlier. Being small and compact with at least three different kind of stove designs in operation, It was the warmest place in the entire house. All the gadgets, which provided heat for cooking were of indigenous design and manufacture. There was a burner which used wood kindling or twigs for fire. It had internally built tubing through which water circulated. The circulating water in turn provided convective heating to a samovar from where hot water could be drawn for tea making.  The smoke from firing of kindling was released in air through an outlet pipe. The cooking gas and electricity being available in Gilgit Baltistan on reduced rates. There was also a gas burner and an electric heater, which were only used sparingly particularly when there were house guests. The kitchen had a raised platform on which members of the family could sit and talk while meals were being cooked. They could also eat their meals sitting there besides also sleeping, if they so chose on another raised platform in the farthest corner of the kitchen at the other end. 

 In the Kitchen of the House

Sitting on the high pedestal we conversed on various topics with the family as they prepared breakfast for us. While the women folk told us how their cooking provisions worked for them, Wazir Aman informed us about his preoccupations, which included joining the mountaineering expeditions and putting up stalls of dry fruits and handicrafts at exhibitions and fairs in Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi. His principal preoccupation was to prepare the extract of Subuckthorn berries and extract apricot kernel oil, which he subsequently supplied to the outlets in Islamabad and Rawalpindi. It may be mentioned that Subuckthorn is a thorny bush that grows in the wild all over the place. It bears berries, which have a strong tart taste. Not every one can pluck and pull out the Subuckthorn berries without hurting their hands but Wazir Aman had a especial technique that allowed him to collect them in great amount. The extract that he collected could be used for making jam that had medicinal value from the viewpoint of a certain forms of cancer. Wazir Aman had been to Japan where he found them interested in the extract of Subuckthorn Berries. 

A Group Photo with the Family of Wazir Aman at their Beatiful Ghulkin Village

After a sumptuous and hearty breakfast we were taken by Wazir Aman and his wife  Zahida to a nearby school by the name Nasir Khusrow Model Academy. The school was established in November 1991. It had both the primary and secondary sections. The school had three blocks of buildings, one each for the primary and secondary sections. The third block housed library and computer laboratory. 

                     

                                                 A Block of The Nasir Khusrow Model School

We were first taken to class X. There were eight students, four girls and four boys sitting around a table. They were all neatly dressed in school uniforms. They had physics books opened before them but there was no teacher at the time we were there. They all especially the boys were shy but managed ultimately to answer our questions. They all had high ambitions of becoming doctors or engineers. Bewilderingly one girl wanted to be a TV media person.  One boy whose name was Musharaff wanted to become a General in the Pak Army apparently after General Musharaff who seemed to be his hero and ideal. 

             Students of Class X                                                Nursery/Kindergarden

  

            Working on a Computer                                       A Chid Reciting from Quran

We were also taken to the Nursery class, where little boys were lying bottom up on the floor reading or seeing their play books. They were all smartly dressed and looked bright. When their teacher asked them to recite from Quran, they all lined up somberly as one of them recited a surah. Following that they sang a song in unison, which made us all very happy. Finally we were shown the library and computer laboratory where students were busy honing their writing, drawing and projecting skills using appropriate softwares. Both the library and Computer Lab were recently established through donation of books and computers by a retired Justice of Supreme Court of Pakistan whose gesture, we thought was really noble. The Justice is there no more but example set by him needs to be followed by others after him. 

We found no class had more than ten students, which was encouraging as each student stood to receive personal attention of the teacher. We were informed that salaries of the teachers were not commensurate with the level of teaching and training they were providing to the students. The amount, which was mentioned to us, was appallingly meager. 

In addition to the Nasir Khusrow school, we were taken to, there were two other schools in Ghulkin. We were told sports and debate competitions were regularly held involving the three schools and there were awareness programs about healthcare and cleanliness in which the students of all the three schools participated. The standard of the school visited by us seemed to be at par with the medium level schools of Islamabad and Rawalpindi.

A Liesurely walk Back from School

Before saying goodbye we were privileged to have a group photo to with an elder of Ghulkin and the family of Wazir Aman. 

A Group Photo with an elder of Ghulkin and the Family of Wazir Aman

VISIT TO THE BALTIT FORT

Having been away from our Hotel in Karimabad, we were now ready to return back and accomplish the remaining tasks of visiting the famous Baltit Fort and seeing the fall colors at Minapin. The Hunza rulers used to live and rule from forts. The oldest fort of Hunza built in 11^th century is known as Altit Fort. It is situated near Karimabad on the left bank of river Hunza as we drive on KKH towards Attabad Lake. We had already visited that fort but the other fort, which was built seven hundred years ago and known as Baltit Fort remained to be visited and seen. It is situated on a hill top and way to it goes through Karimabad Bazar. From Hunza Embassy Hotel it was a walk of just over 2 km all the way. The most difficult was the incline stones paved path of over one kilometer up the hill from the bifurcation of Karimabad Road just after Hunza Art Museum. 

On the incline Leading to Baltit Fort

The climb particularly from Hunza Polo Ground could be quite demanding and therefore very tiring. Luckily the wise people of Karimabad have provided benches on the sides where one could rest before resuming the climb again. We leisurely climbed all the way looking at the magnificent scenery around. The map showed it a walk of 23 minutes but we may have taken a minimum of 45 minutes to arrive at our destination.

The Baltit Fort

The history how the Baltit Fort came about to be built after the Altit Fort has been amply covered by various sources on the Web and need not be repeated here. The architecture of the fort is overpowering and is said to be of Tibetan origin. We already had its magnificent illuminated view from the Karimabad Bazar a few nights earlier but being there provided altogether different impression of its unparalleled grandeur. The entry to the fort was through ticket, which was pricey to say the least but with the entry ticket came a brochure and a guide. The guide gave us the impression of being the direct descendant of one of early rulers. He however spoke perfect urdu and was quite mindful of proper etiquette while conducting the tour inside the fort. He informed as at the very outset that 24 rulers lived in the fort over a time spread over centuries. Their living quarters too were based on communal living we had witnessed earlier. The entry doors to the rooms that we were shown into were low requiring one to bend as he/she entered or exited the room. The way to royal rooms passed through the dungeons at the lower level. We were also shown into the room, which was the reception for the visitors as well as receiving point of grain that was deposited as lagan to the ruler by the ruled. Besides the living room, which still had Quran lying on a niche, a child crib and a raised resting platform as well as the central fire place for cooking and heating of room. We were told by the guide that queen called by him the Rani Sahiba, used to cook food herself while she resided there with Mir of Hunza.  We also saw the court (Darbar), which was used by the ruler o address the representatives of public. The queen used to hold her own court in an adjacent room where she met with the representative ladies of Hunza Nagar. From the window of this room we could see the polo ground down below. 

A Fall Season Scene from Baltit Fort

It was mentioned to us polo matches used to be regularly watched both the Mir and Rani of hunza, which only commenced on receiving the signal of waving of hands by them. On the way we also passed through a photo gallery, which had framed pictures of some of the rulers hanging on the wall. The rulers of the time lived there barricaded and were always in the fear of attack. To escape the intruders thy always built a escape route, which we were also shown as we ourselves exited the fort.

The Inclined Path Reminiscent of Difficult Climb and Descend from/to Baltit Fort 

We had plans to visit Eagle’s Nest in Duikar Village, just 6 km from Karimabad. One of the main attractions of Duikar was the viewpoint (2900 m) which is a 5 minute climb up behind Eagle’s Nest Hotel. Here, there was a possibility of sighting Ibex of which we had the privilege of seeing only a face mask on the wall of the lobby of our Hunza Embassy Hotel. After returning back to Islamabad did we come to know that starting from Eagle’s Nest Hotel it was an hour climb up to Hosht (3600 m). From the Hosht viewpoint one could have great views of Ultar Mountains & Hopper glacier. The Hunza panorama is wider and dearer at that point. The Ultar glacier trek can be done as a day long trek or one could camp for a night at Ultar meadow. The Eagle’s Nest management can arrange a guide for this trek. It is a pleasant hour stroll to the Hazrat Abbas shrine near Shabbat village. From here, there are spectacular views down to Karakorum Highway and awesome views of Golden peak, Rakaposhi, Ultar and Lady’s Finger mountains.  We may hopefully keep all that for the future however.

On the following day we had to return back, which we did but not before visiting the Minapin on the way. The next blog will be on that part of our visit.