Return to Zanskar Our World

Zanskar. A magical Buddhist kingdom unchanged for 1000 years. 30 years

ago I walked with a friend, Brian, for seven days in subzero

temperatures up the frozen Zanskar River to reach an ancient Buddhist

monastery built into the side of a cliff, four dozen metres high, in

the middle of the Himalayas. It is one of the most inaccessible

settlements honoured and only a few 100 outsiders visit each year. But

all this is about to change. The first ever rode into the valley is

nearing completion. 30 years on and we've returned to try to find the

people we met in 1986. And to discover what they think about the

changes coming to their way of life. Located in the spectacular Himalayas

of northern India, the regions comprise an area roughly twice the

size of Switzerland. They are ringed by 6000 metre peaks. Access to the

Zanskar Valley is very inaccessible. For up to eight months here it is

completely cut off from the rest of the world. Buddhist monasteries were

established in this isolated valley beginning in the seventh century and

it is one of the highest and coldest inhabited places on earth. It is

also one of the most remote and the Tibetan way of life and culture has

made little change -- remained little changed for over 1000 years.

We wanted to return to the monastery and share the pictures of the months

we had from 30 years ago. We want to see if they were still there and

what they thought of the new road. Brian and I will always into

photography. We had a darkroom at school and we loved to take pictures

and print them. As part of living with these families in the

monasteries, we would just take pictures.

Is he still hear? -- here? Yes, we wanted to come back after 30 years.

Welcome. Thank you. Zanskar's extreme isolation has

spared it the impact of mass tourism, but construction of the

first road through the valley is nearing completion. It will welcome

year-round access and transformed it forever. --It will open it up to

year-round access. The monastery is revered throughout

Tibet. Almost every important figure in Tibetan Buddhist and is believed

to have visited the monastery throughout the centuries.

It is awesome. The river that flows down from Zanskar freezes over in

the winter for about two months. The people called the frozen river a

word which means blanket, in that it is blanketed why this sheet of ice.

For over 1000 years this ice road has been used as a trade route

between Zanskar and laid-back in the valley below. The trip takes five to

seven days and knowledge of the safest route is handed down from

generation to generation. -- Ladakh. They trade in Ladakh and then walk

back up before the river melts. When that happens Zanskar is cut off

until the mountain trails become clearer in the height of summer. I

am really nervous today. We are going to try and find this family

that we lived with. We met this couple walking up the river that had

been down in Ladakh trading for things and were coming back home.

And we followed them to their home and lived with them I guess a week,

maybe two weeks, just being a part of their lives. It was a really

unique feeling. I've brought my photos of he and his family from 30

years ago and I'm going to try to find them.

They recognised every one of them. The kids. He said the kids are all

over. He is saying, as I aged? Yes, I

think we both have. But I still recognised you when I walked -- when

you walked up from the field. It still looks like you. It was very

special, that first trip. We had to completely rely on their kindness.

They took a thin and how of us and fed us and asked for nothing in

return. -- Powells does. That's what I remember. That's the kitchen. They

added one more floor. It was a beautiful and simple time.

I know wants the road is complete that the fate of Zanskar will be the

same as any of the other wild places on Earth that have been transformed

by modernisation. But I can't help but wish that there was a way to

preserve the beauty and warmth of this place.

Being back at the monastery, it still had the same magic and mystery

as 30 years before. But I know that it is on the cusp of dramatic and

irreversible change. Zanskar's new road is now within a

few kilometres of the monastery. We spent three weeks at the

monastery back in 1986 and it was the early March by the time we left.

We had to head back down the river or risk being stuck at Zanskar. But

so late in the season there were no people travelling down, so we had to

find our own way on the frozen river. It was extremely difficult as

the ice was melting and breaking up. After five harrowing days we

stumbled into a village famous throughout the region for its

metalworking. Dazed and confused, we were taken in by a man and his

family. We wanted to try to find him again but discovered that he had

died some years earlier. But we did find his son.

Despite the benefit the arrival of the new road has brought to the

village, the craftsmen are apprehensive about the other changes

it might bring. Thinking of the inevitable changes

at hand, a Buddhist phrase comes to mind. You can't step in the same

river twice. In other words, the world is constantly changing. It

seemed that everyone we met voiced similar worries about the coming of

the road. Walking around this landscape in

Zanskar, you see the passage of time everywhere you look because the

mountains themselves are so violently created and you can see

the forces that made them uplifting everything. You can see the passage

of time. And that night, seeing the stars move through the sky in a way

that you can see in developed parts of the world, you can just feel

time. The arrival of the new road preoccupies many of the people we

met on our return to Zanskar. They are worried about their way of life

and it is hard not to feel that something valuable will indeed be

lost. We have a cold weekend coming up

with southern areas wet and windy with some