History of Bumla Pass
The Bumla Pass is the border between India (Arunachal Pradesh) and China. Or more technically, India and South Tibet.Arunachal Pradesh, was earlier called a North East Frontier Agency, and later became an UT in 1972 and that's when the name Arunachal Pradesh was given to this place which translates into 'Land of Dawn-Lit Mountains'. Finally in 1987, it was declared as a state.
Arunachal Pradesh - The Land of Dawn-Lit Mountain. Aruna, means the first rays of the sun in the morning.
Tawang was a part of Tibet, and still sometimes referred as South Tibet. If one looks at geography, Tibet and Tawang, are a lot alike, and why not ? It was a part of Tibet then. Due to some discussion between the British and the People of Tibet, Tawang was given to Tibet, but then China always claimed that Tibet was a part of China , which people from Tibet don't want to agree with. Moral of the Story, Tibet finally preferred Tawang to be Part of India rather than China.
So the border, which Arunachal Pradesh shares with China, is not actually China. Its Tibet Occupied by China.
Day 6 - Drive from Tawang to Bumla Pass (27th November 2018)
We had reached Tawang the previous day around 3:30 pm and also had got the Special Permit for Bumla. The ILP is one of the document, which needs to be submitted for this Special Permit. Normally the hotels where one stays, gets these arranged. To go to Bumla, only specific vehicles , which are part of the Taxi Association will be allowed. So we can't take our personal vehicles nor any other hired vehicle. We were told that, the trip to Bumla pass and other sight seeing places like the Madhuri Lake, will cost 5000/- INR. Its more of a fixed price. Also note, these Permits are only given to Indian Nationals.
Though the offices which issue these permits are actually open till 4 pm, but due to late arrival of guests, which is normally the case, they do issue these till 6 pm.
Bumla Pass Permits are only available for Indian Nationals
We had a nice breakfast of Aloo Parathas in the morning, along with nice tea at the Tenzing Homestay, where we had put up. The people managing this place were really nice. They are 3 sisters if I am not wrong, and trust me, they really manage it well. One thing, we couldn't help noticing was that the ladies in this part were really hardworking. By hardworking, I am not saying they are busy, but they do lot of work, which we would normally see, only men doing in our parts of the country.
The local driver there, came around 8 am with a pretty new Mahindra Xylo. This Xylo was in a much much better shape and well maintained, compared to the one which we were travelling. The driver was well educated and knew English and Hindi quite fluently. He had studied in Delhi and he was quite a well mannered person, and informative if I can add.
We first crossed the city limits,if I can say so, and slowly started to move higher altitude. Can't say the road was bad. It was bumpy. The definition of good road had probably changed ever since we started this trip. We had to show the Permit to the Army folks before we moved towards the Y Junction. Y-Junction is the point, where one road leads to Bumla, while the other towards Sangester Lake(Madhuri Lake).
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| The Road to Bumla Pass from Tawang |
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| Dzo on the way to Bumla Pass |
Pankang Teng Tso
This lake is on the way to the Bumla Pass, and better known as Ptso Lake. We also saw a Yak with Red Ears here. They were different from the ones we had seen earlier. The view of the Lake by itself was surreal, with a small Bridge in the middle, gave a different dimension to the view.
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| Ptso Lake |
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| Ptso Lake On way to Bumla |
A couple of things regarding the names here. La in the local language means 'Pass' and 'Tso' is a Lake. So writing it as Bum La Pass, translates to "Bum Pass Pass" and similarly with Tso. But then we are used to saying it :)
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| Lakes on the Route from Tawang to Bumla |
So, it took us around 2 hours to reach the Bumla Pass and once we reached there, and after completing the security formalities, we were made to sit in a huge waiting hall. Hot tea was served, which was a God send, more so, considering the weather and the wind. I have to admit, due to the heavy wind and open spaces, it was the coldest experience I had during this trip. We were then escorted by a jawan from the army who took us for a short walk till the last point in India.
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| Bumla Pass - This is the India Tibet International Boundary |
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| Whenever some dignitary or Senior Army Personnel arrives, they will normally keep a memento here with the Date. |
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| The land we see here, is not part of India. Its kind of No Mans land. |
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| At the Border. The hill in the backdrop is where the Chinese Military is present. |
Finally at more than 15,000 feet, we reached the India Tibet Border. I am purposefully mentioning it as Tibet, as its actually Tibet which we are sharing the border, and not China. It was a touching moment for us, to reach a place, which only army folks are residing and protecting us.
At this camp, there is a Hot Line Phone connection with the Chinese Army, and if there are any problems they discuss it over this line.. Apart from that, there are meetings held here 5 times in a year, with the army folks from both the sides being present. If I am not wrong, out of the 5 days, 3 dates are the important calendar days from India and 2 of China. 15th Aug and 26 Jan feature among the 3 dates from India's preference days.
I picked up a cap and t-shirt at this camp, which served as a souvenir from this strategic location.
Road to Sangester Lake
To visit the Sangester Lake, we had to return on the same route , up until the Y Junction. And then moved towards the lake. The pictures below are on route to this lake.
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| Strong Words from the Army Folks |
Its strange sometimes, how bollywood movies can change the tourism of a place.
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| Sangester Lake , also called as Madhuri Lake in Tawang |
On the way down from this point, we saw a lot of old Bunkers , which were used during the 1962 war with China. They are not in use now. We managed to get a few pictures of them, but don't really want to post them here, even though they are obsolete.
The streams which we saw on the way -
The roads were completely covered with snow, even though, it hadn't snowed for many days.
Suddenly we could hear the sound of water falls - I just stopped there, enjoyed the whole falls for a minute or two in the freezing cold, just seeing the water finding its way down wards.
The pictures might not make justice to it. Probably a badly taken video might just work here.
So this Lake, was created due to a huge earthquake in 1971 and most of the people staying in this location couldn't survive.
The Sangester Lake
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| The First Glimpse of the Madhuri Lake |
The Tibetan Flags - There is something about them, which makes them feel so lively. Couldn't stop taking many pictures of them... By both Prasanna and me.
It was lunch time, I started with a nice plate of Maggi Noodles followed by Chana Batura ( Yes, the regular lunch/breakfast we have got all through this trip). I did make sure to add a cup of tea also. The food here is served by the army folks again and we didn't see any civilians in this area at all.
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| The Photographer , now infront of the camera |
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| The National Flag Flying High...And everyone in this area works towards this to remain high always. |
We Started to move uphill towards Tawang finally. One the way, we found a peculiar memorial, if I can call it so. Its called the Beedi Baba Memorial.
As you can see, there is a Beedi prototype, which is a local type of cigarette( Tobacco wrapped in a particular leaf) found in India quite easily. Not sure of the history of the place nor the significance of the memorial, but apparently some soldier who was fond of smoking beedi. So a memorial is made in his name, and a huge beedi is also placed next to it. We learnt from our driver that, every day couple of jawans would come and keep a packet of beedi at this place. Sounds Weird , but true. Had it not for this memorial which we actually saw, wouldn't have believed this story.
This is the vehicle which took us to all the difficult terrains. My new found respect to this Mahindra Vehicle. I would rate it much higher than the Innova, especially in such terrains.
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| Nagula Lake |
Just before we reached the Nagula Lake, we found a couple of Army Jawans walking down the road. We stopped and asked them whether they would want a drop. They happily agreed. Apparently they don't ask for lift from any tourists as many don't really stop which off course makes them feel bad. Many a times they don't get a army vehicle to drop them to the town. We later realised that, they would have to walk around 23 kms to reach the town, had we not stopped. One request to all the tourists, if its possible to give a drop, please stop and then ask them, as they will not ask as such. I do understand that, since we were all guys, it was easy to ask and offer.
During the chat which we had with them, we got a lot of insights of the situation in this region from the army folks. One person was managing the artillery, which kind of means , he operates a gun which is a little smaller than a Bofors Gun. But even those guns are really huge.
One of the points he mentioned was that the life in these border areas, had improved for them, after the Modi Government had come in, in more than one way. There are lot of improvements in the life they live in these areas. More facilities, better winter clothes etc and many such things, which makes their lives much much better to live in such weather. They were really in praise for the Modi Government. Apparently huge difference in the past 4 years or so. Listening to the people who are actually on the border protecting us, say such words have lot of value, rather than listening to updates from Paid Media and Whatsapp forwards. Though he was quick to remark that, there has not been any improvements as such on the personal front, when they need to travel back home, or with regards to leave policies etc. But as long as they are at the border, the facilities have drastically changed for the better.
We asked him about a news which we had got in the media and also had gone viral,that a particular jawan didn't get proper food in the difficult area where he was posted. His take was that, each place is managed by a Army unit. If one person has been discriminated, then it would be an issue in that army unit, rather than the supply to that unit. Distribution of food and other supplies is from a centralised place. He was of the opinion that, its very rare that food supplies etc are not reaching them, unless some huge landslide etc have blocked the traffic. Even then the supplies do reach them via air transport.
We finally dropped them at the Tawang Town. It was a exchange of gratitude when they left, followed by a Jai Hind.
Mobile Connectivity
Another aspect which really hit us, was the mobile connectivity in these region, especially in the higher region. We saw jawan's climbing the hills so that they can get proper range and can speak to their folks back home.
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| Jawans at the Hill Top looking for Mobile Connectivity( Need to zoom the picture) |
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| Army personnel looking for mobile connectivity |
Both the above photos above, show how they need to keep searching for mobile connectivity. It felt really bad, especially since they stay away from families and its so difficult to reach their near and dear ones in today's age. I do hope that this message reaches the heads of the telecom companies to improve the connectivity in these areas.
One of the view, which we got as we came down was this Buddha Statue. Its a massively huge one. But when seen from a far, it just looks as if Buddha is simply looking towards the mountains and meditating. It was simply a perfect view with a surreal feeling
The Tawang Monastery
Finally, we went to the last destination of the day, ie the Monastery. The Tawang Monastery is the second biggest in the world, after the Lhasa Monastery in Tibet.
With that we completed the day 6 of the trip and headed back to the hotel with lots of information and better perspective of our neighboring countries , who are protecting us from them and the efforts done by them.
Once in the hotel, even though it was very cold, Prasanna went out to take some pictures of the Sky. There is no light pollution in this part of town and hence the sky is really jet black and the stars very clearly seen. Though we couldn't get good pictures of the stars, but got a few of the Moon
We planned to start back to Guwahati the next day, directly from Tawang. Though we thought that it would be an relatively easy day, it was not meant to be. More of Day 7 in the next part of this blog series.
Please provide your feedback in the comments section.
The North East Blog Series
Part 1 - Kaziranga National Forest
Part 2 - Journey To Tawang
Part 3 - The Stunning Bumla Pass
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