Snow on a silk route

Ancient trade routes threaded through the highest mountain ranges in the world. One of the less well-known routes passed from Bengal through Sikkim into Tibet. The silk weavers of Murshidabad would send their wares by this trans-Himalayan route. Some of it eventually found its way by the east-west trading routes into late medieval Europe. This Bengal silk was one of the items that the various East India Companies wanted to buy when they arrived in the 17th century. Today the tourism department of Sikkim is marketing this area under the name of the Silk Route. But as interesting as this history is the route itself. From Zuluk a long series of switchbacks and bends climbs up to the Nathang valley, where the weather brought us to a halt.

We got off our cars and walked about near the edge of the road. We were 3220 meters above sea level, about 30 meters below the next pass. Many tourists come here at this time for a view of the mountains. They were extremely excited by the weather: the slushy snow, so unusual down in the plains. The Family laughed at me when I complained about the very same weather. “Look at them,” she said. Waves of fog blew below us, revealing a red-barked tree (photo above) which I did not recognize. Far below us a raptor circled the road. When Mandar took a photo we could see that it was a Northern goshawk (Accipiter gentilis), quite unusual in this region.

The fog was getting denser, the air colder. More snow was gathering on the ground. This winter has been unusually warm across the northern hemisphere. I learnt that this was the first snowfall in this region, and that it was much heavier above us. Vehicles were being turned back from the next checkpost. It was easy to recognize them by the two centimeters of snow that they had collected on their roofs. The road was now closed, and people who had planned to cross to Gangtok by this route would now have to drive down and take the long route through Pakyong. The fog was too dense now to see much, and I decided to follow my party into a tea stall.

These tea stalls are flimsy structures, quickly built with a wooden framework covered over with cheap sheets of corrugated metal. More care goes into building the oven and the chimney. We saw a metal oven, warm enough to keep the inside toasty. In most years, doors are locked and sheds left unattended in winter. When the road opens again in spring, the shopkeepers come back and repair the structure for the season. All the drivers had gathered together and were drinking many cups of tea. I could hear the musical cadence of Nepali from the group. In this cooler place people hydrate themselves by drinking hot and sweet milk tea or warm water. We got our teas soon enough. Some tea, a few biscuits, and we decided that we would turn back and try our luck birding by the roadside lower down.