Xinjiang, China’s Central Asia and incredible Tibet–Day 13/Part 1

July 5, 2014July 5, 2014 by Kaushik

Day 13:

Route through Karakoram Highway from Kashgar to Kunjerab Pass via Tashkurgan:

A day with big dream started nicely, the weather was fine, the dusty ambience of last 2 weeks because of a severe sand storm almost gets settled, no further west disturbances predicted from West and hence we took a quick breakfast and start for the day. Our plan for night stay would be either around Karakul lake or in Tashkurgan on the way.

Another Chinese engineering marvel, this almost 1300km long Karakoram Highway (Sometimes called Sino-Pakistani Friendship Highway)connects Islamabad in Pakistan to Kashgar in China in a stunning roadway winding through some of the most inhospitable terrain in the world through great mountain ranges of Kunlun, Pamir, Karakoram and Himalayas, following one of the silk route to the valley of Hunza, Gilgit and Indus River. Chinese claims more than 400 lives lost in the road work but in Pakistan side people call this road by 1 per km, that means 1 people at least died per km of road build in that side. The highway built in 1967 was again an incredible feat of Chinese engineering. Travelling in this road is still unpredictable specially in month of July / August due to flash floods and rock slides which are very frequent during that time.The highway cuts through Karakoram Ranges at Kunjerab Pass reaching at 4733 meters.

South of Kashgar the Karakoram Highway (KKH) crosses gebi plain towards a series of mountains to the south. It approaches the rocky foothills and enters the narrow gorge of the Gez river, a majestic yet slightly intimidating terrain that remains a dangerous road to travel despite of advances in modern day engineering. Here we faced the checkpoint where our permits made in Kashgar were checked and passports were verified. Hasan prepared a permit for us on day before in Kashgarh, so we proceeded further while ascending up to 4000 meter and then dropping slightly to a vast high altitude plain with salt lakes and sand dunes, here we found Kyrghiz traders supplementing their income by selling semiprecious stones and other local handicrafts to tourists, more of shopping my intention was to capture few nice portraits there.

Kashgar Town in morning:

Largest Statue of Mao in whole China is located at Kashgar, desperate attempt to show Kashgar belongs to China, yes it is, who argues

Fruit Markets in the side of Karakoram Highway:

The dream comes true, Driving on Karakoram Highway (KKH):

Gez River with colorful Mountains:

Colorful Canyons beside KKH:

Bactrian Camels grazing beside KKH:

These colorful mountains were the source of colorful fresco of 3rd century depicting Jataka Tales inside Buddhist Caves in this region:

Kyrghiz Stone seller:

Kyrghiz Family who hosted us near Karakul Lake with warm Tea and Nan:

Day 13 Continued…

Down further south at an altitude of 3500 meter the road reaches the shores of Karakul Lake, a gem in a stunning mountains setting of Kunlun. The high windswept plateaus between parallel ranges that constitutes Pamirs , the “Roof of the World” are home to nomadic branch of Kyrghiz people who lives in yurts. We have seen horses, yaks, sheep and camels graze on the rich pasturage around this high altitude lake, surrounded by majestic Kongur and Muztagata peaks.The views are really dominated by Muztagata Mountain (means “Father of Ice Mountains” in Uyghur) is 7500 mtr and Kongur Tag to the North at 7700 meter height. Kongur is the meeting point of Kunlun Mountain Ranges to west to Pamir. We initially thought of staying at Yurts but in October all water gets frozen during night and night temperature plummeted far below zero, we decided to stop at Tashkurgan where we would get better hotels. So instead of a night stay, we waited till evening to watch the fabulous sunset on backdrop of Kongur and Muztagata and then we proceeded to a 4100 meter pass just after the lake from where one can have even a closer look of Muztagata and subsequently dropped to a broad valley at 3200 meter to arrive at Tashkurgan, place of our night stay.

Kyrghiz Yurts:

Karakul Lake and Muztag Ata:

Inside the Kyrghiz Yurts:

Muztag Ata is the 2nd highest peak in Kunlun at a height of 7700 mtr in Pamir Plateau :

Muztag Ata in Uighur language means Father of Ice Mountains:

Kyrghiz Huts:

Serene Landscape:

Previous: Day 12

Next: Day 13/Part 2

Xinjiang, China’s Central Asia and incredible Tibet – Day 12

July 5, 2014July 5, 2014 by Kaushik

Day 12:

Today’s Route:

The Hotan Hotel as I said was very nice and comfortable, and a 4 star hotel in Chinese standard, we had a nice sleep and fresh for today.

Hotel Lobby:

Kid is looking for next destination

Today we had a long drive through Southern Silk road from Hotan to Kashgar almost 550km through Karghilik and Yarkhand. We stayed in a nice hotel in Hotan which was again a four star in Chinese standard and had a good sleep, you need good rest to get yourself soaked in the beauty and culture of this region, it’s so colorful and varied, an experience you would cherish for lifetime. We reached Karghilik through the road mainly through desert and some oasis few and far between.

Karghilik is now a growing oasis town which comes frequently in the headlines because of flashpoints of ethic conflicts between Hun and Uyghur. Historically this was the point where ancient trade caravans and travellers heading for India would turn southwest into the mountains, trading the infamous desert path for the freezing, torturous track that led over the five great passes over Kunlun and Karakoram ranges to Leh and finally to Srinagar in Kashmir. The route averaging the height of 4800 meters (16K ft) above sea level and crossing five five thousand meters pass named Suget, Karakoram, Despang la, Saser la and Khardungla reaches to Leh and then passes through Zojila to cross over to Kashmir Valley. The region is named as Skeleton Trail as still it’s told to be strewn with skeletons of animals and human from the caravans perished in the wrath of nature. However, despite of its terrible hardships and difficult terrain, it was the best possible and most used route between the Tarim Basin and the Indian Subcontinent until the British finally created a safer and faster route in the second quarter of the last century via Hunza valley of Pakistan Occupied Kashmir and the Kunjerab Pass. Those famous two humped Bactrian camels many of us have seen in Nubra Valley actually came to India as part of this old caravans from Yarkhand in Tarim Basin. Karghilik Mosque is quite big but not opened for tourists, so we just enjoyed the architecture from outside and proceeded further to Yarkhand.

The people going to local markets:

The ancient trade route bifurcates to India leaving the desert and crossing 5 great passes of Kunlun, Karakoram and Himalaya it reaches Indian Plains and almost through same terrain Chinese built modern engineering marvel of Highway 219 connecting Xinjiang and Tibet, known as remotest and deadliest highway in world, we are at point Zero (Start Point) at Xinjiang side.

Karghilik Mosque:

Day 12 Continued…

Historically Yarkhand was considered even bigger trade hub in silk route than Kashgar or Hotan due to its extensive commercial activities with Indian Subcontinent through Leh. With a forum like BCMT which is so information intensive on Leh, let’s see something on other part of the story that made Leh so famous historically. Silk road caravans carried silks, tea, precious stones, golds, furs and skins and opium (heavily used in China) from India. It’s the Kashmiri traders who taught the Yarkhandis to clean and treat fleeces and soon the quality of Yarkhand’s shawl wool became world famous. It’s again a lesson taught by Indians to China. Yarkhand boasts of its rich culture from Hindus, Pathans, Tibetans, Baltis, Afghans and other foreign traders who swelled the city’s population. It is now officially known as Shache, for some reason Chinese have renamed all the Uighur towns like Khotan becomes Hetian, Niya becomes Minfeng, Karghilik becomes Yecheng and Kashgar becomes Kashi, Yarkhand is no exception, not sure if this is cultural invasion or their idea of making the history blurred to make it all feel Chinese. You would be surprised to know that cultural invasion has gone to such an extent that all Xinjiang town has now got an official sister city from their Chinese counterparts, Kashgarh has Guangzhou, Yarkhand has Shanghai, Hotan has Beijing like this, so cultural invasion can go on systematically. I am not giving any opinion what Chinese are doing is right or wrong, we have seen lots of flipsides of democracy we enjoy in India but one thing is sure China wants its people and others in world to believe that Chinese history starts from 1949 onwards when Communists came into power. But that’s a big loss to whole world specially for places like Xinjiang and Tibet which has a long history and much of that directly or indirectly connected to India.

I met one Japanese tourist who is studying on Chinese language, he told me something on Chinese history, he asked me why I chose Western Part of China as my first trip there when everyone knows (rather Chinas wants all to know) it’s the Eastern part that reflects true China. I replied him that history of Xinjiang and Tibet apart from the landscape fascinated me always. He asked me again why not the history of Eastern side of China attracts me, I replied I never studied so called history of that part of China, then he smiled and told me “How you would study, most of the histories of those part are actually Fairy Tales whether western part has a long and rich real history”, I didn’t know how true is that but the conversation struck me right in my heart. If some country really having rich heritage and culture, I don’t know how they could denounce histories of others.

We visited the Imperial Tomb complex of Altun kings who ruled the Yarkhand kingdom in 16th Century and it was a nice place to see the old architecture of that time. Another place we visited was the Tomb of Amanisa Han, the wife of Sultan of Yarkhand. She was credited with collating and composing much of the epic “Twelve Muqam”, the most significant collection of music in Uyghur culture. Known as “Mother of Uyghur Music”, the Twelve Muqam comprises large scale sets of sung poetries, dance tunes and instrumental pieces. In 2005 UNESCO recognized it by designating it a “Representative work of Human Oral and Intangible Cultural Heritage”. She was a great artist no doubt about that but she is very few of the representatives of Uyghur culture who was supported and projected by Chinese Govt, the reason most Uyghur loves to believe as she was a Han Chinese who was married to Uyghur and Chinese shows this as epitome of national integrity. I just wrote what I heard, no pun intended
We gave a miss to Yengisar, another silk route town famous for making Yengisar knife which is strictly prohibited to even carry in your check in luggage. Yengisar knife so nicely made, you would love to buy one if you see it, so be careful, unless you have a plan to get out overland, getting this out of China is difficult. We gave it a miss because we were short in time after exploring Karghilik and Yarkhand. We reached Kashgar quite late around 8.00 in evening and have a quick dinner and went to bed.

Streets at Karghilik:

Women are in Business, common sight in Southern Xinjiang:

Tired Seller:

Tomb of Amanisa Han:

Imperial Tomb complex of Altun kings:

Kashgar Hotel, very nice one:

Previous: Day 11/Part 2

Next: Day 13/Part 1

Xinjiang, China’s Central Asia and incredible Tibet – Day 11/Part 2

July 5, 2014July 5, 2014 by Kaushik

Day 11 Continued…

We drove across the southern rim of Taklamakan and with few and far some oasis appeared, rest all are barren desert as we drove towards West. Hotan is barely 150km from Niya and can be reached easily in 2 hours. So our main objective of the day was to explore this old town of Hotan, it’s famous carpet and silk factories before looking around the historical Hotan Market. The oasis town of Hotan (historically known as Khotan as we read in history book and Hetian in Chinese) is famous for its jade, carpets, silk and embroidery. Indeed the fame rises with the blossoming of silk route. The traditional hand-woven silk produced in small family units and rich natural colors of and designs of Hotan Carpets have still been treasured all over the world.

History of Hotan is no less surprising. This area was originally inhabited as early as late Paleolithic age (up to 10000 BCE) and was occupied around 1000 BCE by the Saka, a semi nomadic, Indo-European group originating from eastern Persian Realm. Around 300 BCE immigrants from India moved into this region and formed this first Indian town in Tarim Basin and according to legend the first King of Hotan said of a son of King Ashoka, the Mauryan emperor, settled there around 225 BCE. During 2nd Century CE, this region was ruled by Indo-Scythian kingdom of Kushans, whose ruler Kanishka though was a Buddhist, supported other religions of Hindu and Iranian faith. This influence of Kushans and Mauryas brought the Gandhar art in these areas including Kuqa. Buddhism flourished here in fourth and fifth century and remained as a centre of Mahayana Buddhism until the early of 11th Century when it was conquered by Muslims of Kashgar. Hotan’s prosperity can be easily guessed by famous pilgrim Fa Xian’s account who stayed in Hotan for 3 months and left a vivid account of thousands of monks and many monasteries ornamentally carved and overlaid by gold and silver. This place was even under serious Indian influence till Communist regime in China took over in 1948. In 1935, when Peter Fleming (A British Adventurer and Travel writer, elder brother of Ian Fleming, creator of James Bond) and Ella Maillart (A Swiss Olympian and Travel Writer) took their epic journey of 7 months from Beijing to Srinagar (They were lucky, I am sure they couldn’t take such trip in modern day through Xinjiang, Tibet, Ladakh, Skardu, Gilgit to Srinagar) arrived at Hotan, they found the city was hand-printing its own currency note from Mulberry trees (those who are not aware, Mulberry Tree leaves are main feed for silkworms). Their vivid account of witnessing the arrival by mule of British Indian Postman with documents for local Indian merchants and the three months old copies of “The Times” brought all the way from Kashmir made the point how close these places were to India just even 80 years back.

Silk Threads, the product which named this epic route as Silk Route:

The Silk Clothes but you need a knowledgeable tailor to made something tangible out of it:

Silk Trader with his potential Customers:

Silk Pieces, note the hand made designs:

Creativity in a Meat Shop:

Uighur Kebab in making:

The Designer Nans:

Candid expression:

Hotan Market, looks more authentic and still bear the old touch than the Kashgar Market:

Hotan Market Tailor, certainly has an attitude:

Managing Parents shop in their absence:

Helping her Mother, preparing street foods for shoppers:

Spice at Hotan Market:

Another Cute Kid:

Uyghur Cap:

She really looks pretty:

She was ready to pose, although her mother stopped her

Uighur Man:

Chairman Mao meets a local farmer, something China wants to portray in whole Xinjiang to show how serious and sensitive they are about Uyghur and not only that, they were very serious about their issues from long back — This was an Uyghur man’s explanation, I didn’t thought about it

Previous: Day 11/Part 1

Next: Day 12

Xinjiang, China’s Central Asia and incredible Tibet – Day 11/Part 1

July 5, 2014July 5, 2014 by Kaushik

Day 11:

Today’s Route:

Today our driving distance was not too long, but we would take the southern fringe of Taklamakan desert and would travel through the most prominent of all silk route branches, the southern one that comes directly from Dunhuang via Charkilik and then touching this small oasis town of Niya, going to big oasis of Hotan and from there further west it crosses Karghilik proceeds further west to Yarkhand and then finally meets the North Silk Route at Kashgar. Southern Silk route is actually the oldest route established first in history.

Historically from Kashgar, Silk route branched off and one route continued over high Pamir and from there to famous town of Khokand, Samarkand, Bokhara and Merv before making its way through Persia and Mesopotamia to the Mediterranean Sea, where the exotic silk, carpets and spices from East ended up in the market of Rome and Alexandria.

Another silk road branch, more closer to our Indian hearts, branched off at Yarkhand (Modern Road 219 to Tibet starts from Karghilik instead of more difficult Yarkhand), continuing south to Karakorum over the 5 great passes, to reach Leh and Srinagar, then into the Indian Subcontinent. Unfortunately the route has been closed since China’s occupation of Tibet in 1950 and subsequent encroachment to Aksai Chin to build Xinjiang-Tibet Highway and till then skirmishes are going on across the disputed Line of Actual Control. This is a dream route for many of us to explore and definitely one the most (if not the most) arduous trek route in planet earth ever crossed over by human being on regular basis in history of human civilization. The road from Kashgar to Leh is around 900km and cross Karakash Valley to go up to Suget Pass and the descending to Yarkhand Valley and subsequently cross the great Karakoram Pass (Now located close to the tri junction border between India, China and Pakistan and only border between India and China that doesn’t touch Tibet) to descend to Chipchap Valley (Known as Depsang Plains as well) and Daulat Beg Oldie (Daulat Beg Oldie was a Kashgar ruler who took repeated attempt to conquer Tibet through ladakh route and finally died and burried here in 15th Century) and then again ascends to Depsang Pass to cross over to Shyok Valley. From Shyok Valley it crosses Saser La to descends to Nubra Valley and finally from Nubra it takes Khradungla to descends to the valley of Leh. This route was preferred to prosperous Indian Traders of Punjab over more straight forward route via Khyber Pass to Afghanistan and subsequent to Iran to Turkey because of safety of valuable goods like Ivory, Gold, Silver they used to carry with them. The route between Ladakh to Yarkhand was extremely challenging from terrain perspective and knows as Skeleton’s Trail but extremely safe from getting robbed by armed bandits across the route. The route is so secluded even traders used to go back couple of years later to retrieve their valuables they forced to leave years back due to hostile weather.

Let’s talk briefly about Niya, It was a prime important town between 2nd Century to 5th Century CE on Southern Silk Route which later diverted to more southwards most likely because of acute shortage of water as Niya River changed its course and it became impossible to survive in this desert town so close to Taklamakan. All these incidents are documented in early scripts written in Indian scripts of Kharishthi and Brahmi lent weight to the argument that the Southern Silk Route had until the middle of fourth Century CE been mainly under cultural influence of Northern India, despite the fact it had fallen most often within political and military zone of influence of China. Yet another reason to be proud of being Indians. Many have rued while making comment in this log, that why we still don’t have roads, infrastructure anywhere close to what China already have, very true but they might be doing good in rampant urbanization and inorganic growth for their country but they never can match India with the culture and rich heritage and history we have. China’s western side specially Xinjiang is very close historically with India including the Tibet and that’s one of the possible reason China doesn’t want to show the world the large non Chinese faces and their dreams and demands. I have seen many people in Kashgar whose relatives stay in Ladakh and Kashmir but being resident of Kashmir, they are issued stapled Chinese Visa and Indian Govt doesn’t allow them to travel in China, now about the people of Xinjiang, they are more unfortunate, their passport application fees are 5 times than of a Hun Chinese what I heard but still less than 20% of population of the state are having Chinese Passports, they are simply denied a passport, so that they can’t go out of China. So this frustrating man made boundary keeps the blood relations apart and it’s not just a story of two Bengals or two Punjabs, it’s equally true between Ladakh and Yarkhand or Ladakh and Tibet.

The Hotel we stayed at Niya:

Kitchen in a Niya Restaurant :

Uighur Restaurant in Niya:

City Center Niya:

The Road sometimes goes through Oasis few and far between:

Most of the roads are through Desert (Not like the core Desert we crossed yesterday but through Southern Rim of Desert):

Nan and Kebab – Famous Uighur Food, a great break from Chinese Noodles:

Cute Uighur Kid:

Ladies and Girls making handmade Carpet, an ancient industry of 2000 years ago still flowing through generations:

They not only weaves the carpet but also manages their younger siblings when their mother is busy:

Handmade Carpets are being made:

Finished Carpet, what a brilliant art made by Human hands and the legacy being carried over a millennium:

Carpets made in front of our eyes just too exquisite, we were stunned, first one shows the Silk Trade hubs on ancient area where as the next one shows the vista of High Pamir and Altai Grasslands, even the Xinjiang Diversities impacted the carpet design:

Previous: Day 10

Next: Day 11/Part 2

Xinjiang, China’s Central Asia and incredible Tibet – Day 10

July 5, 2014July 5, 2014 by Kaushik

Day 10:

Today’s Route Map:

In Day9 if we have witnessed something by Chinese Govt which we might not like being Indians, Day10 is something where we saw something which we miss in India and wish if our Govt could do even a fraction of this. This day we could easily take route from Kuqa to Hotan and there by saving a full day, instead we planned to go back towards Urumqi for 100 km and to take the Desert Highway (known as Tarim Highway) to cross 522 km within deep desert of Taklamakan to reach the other side at Minfeng (Niya in Uighur). The total distance we traveled around 750km in the whole day and obviously we could reach Hotan only on next day. But still this epic road, which is world’s longest desert highway in any form is a sight to see and best to drive to feel and experience the fearsome Taklamakan Desert. Our only intention was to enjoy the Taklamakan desert which took lives of so many ancient traders of silk route and we achieved that fully. We reached Minfeng quite late almost around 10:00 in night but we could cover the desert part all through the day light and enjoyed the drive a lot.

I am quoting this from the history of the road which any travelers might be thrilled to read on how well Chinese could achieve this seemingly impossible task making longest road cutting just in the middle of second largest desert of the world.

Quote:

When Tazhong-4 Oilfield was discovered in the heart of Taklamakan in late 80’s, China National Oil Corp realized than an economical means of transport would be needed if the recovery of oil from field were to be profitable. A road was only the viable option. With a budget of CNY 4.5 Billion which later finally reached close to 8 Billion (120 Million USD) the China National Oil Corp organized 17 research institutes and more than 100 experts – engineers, geomorphologists, and botanists – to build a tarmac route across the Taklamakan. Nowhere in the world a road ever been built across such a hostile terrain. Engineers faced two main problems : to build a solid roadbed, and to protect it from being buried by constantly shifting sand.

Experimentation began in late 1991. The suitable roadbed formula was underlain with “geotextile”, a heavy-duty weave of tough plastic that was laid on compressed sand. This was topped with a gravel asphalt surface approximately 30 cm depth.

As the road inched its way south from Luntai, researchers found their efforts on finding the best way to protect it from windblown sand. Lateral “Shelter Belts” consisting of two lines of defense were built on both sides of the road. The first, about 100 meters from the road was a 1.3 meter high fence of interwoven reed stalks. The second line of defense lay alongside the road itself: a checkerboard pattern of reed stalks “planted” deep into the sand. This double defense proved effective as 90% of all windblown sand in the desert never rises more than 1 meter above ground – even in most powerful desert storms.

In total the road building teams came up with 310 new desert-stabilizing and road building techniques. Tens of thousands of laborers used thousands of square kilometers of geotextile and millions of tons of gravels. In the summer they braved 70 degree C and in winter mercury plummeted to Minus 30 degree C. Four sweating and shivering years later, the 522 km road with 7 meters width, finally linked Highway 314, to the north of the desert with Highway 315 in the South.
Designated as highway 312 and dubbed the Tarim Highway, this road building wonder – the world’s longest metalled desert road drivable year-around was opened to traffic in September 1995 and now takes 9 hours to cross infamous Taklamakan – an amazing feat considering that only a few decades ago the same journey would require many weeks of extremely dangerous and unpredictable travel.

In 2001, anti-desertification plant species such as Chinese tamarisk, honey tree, diversiform Poplar and saksaul were planted along a 30km section of Tarim Highway to help hold off the sands, which constantly encroach despite the road side shelter belts and subsequently in 2003 a CNY 220 million (USD 31 million forestation project proceeded to create a green belt of desert plants on 3128 hectares of land along 436km of highway. To water these plants well stations are built in every 5km (So 100 wells stations were built for entire stretch) those pumps water through a network of pipes that run along the green belt. Six Million Cubic Meters of water is consumed annually to protect this road from the fiercest desert of planet Earth.

Starting point of Tarim Highway in Northern part of Taklamakan Desert at Luntai:

Mighty Taklamakan (Ocean of Sands, Taklamakan is world’s second largest Desert after Sahara)

One of the 100 water well and pumping station built in every 5 km apart through this 522km road to save the green line beside the road to protect it from sand:

The amazing Dunes of Taklamakan, be it size, shape, colors, textures, grandeur it would keep amazing you:

The famous Tarim Highway crossing the mighty Taklamakan Desert – Note the Green Belt in 3 rows in each side of the road to protect it from shifting sand of fiercest Desert – This is a pleasure to drive deep into a 522 km pure desert highway!!

Previous: Day 9

Next: Day 11/Part 1

Xinjiang, China’s Central Asia and incredible Tibet – Day 9

July 5, 2014July 5, 2014 by Kaushik

Day 9:

This was our first day with Hasan and we were little skeptical about how he would be specially after having such great time with Ablajan but ice broke very fast as Hasan turned out to be a very nice and helpful gentleman. Today our plan was to visit around Kuqa. In modern Chinese economy Kuqa is not an important town but two thousand years ago, this was the largest town among all the western kingdoms. By 4th Century CE, this became one of the most important trade hub being in the crossroads that continues from Turpan to Kashgar in East – West and Hotan to Junggar Basin via Ili Kazakh region in North South. The North – South route crosses Taklamakan to meet with the Southern Silk route at Hotan that comes from Dunhuang to the Southern rim of Taklamakan desert towards Kashgar.

Kuqa is known as cradle of Buddhism in whole China as this is the place from where Buddhism started spreading across whole China and thus this place was having some connection with ancient India. The famous linguist and scholar Kumarajeeva was born and brought up here whose father was from Kashmir and mother having blood relation with local king. Kumarajeeva was born in 3rd Century, completed his education from Kashmir and was an expert in Sanskrit language and Brahmi alphabets earned his place in Chinese Buddhist history as “Nineteenth Patriarch of Buddhism”. He returned from Kashmir after finishing his education to Kuqa as a respected teacher of Hinayana Buddhism and later taken to Gansu province by the king where he lived for 17 years became famous for his prolific translation of Buddhism Manuscript from Sanskrit to Chinese.

Prior to these accurate translation of Indian Buddhist Philosophy, the Chinese believed this new religion was a foreign barbarian form of their own Taoism partly because both religion strive towards a state of salvation and partly because lack of understanding of Chinese to the principle doctrinal differences – Chinese language is ill suited to illustrate many subtleties and abstract reasoning in Buddhism that Sanskrit can gracefully accomplishes. Only after these translations started by Kumarajeeva, Chinese started to understand the real Buddhism. Still, the Chinese Buddhism bears very limited similarity with Indian Buddhism and follows the simplest doctrines of the religion. From Ninth Century Islam was introduced in Kashgar and Kuqa and other parts of Xinjiang slowly slipped into Muslim culture after eventual conversion.
In the end of Nineteenth century an ancient Buddhist stupa was excavated in Kuqa and several century old manuscripts were recovered and later sent to Asiatic Society of Bengal in Calcutta for a translation where it was discovered that these scripts were written way back in 5th Century in Sanskrit Language using Brahmi alphabets by some Indian Monks and dealt with subject of Medicine. I really felt amazed to listen this story of India (Calcutta) connection of Kuqa and felt proud to be an Indian, who could boast of our rich heritage. Yes we taught China the Buddhism and Kumarajeeva in that time crossed Taklamakan Desert and subsequently high passes of Kunlun and Karakoram to reach ladakh via Daulat Beg Oldie and Khardungla and further crossing Zojila reached Kashmir to get himself educated in Sanskrit language and Buddhism.

Today our first visit was at Ancient city of Subashi Ruins (Subashi in Uighur means headwater of river), this was the ancient capital of Kuqa region and located just in the emergence of Kuqa river from the Tienshan Mountains. The ancient city was built across both side of Kuqa river but the ruins predominantly exist in Western side as of now. This 3rd Century towns considered as largest Buddhist temple site in Xinjiang had towers, halls, monasteries, houses everything severely eroded by time but still quite recognizable. We enjoyed walking across the ruins and best part was there was no other tourist apart from us and we enjoyed and soaked ourselves in the histories of 3rd century.

Subhashi Buddha Ruins of 3rd Century CE:

Grand Pagoda of Subhashi Ruins

Soaking yourselves in 3rd Century, somewhere around 1700 years back, makes you feel amazing:

Day 9 Contd…

Our next stop was Kizil Thousand Buddha Caves, 70 km away from Kuqa, carved in a stiff cliff looking over Muzat river valley, considered as best fresco fragment to be found in Xinjiang. The Caves and frescos were built between 3rd to 8th Century CE, have more than 200 caves but now only less than 100 still contain the ruins of wall paintings. This is one of finest examples of Hinayana Buddhist art in whole of Central Asia and heavily influenced by Indian traditional art of Gandhara (Originated from erstwhile Purushpur, now Peshawar in Pakistan), depicted lots of Jataka stories with different colors of rocks. As we have seen Xinjiang has colorful rocks, so coloring these frescos beautifully was not a big problem though guide told us, specifically the color blue was made by the rocks brought from Afghanistan, it was not available locally in Xinjiang. Most of the frescos and murals were removed by German, British and Japanese expedition teams in start of Nineteenth Century and many of them are now being displayed in Asian Art Museum, Berlin. But still the place definitely worth a visit at least to see what still remains there and demonstrates the fascinating artistic heights, the Kuqa artists reached more than 1500 years back.

The last attraction of the day was Grand Mosque which was dated back 500 years and initially used as religious court and that continued until Communist regime took over and banned all sorts of religious courts across the country. The mosque was second largest mosque of Xinjiang after the Idkah mosque in Kashgar which we would visit later. The religion is now seriously controlled in Communist China, since 1950 after communist took over, there was not a single new mosque built as Govt denied permission though the population grew manifolds. While talking to few locals who usually don’t want to speak much about local regime, I came to know one retired teacher was issued Govt notice for offering prayer in Mosque and his pension (that was due for his 30 years of service) was stopped in 24 hours notice and while appealing against the decision, the teacher was asked to collect his living from Mosque. As a Govt service holder or as a teacher you are simply not allowed to practice any religious activities of any sort in China. We all are aware that in China except if you do some small business where you don’t need Govt favor, you would be dependent by some means on Govt and that’s why practicing religion of ones choice is still a dream for most of the Chinese. If you were following the news of Xinjiang closely, you might have read in Xinjiang last August 25 people were shot by police inside a Mosque citing an illegal meeting was taken place, Chinese news you won’t get easily and verifying the truth is even more difficult as people and locals are quite afraid of saying anything against whatever Govt does. We saw similar kind of forced rules against freely live, believe and practice religions like what we are used to in India even in Tibet and in a bigger scale but we would come to that later.

Subhashi Ruins, notice the temple structure at top, 1700 years old:

Colorful Rocks on the way to Kizil Thousand Buddha Caves:

Kizil Buddha Caves with Kumarajeeva in foreground:

The Road from Kizil Buddha Caves to Grand Mosque:

The Kuqa Mosque inside contains lot of 15th Century artifacts:

Kuqa Grand Mosque:

Kuqa Old Market:

Old Rickshaw in background of modern transport:

Kuqa Old Town – Nice Houses:

Mother and Baby:

Uyghur Face:

Previous: Day 8/Part 2

Next: Day 10

Xinjiang, China’s Central Asia and incredible Tibet – Day 8/Part 2

July 5, 2014July 5, 2014 by Kaushik

Approaching to Tienshan Southern Region:

Ascend to Tienshan Southern Range started:

Inside Tienshan South Range, roads winding up:

Lovely Yurts:

Placid Lakes:

The Serpentine Road goes through Tienshan:

Cutting across Tienshan Highway 217 connects Northern and Southern Part of Xinjiang:

After crossing the Tienshan Southern Range we reached to Tienshan Grand Canyon:

Amazing rock formation:

The walking through the narrow canyon was an amazing experience:

Strange formation you would see frequently:

Sometimes Canyon goes wider:

Sometimes it gets very narrow:

The colorful canyon and its grand texture made by wind and water erosion is a treat to eyes:

Previous: Day 8/Part 1

Next: Day 9

Xinjiang, China’s Central Asia and incredible Tibet – Day 8/Part 1

July 5, 2014July 5, 2014 by Kaushik

Today’s Route:

This would again be a long day for us and we were supposed to drive 550km to cross Tienshan mountain range to officially end our Northern Xinjiang trip and destination for the day was Kuqa (Pronounced as Kucha). We had once more a typical Chinese breakfast with Chop sticks (no spoon/fork would be available in the smaller towns) and quickly start the day by 9.30 morning. The road 218 leaves Narat and continues East following the river which by now is a rushing stone filled stream closely hemmed by spruce and pine trees. After few kilometers the road meets 217 (Which we left on Day6 at Kuytun) which is coming down South from Kuytun crossing Tienshan range through a tunnel and few passes before meeting and crossing 218 here and goes down south to Kucha on the Northern side of Tarim Basin, the northern edge of infamous Taklamakan Desert. Highway 217 from Kuytun to Kucha is famous for its spectacular and varied mountainscape, first it follows a river through a narrow canyon, then crosses lush grassland of Bayanbulak and then starts ascending to cross Southern Tienshan again to finally get down to Tarim Basin. We initially have plan to visit Bayanbulak as well and it’s famous Swan Lake home to the majestic Swan in China. This is also famous for multiple bends of Kaidu river in the middle of a huge prairie of lush grass like a giant gleaming serpent. But again with blooming flowers, majestic swans and serpentine flow of Kaidu river, summer is the ideal time to go there so finally we decided to drop this and also there was some confusion regarding an issue with permit to stay night there for foreigners.

South of Bayanbulak grassland, Highway 217 again enters mountain region of Southern Tienshan and around 70 km north of Kucha it passes through Tienshan Grand Canyon, 6 km long canyon is a wonder of nature with thin pinnacles, overhanging wall and heavily eroded red rock. The narrowest part of Canyon was even less than half a meter and it was an amazing experience to walk down the narrow canyon. We finally reached Kuqa around 7.00 in evening and this was the place where our first part of Xinjiang trip was being over. Ablajan was booked for the Chinese golden holiday week with a French group and also I decided to start my Southern Xinjiang trip with a local driver and guide and here I met another excellent Uighur gentleman in his early thirty, Hasan who was also an excellent guide, a very safe driver and awesome host. Hasan lives at Kashgar and he took almost a 10 hours drive for me from Kashgar to pick me up at Kuqa. We would visit tomorrow the Kuqa area as this was one of the major hub of old silk route and cradle of Buddhism in China. We were booked in another 4 star hotel here (Hotel Lidu) by Ablajan and this hotel was indeed one of the best in our entire stay in China. We said good bye to Ablajan for his excellent guidance over last one week and promised to meet him again at Urumqi for the last part of our Xinjiang trip to Turpan after our visit to Southern Xinjiang. Hasan was equally punctual and disciplined and entirely professional and I must admit my good luck with finding exceptionally good drivers and guides was continued in China too.

First few kilometers the Highway 218 passes through the Narat Grassland:

The Road follows the mountain stream:

Soon after the crossroads with Highway 217, we took 217 towards South crossing Tienshan Range:

Highway 217 crosses the extremely beautiful Tienshan Mountain Section:

After Crossing the Tienshan Mountain ranges, 217 hits the Bayanbulak Grasslands:

Bayanbulak Town:

The vast pastureland is amazing :

Now reached almost at the end of the Bayanbulak Grassland:

The valley started getting narrower:

Previous: Day 7

Next: Day 8/Part 2

Xinjiang, China’s Central Asia and incredible Tibet – Day 7

July 5, 2014July 5, 2014 by Kaushik

Day7:

Today’s Route Map:

This was absolutely a Chinese hotel and as expected we had a terrible breakfast and that was expected after our yesterdays lavish one. We left the hotel as early as 9.30 and the road then passed into a long, steep sided valley known as fruit valley in Ili Kazakh Prefecture. Rugged and beautiful with forests of dragon spruce blanketing the mountain slopes and wild fruit trees further down, this region famous for sweetest apples produced in China, named as Ili apples and high quality of honey collected from bee hives. After 30km of such a beautiful driving, the road diverts, straight road goes towards the Horgas Port in Kazakh border which is barely another 30 km and we turned left to East towards Yining. Yining is the capital of Ili Kazakh prefecture most of which borders with Kazakhstan. Border is as close as 80km from here it’s located 700km west of Urumqi where as 450 km east of Almaty which was until 1991 was Soviet Union. So you would feel like reaching an erstwhile Soviet town when you would be in Yining. From Yining the highway towards East is known as Highway 218. At first the road goes through tall poplar trees but soon emerges to reveal the Ili Valley in full glory. This is a vast valley with tilled fields and further away the sloping expanses of pastureland makes it soothing for your eyes. The road follows Kunes river as the valley is narrowed down and finally starts to ascend to Tineshan range again before entering Narat Valley. Even in Autumn the vastness of green grassland with Kazakh Horsemen roaming around with flocks of sheep, herds of cattle and horses will make you amazed. The grass started turning yellow but still good for grazing of thousands of animals. Narat (Nalati) Grassland is particularly lush and picturesque and this is a favorite place for domestic tourists. Foreigners until 2012 required special permit to enter this region but this year it was said to be relaxed and we were not asked for any permit anywhere but if you plan to visit this place, check it twice, in China anything can happen anytime. We enjoyed the grassland through out the day and stayed in a nearby hotel for the night.

China is quick to write off the winding roads and making bridge or tunnel to make things quicker:

G30 crosses the fruit valley before descending to Ili Valley:

Kazakh Man with his pet:

Narat Grassland:

You can stay inside the scenic area:

Or can stay even in the Kazakh Yurt:

Amazing Grassland:

Previous: Day 6

Next: Day 8/Part 1

Xinjiang, China’s Central Asia and incredible Tibet – Day 6

July 5, 2014July 5, 2014 by Kaushik

Today’s Route map:

The hotel at Karamay was also a 4 star hotel as per Chinese standard and we got first time in the trip the option of an English breakfast and needless to say we have made most of this unbelievable change of our luck for food and had the longest breakfast of the trip. When we started it was already 11:00 Beijing time. Our journey for the day was relatively short but still around 350km and we planned to take 217 further down till Kuytun and then turn right (west) to G30 towards Sayram Lake which is located close to the border of Kazakhstan. From Kuytun towards west, expressway G30 runs parallel to Tienshan through dark fields of cotton with lighter strips of land sown with corn. We saw lots of migrants pickers from erstwhile Soviet countries form lines with baskets on their back and walking from the field to other side towards waiting trucks to be filled with tons of cottons. The Rail road from Urumqi accompanies the highway all through till Jinghe where the railway finally departs by turning north towards Alataw port, historically known as Junggar Gate, the strategic pass between the high mountain ranges of Central Asia through millions of years, historically allowed human migration and conquering armies to bridge the Europe with Asia. Through this the North Silk route used to pass before it crossed Caspian Sea to cross over to Europe. Today the importance of this place is, that it’s the only year long open border and only rail route between Xinjiang and Kazakhstan. Other side of the border is Dostyk in Kazakh and from there the rail route skirts Alakol Lake and meets Turkey-Siberian Railway near eastern like of Lake Balkash, from there North will take you to Moscow and South to Almaty.
From the same point where railroad departs to North, G30 continues to west leaves Junggar basin and climbs through the broad valley of Tienshan. Once up, the first view will draw your attention towards the stunning expanse of vast blue water known as Sayram Lake. In Kazakh, Sayram means blessing, this is situated almost 2100 mtr above sea level and 30 km at longest and 25 km at widest point, makes it Xinjiang’s largest Alpine Lake. You can drive through 50 km through the circumference of the lake if you buy an entrance ticket from East gate and can drive out through South Gate. The lake is said to be formed almost 70 million years back because of a tectonic movement that caused the plate crust to drop almost 90 mtrs to form the lake. The lake gets frozen between December to April every year and then from May the water started melting and in Summer with the surrounding mountains slopes with grassy fringes creates a stunning setting for the deep azure colored lake with lots of wild flowers blooming all around. If someone really wants to enjoy the beauty of Sayram, he should be there in June/July. In Autumn we enjoyed the red and yellow grass and nomadic cultures and the gem like lake but the photographs we saw in visitor’s center certainly tells it’s the summer when one should visit this heavenly place. We stayed very close to lake in a hotel, which seems to be only hotel in the area, rest all accommodations are yurt type and in October, temperature at night drops drastically we decided to stay in hotel, after all still we had a long way to go.

On the way From Karamay to Kuytun in Highway 217: