SILK ROAD, HORNBILL CBSE LITERATURE, FREE DOWNLOAD Q ANS

 SILK ROAD

Describe the first part of their journey.

As they started in a Jeep with the apt driver Tsetan, they took a shorter route to get off the Changtang. It was a road that would take them south¬west, almost directly towards Mount Kailash. They needed to cross several quite high mountain passes. Tsetan was confident that if there was no snow they would have a comfortable journey but weather was so capricious there that none could predict seeing it in the morning.

From the gently sloping hills of Ravu, they took short cuts across vast open plains with nothing in sight except a few antelopes grazing in the arid pastures. As they moved ahead, the plains became more stony than grassy. Soon, the antelopes were replaced by herds of wild ass.

When and How did they set out on their journey?

The narrator, Nick Middleton, was traveling towards Mount Kailash to complete the kora. He nostalgically remembers the day at the outset of the travelog when they started their journey from Ravu. It was a ‘perfect’ early morning to set out for a journey. The clouds looked like long French loaves glimmering pink as the rising sun shone on them. The far-away mountain peaks glowed with a rose-tinted colour. Lhamo presented Nick one of the long-sleeved sheepskin coats commonly worn by the Drokba shepherds to ward off extreme cold weather conditions.

What did the narrator notice about the ‘drokbas’?

As Nick with his fellow companions went further up the hills from the rocky wasteland, they noticed the Drokbas or Tibetan shepherds tending their flocks. Drokbas were  well-wrapped in sheepskin coats. They would halt and stare at their car. They seldom waved as they crossed. When the road took them close to the sheep, the animals would swerve away from the speeding car.

How did Tsetan manoeuvre across the first patch of snow that they came across?

Tsetan stopped at a tight bend and got out of the car. He wanted to inspect. He saw that the snow had covered the path in front of them. The snow was too steep for their vehicle to mount. Tsetan stepped on to the covered snow, and stamped his foot to determine how sturdy it was. The snow was not deep but the car could turn over. Tsetan took handfuls of dirt and threw them across the frozen surface. Daniel and the narrator, too, joined in. Nick and Daniel walked up the snowy way. Tsetan backed up the vehicle and drove towards the dirty snow. The car moved across the icy surface without noticeable difficulty.

What was the purpose of the narrator’s journey? Which route did he take to reach his destination?

The author started a religious pilgrimage to perform Kora to Mount Kailash and the Mansarovar Lake. He traveled through the old Silk Route in the Himalayas that touches Tibet to reach Mansarovar. One has to pass through several high mountain passes covered with snow and vast open plains to reach this destination. On the way, the narrator crossed Hor and Darchen. The weather at Hor was extremely chilly. The narrator found Hor to be depressing and shabby. Darchen was another dirty place where the narrator suffered from extreme cold and had to take medical help.

When did the narrator feel unwell for the first time and what was followed with this?

When they went further up the trail and were 5,400 metres above the sea level, the narrator got an awful headache. He took gulps from his water bottle. It was supposed to help during a speedy uphill journey. He soon recovered as they went down the other side of the pass.

The narrator was fascinated by the awesome mastiffs. Why?

While Crossing the nomads’ dark tents in high altitude Tibetan remoteness, the narrator noticed that a huge black dog, a Tibetan mastiffs, guarded most of the tents. These were the famous Tibetan dogs. These monstrous creatures would tilt their great big heads when someone moved towards them. As they drew closer, these dogs would race straight towards them, like a bullet from a gun. These dogs were pitch black and usually wore bright red collars.

They barked furiously opening their gigantic jaws and were so fearless that they would run straight into the path of their vehicle. They would chase them far away for about a hundred metres. These Tibetan mastiffs became popular in China’s imperial courts as hunting dogs and guarding dogs.

Why did the narrator feel sorry to see the miserable plight of Hor?

Hor was a dirty place with no vegetation. It only had dust and rocks coupled with years of accumulated refuse dropped by the travelers. He found this unfortunate because this town was on the banks of Lake Manasarovar, Tibet’s most venerated stretch of water.

What is the belief about Lake Manasarovar? What is the fact?

According to ancient Hindu and Buddhist cosmology Manasarovar is the source of four great Indian rivers: the Indus, the Ganges, the Sutlej and the Brahmaputra. In actuality only the Sutlej flows from the lake, but the headwaters of the all others rise nearby on the flanks of Mount Kailash.

What was the sight on the plateau ruins of the Tethys Ocean?

The narrator and his friends gave a brief pause for lunch in a long canvas tent, part of a work camp erected beside Tethys Ocean, dry salt lake. The plateau was covered with salty desert area and salty lakes that were remnants of the Tethys Ocean. This place was teeming with many people with many activities. Men with pickaxes and shovels were moving back and forth in their long sheepskin coats and salt-covered boots. All wore sunglasses as protection against the dazzling light of the blue trucks that emerged from the lake with piles of salt. Salt was being collected from this place. IT was an enterprise to moot upon at such an altitude.

The narrator ‘slept very soundly. Like a log, not a dead man’. Elucidate.

After being treated by the Tibetan doctor, the narrator soon recovered. The medicine led to his quick recovery. Hence the narrator had a healthy and sound sleep for the first time since he fell sick. He slept undisturbed. He did not toss and turn. But he was not lifeless.

‘Darchen didn’t look so horrible after a good night’s sleep.’ Justify

The narrator had a very uncomfortable night at Darchen. After he rested, although Darchen was dusty, with heaps of rubble and refuse, the bright sun in a clear blue sky gave the narrator a view of the Himalayas. He also noticed the huge, snow-capped mountain, Gurla Mandhata, with just a tuft of cloud suspended over its peak.Besides, he was feeling sound and healthy.

Who was Norbu? How could he be a help to the narrator?

The narrator met Norbu in a cafe at darchen. He had just recovered. Norbu was a Tibetan. He worked in Beijing at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, in the Institute of Ethnic Literature. He had come to do the kora. Norbu was writing his dissertation academic papers about the Kailash kora and its importance in various works of Buddhist literature for many years. He never actually did Kora himself. The narrator was relieved to get a companion as he would not be alone then.

‘He suggested we hire some yaks to carry our luggage, which I interpreted as a good sign’. Why does the narrator feel so?

Nick was relieved meeting Norbu at Darchen.Norbu wasn’t really a practising Buddhist, but he was enthusiastic and was a Tibetan. He wanted to know more about the route and tough path they had to traverse during Kora. Norbu suggested that they hire some yaks to carry their luggage. This to the narrator came as a relief.

‘I hadn’t made much progress with my self-help programme on positive thinking.’ Why does the narrator feel so?

The narrator was very frustrated when he saw Darchen. It was dusty, with heaps of rubble and refuse. There was no pilgrims. He was obsessed with the drawbacks of the place. His pessimistic obsession made him think that he hadn’t made much progress with his self-help programme on positive thinking. He felt he should have been more accepting and optimistic.

The narrator on his way to Mount Kailash describes a lot of topographic variation. Comment.

Nick and his companions took a short cut to get off the Changtang. Tsetan knew a route that would take them southwest, almost directly towards Mount Kailash. It involved crossing several fairly high mountain passes. From the gently rising and failing hills of Ravu, the short cut took them across vast open plains with nothing in them except a few gazelles that were grazing in the arid pastures. Going farther, they found the plains more stony than grassy, and there were wild ass coming into their view.

Soon the hills became steeper where solitary drokbas were tending their flocks. This led them to the snow-capped mountains and then to the valley where the river was wide and by and large clogged with ice. At a height of 5,515 metres, piles of stones marked the landscape. Next was the plateau which was covered with salty desert area and salty lakes that were remnants of the Tethys Ocean. Hor was next in line. It was a wretched place with no vegetation just dust and rocks, liberally scattered with years of accumulated refuse.

Describe Nick’s miserable sickness at night in Darchen.

The narrator reached the Darchen guesthouse after 10.30 p.m. This was just the beginning of a troubled night. The open-air rubbish dump in Hor had set off his cold once more. One of his nostrils was blocked again and he was tired and hungry. He started breathing through his mouth. After a while, he woke up abruptly. His chest felt strangely heavy but when he sat up, his nasal passages cleared almost instantly and relieved the feeling in his chest. He lay down again. Just as he was about to doze something told him not to.

He was not gasping for breath, but could not go to sleep. He sat up but as soon as he lay down, his sinuses filled and his chest felt strange. He tried supporting himself against the wall, but could not manage to relax enough to sleep. He did not know what was wrong but had a feeling that if he slept he would not wake up again. So he stayed awake all night.

Describe the difficulties that the group faced in Hor.

The group reached the small town of Hor by late afternoon. Daniel returned to Lhasa finding a ride in a truck and left. They had suffered two punctures in quick succession on the drive down from the salt lake and they got them replaced. Hor was a gloomy place devoid of vegetation. It only had dust and rocks, liberally scattered with years of accumulated refuse.

Hor’s only cafe which, like all the other buildings in town, was constructed from badly painted concrete and had three broken windows. The good view of the lake through one of them helped to compensate for the draught. The narrator was served by a Chinese youth in military uniform who spread the grease around on his table with a filthy rag before bringing him a glass and a thermos of tea.

Narrate the narrator’s meeting with the Tibetan doctor.

After an awfully uncomfortable and breathless night, Tsetan took the narrator to the Darchen Medical College. The college was new and looked like a monastery from the outside with a very solid door that led into a large courtyard. The consulting room was dark and cold and occupied by a Tibetan doctor who did not have any kit that the narrator had been expecting.

He wore a thick pullover and a woolly hat. The narrator explained the symptoms and the doctor shot him a few questions while feeling the veins in his wrist. Finally he said, it was the cold and the effects of altitude. He said that the narrator would be well enough to do the kora. He gave him a brown envelope stuffed with fifteen screws of paper. Each package had a brown powder that had to taken with hot water. It tasted just like cinnamon. The contents of the lunchtime and bedtime packages were less obviously identifiable. Both contained small, spherical brown pellets. Though the medicine looked like sheep dung, it helped him recover quickly.

Why was the narrator disappointed to find no pilgrims at Darchen? Was his disappointment dispelled?

The narrator was on his way to do the Kora to Kailash and Mansarovar. He was expecting to join the bands of pilgrims at Darchen. But it was too early a season when he reached Darchen for the pilgrims to assemble at Manasarovar. It was desolate. He felt lonely and unhappy without any companions. It became difficult for him to pass leisure time. But, soon he got over this disappointment upon meeting Norbu in whose company he felt comfortable. They shared similar thoughts. This made them the perfect pairs. The narrator decided to do Kora with him. They decided to hire yaks as both of them did not believe in doing Kora on foot in the conventional manner. Despite being a Tibetan, Norbu could converse well in English. 

Meeting Norbu came as an immense relief to the narrator. Why?

The narrator was not only disappointed with the filth in Darchen but also because of the lack of pilgrims. Moreover, since Tsetan had left, he had not come across anyone in Darchen with enough English to answer even this most basic question. It was then that he met Norbu in a cafe. He was Tibetan, he told him, but worked in Beijing at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, in the Institute of Ethnic Literature.

He had also come to do the kora. Norbu had been writing academic papers about the Kailash kora and its importance in various works of Buddhist literature for many years, but he had never actually done it himself. He was relieved to form a team with another academician. This apart, Norbu, wasn’t really a practising Buddhist, though he was a Tibetan. He suggested that they hire some yaks to carry their luggage, as he had no intention of prostrating himself all-round the mountain. 

What problems did the narrator and his team experience due to low atmospheric pressure above five thousand metres height?

Due to low atmospheric pressure, the narrator and his team felt their heads going heavy. The low pressure also caused the fuel to expand, making it extremely difficult for them to move forward onto their journey.