Silk Road by Nick Middleton - Class 11

Welcome to English Chatterbox! Today we are going to go over the summary of Silk Road. This story gives us a very beautiful account of Nick Middleton's travel. Like in India we have the Char Dham Yatra where people walk and climb mountains to reach their deity, likewise our author decides to go on Kora to Mount Kailash. To remember the facts in this chapter, it is crucial to follow the map and see what all he encounters on his way.

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The author started his journey from Ravu. Lhamo, who was a local girl gifted him a drokba which is a long sleeved sheepskin coat, as he was going for kora and she felt his clothes were not warm enough. Tsetan was Nick Middleton's driver and along with them was Daniel, who was going to Lhasa so he was tagging along with them to Hor.

They went along with the hills of Ravu where they saw gazelles who were nibbling the arid pastures and when they saw them coming they would rush off. Further on they saw Kyang which were the wild asses who were galloping and creating a lot of dust. They even saw shepherds on their way who were called drokbas. They even saw tents of Nomads who had a black dog and the breed was Tibetan mastiff which were ferocious and were not intimidated by anyone. As the climb became steeper and they reached higher altitude, Nick Middleton started feeling its effect and felt the pressure building in his ears.

They drove to a place where rocks were placed in a manner as if to mark a memorial. They took turns around as it was traditional practice. They had lunch inside a tent which has a dry salt lake near it. Labour was at work and was collecting salt. By late afternoon they reached Hor, which was a desolate place and quite in contrast to the stories that the author had heard. He had heard that Ekai Kawaguchi, a Japanese monk had burst into tears upon seeing the lake. Sven Hedin of Sweden had felt similar effects of the lake. He considered the state of Hor to be unfortunate because the town was at the shore of Lake Mansarovar, which is considered as the source of four great Indian rivers the Indus, the Ganges, the Sutlej and the Brahmaputra.

On the old trade route from Lhasa to Kashmir, Daniel got down as he had to go to Lhasa and the author waited for Tsetan to get the puncture repaired. They left for Drachen and reached by night. The author could hardly sleep as he felt restless, the cold and high altitude kept him awake. He was taken to a Tibetan doctor by Tsetan. He was given some pellets and his perspective changed and he saw a very relaxed town. There were few general stores selling cigarettes, soap and such basic provisions. Men were playing pool and women were washing their hair. He had come a little earlier than the pilgrimage season. He was sitting in a café and trying to think how he would do his kora when he met Norbu. He had been writing academic papers about kora and its importance so he wanted to attempt it once. Nick was happy to have him as his partner but soon realized some problems. Norbu was fat and almost as ill- equipped as himself. He decided that they should hire yaks to carry the luggage and Nick felt it would be best to go with Norbu.

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