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Indus Kohistan
Skirting the western end of the Himalaya at
Nanga Parbat, the Indus River cuts a gorge so deep and narrow that some
parts see only a few hours of sunlight in a day, and so inhospitable that
even the caravan routes bypassed it.
Facts F
History
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Diary F
People
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The Dards
The region's old nickname was Yaghistan,
'Land of the Ungoverned'. Outlaws could hide here without fear of
capture; tribal warfare and bood-feuds were commonplace. Keay adds that
"captured soldiers of the Maharaja of Kashmir were used as human
fireworks and in Yasin the natives were said to pluck out their hearts
and eat them raw. Other tribes were supposed to be devil worshippers who
offered human sacrifices. Any caravan that ventured into their valleys
was immediately plundered and the only trade that could be said to
flourish was the slave trade. In fact, in the absence of coin, mankind
was the common currency; a hunting dog cost one male slave and a sturdy
pony two females, preferably fait and fourteen".
Petroglyphs
 The
ancient routes through the Karakoram are dotted with places where
travellers pecked graffiti into the rocks: names, pictures or prayers,
merit in the afterlife or good luck on the next hunting trip. The
serene, 2000-year-old Buddha figures seem incongruous at this goatherds'
crossing in the middle of nowhere. |
[23 Aug. couvert Chilas-Besham bus 205 km Hotel PTDC]
Nanga Parbat (8125m), grafittis près de
Chilas, stupas, buddhas et guerriers néolithiques.
 Kohistan,
pas marrant. Ulrich et moi
voulons nous envoler le plus vite possible pour des cieux plus cléments.
Point de rupture: Islam à réformer un peu comme on fait les
"protestants" avec le Christianisme. Back to the core.
Porte en bois et gros cadenas sur les
portes de l'hotel. Plongée sur l'Indus, fleuve bruyamment calmant.
Dégommage de japonais qui avait réservé les tables avec la vue sur
l'Indus à coup de sauce soja. Pas vu sous les lunettes de soleil,
sumimasen. Peggy toute de rouge vetue, dernière relique de l'éternel
féminin. Check the
photo album. |
Views F
Landscape
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Orientation F
Maps
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 Its yawning, crumbling terrain made Indus
Kohistan one of the most harrowing passage in Asia. Keay tells us the
that "here lies the true horror of the Himalayas. This time there is
no deep and distant perspective; the horizontal is unrepresented. You
are staring at a wall; it rears from the abyss at your feet to a height
for which the neck must crane back. Such is Nanga Parbat, 'the Naked
Mountain'; its navel now confronts you". This said why do not you have a
look to the photo album? |
The most dramatic, cliff-hugging stretches of the KKH
Besham ('beh-SHAAM') is a
long-distance transport junction about midway between Rawalpindi and
Gilgit. It is a base for visiting the Alai Valley, and pleasant Dubair
Valley is not far away. |
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