THE SILK ROAD IMPORTANT ANSWERS FOR CLASS-XI (SNAPSHOTS)

THE SILK ROAD

CLASS-XI (SNAPSHOTS)

IMPORTANT QUESTIONS & ANSWERS

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Q. The narrator, while travelling to Mount Kailash, observed many changes in the landscape. Discuss.

Answer: The narrator and his companions took a short-cut to leave the Changtang region. Tsetan knew a route that would lead them southwest, almost straight towards Mount Kailash. This path required them to cross several fairly high mountain passes. Starting from the gently rising and falling hills of Ravu, the short-cut led them across wide open plains, empty except for a few gazelles grazing in the dry grasslands. As they moved ahead, the plains became more rocky than grassy, and soon they saw a large herd of wild asses.

            Further on, the hills grew steeper, and they saw a few drokbas living alone and taking care of their flocks. This route eventually brought them to snow-covered mountains and then down into a valley where the river was wide and mostly filled with ice. At an altitude of 5,515 metres, the landscape was marked by heaps of stones. Beyond this point lay a plateau covered with salty desert and salt lakes, which were once part of the ancient Tethys Ocean. Their next stop was Hor, a miserable place with no vegetation—only dust, rocks, and piles of rubbish that had collected over many years.

Q. The narrator understood that the snow was both dangerous and beautiful. Explain why.

Answer:  On the way, Tsetan checked the snow on the path by stamping on it. The snow was not very deep, but if the car slipped, it could overturn. To reduce this risk, they threw handfuls of dirt over the frozen surface. Once the snow was covered with soil, they were able to drive without any trouble. After ten minutes, they reached another snow blockage. This time, they chose to drive around it.

                Despite the risks, the place was still beautiful. In the valley, they could see snow-covered mountains, and the river below was wide but mostly frozen, shining brightly in the sunlight. As they continued upward, the road became sharper and rougher. The rocks around them were dotted with bright orange lichen, and beneath the rocks, there seemed to be endless stretches of shade.

Q. Write down the difficulties that the group experienced in Hor.

Answer: The group reached the small town of Hor by late afternoon. Daniel, who was on his way back to Lhasa, managed to find a ride in a truck and left. During their journey down from the salt lake, they had two tyre punctures one after another, but they got them repaired. Hor looked dull and lifeless, with no vegetation at all—only dust, rocks, and piles of rubbish collected over the years.

                The only café in Hor, like every other building in the town, was made of poorly painted concrete and had three broken windows. However, one of those windows offered a nice view of the lake, which made up for the cold wind blowing inside. The narrator was served by a young Chinese boy in a military uniform, who first wiped the table with a dirty cloth, spreading the grease even more, and then brought him a glass and a thermos of tea.

 

Q. Describe in detail the narrator’s miserable night in Darchen.

Answer: The narrator reached the Darchen guesthouse after 10:30 p.m., and this marked the beginning of a very difficult night. The open-air rubbish dump in Hor had triggered his cold again. One of his nostrils was blocked, and he felt tired and hungry. He began breathing through his mouth.

            After some time, he suddenly woke up. His chest felt unusually heavy, but as soon as he sat up, his nasal passages cleared and the heaviness reduced. He lay down again, but just as he was about to fall asleep, something told him not to.

            He was not exactly gasping for breath, but he simply could not sleep. Every time he lay down, his sinuses got blocked and his chest felt uncomfortable. He tried propping himself up against the wall, but he still couldn’t relax enough to sleep. He didn’t know what was happening to him, but he strongly felt that if he slept, he might not wake up again. So, he stayed awake the entire night.

Q. Describe how the narrator met the Tibetan doctor.

Answer: After a very uncomfortable and breathless night, Tsetan took the narrator to the Darchen Medical College. The college was new and, from the outside, looked like a monastery. It had a strong, heavy door that opened into a large courtyard. The consulting room was dark and cold, and inside sat a Tibetan doctor who did not have any of the medical equipment the narrator had expected.

            The doctor was wearing a thick pullover and a woollen hat. The narrator described his symptoms, and the doctor asked a few quick questions while checking the veins on his wrist. In the end, he explained that the narrator’s problem was due to the cold and the high altitude. He assured him that he would be well enough to complete the kora.

            The doctor handed him a brown envelope filled with fifteen packets of medicine. Each packet contained a brown powder that had to be taken with hot water. It tasted somewhat like cinnamon. The medicines for lunchtime and bedtime were harder to identify; both contained small, round brown pellets. Although the medicine looked a bit like sheep dung, it helped him recover quickly.

Q. Meeting Norbu brought great relief to the narrator. Why?

Answer: The narrator felt disappointed not only because Darchen was dirty, but also because there were hardly any pilgrims around. After Tsetan left, he couldn’t find anyone in Darchen who knew enough English to answer even simple questions. It was at this point that he met Norbu in a café.

Norbu told him that he was Tibetan 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. Although Norbu had been writing academic papers for years about the Kailash kora and its importance in Buddhist literature, he had never done it himself. He felt relieved to join another academician for the journey. However, Norbu was not really a practising Buddhist, despite being Tibetan. He suggested that they hire some yaks to carry their luggage because he had no intention of prostrating all around the mountain.

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