II. From Leh to Khotan. The Great Karakorum Route

George Roerich — Trails to the Inmost Asia

September 19, 1925 — a memorable day in the annals of the expedition! A fine autumn morning with a light breeze from the mountains, wonderfully cool and refreshing. A large crowd of local inhabitants gathered to see us start. The crossing of the Khardong Pass, the first mountain pass on the Turkestan route, is usually effected on yaks, which have to be hired from local peasants. The summit of the pass is covered by a glacier and the pack horses have usually a bad time on it. When pack yaks are employed, the pack horses and mules of the caravans are driven empty across the pass. This is the usual custom of the country, no doubt prompted by many years of experience. We decided to follow it and had ordered yaks several days in advance. For some reason or other, only half of the required forty yaks appeared in the early morning at the dak bungalow. We were obliged to wait the whole of the morning and a considerable portion of the afternoon, before all the woolly beasts reached the bungalow's compound. As is customary, there was much hustle and shouting, the local Ladak headman using his cane rather freely.

At last, about four o'clock in the afternoon, the long caravan column left the dak bungalow and filled the narrow road, which passes at the foot of the Leh Palace and leads to the small village of dGon-pa, and farther into the mountains. A large crowd followed us on foot, wishing us a successful journey. We rode past the barley fields and the Zangskar Convent, whose white walls are an outstanding feature on the plain north of Leh.

After we had passed the last Ladaki village and barley fields, a group of Ladaki women and girls approached our column. They held in their hands brimming cups of yak milk. We all had to bow low in our saddles, and our foreheads and those of our animals were sprinkled with milk. In doing so they wished us godspeed and a safe journey amid the dangers of the forbidding Karakorum.

For three hours we climbed the mountain. With each step, the country became more and more barren. The verdant gardens and fields of Ladak lay behind; and ahead of us towered the rugged mountains, their crests covered with glaciers and snow. Large bowlders hung over the mountain slopes, and we crossed vast masses of débris carried down the towering heights. Our caravan of pack horses under Nazar Bai and Omar Khan went ahead, with orders to wait for us at the northern side of the Khardong La in the small hamlet of Khalsar.

We camped for the night on a stony promontory, close to a ruined stone hut. A piercing northwest wind started soon after we had dismounted and we were obliged to seek shelter among the neighboring cliffs. Our men, perched under the rocks in their gray sheepskins, looked like gigantic vultures, gazing over the upland for some prey. The yak caravan reached the spot only about ten o'clock at night. Its approach was heralded by the loud shouting and whistling of the drivers. Soon there appeared a dark moving mass, that slowly filled the open space on the small plateau of our camp. In complete darkness we began unloading and our inexperienced camp men had some difficulties in putting up the tents. The night was bitterly cold and the wind blew continuously, abating only toward dawn.