Nain Singh—Secret Surveyor of the Himalayas

Nain Singh—Secret Surveyor of the Himalayas By Brinda Gill On a cold winter morning in 1863, eigners, especially the British, who had be pressed through fine openings specially Major Smyth, a British Education Officer made many attempts to obtain geographi made in their prayer wheels! in Kumaon, in India’s western Himalayan cal information about the forbidden coun The cousins’ most important routine region, sent for Nain Singh, the headmas try. Wary of Russian efforts to establish during training was taking measure, daily ter of a government school in the village links with Tibet and cognizant of the coun walks. Each day they marched a precise of Milam. When Nain Singh entered the try’s fabulous gold mines, the British had number of equal, paced steps between office, Major Smyth welcomed him in, been continually thwarted by the Tibetan marked distances. The exercise prepared gestured to a chair and then turning to a government. them to measure the span between sites in large map on the wall said, Nain Singh would cross the rugged Tibet. Along with their unusual prayer ‘As you may already know Nain Singh, mountains not as a surveyor, but as a pious wheels, they would also carry Buddhist our trans-frontier maps are either blank or Tibetan Buddhist; making observations rosaries, strung with exactly 100 beads, delicately based on travellers tales. Gilgit, discreetly. In some ways the sojourn instead of the usual 108 beads, with every Chilns and Chitral on the north-west are seemed like a reckless adventure - walking tenth one a big bead. They would count unexplored; Yarkand though visited, from hundreds of miles to furtively gauge the each bead after 100 paces; a large one coordinating different observations, seems heights of mountains and the course of marked 1000 paces. With the sextant and to be a hundred miles out of position on rivers of an inhospitable, uninviting coun compass they would get their bearings, and the map. Central Tibet remains unknown - try. If caught, Nain Singh would be con with their measured paces they would the position of Lhasa in longitude is large sidered a spy, and face dire consequences. position sites. They were also taught the ly speculative. Only one point on the River Did obtaining the physical statistics of rudimentary use of drugs and simple reme Tsangpo, Shigatse, has been charted’. another land, which had no bearing to his dies to further imitate the practices of Why this balance sheet? Nain Singh existence, necessitate such an expedition? Tibetan monks. wondered, as Symth continued with a short Despite any reservations, a week later account of British survey teams in the Nain Singh and his elder cousin Mani A Mild-Manner Monk region and their quest for information of Singh, also selected for the mission, left For two years Mani Singh and Nain lands beyond the Himalayas. ‘Nain Singh, their village Milam for DehraDun. Both Singh refined their skills and sorted out we need you to tell us about Tibet’, he said Nain Singh and Mani Singh had worked possible obstacles. They set off in January directly, circling a sparsely marked space with the Schlagintweit brothers, German 1865, dressed in the multilayered flowing on the map - the forbidden highlands of scientist-explorers, in the Himalayan robes of Tibetans, carrying a rosary and a that windswept, and locked country. region a decade earlier, and both were prayer wheel like devout Buddhists. In this The rest of India, reduced to two-dimen familiar with the Himalayas. role Nain Singh was referred to as the sional space, was ablaze with hundreds of At 11,200 feet, Milam lay in the scenic ‘Chief Pundit’ or simply ‘the Pundit’, little markings, but the barren Tibetan upper reaches of Kumaon in the north- which means teacher or wise man in Hindi; plateau seized Nain Singh’s imagination. Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, at the foot of and Mani Singh was GM. He was to cross those sublime mountains the Milam glacier. As a young boy Nain While passing Kumaon they met a to complete a lacunae which irked officials Singh had accompanied his father along group of Johari merchants who had been and nagged surveyors, and fill in the centuries old mountain paths, to trade robbed in Tibet. Hearing that Mani Singh details of an unknown world. marts in Western Tibet. They would ferry and Nain Singh were heading for Lhasa, Major Smyth’s voice cut through his cereals, cotton cloth, jaggery, sugar, tobac the merchants asked them if they could be thoughts. ‘With a little effort you could co and return with Tibetan wool, borax, their agents, to present their case to the pass off as a good Tibetan’, he observed. salt, butter, sheep, goats and fine horses. Government at Lhasa. The cousins con And he was right. Nain Singh was a Young Nain Singh would tie brightly sented, and they decided to approach Bhotia, a clan that had lived near the coloured ribbons on their manes and little Lhasa via Nepal, as there was frequent Tibetan border for centuries and seemed bells around their necks. The most impor travel between the two countries. They set like kindred cousins of the Tibetans, with tant of all imports -gold- would be carried off, piously murmuring the Buddhist similarities in race, custom and speech. on their person. prayer ‘Om mani padme hum’ (Oh Jewel ‘Are you willing, Nain Singh’ Symth In Dehra Dun the cousins trained in of the Lotus), turning the prayer wheel and asked anxiously. practical surveying under British Survey dropping beads to mark a hundred paces. ‘I am ready’, the thirty year old Nain officers. They learned to observe and rec Their minds automatically coordinated the Singh said instantly and there was no look ognize stars, take latitudes by the sextant, number of steps and the drop of a bead. ing back then. gauge direction with a compass, and deter Nobody questioned their identity as devout mine heights by observing a thermometer Buddhists. Pilgrimage of Precision in boiling water! They learned to make The travellers reached Kathmandu on Nain Singh’s journey was not an ordi terse notes of places, mountains, roads, the 7 March 1865. After making inquiries nary one. Tibetans were suspicious of for rivers and the locals. These notes were to about the best route, they decided to con 18 The Ontario Land Surveyor, Spring 2001 tinue via the small town of Kerun Shahr. On March 27, they reached Temure, a Nain Singh would cross the rugged mountains Nepalese police and customs post, where not as a surveyor, but as a pious Tibetan Buddhist... they were scrutinized. The cousins had dis mantled the sextant, concealed the com Keeping an ear open for news, he heard droppings that had a peculiar smell. After pass in the prayer wheel, tucked away the that a Ladakhi caravan bound for Lhasa, a few nights of sleeping in the open this thermometers in a hollowed stave and hid sent by the Maharaja of Kashmir was smell, evocative of warmth, seemed most the mercury within coowrie shells. Their expected after thirty days and his carriage comforting! bags passed scrutiny, and they were in Tibet was being supplied by the Tibetan The caravan reached Shigatse on the allowed to proceed after paying pay poll government. Because Himalayan travel October 29 and took up residence at a large tax. But trouble was round the corner as was extremely dangerous, cold, desolate caravan-sarai. About half a mile to the they were delayed at the next halting post and plagued by highway robbers, pilgrims south-west of the city, stood a beautiful and permission to continue their journey and traders had to travel in groups. Nain monastery surrounded by a wall about a by way of Kerun Shahr was denied. Singh soon rented a house and feigned mile in circumference, ensconcing many With heavy hearts they retraced their sickness to avoid contact with the locals, houses and striking temples topped by steps to Kathmandu. They realized that to hoping to rest inconspicuously till the car gilded spires stood within this enclosure. increase their chances of success, they avan arrived. When it reached Tradon on Later Nain Singh visited them and saw would have to split up. Mani Singh decid October 2, Nain Singh joined it and idols studded with precious stones, gold ed to try a more circuitous route via marched eastward along the Jong-lam and silver. About 3,300 priests dwelt in the Muktinath in Nepal, but was unsuccessful Road, by means of which Tibetan officials monastery, the Chief being the Panchan as he took ill and subsequently returned to communicated for 800 miles along the top Lama. As Ladakhis deeply revered the Hindustan (as India was called in those of the Himalayan range from Lhasa to Panchan Lama, they were eagerly antici days). Nain Singh meanwhile approached Gartok. pating paying their respects to him. Nain a Bhot merchant, Dawa Nangal, who Though generally well defined, some Singh was terrified at the thought for it was intended to take the Kerun Shahr route. He stretches of the surrounding plateau resem believed that the Lama knew all the secrets promised to take Nain Singh to Lhasa, on bled the road, causing confusion. of the heart! A dramatic finish to his life the basis of which he borrowed money Travellers frequently left stone heaps, seemed imminent, but as he could offer no from Nain Singh. called lapcha, topped by flags on sticks. plausible excuse for not paying his They started off on June 3, with the The Tibetans regarded these as guide-posts respects to the Panchan Lama he nervous Pundit donning the dress of a Ladakhi (the as well as objects of veneration, often con ly went along.

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