What lies beneath
A picture perfect village in Baltistan and the not-so-perfect lives of its people
By Aoun Sahi
To an outsider the people and villages of Gligit and Baltistan depict a picture of centuries old lifestyle. Tibetan style houses attached to each other, surrounded by beautiful apricot and cherry trees mostly built on the bank of some river or close to a waterfall or water spring looks out of this world. In short, it’s a dreamland. The people of the region, though, are very peaceful and tourists-friendly but keep a distance from the tourists. The outsiders are not welcome in their houses and even villages. If anything, this attracts even more attention. During a recent visit to Baltistan, I luckily got a chance to spend a whole day in Ghursey, a Balti village, made possible by a local friend. The revealing visit introduced me to the reality beneath the beauty of this dreamland.

In case some of you got glued to the idea of travel hospitality and want to get your hands dirty but don’t know where to begin, well you seem to have come to the right place. Chances are that like most of the people around the world, you shall have a greater opportunity to host people rather than travel and crash other people’s couches. Nonetheless, you shall get a personal account of what it is like to host someone. You shall also get a sense of what to expect and what could be common dos and don’ts.

Although I had been a member of the Hospitality Club for quite a while, my experience with hosting people really took off when I joined Couchsurfing (CS). I was introduced to it by some members who were jointly registered on both the websites. Afterwards, I had the opportunity to go to India and connect with some avid couchsurfers there.

Fresh out of meeting with the CS crowds in Delhi, I decided to get a hands-on experience by putting my couch up and the rest is history. I have had the opportunity to host people spanning from Europe to the extent of taking some of them for eating Chaman Ice-cream. Like they say he who lives in Lahore and has not had Chaman has not seen what Lahore has to offer.

My experience of hosting foreigners has been of being under a consistent shock therapy - on two accounts. One, it has really expanded my horizons and I have been mesmerised by the various stories travellers narrate of their experiences. You do get to meet a lot of interesting personalities with such a diverse set of backgrounds. I have had the pleasure of meeting individuals who indulged in professional photography, travelled the world performing stunts or acts for children, from PhDs to circus performers. Also, you would get to meet individuals travelling the world alone without any fear. One such was an English girl who was doing a land trip from China to England travelling in trains, buses and what not.

Believe me, it hurts my ego deeply when I see people who can travel so freely and without social baggage since it takes me ages to get my friends to agree on going to an expedition out of the city. You have no idea of the number of trips that I have had to forego just because Mr. X had girlfriend troubles, Mr. Y was not feeling like it and Mr. Z had office related priorities and this was just about travelling within Pakistan. I would not have been able to deal with the drama had it been a foreign tour. The one thing that I do like about foreigners is that they are very gutsy. They just grab a bag and a map and they are ready to go. Of course this has partly to do with how people grow up in different societies. While in the West, there is a drive for independence, in the East it is more about co-existing with the group.

Secondly, you also get to see a glimpse of the life in the country from which the guests are arriving. It is very interesting to know how people from different economic status, educational background perceive their country and the world in which they operate. Many fruitful discussions ensue as a result of the interaction and give a better understanding of things around.

Among the many memorable hosting experiences, the best encounter with ‘the other’ was when I hosted two Polish girls who were travelling from their home country to Australia. A friendly bunch, anything and everything was under discussion from religion to politics to what not. They spoke English and we instantly connected. They combed most parts of the city equipped with their cameras and shooting anything and everything which piqued their interest. They got to meet with the local couchsurfers in Lahore and had a nice Lahori bash. They head banged and were enchanted listening to Papu Sayeen at Shahjamal. It was difficult to part ways with my ‘friends for life.’ We regularly keep in touch and they keep posting pictures of their adventures on their blog so I never lose sight of them.

Pakistanis are generally apprehensive of such hosting, knowing that in case some of these foreigners go missing, the usual suspicion shall be cast on the hosts since everybody knows Pakistani police. Furthermore, there is a general concern around hosting Indians because of our state’s "friendly" relations with India for the past 60 years. But once one gets past the initial apprehensions, hosting men and women of different nationalities, colours, shapes and sizes can be fun. It brings the dream of having a World with no boundaries into the reach of one’s hand.

To an outsider the people and villages of Gligit and Baltistan depict a picture of centuries old lifestyle. Tibetan style houses attached to each other, surrounded by beautiful apricot and cherry trees mostly built on the bank of some river or close to a waterfall or water spring looks out of this world. In short, it’s a dreamland. The people of the region, though, are very peaceful and tourists-friendly but keep a distance from the tourists. The outsiders are not welcome in their houses and even villages. If anything, this attracts even more attention. During a recent visit to Baltistan, I luckily got a chance to spend a whole day in Ghursey, a Balti village, made possible by a local friend. The revealing visit introduced me to the reality beneath the beauty of this dreamland.

Chursey is some 130 kilometres from Skardu, headquarter of Baltistan. With a population of more than 8,000 people, apricot, wheat, corn and fodder are the major crops cultivated here.

"More than 40 kinds of apricots are grown in Ghursey, and our apricots are considered the best in Baltistan," says Muhammad Yousuf, 22 years old apricot grower from the village. According to him, most of the people in the village are unable to make ends meet because the agricultural land has been ‘shrinking’ because of the increase in population and the erosion caused by the river each passing year.

"Twenty years ago my family owned 130 kanals of agricultural land in the village which has now shrunk to less than 100 kanals. The rest has been ‘eaten up’ by the river," he tells TNS. The construction of flood protection dyke has not been completed in the last ten years.

The only other profession of the residents of Ghursey is traditional basket weaving. This craft, like many other in the region, is on the verge of extinction because the next generation is not interested. "This craft needs a lot of hard work. It requires time and energy to learn weaving with little hope of good returns," says 55 years old famous basket weaver Ibrahim. Basketry has been his family profession since generations but out of his four children, none wishes to continue this profession. "They are not interested to learn this craft because they have been observing me since their childhood, busy making baskets and other things but could never earn enough to give them a good living. " He tells TNS that maximum he earned in a month was Rs6,000.

The locals are dependent on Hushy River for irrigation as well as drinking, cooking and washing. The river’s water carries a lot of silt, sand and mud brought from the mountains of Karakoram Range which act as the major contributing factors in making the land of Ghursey fertile to grow the best apricots in the region. The same water is hazardous for people who are using it for drinking and cooking purposes. This contaminated water is playing havoc with the health of villagers. No wonder, every third villagers suffers from kidney or stomach related problems.

Centuries-old techniques of water purification are still in used here to make it suitable for drinking. While explaining the process, Muhammad Abbas, a 45 year old resident, tells that the river water which they use for drinking purpose is first stored in underground big tanks for more than 12 hours. "We learnt this process from our elders and it helps to separate the sediments from river water."

When I was drank this greyish ‘filtered’ water I could feel sand and silt going to my stomach. The taste of sand and silt also remained in my mouth for more than 24 hours after drinking it once. "We have to drink this water as there is no other option available to us," he adds. According to him, the villagers have been demanding the government for years to construct a water filtration plant but "so far there is no response from government’s side and we are facing the consequences of this negligence."

"More than 50 percent of Ghursey’s population is suffering from different kinds of peptic ulcers because of the river water they use for drinking and cooking," says Dr Khursheed Hassan Mir, medical officer civil dispensary Ghursey. He is the first qualified doctor to have been appointed in this village in 2006. According to him, there are many other fatal diseases caused by it. "Many of the residents have kidney diseases. The children are the worst effected. Last year, three children of Ghursey died from diarrhoea."

Interestingly, the number of deaf and mute is alarmingly high in the village. According to Numberdar, Ghulam Muhammad, more than 40 people, majority of whom are adults, of Ghursey are born deaf and mute while a good number of people are suffer from goitre. According to health experts both these diseases are linked to deficiency of iodine. Dr Hassan Mir believes that the geo-chemical composition of soils in this area is poor in iodine and due to low content of this element in water and food products its inflow with the average food ration is insufficient. According to him, iodine deficiency may result in severe abnormalities. "It is a cause of endemic or exophthalmic goitre - swelling of the thyroid gland possibly leading to cancer. Iodine deficiency during pregnancy may lead to stillborn foetus or mentally handicapped children. Abnormal functioning of nervous, cardiovascular system, of gastrointestinal tract, slump in working capacity, oppression of immune system, mental retardation, childbearing pathologies, stunted development are other problems caused by lack of iodine."

The people in the area started using iodised salt in mid 1990s and that is the reason most of the deaf and mute are adults. Dr. Hassan added "the ratio of these diseases is minimal in the new generation due to the usage of iodised salt."