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| A trek to mysterious Malana village |
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| Malana village |
"With a strong whiff of accumulated dirt from his unwashed body, clothes and reeking of alcohol, Mangal Singh looked at me with total distrust, disbelief and sheer hate. Rather than expressing sympathy and offering any help, he spat on the muddy ground and retorted, "
why did you touch me, don't take any liberties of entering the houses in this place, talk or touch! Do you understand?"We were taken aback! It was an outrageous response to a simple query of asking an address of the temple's
Kardar(manager) and by ignorance not remembering the local law, my friend Gopal had just tapped on the shoulder of this man in Malana.
Phew!Rami Chan paused, took his mug and gulped the remaining coffee. He removed a gold flake cigarette, lit it, sucked a long one and looked at us. There was a silence. Myself and Tommy Singh and lovely Amrita, all dear friends, were at
Barista coffee shop near PVR, Saket, New Delhi to listen to a recent amazing and bizarre account of an incredible journey to a lost world in India-
"The Republic of Malana" in the state of Himachal Pradesh
.Rami Chan with his friends wanted to visit
Malana for two reasons:
A- For rural tourism in the Himalayan region and
B- To know the truth about "world's best hashish-Malana Cream".
There are three routes to Malana.
One-From Naggar near Manali to via most beautiful
Chanderkhani Pass 2500 meters.
Two -From Rashol pass in Parbati valley through Mandi
Third- From Kullu via Bhunter to
Jari to Malana. This last one was easiest and nearest.
Rami Chan and company had reached
Bhunter airport at
Kullu from Delhi, took a Jeep to
Jari, a two hours picturesque journey on a road to a tourist spot
Manikaran and then trekked around 17 km to
Malana. They had to register themselves at the Malana power house which was 2 km from Jari. then was a scenic trek, passing the only village in between Jari and Malana-"
Chouki" a small hamlet with a land mark of a towering Lord Shiva statue in a temple. Covering beautiful forest and singing streams they came to the uneven stretch of 7 km and then started one of the most difficult and treacherous stretch of 4 km with dangerous gorges and steep cliffs intimidating enough to make a gorilla go weak in the knees! Panting and tired they had reached
Malana valley and the village of
Malana! Rami Chan noticed the excitement on our faces. He continued...
" We hurriedly left the place toward what we supposed was the direction of the temple of
Jamlu Devta (the worshiped God). The path was narrow, the houses some intact some burnt with the recent fire which had devastated the village mysteriously when it was raining and snowing heavily. It was a valley, Malana valley at the height of about 2500 meters, surrounded by beautiful mountain ranges and deep forest of Deodars and pine trees, streams cutting through the valley. The houses mostly had two stories with slate roofs. queer looking characters peeping through and asking in a hushed tone 'cream?' 'cream?' And then it dawned upon us, Oh yes, we are in a
'world's best hashish country'! It seemed to be a small village, may be 1500 people. A
scraggy lot, I thought. The smoke was rising behind distant houses mingling with gray white snow landing a sinister hue to the gloom of an inhospitable welcome and tiredness of a treacherous trek. Everything looked unknown, mysterious...
I suddenly shivered"
"Eventually we met Shukru Singh, the
Kardar (manager) of the temple who welcomed us once he knew our contacts in
Kullu. Still reserved and cautious, he made some arrangements. When we sympathized and offered our condolences on the tragedy the village had faced, the ravaging fire which had engulfed half of the village, he replied,
"The demon can never win. Jamlu Devta had defeated Him time and again and now also; though the demon has destroyed some of our houses, he could not touch any of of our people, you see!""Slowly he reveled the details. In the end we were as confused as in the beginning."
Rami Chan shifted on the chair and talked.
"Malana was a darkness difficult to penetrate. A secluded village; chosen by India's most mysterious community where history, myth, culture combine to form a shape most unfathomable at best. The people call themselves descendants of solders of Alexander's army, Greeks! Yes, they have a fair skin and brown eyes; but the truth? The scholars in Kullu say they are of Tibato-Burman Race. However, there two historical facts
- They have kept themselves in a veil of secrecy from the rest of the world for centuries and secondly they have a democratic system of governance which is oldest in the world!"
....The village council is headed by a
Goor, an oracle of deity
'Jamlu Devta' and has a mythological history of millions of years back of a fight between
Demon and
Rishi (Saint) Jamdangni which resulted in a code of conduct and sharing of work between
Rishi and
Demon.Then there is a council of members , a head from each of the family. The office bearers are elected democratically and the work distributed as per the laid down norms. About 1500 inhabitants live in a close cluster at 11000 ft in an inhospitable terrain they call home, speak a language called
Kanashi nobody understands.
When asked, our host at the house we were staying for the night replied,
"only we and ghosts can understand" and he was serious.
Outsiders can't touch anything especially temple and people or you are fined Rs.1000 ($25) by the council. For their needs they may go to
Jari, if required. They deal with few people and foreigners but by and large they have opted to stay secluded.
Next day we took a trail to the forest and to visit
Cannabis cultivation. Those were difficult places to trek but the beautiful surroundings make you forget the tough part of it. These were legalized farms though we were told that a lot of
illegal Cannabis cultivation thrives. The quality is the
best in the world sold at a premium! The sinister side?
It is Hashish and the related crimes. Since few years people from Kullu and Manali and foreigners, mostly Europeans and particularly Israelis have known about Malana Cream hashish. These people had been trekking the region. There had been spate of dark crimes undetected till date and many people have disappeared. Cultivating and selling hashish is a multi million dollar industry thriving in Malana valley where everybody could be involved.Though both God and Demon are on one side atop mountain but it looks that mortals are for a change going to win the battle! Now the things seems to be changing. The state government is bent upon developing the area with roads, power plants etc. The latest news is that Malana council has agreed to allow visitors for Rural Tourism, with certain restrictions. Soon the so called
"The Republic of Malana" may join the main stream of India, tossing the curtain of secrecy aside"
Rami Chan stopped. There was an eerie silence. We didn't speak for sometime and then I asked,"what happened later?"
"Sir do you need anything else", asked the Brista's coffee shop captain startling us.
Rami Chan looked at his watch. "Lets go. May be some other time, its 11pm now"
We left hoping to hear the rest soon.
NEWS: There has been a considerable development activities recently in the area and the isolation of Malana has been reduced. It's easier now to trek and be accepted by locals.
Epilogue:The civilized modern world has a lot to learn from the Malanese. The way they settle their issues is a lesson to the urban elite. No law books, no clauses, no constitution, no lawyers, no policemen or police stations and yet the villagers live in mutual harmony, sharing their burden with each other. With basic minimum requirements, the Malanese over the centuries have learn to live in tune with nature. They may not have access to the luxuries of the modern world still once can see the glow of contentment on their innocent faces. http://ignca.nic.in Route: Delhi-Kullu (Bhunter airport)- Jari by road 2 hrs- trek to Malana 7 hrs
Stay: Kullu-HPTDC hotels
In Malana: private houses permission to be taken by village head
(
Story based on the web site of Indra Gandhi National Center of Arts and on an article in Hindustan Times, New Delhi, January 2008 by Anand Soondas )
- Posted below is a link to a full 58 minutes HD movie on an international expedition to Malana and Hashish cultivation.
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