It has been a few days since we came up to the flat terrain along the mighty Brahmaputra in Assam and swerved north into the hills. A few hundred kilometers later, the steep climb peaked at Sela. At around 14000 feet above sea level, Sela serves as the gateway to north Western Arunachal Pradesh. Sela Pass is a place where the tiring engines take a pause. The pagoda across the road welcomes you in the bristling cold to Tawang, home to the largest Buddhist monastery in India. The road takes a long, looping curve across the lake formed at the pass and heads towards Tawang, which is nestled in the valleys of these majestic mountains.

Welcome to Tawang

The Tawang monastery, founded in 1680 by the 5th Dalai Lama, is all that Tawang is about. Perched on the top of a hill, it is the most revered Buddhist Monastery in India. This story is not about Tawang, though; it is a story lesser known but a more emphatic statement of faith and its proponents.

One of the usual things a traveler who has heard of Tawang plans is a trip to the Indo-China border. It is a border post up in the inhospitable mountains, with the Chinese posts visible in the distance. Historically, this arena in the north has been a flashpoint. Wars have been fought, and lives have been lost in these serene mountains as the two countries warred. We were on the way to visit the border post.

The off-roader carrying us was stumbling its way across the mountains. The border is about an hour’s rough ride away. It is tough terrain. Mountains stretch out in all directions, rolling up and down and forming a natural border. The soil is of a loose kind, which means that roads built to serve the borders and the Army units patrolling them have little life. They have to be built every now and then as the soil slides away, taking the roads with it. In the winter, when snow covers this part, it is brutal. We are early, and the sights are stunning. Sparkling lakes are everywhere, still and gleaming, with rugged mountains standing guard to the paradise.

Half an hour into the drive, after hugging the mountainsides for some time, the road snakes down into a sloping run with a bit of flat peeping out at the bottom of the hill. The hills are dotted with military barracks. As we enter the flatter terrain to the right of the road, a board appears; it announces a name. It is a gurudwara. In the middle of nowhere, miles away from the paddy fields of Punjab, where these Gurudwara are aplenty, stands this symbol of Sikh faith.

The Teesri Udasi Gurudwara is a small gurudwara, nestled in the rocky mountain face. It takes a climb to get to it. It is a Gurudwara maintained by the Indian Army. It is what got the Gurudwara here that this is interesting.

Guru Nanak, considered among the greatest thinkers of this ancient land, was the founder of the Sikh religion. Born in 1469, he was the first of the ten revered gurus of Sikhism. In a lifetime dedicated to spreading the message of the one god who resides in every creature and that being the only ultimate truth, he traveled extensively on foot, spreading his word of love. In almost 25 years, he is said to have traveled more than 25000 km to spread his message of love and compassion. These journeys are covered in four important journeys, each called an Udasi. He traveled on foot through the whole of India, into China, and even to the Middle East. It is believed that in the third Udasi, in which he traveled to Lhasa, in Tibet, he came to Tawang. He spent some time here resting and engaging in discussions. He then went across the treacherous mountains to Lhasa, which lies across the ranges towards China.

On that journey, he is said to have rested among these rocky mountains for a few days. It is said that a rock on which he used to sit and relax to this day stays dry in the winter when the complete landscape is carpeted in snow. The small gurudwara was built later in celebration of the passage of the saint.

To be here and contemplating the torturous travels of a seer brings in a troubling realization of the horrors of the modern world. The very place blessed by the presence of the Guru is now surrounded by hundreds of military camps put in place to guard against invasion from a neighbor. Humanity, realization, and compassion have long lost the battle. The thoughts born in the Buddhist monastery across the mountains we passed seem to have very few takers in this world today. It is a battleground in the serenity of the timeless mountains.

As generation after generation drifts into destruction, the thoughts of the revered Guru and the Buddha are lost in time.

The human race might have reached a point of no return, and it may take a few of these great minds to halt this mindless self-destruction.

The fractures are wide, and time is short and getting shorter.

It would do good to remember what the Guru said.

Ik Onkar, Satnam, Karta Purakh, Nirbhau, Nirvair, Akal Murat, Ajuni Sae Bham, Guru Prasad.”

There’s only one God, his name is the only truth, he is the only creator, he is fearless, he is without hate, he is immortal, he is beyond birth and death, and by only his grace one can chant his name.

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