Hanle:Tsering Dorjey, 86 years old.

 

Tsering Dorjey is among the most experienced men one can meet in the Rupsho region of southeastern Ladakh. According to Dorjey, people from Hanle and the surrounding areas once sourced salt from three principal locations:

Mindum Tsaka, the farthest, a 14-day journey from Hanle

Takdong, about 9 days

Gertse, roughly a week

These arduous journeys were undertaken twice a year, once in autumn/winter, setting out around the ninth lunar month and returning by the twelfth, lasting nearly three months; and again in spring, returning by early summer, typically within two and a half months.

Dorjey first travelled to Mindum Tsaka at the age of 16 with his uncle. He recalls stepping into the lake itself and extracting salt using a long-handled tool called Chalkyam or Kaduk. This work lasted 3–4 days, after which the salt was left to dry for another 3–4 days. Once dried, it was packed into lugals ( pair of bags loaded on sheep) for the journey back to Hanle. By the time they returned, the lugals had shrunk noticeably due to the loss of moisture.

At Takdong, which Dorjey visited at 18, there were no lakes and salt was extracted from the base of a mountain using a pickaxe called Togtsey. Unlike Mindum Tsaka, the salt here was already dry and ready for immediate transport.

Gertse, like Mindum Tsaka, was also a lake source.

Dorjey remembers encountering large groups of Shamma traders at all three locations. These traders were distinct in that they travelled with donkeys, unlike the locals who used sheep.

Salt collectors were required to pay a fixed tax at each lake. At Gertse, the tax was one rupee per khalba ( male sheep) paid in a coin known as a Jau. Each lake had only a single route in and out, making it impossible to evade tax collectors, who camped strategically along the trails. However, Dorjey recalls that 20–30% discounts were often granted in exchange for food gifts.

Hanle : Sonam Dechen, 93 years old.

Sonam Dechen is among the last living witnesses in Ladakh to have journeyed to the legendary salt lakeof Mindum Tsaka to procure salt for trade in Ladakh and the Spiti Valley of Himachal Pradesh. He made this arduous journey three times, the final one when he was 25. Each time, he served as a Lukzee, a sheep herder and porter for local trading parties. The route led from Hanle across Poti La, then onward through Koyul and Demchok, and eventually to the salt lake. The route involved crossing 4 main passes. The return journey took 2 months. Sonam Dechen recalls traveling in a small caravan of around four men and nearly 200 sheep. These salt expeditions were typically undertaken twice a year, during the spring and autumn seasons.

At the lake, a levy called the Tsa-Yon, a salt tax or fee was paid to the officials who supervised access to the site. Using a traditional shovel-like tool called a Kadung, the traders scooped up crystallized salt and piled it into conical heaps along the shore. The salt was left to dry for about a week before being loaded onto Ladakhi sheep.

Once back from Mindum Tsaka, the traders would head either toward Spiti or to settlements in Ladakh’s Indus Valley, places like Martselang, Leh, and Sakti, to barter the salt. In those days, the exchange rate was three battis of salt for one batti of barley.

At Rongo, Rupsho, with Chamchot Tashi, 79, and Urgain Dolma.

 

According to Aba Tashi, in earlier times, Pashmina did not hold the high value it commands today. Any small amount of Pashmina available was traditionally offered to the monasteries. A monk, known as a Leesee, would visit Rongo in the fourth or fifth month, specifically tasked with counting the Pashmina goats. An equivalent number of rounded Pashmina balls would then be offered to him. It was much later that Pashmina began to gain its current worth. The annual visit of the Leesee monk to Rongo, and this tradition, ceased approximately 30 years ago.

Historically, villages in the vicinity shared a deeply symbiotic relationship with the Hemis monastery. Pasturelands in the region were specifically designated and named according to the animals reared for the monasteries in the region:

• Raque: for the monastery's goats.

• Maque: for rearing female sheep.

• Deque: for Demo (a type of cow-yak hybrid) and Yak.

• Kharluk: for Khalba (male sheep).

• Barzee: located just beyond the Hanle monastery, for cows.

• Chips se Goba was the term for the person or place responsible for caring for the horses.

When Tashi was around 14, his uncle would embark on salt-sourcing journeys to Mindun Tsaka, located beyond Demchok. They would travel with sheep, not horses, taking the well-trodden road from Dumtsele. These expeditions typically occurred in the eighth or ninth month of the year. After acquiring the salt, they would rest for about two weeks before heading to villages near Leh, such as Leh itself, Martho, and Stok, to trade the salt for barley.

The same villagers also made annual trips to Himachal Pradesh, this time to sell wool in exchange for rice. Tashi distinctly remembers one such journey in 1962 when he accompanied his uncle. Their route took them towards Chumur, a day's journey, then to Tega Zong, and finally across the snow-covered Parangla Pass. They would cross Parangla in the middle of the night to avoid avalanches.

The journey from Chumur to Spiti took five days, passing through Sergatha, Takchuthang, Tarakurkur, and Lakartsey. In Spiti, they traded their sheared wool for a different variety of barley, which Tashi called Sua. Rice was sourced from areas further beyond Spiti within Himachal Pradesh. For these arduous trips, they exclusively used male sheep, known as Khalba, numbering about 30. Four men would accompany them, opting for Khalba over goats due to their wool-bearing capacity and superior sturdiness for carrying loads over long distances.