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THE MAP OF QING CHINA
By K.L. Tam, Hong Kong
This is a political map, made in 1879 and published in 1880, in Japan, 70cm x 90cm. Let’s start by looking at the political landscape of the 1880s. This was one of the most turbulent times in modern history. Two continents were in big trouble. In Africa, European powers were scrambling to slice up countries as their own territory. In about ten years, there was no place south of the Sahara Desert that could claim to be independent from European powers.
Milam: Ghost Town of the Pundits
By Kai Friese, New Delhi, India
Everyone said Milam was a ghost town and it is. Once a thriving summer settlement on the old trade route from Eastern Kumaon to Gyanema and Gartok in Western Tibet, it was abandoned in the wake of the 1962 border war with China. But by the time I got there, after a four-day walk, sweating and cursing on the climbs, creaking and wobbling on the steep descents, I just felt very happy to be alive. It was beautiful: the sunshine poured through the thin mountain air, the Milam glacier glistened on the slopes of Hardeol at the head of the valley. We walked to the glacier snout plucking rosehips and Tibetan seabuckthorn berries and returned to a breakfast of parathas and potatoes garnished with fresh local jimbu or chives. The day before, I had seen the twin peaks of Nanda Devi cresting like frozen waves over another ghost town called Martoli. “This used to be the biggest village in old Almora district,” said Kishen Singh, the chatty old chowkidar at Deepu Guest House, a snug whitewashed cottage at the edge of town. “There were five hundred families here, and back in those days, they say, young brides, who were new to this place, would lose their way in the gallis. They’d go to fetch water from the river, and wind up in the wrong house when they returned.” Kishen Singh’s face lit up at the ancient innuendos of the story. An old wives tale of young wives.