MAY 2017 FORBES ASIA | 57about the beauty of their mountains, and the frustrated aspirations
of those living in their folds. Perhaps they take the massifs that
exceed anything on earth for granted, leaving it to a South Korean
poet, Ko Un, to capture the sheer scale of the world’s highest moun-
tains’ peaks:
In the Himalayan world
ordinary peaks go unnoticed.
Only peaks of 7000 meters,
Or 7500,
have been given one name or another.In the 17th century, the Mughal emperor Jahangir gazed upon
the Valley of Kashmir and exclaimed in ecstasy: “If there were
paradise on earth, this was it.” This rapturous ode tends to pop up
in tourist ads, as if anyone needs to be convinced of the enchant-
ing scenery. Immensely fertile, the Valley bounded by the Great
Himalayas and Pir Panjal ranges is 6,158 square miles of magnifi-
cence. Peaks crowned by pristine snow soar over purple saffron
meadows, orchards, lakes, and alpine forests. Mulberry trees grow
in profusion, feeding worms that spin silk for the region’s prized
carpets. Mountain goats with the finest hair supply the cashmere
textile industry. The earth pops with delicacies: walnuts, apricots,the summit they lose an average of 15 to 20 pounds. More have died
from exposure than from bullets; 30% to 50% of the fatalities have
been from cerebral edema. Due to the fact that the glacier is too
high to resupply aerially, porters carry supplies up the rock faces.
Evacuation is rare because it would require nearly a dozen people
to carry just one casualty out. Frostbitten toes are simply cut off; the
injured usually die. Then there are avalanches. In 2012, one buried
124 Pakistani soldiers in one of the worst such incidents since
World War I.
It was four years earlier when I made my reporting trip to
Kashmir. Because the glacier is so heavily militarized, and hard
to ascend—I would need training and climbing entailing several
months—Indian authorities ignored my requests to accompany the
troops. That meant I would spend my time thousands of feet lower
down, where in any event most of the explosions, fatalities, and
cross fire were occurring.
My trip would have to be restricted to the main city, Srinagar,
and its environs. It was winter, and the sky was overcast with op-
pressive clouds, the streets filthy with diesel fumes and slush. It gets
dark early, extending the night curfews that trap people inside their
unheated homes.
Yet the Himalayas are dazzling. Kashmir’s foremost bards writeHindu pilgrims trekking to the sacred Amarnath cave, worshipped as a symbol of the god Shiva.SANJIT DAS/PANOS PICTURES