248 THE BASPA VALLEY 



The Baspa and its long valley are not generally known, 

 being quite off the beaten track, and rarely visited except 

 by a stray sportsman or a forest officer on duty. The 

 Baspa stream runs into the Sutlej about fifteen miles above 

 the Wangtii bridge on the latter and a few miles below 

 the large village of Chini. A glance at the map of Basahir 

 will show that an enormous snowy spur, or rather range, 

 springs from the main buttress of the Tibetan highlands, 

 and runs down almost straight to the Sutlej below the 

 above-named bridge. The main range, or Tibetan buttress, 

 extends in a northerly direction as far as the frontier village 

 of Shipki, where it is pierced by the Sutlej. The great 

 angle formed by these snowy mountains is subtended by 

 that river from Shipki to the Wangtii bridge — the Baspa 

 valley forming the south-westerly portion of this enormous 

 triangle. Its length from the source of the stream to its 

 junction with the Sutlej is not less than fifty miles, and 

 its breadth — that is to say, the level portion of tlie valley 

 through which the river runs — nowhere exceeds two miles, 

 while in many places it is less than one. Villages are 

 few ; the population is scanty. Twenty miles above 

 Sangla the principal village is Chitkiil, the highest 

 inhabited point in the valley. 



Owing to its position between two lofty ranges of per- 

 petual snow, the climate of the valley is severe for at least 

 nine months of the year. The inhabitants are a mean and 

 mongrel lot, for whom existence must have very few joys, 

 and whose life, to an outsider at least, appears not worth 

 living. On their southern border their neighbours are the 

 high-spirited and high-handed Garh walls, and on the north- 

 eastern they have the exclusive Tibetans. The Baspa 

 people carry on the trade between these two peoples, and 

 are bullied by each in return. The Garhwalis supply the 

 rice and other commodities which the Baspa men take to 



