1. Unit at a glance
- The unit is a travelogue titled “Silk Road” describing a journey across the Changtang plateau towards Mount Kailash.
- It follows the narrator’s attempt to complete the kora (circumambulation) of Mount Kailash.
- Main stages: departure from Ravu, crossing high passes, reaching Hor on Lake Manasarovar, and staying in Darchen.
- Key challenges shown: snow-blocked tracks, altitude effects, and illness.
- The narrator meets Tibetan driver Tsetan, companion Daniel, and later Norbu.
- The title links the modern route to the ancient Silk Road trade path.
2. Prose
Summary
The narrator travels from Ravu with Tsetan and Daniel towards Mount Kailash to perform the kora. They take a short cut across plains, encounter wild asses and Tibetan mastiffs, cross a high pass at 5,515 m, and reach Hor on the shore of Lake Manasarovar. After Daniel leaves, the narrator continues to Darchen where altitude and a cold cause severe sleeplessness. A Tibetan doctor gives medicine; the narrator recovers and meets Norbu, another Tibetan academic also wanting to do the kora.
Setting
The Changtang plateau, high mountain passes (up to 5,515 m), the town of Hor beside Lake Manasarovar, and Darchen near Mount Kailash in Tibet, during early pilgrimage season.
Main characters
- Narrator: A traveller determined to complete the kora despite health problems.
- Tsetan: Tibetan driver who skilfully negotiates difficult terrain and helps the narrator.
- Daniel: Companion who travels part of the way and leaves at Hor.
- Norbu: Tibetan scholar from Beijing who offers to do the kora with the narrator.
Sequence of key events
- Leave Ravu; cross plains and see kyang herds.
- Face Tibetan mastiffs; climb to 5,515 m pass and clear snow patches.
- Reach Hor; Daniel departs.
- Arrive Darchen; suffer sleepless night due to altitude and cold.
- Visit medical college; receive Tibetan medicine and recover.
- Meet Norbu in café and agree to attempt the kora together.
3. Poem
This unit contains only prose; no poem is included in the given text.
4. Themes and messages
The writer shows that journeys to sacred places involve physical hardship and uncertainty. The narrator’s altitude sickness and sleeplessness in Darchen illustrate human vulnerability at high altitude, yet persistence and practical help allow progress. The contrast between the narrator’s difficult night in Hor/Darchen and earlier travellers’ emotional reactions to Lake Manasarovar highlights how personal experience differs from legend.
5. Literary devices
- Simile: “like a bullet from a gun” (Tibetan mastiffs charging).
- Imagery: “A flawless half-moon floated in a perfect blue sky” and “snow-capped mountains gathering on the horizon”.
- Metaphor: “plumes of dust billowed into the crisp, clean air”.
- Personification: “the sheep would take evasive action”.
- Irony: Tsetan says it would be “bad for business” if the narrator died, despite Buddhist acceptance of death.
6. Vocabulary
- Ducking back: quickly going inside again.
- Swathe: wide strip or layer.
- Careered down: moved fast and uncontrollably.
- Manoeuvres: organised movements.
- Cairn: pile of stones used as a marker.
- Salt flats: flat areas covered with salt.
- Billowed: rose and rolled like waves.
- Kora: circumambulation of a sacred site.
- Drokba: nomad.
- Kyang: wild ass.
7. Exam pitfalls
- Confusing the narrator’s illness in Darchen with the earlier headache at the pass.
- Mixing up the order of places (Ravu → pass → Hor → Darchen).
- Stating that the narrator completed the kora (the text ends before it begins).
- Claiming the unit contains a poem.
- Using information from outside the text (e.g., full details of Tethys Ocean).