Mr. Rodionov's garden

In the morning, Mr. Rodionov likes to drink a coffee just after waking up. If the temperature allows it, he goes out home, on the porch, with a cup of coffee and sits on an old chair, watching his garden. When weather becomes too cold, he enjoys the same morning routine, but from inside his house, watching through the window.

Anatoly Rodionov's garden has considerable dimensions: 150 km long and 125 km wide. And that's because Mr. Rodionov is the only person that lives year-round on the island of Wrangel, located at the eastern end of the Russian Arctic.

Wrangel Island is named after the Russian explorer, Baron Ferdinand von Wrangel, who leaded three expeditions to the island (1821, 1822 and 1823) and  in none of them, he was able to find Wrangel Is. It was not until 1867 that an American whaler, Thomas Long, discovered the island, giving it the name of the poor Baron. Is said that Thomas Long discovered Wrangel, but it would be more correct to say that he discovered it for Westerners; for Chukchis, Siberia's coast native people, the island has always been known, as their territory was the closest populated land to Wrangel Island. Finally, in the early twentieth century, Russians claimed Wrangel Island, establishing a settlement there during the 20s, and a Red Army military base during the 60's.

During the 20's, the island was the center of a rescue operation that lasted four years! In 1926, the Soviets sent an expedition to the island with food and goods for three years. The arrival on the island was relatively easy because during the summer, the ice allowed navigation around Wrangel. What they didn't know was that 1926 had one of the most unusually ice-free summers in the eastern part of the Arctic Ocean. During the following years, the ice prevented the access of any ship, and in 1929, four years after landing, Moscow's government suspected that the expedition should be in a dramatic situation, or even dead by starvation and cold. A new expedition was organized, using an icebreaker rescue ship called "Fyodor Litke". This ship, rather than "icebreaker" should be called "ice-cutter" because, instead of breaking the ice from above, as icebreakers normally do, the "Fyodor Litke" had a sharp bow to cut the ice like a knife.

In September 1929, the "ice-cutter" Litke reached Wrangel after many vicissitudes and rescued in dramatic conditions, but still alive, all the members of the expedition arrived on the island in 1926. That feat made the expeditioners and the crew of the "Fyodor Litke" become one of the first heroes of the Soviet Arctic.

But let's go, now, to 1976, when Mr. Anatoly Rodionov's story begins. That year, the Soviet government designated Wrangel Island as a Nature Reserve. Don't think the Russians had a big environmental conscience; It was just that the military base and the tiny settlement  of Wrangel Is. had been already abandoned, and the island could not offer any other interesting resource. So a ban to access the island was set and a group of guards or "Rangers" was designated to monitor and protect the island's flora and fauna.

Anatoly Rodionov belongs to the last one of those Rangers promotions sent to Wrangel, and he's currently the only one of islands' four Rangers staying all year there. The other three Rangers only spend a few months, normally guiding scientific expeditions that work on the island during summer. Anatoly enjoys his work with passion and a high degree of responsibility. His sense of commitment was so big that, when his wife stated him the dilemma: "family or work," Anatoly chose Wrangel! So Anatoly's wife left... I cannot understand her reaction! Who comes up not wanting to live isolated on an Arctic tundra island with temperatures of -50º and surrounded by seals and polar bears! Women's behaviour is so unpredictable...

Among Anatoly's tasks, there's controling and counting wildlife, guiding tourists and providing support to scientific expeditions. But there's another very special task in his working contract: Anatoly Rodionov is responsible also, very patiently and step by step, of taking down all scrapped debris and garbage remaining from the dismantled military bases. Gradually, this man is cutting, separating and stacking all the junk that was left behind when Russian Army left the island: tanks, trucks, containers and cabins. For years and years, he has been the responsible of avoiding polluting spills and minimize the impact of waste and stacks while cleaning. Do you remember the robot from Pixar's animated film Wall-E? Well, Anatoly Rodionov is Wrangel Island's Wall-E!

The island is the paradigm of tundra. Miles and miles of plains and hills where only grass, moss and some small bush can grow. The fauna is a sample of what frozen steppes of Eurasia were: wolves and arctic foxes, seals and walruses, musk oxen, lots of arctic birds, and especially polar bears. In fact, this is the place with the highest density of polar bears in the world!

The most curious of all is that, because of Wrangel Is. is located at the northeasternmost point of the Euro-Asian continent, it has become the last refuge for species that have gone extinct gradually in Europe and Asia. The most surprising one is the mammoth. Yes, I mean the hairy prehistoric elephant! On Wrangel Island lived the last mammoth specimens only 4,000 years ago; so they subsisted isolated in Wrangel during 6,000 years after these pachyderms disappeared from Europe. To give you an idea: in ancient Egypt, they were already at the 11th pharaohs dynasty, and Wrangel mammoths were still alive!

But now, unfortunately, megalomaniacal delusions of current Russian president, Vladimir Putin, have made Wrangel Island again a point of interest. Last year Russians settled a new military base, consisting of a series of prefabricated barracks and an airfield. Russian aspirations in the Arctic have caused Anatoly Rodionov not enjoying his morning coffee as calm as before!

Meanwhile, the island has also opened to a controlled tourism. You can cruise with Heritage Expeditions to visit the island and discover the wildlife on board a scientific vessel. If you are interested you have to book quick, because there are few places for forthcoming departures!
Wrangel Island has also benn part of a dramatic legend, which is not known whether true or not. During World War II, the famous Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg saved thousands of Jews in Budapest from Nazi death camps. When the Soviets liberated the Hungarian capital, Wallenberg disappeared mysteriously and nobody never knew anything else from him. Although there has never formally been no Soviet prison camp in Wrangel, some Russian Jews who migrated to Israel have stated that they were confined to Wrangel and met there Wallenberg in the early 60's. But that mysteries will probably stay buried under the ice of Wrangel Island forever!
This post would not have been possible without the invaluable support of Jordi Fontbuté. Thanks for the idea and fonts!

Whiskey War (and also Schnapps!)

International law states that National Territorial waters extend up to 12 nautical miles (about 22 km.) from the coast of each country. In the case of narrow straits, such as the Strait of Gibraltar, cosidering both countries are so close to eachother, the limit of territorial waters is set at the midpoint between the two coasts. But that would happen with an island right in the middle point?

In Nares Strait, north of Greenland, the line between territorial waters of Canada and Denmark (for the moment, Greenland is still part of the Danish territory) is set about 10 miles from both sides. And right at that midpoint lies Hans Island, a piece of rock just a little bigger than 1 Km. from end to end. As you can see in the picture, following this blog's tradition, Hans Island is a very busy place. The nearest towns are Canadian Forces Base "Alert"  (the most northerly inhabited place on the planet) and the villages of Qaanaaq and Siorapaluk in Greenland, all both located more than 200 km far.

During the 30's, the League of Nations (predecessor of the UN) established that Hans Island belonged to the Danes. But Canadians alleged that, with the disappearance of this institution, the decision is invalidated and, for the moment, United Nations doesn't want to get their feet wet.

For more than 70 years, the two governments agreed a list of 127 geographic points that delimited the maritime boundary between both countries in the Nares Strait. But between points 122 and 123, they decided not to draw any lines there and, therefore, not define the border: it was Hans Island.

But don't think that this remains quiet. Tension between the two countries is very strong and we could even talk of one of the hottest geopolitical spots of the world: a sample of uncontrolled violence, is repeated every year of confrontation between Canadian Armed Forces and Danish "Forsvaret" (Army).

Every August, Canadian Army carries out some military exercises in the area of ​​Ellesmere Island. When Canadians pass near the Hans Island, they land there a few soldiers and remove the Danish flag, hoist the Canadian one, and next to the mast they leave a bottle of Canadian whiskey with a message: "Welcome to Canada". The Danish army remains not far behind the aggresive Canadians in the disproportionate use of force. And so, every spring, they send a detachment to Hans Island which is responsible of picking up the flag of Canada, place the Danish one and, after drinking the Canadian whiskey, they let a bottle of Schnapps with a letter that says: "you are in the territory of Denmark."

The maximum tension, however, occurs when vessels of Danish and Canadian Armies found eachother in the viccinity of Hans Island: in order to frighten the enemy, each boat .... hoists a flag of their own country!

No doubt that, the so called "Whiskey War" is limited to a merely exchange of liquor bottles because the object disputed, Hans Island, is only rock; bare, icy and inhospitable. Despite this, during the 80's, Canadian Company Dome Petroleum did some research on the island. There were, however, neither oil nor gaz. It is clear, therefore, that tiny Hans Island does not have any value at all; Well, yes, a bottle of whiskey and schnapps per year.

But disputes over Hans Island are not limited to Canada and Denmark. Some years ago, a  mysterious internet-based "Hans Island Liberation Front" appeared. The independence movement is led, with an iron fist, by two mysterious men ... Hans and Hans.

The last act of protest by Hans Island Liberation Front has been to propose that, seeing the strong expansionism of Russia in the Arctic, Santa Claus should move to live to Hans Island. "We try to avoid" said one of the two Hans (it's unclear if it was Hans or... Hans), "that poor Santa Claus gets forced by the Russians to present, as Christmas gifts, only vodka, LADA cars spare parts and back issues of Pravda newspaper!"

The Kids from Nowhere

The Bering Sea could seem, for us Westerners, the end of the world. Take a look at this map:

The standard world maps are focused on Europe and, therefore, the Bering Sea, which separates the far western Alaska, and the easternmost part of Russia, is shown divided in two, giving the false impression of being two "cul-de-sac" instead of one single sea. On its banks, the population is very sparse, both in American and Asian sides. And, in addition, maritime traffic is reduced because, further north the Bering sea, the ice doesn't allow to navigate during many months per year. In summary, it can't be considered the center of the world, indeed.

But if we change the point of view, you can realize that the reality is quite different. Here is a map of the Earth but centered at the North Pole:

The whole Arctic, from Scandinavia, Greenland and the Arctic shores of Russia, Alaska and Canada are part of the same great culture. Ethnic groups like Yupik, Aleut or the Inyupiats have inhabited the shores of the Bering Sea historically unaware if they were living in America or in Asia. Even in the most tense moments of the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States, these ethnic groups kept contact and exchange between both sides of the border. The Arctic is therefore the center of his world.

Within the limits of the Bering Sea, there are a group of islands, some of which are American and some other Russian. As I said before, they are populated mainly by people of the same ethnic group or ethnic groups: they are all Inuit (despectively called Eskimos), and speak as mother tongue one of the several Eskimo-Aleut family languages spread in the region, and as a second language either English or Russian, depending on which side of the border the island is located.

Some names will fool you; although Karagin and Komandorskiye are logically russian, and St. Lawrence, St. Matthew and Nunivak are American as all the Aleutian islands, the Pribilof group, however, although the name sounds like a brand of vodka, are American. In the red circle on the map there are two small islands: the Diomede. The Big Diomede is Russian and Little Diomede is American and sooner or later will have their own post on this blog.

But today I wanted to tell you about St. Lawrence Island and, especially, about its exceptional school.

The discovery of St. Lawrence Island was during St. Lawrence day of 1728. A few days earlier, during St. Matthew day, it was discovered the neighboring island of.... Saint Matthew (of course!). The discoverers were two ships from a Russian expedition that had also discovered the Bering Sea and were commanded by a Russian-Danish captain called Vitus Bering. Despite having a great talent as a navigator, Captain Bering couldn't be honored for having a great creativity when naming his discoveries!

The island, however, was already inhabited; as I said at the beginning, Yupik, Inyupiats, Aleuts, all kind of Inuits lived in the Chukchi and Bering Seas area since long time ago. In fact, it seems that all Native Americans have some ancestor who has been in Saint Lawrence: It is considered that this island is the last vestige of the land that connected Asia and America during ancient times when sea level was lower. This piece of land was used for the first time about 15,000 years ago, when Siberian tribes crossed the Bering Strait to colonize America. Until then, there was no human presence in all America.

In the nineteenth century, Saint Lawrence passed from Russian to American hands in  one of the worst deals ever seen (all Alaska was sold in exchange of some tons of furs and a small amount of money). But, as Russians did, the Americans continued also to ignore Saint Lawrence. The entire population of the island, mainly composed of ethnic Yupiks and Siberian Yupiks was concentrated in two settlements: Savoonga and Sivuqaq. The 4,000 inhabitants lived on fishing and hunting whales and walruses.In 1887, the Reformed Episcopal Church of America decided to Christianize the "poor savages" and decided to build a wooden church in Sivuqaq. A boat landed tools, wood and a carpenter and with the aid of the Sivuqaq people, the building was constructed. Once work finished, the carpenter embarked again and departed; and the church door keys were left in the hands of the Yupik chief. As the poor Carpenter did not speak Yupik, he wasn't able to explain the use of that wooden building, the first the inhabitants of Saint Lawrence had ever seen. So nobody at Sivuqaq knew what was the purpose of that strange building, and it was left empty. Over the next three years, Episcopalians were looking for missionaries to occupy that vacancy, but found no candidates.  
Nobody wanted to go to the remote and icy St. Lawrence Island.

At the end, the church was sold to the competitors, the Presbyterians. These, rather than just a reverend, they looked for someone who also could become a teacher. And finally, they found him: in 1894 a couple of Iowa reached Sivuqaq; the Gambells were to become the teachers of the old church, now reconverted into a school. Four years later, Gambells had to come back to the mainland, accompanied by his daughter, who was already born in Saint Lawrence, in order to treat a mother's illness. Unfortunately, during the trip back to Saint Lawrence, the boat sank and the Gambell family died. Since that day, Sivuqaq village changed its name to Gambell, in honor of the first teachers of the school.

Currently, schools in Saint Lawrence are what in the United States are called K-12 schools, ie for children and boys up to 17-18 years. There is one in Gambell and another one in Savoonga and are part of the Bering Strait School District. I imagine this must be, probably, one of the world's largest school districts: 200.000km2 for only 1,500 students!

But until the 80s, I don't think what Gambell had could be called "a school". The few students who were there, considered the school as a waste of time when, at home, were constantly required to assist in everyday tasks, all of them crucial in an environment as tough as the Arctic. In addition, the school was mostly in English, and for those children, English was not his native language. In Saint Lawrence Island, considering that almost all of the population was ethnic Yupik, they only spoke Yupik! So many of the teachers who had been destined to the island simply described her students as "un-educables."

In 1982, a new teacher landed in Gambell: George Guthridge. The scene he found was devastating. The school did not have a single computer and had virtually no books. Absenteeism was very high and the level of the students was very low; some of the 12 year old students had a reading level of a 6 year old child or were not able to write a complete sentence.

Guthridge applied a pedagogy system created by himself and, in addition, began to seek resources and materials for his school. He adapted reading and writing classes and methods to a non-English speaking idiomatic and cultural environment. Team working, brainstorming and class participation became the new main method at the classroom. And in 1984 he launched the most incredible challenge to his students, and so, registered them at "Future Problem Solving" (FPSP) competition.

This school competition is considered one of the most prestigious and tough events for children under 18 years worldwide. At that time it was only an American competition and only the country's best schools were represented. Even, in some cases, some of the contestants were schools for gifted children (high IQ).

Prof. Guthridge achived to motivate his pupils so much that, in his own words: "boys were studying while carrying water, while removing fish scales, while hunting whales ...". They were able to overcome all kind of obstacles, including the boycott from two school district administrators, who tried to close the school for uneconomic; students did everything to be present at competition.

Most of the Gambell school students that were going to attend FPSP competition, had never traveled further than Nome, a small town with 3,700 inhabitants in mainland Alaska, and therefore had never seen a train or used automatic escalators, or been in a hotel. Some of them even felt scared when using an elevator!

And what was the result? Those 11 boys and girls between 12 and 17 years were able to win both competitions they were registered at; one for kids from 12 to 14 years old and another for 15 to 17 years old, so they were United States winners! During the competition, they worked on subjects as genetic engineering or nuclear waste. Some months ago, they even didn't know this subjects existed! They were able to beat the rest of schools, all coming from USA's continental States, becoming the first school of mostly Native Americans attending the competition ... and won twice!

Winner Team. Guthridge is on the right wearing a Mickey Mouse T-shirt.

From that experience, a book was published, written by Guthridge himself, called "The Kids from Nowhere" that tells the conversion from kids evicted from the school system to bright students, all done without losing their Yupik culture.

And apart from this academic success, how's life in Gambell and Saint Lawrence? Well, frankly, it's still hard, but maybe a little less than before. The population of the island has stabilized at about 1,200 inhabitants, half of whom live in Gambell and the other half in Savoonga. The island has no trees, only green fields of arctic willow, a shrub that grows no more than 30cm and has adapted to the long winters of the Bering Sea. Nevertheless, life can be found everywhere in the Island: walruses, birds and whales are present in large quantities in St. Lawrence.

The island's economy is still very focused on hunting whales and walruses, although the sale of ivory carvings (taken from the tusks of walruses) is an important source of income. Recently, interest in nature started to bring tourists to St. Lawrence, and even a hotel with eight rooms was opened in Gambell. Oh, and for those who think that Gambell and St. Lawrence Island are insignificant in this huge world, let me tell you that Gambell is considered the world main city in one subject: it is the world capital ... of quads! Yes, those four wheeled motorbikes my wife always calls by mistake... "quackers!" No doubt they are the ideal way of transportation for the summer gravel roads and winter snow.

Logistics is always complex in a place as remote as St. Lawrence but this can have a curious effect. Gambell or Savoonga have virtually no shops; Then, how does Santa Claus brings gifts for the children of St. Lawrence? Here comes, then, "Operation Santa". Every Christmas, US National Guard organizes this operation, which requires moving Santa's Christmas gifts to Alaskan remote villages. Santa Claus and all his presents fly from village to village in a National Guard cargo plane so he can give his present to everybody:

And what happened to Professor George Guthridge?
 
After the experience in Gambell, where he stayed for a few more years, he decided to standardize his teaching method, and began to implement it in other remote schools of Alaska. The success has been overwhelming and, with pride, he explains that in recent years, universities like MIT, Stanford or Yale have received many Alaskan students educated with his method; among them there are lots of Yupik, Inyupiats, Aleut, Atabascans, etc ...

He has also become a successful novelist, publishing several sci-fi and fantasy literature books. A few years ago, he was named one of the 100 best teachers in the United States. During 90's he submitted back again to Future Problem Solving competition several students from another school in the Bering Sea, Elim school and..... won again, also establishing a new high score!

The Great North (1): the moving City

A few years ago, the company where I was working suffered the ravages of the economic crisis. Three years of suffering and sleepless nights until, at the end, the company had to close. During that period there were bad days and worse days. And in these disastrous days, I tried to relax thinking about running away from the problems and  sheltering in the solitude of arctic forests of northern Sweden. When I was driving, I had the desire to drive further north, not stopping until arriving to a city, remote, icy and with an evocative name.

Those hard days, when my wife saw me crestfallen, she always asked me, "Did you have a Kiruna day?".

Forests and snow. Snow and forests. And from time to time, some lake. In fact, if there weren't lakes to avoid, the E45 road that leads to Kiruna could be completely straight for tens of kilometers. The entire route is quite flat; only some small ripples break, punctually, the monotony of the road. Although we are more than 100km north of the Arctic Circle, we are in Sweden and, therefore, the road is in perfect condition. I don't want to deceive you, traveling by car to Kiruna has nothing adventurous, even in winter.

But it should be quite different when the city was founded. Since ancient times, Sami people (also nicknamed Lapps) already knew of the existence of iron deposits in the area. But the inaccessibility of the place meant that mining did not begin until the second half of the nineteenth century. At the time, there were only hundreds of kilometers of forest without any roads or similar.
Despite this remote location by the XIXth Century standards, as I said, the mining activity had already begun. The quantities of iron extracted were so huge that soon, the traditional system to transport the iron to civilization got obsolete. Until then, mining was done in summer and, during winter iron was loaded on reindeer-pulled sleighs, and transported to the south. Between 1899 and 1902 works of the railway line linking, Luleå (Gulf of Bothnia), Kiruna and Narvik (in the Atlantic Ocean, and on Norwegian territory) were finished. With the arrival of the train, miners' shacks at the Kiirunavaara mine were cleant up, and it was decided to found a town. As town name they chose to shorten the Finnish name of the mountain where the mine was, Kiirunavaara, to simply "Kiruna". Swedes were able to pronounce it, while Samis and Finns (with languages sligthly kinship) could have a feeling of familiarity as, in Sami, "Giron" (or "Kiron") means "ptarmigan".

Those early years of the twentieth century, the population grew rapidly and mining production soared. In 1907, the city had already three tram lines (most northerly tram lines worldwide), but the living conditions were still very hard for the residents of Kiruna. Until 1926, the city was isolated by land. Yes, there was the train. But train could only reach Luleå and from there you had to take a boat to the south. So, during winter, as the Baltic Sea was frozen, it became an impossible route. The remaining option was the train to Narvik in Norway, but then an awesome trip surrounding Scandinavia was needed. Thus, in 1926, works for the road that connected Kiruna to the rest of Sweden were ended.

Malmbanan, the Iron railway

Worst times for the city, however, arrived during World War II. Sweden was a neutral country, but Nazi Germany depended on the iron from the mines in Kiruna. The Swedish government tried to avoid provoking either Nazis or allies in order to remain outside the conflict. However, the Swedish Army placed explosives and a detachment in each of the bridges that connected with Nazi-occupied Norway. If the Nazis had tried to invade Sweden, in order to secure iron supplies, all bridges should be blown. Would it had been useful? I sincerely doubt it but it it's better than doing nothing.
 
The stories of the places related to mining are usually always written in past; abandoned mines and ghost towns remind, in most cases, that mining past times were better. But Kiruna is an exception; and what an exception!

A beautiful "day" in Kiruna at 14:00h

A pleasant winter morning in Kiruna

The mine exploitation is in full blast. The deposits are of an exceptional profitability and each time a mine is exhausted, another is found nearby. In fact, production is assured for many years and, if wanted, the annual output could be increased much more. Nevertheless, the company, long ago, decided to move forward gradually.

The city is a real economic power. Norrbotten region is the second richest in Sweden, just behind Stockholm and everything is due, in large part, to the iron mines. In Kiruna there are only 18,000 inhabitants, spread over a large area. And despite its small population, the city has many good services. It is therefore an ideal place to disappear but in a controlled way: "I live in a remote place but if I run out of Nyponsoppa, the roseship delicious juice, I just have to go downstairs and buy it at the supermarket!". There is only one problem (if there weren't problems, there wouldn't be post!); here you have it:

Yes; the same mine that gave life to the city of Kiruna, now threatens to destroy it. The growth of the underground mine is reaching beneath the city and, of course, the buildings are at risk of sinking through the cracks and movements generated by iron galleries.

All historical center ("historical" for only 100 years, but historical, after all), the Town Hall, the famous wooden church of Kiruna, and lots of buildings will be devoured by the mine. But, you know, Swedish people are farsighted (sometimes even too, as you will see in the Visingsö post) and as the profitability of the mine really worths it, they decided to move the city ...!

Church of Kiruna

The Town Hall with its famous clock tower

Everything has been planned and, by 2040, all affected parts of the city (over 50%) should be moved to the new place, 3 km. far from nowadays location. The new Kiruna has been designed by two architecture firms that won the contest summoned by the city council: swedes White Arkitekter AB and norwegians Ghilardi + Hellsten Arkitekter. The projects match perfectly the Nordic urban planning and design concept: a dense city center, with preponderance of pedestrian-only streets, public transportation and everything sustainability focused. Only singular buildings of the city, including of course the wooden church, will be dismantled and moved piece by piece to its new location.

The rest, however, will be all new. And this was the most controversial point at the beginning of the process: Imagine that you are the proud owner of a house with garden in Kiruna and suddenly, in 2004, you are told that in a few years it will be demolished. Prices of housing, that due to the strong economy and the Kiruna mine, were always going up, remain stagnant at once. The mining company took the compromise to buy houses to be demolished at the market price of the evicting moment .... but knowing that a property is affected, then its value sinks! So, LKAB, the mining company, decided to increase the purchase price by 25% to allow people not to lose (too much) and keeping their capacity to buy a new house in the new Kiruna.

Future Kiruna

To finish things off, the transfer managers got the "IKEA virus", aka, "Build it yourself". Thus, the design of the new city, includes a building, the "Kiruna Portal" that will become a kind of communal shop where people will find materials from demolished houses to be re-used in the construction of new homes!

Kiruna Portal

The whole operation will cost about 3.740M SEK, some 400M€, all undertaken by the company LKAB. Imagine then the huge business this iron mine is. But don't be surprised; Kiirunavaara mine and its attached mine, Luossavaara, produce 90% of iron in Europe. With the product obtained by LKAB in Kiruna, 6 Eiffel towers could be built ... every day!

The Kingdom of Lo: lamas, yaks and CIA (2)

Inside the walls of Lo Manthang the urban layout consists of a series of narrow and dark streets, similar to a Kasbah of a Magrib city. Buildings are built in traditional Tibetan style: houses have extremely thick walls (and slightly inclined) with flat roofs where people usually dispose under the sun cereals, firewood and, especially Yak dung to dry. The difficulty of obtaining firewood (in Mustang, like in Tibet, trees are harshly available) so the best alternative to wood is to use Yak dung as fire fuel.

It must be weird to "enjoy" a Tibetan tea (considered by many non-Tibetans as a disgusting drink made with tea, yak butter and salt) while you smell the delicate perfume of the burning yak dung! But that's life when you have to adapt to a hostile environment as hard as the Himalayas!

But who cares about Tibetan tea when you realise how extremely hospitable are the inhabitants of Lo Manthang. First westerners that had access to the Kingdom of Lo explain that, as there was no accommodation offer for travelers, people queued just to offer them their home to stay.

The neuralgic point of the city is the Royal Palace. In fact, formally, the Lo King has lost his title since Nepal, a few years ago, abolished his monarchy to become a republic. Until then, the King of Lo was a vassal of the King of Nepal. But despite the formal changes, the title of King of Lo continues, informally but de facto, meaning being the main authority of the Kingdom. And the holder of the crown remains a very respected man all around Mustang. The last formal Mustang king was His Majesty Jigme Dorje Palbar Bista, who was reigning since 1964. He was a direct descendant of Ame Pal, the founder of the kingdom. Bista Palbar's son died very young, so when the king abdicated, he was succeeded by his nephew Ashok Bista. The new Kingreceived just an "unofficial title" as Nepal was recently converted to a republic. The latter, Ashok Bista, received an European education, speaks fluent English and is struggling to help modernize his kingdom.

Mustang has always been a poor kingdom, and its king is no exception. It was very common that when the king received visitors and tourists coming to the capital, as in all Tibetan houses, chickens romped around the palace because its temperature, fresher than in the chicken's enclosure. So it was not surprising that, being received in audience by His Majesty the King of Lo, when sitting, visitors had to remove from the seat a hen defiantly looking at them. Nowadays, however, conditions have changed, and altough the former king, Palbar Bista, is still alive and continues to receive visitors at the palace, Ashok Bista, the new ruler, has made chickens disappear, and the room where receptions take place looks, let's say, more "royal".

Former king Jigme Dorje Palbar Bista

And CIA? What the hell was CIA doing in Mustang?

When in 1950 the Chinese army invaded Tibet, Tibetan regular army could not oppose any resistance. After the defeat a guerilla was created, mainly small isolated groups basically consisting of Khampa warriors, so, inhabitants from the Tibetan region of Kham (remember the -pa sufix so: Kham-pa, inhabitant of Kham).

Khampas are hard and rude people and lightly....warlike. Traditionally, the bandits who assaulted roads in the remote regions of Tibet were bands of Khampas supplementing family income by doing "extra odd jobs outside home." A wise tip said in Lhasa (capital of Tibet) was that the worst thing you could do in a tavern was bothering a Khampa; they liked a lot to drink chang (a strong Tibetan beer) and always wore their greatest asset in his waist: a dagger; so better get unnoticed!

It is clear, therefore, that Khampas have never been "Sisters of Charity". Thus, the Chinese occupation and brutality, made many Khampas enrole in the guerrillas starting then small attacks against the Chinese army. The Khampa guerrilla had a style that, being generous, should be called "amateur": 19th century weapons and tavern style swagger.

And here comes CIA! They created a plan to destabilize the Chinese communist regime. 1500 Khampa "irregulars" were transferred to Camp Hale, Colorado, where they were trained and armed with modern weaponry. Later, a base was established from which guerrilla operated actions against the Chinese army. A place outside of Tibet had to be found, near the border, but staying on the north side of the Himalayas (so avoiding to cross high altitude passes every time they were on a mission). And where could this place be? Obviously, the Kingdom of Lo, Mustang.

The base was established (more or less) secretely and Americans were supplying everything needed by Khampas. Given the unstable situation that was suffering the region, the Nepalese government decided to close access to Mustang for all foreigners. Only a frenchman, Michel Peissel (yes, the same who had ascended the river Kali Gandaki by hovercraft), obtained (nobody knows how he achieved to get it) permission to access Mustang in the 80's, and so, he was able to meet with the few remaining Khampa soldiers who were still operating in the area.

During the 70's, with the improvement of relations between China and the US, the Agency canceled the Khampa military program Khampas, and offered money and  a piece of land in India to those brave guerrilla men in order to stop their activity. Only a few decided to continue a harsh fight, reduced then to small skirmishes.

Finally, in 1991, the Khampa guerrilla was totally disbanded, with the last soldiers settling among the communities of Tibetans in exile in India. Then, Nepalese government decided to reopen access to Mustang, but not for free! They were charging (and still do) a daily "stay rate" to try to avoid a large number of tourists visiting the Kingdom of Lo and risking to damage the ecosystem and the traditional Lhoba lifestyle.