Having spent his all earnings and time in building 38km-long road across Shinkula pass to connect Ladakh’s Zanskar valley with Himachal’s Lahaul, the 79-year-old Tsultim Chinjor, who has been conferred with Padma Shri award, wants better road connectivity between Himachal and Zanskar.
A resident of Stongdey village of remote Zanskar valley, lama Chinjor is among 102 recipients of Padma Shri this year. He has been conferred with this prestigious award for social work after his name was recommended by Kargil district administration. Lama has spent many years in Stongdey monastery and also served as a government employee. As a large number of villages in Zanskar were not connected with road and the lone road connecting Zanskar with Kargil used to get blocked after snowfall at Pensi-la pass, lama was searching for better road connectivity.
Although Border Roads Organisation (BRO) had planned to connect Zanskar with Himachal via Shinkula pass, lama Chinjor was unhappy with the work progress. Finally, he took up the task to connect nearly 30 villages of the valley with Darcha village of Himachal’s Lahaul. He discussed his plan with the local residents and started raising funds. He finally started building road, for which he even sold his land, and built 38km road from Shinkula to Kargiakh.
Lama started building the road on Shinkula pass on June 28, 2014 with help of a hired earthmover, jeep, labourers and ponies. BRO had built 27km of road beyond Darcha and lama started building road beyond this point. In first season, before onset of winter, Lama completed 13km of the jeepable road from Himachal and entered Zanskar. He had a lot more road to build to connect Kargiakh, the first village of Zanskar and then towards Padum.
“I spent all my savings in building this road. People of Zanskar and some politicians also helped me financially. I worked on this road for years. Finally BRO started building the road and now our valley is connected with Himachal. I thank people of Ladakh and BRO that we are connected by multiple roads. I also thank officials, politicians and government for considering me for Padma Shri award. Now I wish that Himachal-Zanskar road is widened and blacktopped as early as possible,” Chinjor said.
Executive councillor for tourism and Zanskar affairs Punchok Tashi told Discover Leh Ladakh that Chinjor, fondly known as Meme Tsultim Chinjor, has constructed 38 km road from Zanskar Sumdo to Kargiakh Lungnak with his own expenses and little donation and contributions. “He is real hero of Ladakh. The residents are enthralled to hear about lama ji conferred with Padma Shri award. He really deserves the award,” he said.
Lama, also known as Dashrath Manjhi of Ladakh, had rescued many tourists from Ramdung in 2002 and had made arrangements for their meal and accommodation. In 2009, he had rescued passengers of eight vehicles who had stranded after heavy snowfall between Pansila and Padum.
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