Mechuka
Mechuka was a remote border village, and the only reason it was doing so well was that it was a border village - being a stones throw from the Arunachal - China border - or ‘the line of actual control’, or ‘LAC’ as they called it.
this ‘line of actual control’ needs to be buttressed on the India side with a lot of actual military power, and the Indian Army has spent a lot of money and manpower to buttress this point at Mechuka, which is a stones throw from that line.
The whole town of Mechuka is a result of all that military spending,
The whole town of Mechuka is a result of all that military spending,
We set out - and on the way, we saw an interesting place - the Mechuka sahib Sikh gurudwara, where Guru Nanak - the founder of the Sikh religion - is supposed to have visited and lived for a bit
Guru Nanak must be the most travelled religious founder ever!
Guru Nanak must be the most travelled religious founder ever!
Guru Nanak - he was a true peripatetic!
He seems to have spent most of his life travelling.
As one Sikh website says - ‘Over 30 years Guru Nanak undertook 4 -5 journeys, running across all over the four directions of India, Pakpattan Sri Lanka, present Pakistan, South Asia, Tibet, Siri Nagar, Kashmir Afghanistan, Nepal, Bhutan, China Russia, Turkey, Mecca Madina, Baghdad, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Egypt, Europe, and Arabia- traveled far and wide covering about 50,000 kilometres at the time when there was no mode of transportation.
The record for the most traveled person is held by Ibn Batuta of Morocco. It is believed that Guru Nanak is the second-most traveled person in the world.’
He seems to have spent most of his life travelling.
As one Sikh website says - ‘Over 30 years Guru Nanak undertook 4 -5 journeys, running across all over the four directions of India, Pakpattan Sri Lanka, present Pakistan, South Asia, Tibet, Siri Nagar, Kashmir Afghanistan, Nepal, Bhutan, China Russia, Turkey, Mecca Madina, Baghdad, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Egypt, Europe, and Arabia- traveled far and wide covering about 50,000 kilometres at the time when there was no mode of transportation.
The record for the most traveled person is held by Ibn Batuta of Morocco. It is believed that Guru Nanak is the second-most traveled person in the world.’
So why not add this remote and obscure corner of Arunachal Pradesh to the list as well?
There are a lot of Sikhs in the Indian Armed Forces, and the army posts them to remote parts of India, and the more devout amongst them seem to spend their time figuring out places where the holy guru had visited - or should have visited - and then spending the money of the Indian Army to build gurudwaras there.
There are a lot of Sikhs in the Indian Armed Forces, and the army posts them to remote parts of India, and the more devout amongst them seem to spend their time figuring out places where the holy guru had visited - or should have visited - and then spending the money of the Indian Army to build gurudwaras there.
There was no shortage of armed services people here, and they all contributed over the years and now they have built a big Gurudwara and called it ‘Guru Nanak Taposthan’ and it has been enshrined in Sikh lore - without even a single scrap or shred of documentary evidence that Guru Nanak had ever been here!
But who cares? It was a nice story, and Sikhs are nice people and I always love visiting Gurudwaras.
But who cares? It was a nice story, and Sikhs are nice people and I always love visiting Gurudwaras.
We carried on till the end of the road - well, the road carried on, but there was a pole across the road and a Border Security Force guy sitting there wondering why two fat bikers have come there. We dismounted and greeted him and did some chit chat.
We had a cup of tea with the BSF dude and rode away, and enjoyed riding around Mechuka for a bit, we explored surrounding roads and high viewpoints, enjoyed the sight of beautiful rice fields and towering pine trees , rode nervously over wooden bridges and enjoyed a glorious sunset by the river.
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