To the Mountains of the Moon: A Journey from Fiction to Facts

In 1937, Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay chronicled the adventures of a Bengali boy named Shankar. This novel was named 'Chander Pahar' (English: 'Mountains of the Moon', as the fiction refers to a range of mountains and not a single standing mountain). 'Chander Pahar' went on to become one of the most loved adventure stories in the Bengali literature. In his lifetime, Bibhutibhushan wrote 16 novels and over 200 short stories. Interestingly, even though most of Bibhutibhushan's works were largely set in rural Bengal; in this particular novel the writer chose the setting of 1909 Africa.

Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay (1894-1950)

In the story 'Chander Pahar', our protagonist Shankar gets a lucky break to go out from his little riverside village in Bengal to work for the Uganda Railway. Thus begun his sudden and long journey from the mundane to the extraordinary. A roller coaster ride through adventures involving the infamous man eating lions of Tsavo, close encounters with the Black Mamba, and a shadowy, mythical creature lurking in the heart of the mountains of the moon. From the agonies of crossing the Kalahari and getting lost in a tropical rain forest to the ecstasy of discovering a treasure of yellow diamonds hidden in a lost cave in the Richtersveld mountain range.

More about the novel Chander Pahar can be found here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chander_Pahar

Cover of the book Chander Pahar. Cover artist: Satyajit Ray

Being a Bengali myself, I found 'Chander Pahar' deeply fascinating as a boy. But for a long time this remained just a juvenile adventure story to me. It is only in the recent years, when I climbed Kilimanjaro (2005), I started to gain fresh insights from the book. I realized Bibhutibhushan wrote the novel based on the publications of real life explorers and adventurers of the African continent in the late 19th and the early 20th century. The book indeed was not entirely a fruit of Bibhutibhushan's imagination. The story had serious, fact based, realistic connections with the Africa of the early 1900s. The author himself had mentioned in the foreword of his book that while writing 'Chander Pahar' he was inspired by the works of Sir Henry "Harry" Johnston and Rosita Forbes. And when one reads the Tsavo lion episode in the book one can not help but relate to Col John Henry Patterson's personal accounts.Now being a wandering pilgrim, explorer, travel writer and mountaineer ( the order does not necessarily remain the same always), 'Chander Pahar', thus raised fresh questions in my mind. Curious and inspired questions.

I am suddenly very curious to know about the status of the Uganda Railway where Bibhutibhushan's Shankar got a job under a British engineer. Is this historically significant railway still functioning healthy? Or is it becoming irrelevant entirely? At least 28 Indians and countless locals fell victim to the Tsavo lions while building this railroad.

To read more about the Uganda Railway, which was also called 'The Lunatic Express' and the 'Iron Snake' visit : http://www.theeagora.com/the-lunatic-express-a-photo-essay-on-the-uganda-railway/ 
Tayiana Chao is doing some great work here.

How are the Maasais doing? Are they still as bold and non-interested warriors as they were described by many authors before? Or are they being pushed out of their own lands? Pushed out and cornered with the fast paced development of a new Kenya? How are the new age Europeans looking at the growing economy and opportunities in what used to be the British East Africa not so long ago? Questions are many and I can go on listing them here. But instead I choose to write them in later episodes. Because, to me, at least to the Bengali mind, the most important question raised by Bibhutibhushan's 'Chander Pahar' is simple. Is there a real mountain named 'Chander Pahar' or the Mountains of the Moon in Africa?

In 150 CE, a high snow capped mountain range in the heart of Africa, was named by Ptolemy as, 'Selenes Oros', latinized as 'Lunae Montes', and in English 'Mountains of the Moon'. Did this name inspire Bibhutibhushan in christening his novel? Today this mountain range is known as the Rwenzori Mountains and it is the highest mountain range in Africa. In the book Bibhutibhushan set 'his' Mountains of the Moon' in the Richtersveld range. Richtersveld in reality is arid and semi desert in nature.
You can read about Richtersveld here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richtersveld

But the descriptions of the jungle through which Shankar, his protagonist travelled was certainly of an equatorial rain forest and which entirely matches with the Rwenzoris. You can read more about Rwenzoris here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rwenzori_Mountains 

A 1937 aerial view of the Rwenzori mountains. Source: Wikipedia

But how can we be so sure that it is Ptolemy's christening that inspired  Bibhutibhushan? Well, one can start exploring Google and visit local libraries to cross check facts. But there is another way. To go there. To ask questions and seek answers for oneself. To take the journey that Bibhutibhushan's Shankar took. Starting from Mombasa, following the Uganda Railway to Lake Victoria and then to the mountain range which for the last 2000 years has been known to the rest of the world as the 'Mountains of the Moon'. 

1655 map of Africa showing location of Mountains of the Moon by Athanasius Kircher

This time again ( like in 2012, when I was cycling from Nanyuki, Kenya to Walvis Bay, Namibia) my partners in this journey will be the millions of readers of Uttar Banga Sambad (http://www.uttarbangasambad.com/).

I sincerely hope to keep sending dispatches and photos as I progress from the port town of Mombasa to the Rwenzoris. As Uttar Banga Sambad is a Bengali newspaper it is obvious that those dispatches will be in Bengali language. But I hope to put updates in social media and post reports in my blog here. 

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