A long time ago in the Kingdom of the mountains, lived an old and good king. He ruled his lands with justice and wisdom and his was loved by his people.
There were two large valleys in his Kingdom, Kullu and Spiti. Kullu was rich and fertile, filled with fruit orchards, vegetable plantations and rivers teaming with fish. The people here were mostly farmers.
Spiti was high and beautiful, the realm of the Gods. This valley was a pilgrimage site for people from all over the world, who would come to pray at the monasteries, where devout and spiritually enlightened monks would bless their lives, families and business's.
The King was wise in all ways apart from one. He had two children, a boy and a girl, Rohtang and Kunzum-La, and loved them so much that he denied them nothing, and could never discipline them. They were not loved by the people, as they were selfish, spoiled and sometimes cruel. They became bitter and jealous of how much the people loved their father.
When the King was on his deathbed, he called his children to him.
'My Children, my time on Earth draws near, and I will soon be in the realm of the Gods. I have called you here now, so you may hear my final will and instructions.
'Rohtang, you my Son, will rule over the Kullu valley, its rich farmlands, natural resources and honest people.
'My daughter Kunzum-La, for you I give you Spiti - its holy places, venerated monks and many pilgrims that come there.
'Rule wisely and gently my children, for you will be judged on how you treat them, both in this world and the next.
Shortly afterwards, the King died, and Rohtang and Kunzum-La inherited their kingdoms.
But they did not heed their fathers advice, and each begun their rule with cruelty and harshness.
Rohtang began taxing the farmers beyond what they could pay. He demanded so much tribute that the they had nothing to grow for themselves, and began to starve. When they could no longer pay they were thrown in prison. The rich farmlands soon began to be either over farmed so they began to die, or be neglected when their farmers were unable to work the land because they were in prison.
Kunzum-La began her reign by charging pilgrims to come to the valley. Huge amounts of money to visit the monks and gain there blessings. Soon, people stopped coming. So she looked enviously at the riches of the monasteries and began to meddle in their affairs and tax them too. Slowly, the monasteries begun to shut down, as the monks moved out the valley and started to build monasteries in other places.
When Rohtang and Kunzum-La's separate kingdoms started to fall apart and the money dried up, they started looking at each others valley's with envious eyes. Rohtang thought of the riches of the monasteries and Kunzum-La at the rich farmlands. They had never been close, always jealous of resentful of each other, believing that their father had preferred the other one.
Eventually, the desire for the others lands grew so much, that each decided to invade the other. Kunzum-La rounded up all the monks and made them into soldiers, and Rohtang conscripted all the farmers, armed them and forced them to march to meet his sister in battle.
It was a terrible war. Thousands died. The farmers weak from lack of food and the monks unused to fighting forced to kill each other. The brother and sister sitting back, hating each other and their own people.
At the end, there was no victor. Both valleys were devastated, people killed, farmlands destroyed, monasteries sacked. Both valley's ruined.
Rohtang and Kunzum=La met each other in one final gargantuan battle. It was so vicious that the ground itself was torn apart, They both sustained terrible wounds and shortly afterwards died. No one mourned them because there was no one left to mourn.
In the realm of the Gods, their father, who had been taken to live with them, looked on in horror. His lifes work destroyed, and the people he had ruled over for so long killed.
When Rohtang and Kunzum-La were at the gates of heaven, waiting to be judged their father and Gods passed sentence on them.
'You have killed thousands of people, laid waste to valleys, destroyed holy places through your own vanity, selfishness and greed. There is no place with the Gods for you here.
'Instead, you are sentenced to forever look over the valleys you destroyed, and repent of your actions.
'There will be no release for you until the valleys have recovered, the farmlands once again rich and the holy places once again a destination for pilgrims.
'This is my judgement on you. Stay there, in your own prison, until you have learned your lessons'.
So the Gods transformed the brother and sister into Mountains, each at the head of their valley. High, desolate, mountains, filled with anger and hate at the Gods and the people below them.
There they stand still, exacting vengeance on anybody who tries to cross them; freezing them with ice, trapping them with snow falls, crushing them with treacherous landfalls. Still angry and hateful, still not having learnt their lessons.
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