Character Sketch: Silk Road | English Class 11 PDF Download

Character Sketch of Nick Middleton (Narrator)

Nick Middleton, the narrator of the story is a young, curious, and adventurous traveler from England. He is on a journey to Mount Kailash. He is quite brave, courageous, and daring. He is open-minded, eager to explore new cultures, and has a strong sense of adventure. He is also shown to be observant and perceptive, paying attention to intricate details during his journey. He faces many obstacles during his journey. He shows great adaptability throughout his journey. He interacts with the locals and learns from them, which helps him overcome various obstacles and adjust to different environments.

Character Sketch of Daniel

Daniel was the translator whom Nick Middleton had hired. He helped the narrator to communicate with the local Tibetans. He accompanied the narrator up to the town of Hor. There he parted from him as he was to go to Lhasa. Fortunately he got a ride in a truck to Lhasa.

Character Sketch of Tsetan

Tsetan was a local Tibetan whose profession was to ferry visitors or tourists to places of interest in Tibet. He was expert in driving through the rugged Tibetan terrain and high altitude rough roads. He drove the car very carefully considering the safety of the passengers. During the journey, he spoke to the author and gave important details of the places they were passing by. When the narrator fell ill, Tsetan took him to Darchen medical college and cared for his health.

Character Sketch of Lhamo

Lhamo was the girl of the family with whom the narrator, Nick Middleton had stayed for a few days on the way to Mount Kailash. She developed friendship with the author. When narrator was about to leave, Lhamo gifted him a drokba, a long-sleeved sheepskin coat that men in Tibet usually wear. Lhamo felt the author did not have enough warm clothes for the severe cold he was to face later on while completing the Kora.

Character Sketch of Norbu

The author met Norbu at Darchen. He is a Tibetan working at a Chinese academy of Social Sciences in Beijing who wants to carry out the pilgrimage to Mount Kailash. He had also come to do the Kora. Both the narrator and Norbu struck friendship and decided to do the Kora together. The narrator actually wanted to reach Mount Kailash to do kora to get a feel of what a pilgrimage was like. But he didn’t want to do it alone. He was looking for someone who could speak or understand English. When he was sitting in the only cafe at Darchen, Norbu, a plump Tibetan saw him reading an English book. So Norbu introduced himself to the author. He also was there to do kora, although he was not a religious person. So both of them decided to do kora together.