The ice hotel at Kiruna
By Trilochan Singh Trewn

SOMETHING exciting comes up whenever I visit my daughter who is settled down at Stockholm, Sweden.

It was during December that we decided to visit the land of the midnight sun. Kiruna lies 1050 km from Stockholm, north-west as the crow flies, and is the last railway station of the Swedish Railways in the Arctic Circle in the area generally known as Lapland. It is located at a latitude of 68 degree north and a longitude of 20 degree east.

We left Stockholm by road at about 8.30 in the morning while it was pitch dark. As we moved along in hazy light, the scenic beauty of tiny lakes and dense forests kept us in high spirits as we came across vast fields earmarked for growing strawberries, blue-berries, rasberries, and apple trees in all their beauty. It appeared that apple trees had no leaves but weighed down completely by delicious apples only. Most surroundings were covered by snow and ice.

Our car had special heaters fitted. Our first halt was at Ostersunp after two days, where we visited the famous Swedish soft paper-making factory. The paper napkins produced in the factory were in different exciting colours and were being exported to adorn the dining tables of the elite. We stopped below Mount Kebnelkaise after further four days of a pleasant and unforgettable journey.

Here about 100 km south of our destination, Kiruna, we climbed some reaches of Mount Kebnelkaise and looked around. We witnessed the most fascinating view of the midnight sun shining tirelessly over the boundless silence. Here the winters are long and severe while the summers are brief and intense and it may snow during mid-August. In this area north of the Arctic Circle the sun never shines all winter long, but in the summer, during mid-May and mid-July the midnight sun shines continuously without interruption for 24 hours. In winter days, the sun never rises above the horizon and the only light comes from the very long dawn of the Aurora Borealisa, a rare phenomenon of these latitudes.

The Swedish Lapland is a natural paradise and its population is about 15,000. Approximately 2,500 inhabitants known as SAME are engaged in domestic reindeer breeding. Very tall reindeers roam about the vast landscape in herds. It is estimated that at present the population of reindeer is 2,50,000. Besides, a variety of fauna, bears, lynxes, elks, foxes, hares and deer live in the mountainous area of this region. The vegetation in the extreme north is characterised by Tundra, mosses and lichens which are treated in local kitchens as delicacies.

It is claimed that the water in Swedish lakes and rivers is still pure and can be used for drinking. The allround cleanliness and pollution-controlled atmosphere by habit and by-legislation is commendable. I recall that one of our four co-travellers in our speeding car dropped an empty paper bag out on the road inadvertently. As soon the driving member realised that, we turned back the car about 10 km and retrieved the paper bag before proceeding further. The Swedish Government has planned that by the year 2010 all nuclear power plants will be replaced by alternate sources of energy. He also observed that wandering in the woods and mountains is one of the favourite leisure time occupation of the Swedish. This is possible because the total population is less than that of Delhi.

The largest city in the north region is Lulea a harbour in the northern reaches of the gulf of Bothnia. However, we decided to head towards the city of Kiruna close to the Norwegian border to see the legendary ice hotel. Kiruna is also an iron ore mining centre.

Close to the township of Kiruna is the village of Jukkasjarvi. In this place every year an ice hotel commonly known as Arctic hall is built entirely of ice and snow between the period of November and Spring. The idea was first originated and translated into reality by Ingveberg Qvist, who was looking after tourism in this tourist-oriented village in 1991. The temporary six-month life hotel is built in 60 square metres of floor place, using a basic aluminium structure on which snow is first pressed and as soon as the snow is frozen the aluminium is dismantled, leaving a genuine reinforced snow chamber. The architect is Aimo Raisanen, a daring personality. The hall structure consists of bars, a cinema with an ice screen, a church, an ice fountain and an art gallery. The spacious bedrooms are essentially glacially decorated and sculptured by transparent hard ice cups and dinner plates suitably lined. All modern comforts were available except central or individual heating and hot water service. However, the management controlled the inside temperature at 2 to 3 degree below zero, while the outside temperature remained at about 35 degrees below zero. We, like others, did not feel the necessity of taking a bath during our one-day stay in the ice hotel as the very thought of bathing under 2 to 3 degree sub zero temperature was appalling. We slept in our sleeping bags on ice beds. Next day after 24 hours of stay we packed our sleeping bags and wished goodbye to the hotel management. While leaving the manager presented us a six-inch size replica of a full-grown Arctic reindeer of hard ice standing majestically on a ice pedestal. In return we presented to the hotel a 20-gm weight sterling silver coin of goddess Laxmi to bless the ice hotel and all those who may live in it.

We had carried our papers with us to enter Norway from the northern border post and, therefore, we headed towards the Norwegian town of Norvik. The border police did not expect us in the freezing cold and entertained us with fried mushroom and reindeer milk cheese. We left Norvik after about four hours stay there and back back to Kiruna.

Before leaving Kiruna for Stockholm I also met Dr Eric Robinson, a renowned historian from the USA, who also happened to be there during that point of time for exploring the prehistoric presence of a highly intellectual life in the Arctic region. He seemed to have read the book The Arctic Home in the Vedas written by Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak and was aware of the fact that the Vedas do mention about this region.