Next morning I woke up with hangover of my
previous day’s disappointment. I opened my eyes and expected to see a gloomy
cloudy sky outside. My friends were already awake and sipping tea. I sat up on the
bed and one of them said, ‘Go out on the balcony and have a look around,’ I ignored her (as I always do) and went to the toilet instead to freshen up. I was feeling
really cold and the first sip of the hot tea felt like heaven in that chilly
morning. They were still insisting me to go to the balcony. I replied, ‘I have
no intention to see fog and cloud. I am already feeling quite melancholic. I
guess we made a mistake coming here.’ She made a grumpy face and said,
‘Ok, just go out and see.’ I obliged and reluctantly opened the door and
stepped out in the balcony. I can not quite describe the waves of different
emotions that passed through me in a fraction of second. I went from being
sleepy and sad to flabbergasted to happy to euphoric within a jiffy. And before
I could realize it, my fatigue was completely gone and I was jumping in joy and
calling out my friends to come and join me. I was witnessing the Kanchenjunga in all
her glory for the first time and I did not want to experience it without having my friends by my side. The cloud and the gloominess of yesterday were completely gone
and the entire Kaluk was being flooded with sunlight. The sky was bright and
blue and the entire range of the Kanchenjunga was dazzling before our eyes. Now
I knew why people came to Rinchenpong.
After gratifying our stomach with a heavy
breakfast we went out to explore Kaluk and Rinchenpong. There were a few places
to see around Rinchenpong and our driver took us to Rinchenpong monastery
first. If I was given a chance I would visit every Himalayan monastery, that’s
how deep my admiration goes for Tibetan Buddhism. Rinchenpong monastery was
built in 1730 by Ngadakpa Lama. It’s said to be the third oldest monastery of
Sikkim. Lord Buddha takes his Ati Buddha form here. Ati Buddha or Adi Buddha is
considered to be the oldest avatar of Buddha according to Vajrayana Buddhism.
This primordial form of Buddha is said to exist before anything else ever
existed. He is the originator of everything. Sound familiar? If we truly
liberate ourselves from all the stupid meaningless rituals and boundaries of
religions, we will be amazed to find that every religion in the world basically
trying to tell us the same history of origin. How can we be different when our
origins are fundamentally identical? We might have taken different routes, but
our destinations are same after all. In Rinchenpong monastery Ati Buddha sits
in Yab Yum position. In Yab Yum position deities sit in Padmasana embracing
their respective goddesses in their lap. Yab Yum represents union of male and
female. Vajrayana tells that no one can reach the ultimate point of spiritual
attainment without their counterpart in the journey.
We got off the car; a
trail lined with traditional prayer flags led us to the monastery. The
colourful flags are supposed to ward off evil spirits, and the white ones
represent mourning. The Morning Prayer session was going on when we reached
there. Little lama boys were playing musical instruments outside in the yard.
One was playing a Choe-Nga which is a
drum like instrument; a few others were playing a giant trumpet which is known
as Rag-Dung. My friends were watching them
intently while I got busy looking around and photographing the premises.
The
monastery was a two storied hut decorated with prayer wheels and intricate
colourful designs. I told my friend in an all knowing patronizing tone, ‘See the
heap of dry branches out there? Those are Juniper. It is used as incense in all
Buddhist monasteries.’ This I had come to know from the documentary Sikkim, made by the greatest of all
greats, our Satyajit Ray. The Kanchenjunga was visible from the vast green
yard. The entire valley was being flooded with sunlight. The prayer was going
on in the monastery in full swing; we could hear the lamas chanting ancient
Tibetan mantras in a steady unvarying tempo. The entire ambience around the
monastery was beyond any description. I felt I had come to a world that was
very different from ours and I did not want to go back to my city life anymore.
Our next stop was Poison Pokhri and an
ancient British Dak Bungalow. When the British army came to conquer Sikkim in
1860, the native Lepchas of Sikkim poisoned the lake that used to be the only
source of water to the army. As a result, most of the army was killed and they
were forced to retreat. Seriously, this race had no other job but to butt in
others’ properties and torture and steal. Still it is impossible to hate them because of one single factor. Harry Potter. My love for Sikkim was multiplied a
thousand times after hearing this story. The lake was now dried out and was surrounded
by deep forest. Shooting of some Bengali film was going on there when we
reached. We did not stay there for long. The sight of a dried lake did not give
me much pleasure. The bungalow where the army had stayed was just above the
bank of the lake. It was nicely maintained. I suggested to my girls that we should
live here if we ever came to visit this place again. A bungalow this old and
with so much history, must have a few pieces of ghosts left. If we got haunted
by the ghosts of some racist British generals, that would be the experience of lifetime.
Rabindra Smriti Van was a total
disappointment. A stone slab was standing erect amidst some bushes announcing
proudly that R N Tagore had stayed there once and he had written the first
verse of ‘Where the mind is without fear’ while his stay.
The last stop of our entire day’s
sightseeing was a big surprise. The model organic farm by Azing Lepcha. We spent
almost an hour there looking around the beautiful farmhouse and garden. Mr.
Lepcha had developed this farm where everything was produced organically. They produced
fruits, honey (from stingless bees), hens and several others by products like
jam, jelly, pickles and alcohol-free wines. They also have a small guesthouse
for tourists. We sat there for some time, soaking in every ounce of picturesque
beauty around us; tasted farm fresh passion fruit; then tasted some fruit wine.
They made wines from various fruits, like banana, orange, cherry etc. We bought
organic honey and few bottles of wine to bring back home. The path that led to
the farm was the most difficult part. We had to descend at least 3 to 4 km to
reach there. Now just imagine the ordeal I had to go through while climbing up.
Gravity is a mean bitch and one feels it more while travelling in the hills.
In the afternoon we decided to go for a
walk around Kaluk. There was a big map of West Sikkim displayed in the middle
of the crossroad at Kaluk bazaar. We saw that Hee-Bermiok village was just 3 km
away from Kaluk. My instant reaction was, ‘Let’s walk to Bermiok!’ My friends' reaction was, ‘You have any idea what you are talking about?’ since the moment I
had boarded the train, I was feeling somewhat invincible and I was pretty sure
about myself that I could reach Bermiok by foot. We started walking; the roadside
scenery was amazing. We could see small villages across the hills. Suddenly we
heard the sound of prayer bells coming from some monastery. Now whenever I hear
anything remotely related to monastery, I run towards it like a cat chasing
laser dot. However there was no monastery nearby. My friend old me that we might
have heard the echo from some monastery which was miles away from us.
No, we did not reach Bermiok that evening;
after around 2 km we were already exhausted and it had started getting dark. We
had to take the return course. But that walk will always be one of my most
cherished most favourite memories ever. Sometimes, without our knowledge we
create some magical moments that stay with us forever.
(To
be continued)
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