Two amazing tales of Pasting Village

Sikkim is a mystical land; with its own rich heritage and culture. Discovering its legend mixed with magical phenomena had always been my passion; to share stories that are unknown to people around makes me a happy man. I have tried to visit places that have mystery woven on its footsteps.

I was at Pasting, a small village, near Rongli with 50-55 houses in the forest region when at that time the white chaamp flower was at its full bloom. My grandfather (Aja) had his cardamom field at Pasting and it was that season when he used to stay at the village in his small hut like home. It was me, my father, Kancha Kaka and Kanchi Nini on our first visit to Pasting. 

There was a drive till the small bridge near Lingtam. Thereafter, the walk of my life made the jungle stride across the deep woods with leeches hanging around my shoes. I could see Nini screaming out when one of the leeches entered into her shoe that did make the rest of us laugh. We could hear the birds singing, the strange sounds of insects and the unknown fear of the jungle within us.

In an hour, we reached a small hut made by Aja in the middle of the forest for his few days staying during the cardamom seasons a few years back.  After taking a rest, Aja (grandfather) took four of us to show the cardamom field. It was strange till that day no one had ever visited the whole cardamom field apart from Aja. The field was really big. The flowering buds of cardamom plants had started to bloom. He showed us varieties of diseases that affected the cardamom plant. He seemed to be like a cardamom expert. Aja narrated there was a time when the very field would yield 14 to 16 maund of cardamom but this time around one has to satisfy with two to three sacks. All we did was; silently look at his face. 

While moving across the forest Aja wanted to show us something we had never heard of.  He showed us a huge rock split into two parts. He told us that once that rock was a single piece but a couple of decades back at noon a huge bang was heard and something flew into the air from the middle of the rock that had the rocks into two pieces. Later on the villagers nearby said that the ‘thing’ looked like a Sankha (counch). It was a fascinating one; I have heard several stories of flying sankha that burst from the rocks in other parts of Sikkim and nearby regions. One legend even says a few centuries back, one of the army generals from Nepal was flown in a flying sankha couch to Kathmandu from Darjeeling regions. 

After some climbing to the hills, he showed us a big rock and told us that he would let us have a surprise. As he went near, I hurriedly followed him. He cleared the spider webs and weeds from a small hole and pointed to it and said this is our Devithan (worshiping place). He then pointed to the marks at the rock and said this is a footprint of Shivji! I asked Lord Shiva! He looked at me and said yes!

Since centuries people have been worshiping this “foot mark” during purnay and aaushi. He went on to say time immemorial there was a fight between Shiva and a demon. Lord Shiva had stepped at the stone and leaped, so this is his footmark. I looked with a curiosity and asked how you knew it. He told me he had heard from his father.

With curiosity and excitement playing inside me; I did not doubt his words. We all know we have such stories in different corners of our state. We made it back to the house of our grandfather. After staying back for some time, we bid farewell to Aja and made our journey back home.