Two amazing tales of Pasting Village

Sikkim is a mystical land with a rich heritage and culture. Discovering its legends mixed with magical phenomena has always been my passion. Sharing stories that are unknown to people around me makes me a happy man. I have tried to visit places that have mystery woven in their footsteps.

I was at Pasting, a small village near Rongli with 50-55 houses in the forest region, when the white champ flower was in full bloom then. 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 to the small bridge near Lingtam. After that, 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 her shoe, making 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, where he had been staying for a few days during the cardamom season a few years back. After taking a rest, Aja (grandfather) took four of us to show the cardamom field. Strangely, no one had ever visited the whole cardamom field apart from Aja until that day. The field was really big. The flowering buds of cardamom plants had started to bloom. He showed us a variety of diseases that affected the cardamom plant. He seemed to be like a cardamom expert. Aja narrated there was a time when the field would yield 14 to 16 maund of cardamom, but this time, 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, the villagers nearby said the ‘thing’ looked like a Sankha (conch). It was fascinating; 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 that a few centuries back, one of the army generals from Nepal was flown in a flying sankha couch to Kathmandu from the Darjeeling region. 

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, pointed to it, and said this is our Devithan (worshiping place). He then pointed to the marks on the rock and said this is Shivji's footprint! I asked Lord Shiva! He looked at me and said yes!

People have worshiped this “footmark” for centuries during purnay and aaushi. He went on to say that, in 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 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 our grandfather's house. After staying back for some time, we bid farewell to Aja and made our journey back home.