Proud to be a Sikkimese: Sikkim Travel, Culture & Local Heritage

By Dalvinder Singh (Grewal) A group consisting of Sardar Harbhajan Singh (Setia) and fourteen other Sikh devotees from Delhi returned last March after a visit to Gurdwara Guru Dongmar in North Sikkim. Guru Dongmar is a lake at a height of 18,000 feet alongside a glacial peak known by the same name. The lake remains frozen most of the year due to heavy snowfall for almost six months each year. Guru Nanak visited the place during his third udasi in order to solace the Karma-pa Nying-ma-pa sects then being hounded out from Tibet by the Ge-lug-pa sect. Many from the Karma-pa Nying-ma-pa sect were the followers of Guru Nanak, as their Head Lamas became Guru Nanak's followers in Kailash Mansarovar area after being impressed by Guru Nanak's discussions with the famous Sidhas of the age. These sects had fled from Tibet to the Himalayan belt of Northern India, which included Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh, Uttra-Khand, Nepal, Sikkim, Bhutan and Arunachal Prades...

Recreating myth : Guru Nanak in Sikkim ? Posted by apu under Sikkim & North East , My travels in India. Many of the world’s religions, are founded on various myths and beliefs, which may have certain historical or factual evidence, but often cannot be entirely supported on these. It is the believer’s faith perhaps that makes history out of this myth and gives it additional support in the form of evidence gathered from stories, folklore etc. Some of the newer religions however are less dependent on myth, as the lives of the founders are relatively better documented. While I am no expert, I always thought a religion like Sikhism , with a known founder , Guru Nanak, would therefore be more fact based, as opposed to say, Hinduism or Christianity . (Yes, Christ is known, but Christianity nevertheless is based on many unverifiable myths that need some degree of faith to be justified). Finding the footprints of Guru Nanak, in North Sikkim then, along with a myth right out of Hindu ...