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

Today I found this old pamphlet of Sakyamuni Project - Tathagata Tsal from my files. This one was published some ten years back in 2010

Homai Vyarawalla, India’s first woman press photographer claimed to fame was her photographs that showed a transition of an Independent India in the first four decades. A winner of Padma Vibhusan , the second-highest civilian award of India, Homai Vyarawalla was an active press photographer from the 30s till the 70s when she finally retired She started her career from Bombay Chronicle and ended it with   The illustrated weekly of India . She passed away early this year at the age of 98.   Some of her poplar photographs included the celebration of the first Independence Day , Nehru lighting a cigarette on the lips of Ms. Simon, wife of the then British High Commissioner to India, funerals of great leaders in Gandhiji , Nehru, and others.    Interestingly it is written in Wikipedia that most of her photographs were published under the pseudonym “Dalda 13″. The reasons behind her choice of this rather amusing name were that her birth year was 1913, she got m...

His Holiness the Dalai Lama talks about the changing role of science in a clip from his opening address at the International Conference for Science, Spirituality and Education held in Gangtok, Sikkim, India, on December 20th, 2010.

--> Tashiding, in West Sikkim, was one place I wanted to visit for the last few years, but it never happened until last month, and I am in high spirits. I finally did it. Regarded as the holiest of monasteries in Sikkim, the Tashiding Monastery, over the centuries, does hold strong its own legends and folks. The first look at the faintly yellow roof of the monastery on top of a hill from the opposite roadway gave me a pleasant feel that was beyond my expectations. The Monastery is built atop a ridge between the Rangit and Ratong rivers. I am told of a legend that  Guru Padmasambhava  had shot an arrow to select his place of meditation, which is the present site of the Tashiding Monastery.  It is even said that the rock is still found at the Tashiding Monastery premises, where the great Guru meditated. One of the reasons I wanted to visit this place was to see the stupa of Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö, regarded as the most outstanding Tibetan master of the...

Shared by Ram Kumar Shrestha Global Coordinator Kapilvastu Day Movement Global Committee As part of the World Peace Movement, Nepalese people living in different parts of the world last year decided to commemorate Lumbini and Kapilavastu, the birthplace of Gautam Buddha, by observing Kapilvastu Day as a global holiday in order to spread the Buddha’s peace and nonviolence messages all over the world. The Buddha is revered as a Messenger of Peace. He is also known as the Light of Asia who is actually the Light of the world as his message of peace and nonviolence has become more relevant as the world is facing the problems of violence today. The world today has become more violent than ever before. Therefore, we have decided to spread the messages of the Buddha all over the world by observing Kapilvastu Day every year.   Originally, on December 1, 1896, Dr Anton Führer, a German archaeologist, had discovered the Buddha’s birthplace when he found the A...

Very soon the people of Sikkim will have the giant statue of Buddha ala Guru Padhanshambhava situated at Samduptse. The Buddha statue is being made at Sang Khola, near Singtam.