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

--> Gandhiji was at Hill Cart Road near Kak Jhora with Anne Beasant and Deshbandhu Chitranjan Das in 1925. The Toy Train track runs alongside the road, and a hand-driven rickshaw is behind it.  (c) Fallen Cicada - Unwritten History of Darjeeling Hills by Barun Roy pic: beacononline.wordpress   The latest issue of  The Week , dated December 27, 2009, had something stored for me. The national magazine's cover story was “Myths of Our Time,” which had a few stories webbed around our cultural and social beliefs, but there was little truth in them. One article excited me the most; it was the sole reason I put my hand forward when I saw it hanging in one of the shops in Gangtok. The story's headline read, “Gandhi did not say Hey Ram when shot.”  The story was against the belief of Gandhi's followers that it spread to every corner of the globe. But the fact remains strong that Gandhi did not utter anything when he was shot by Nathuram Godse with...

Another fascinating input to my finding led me to some unknown discussions about the origin of the earthen tower story . We believed the story was related to Lepchas , but close to the Lepchas are the Limboo and Newar communities , who share the earthen story to have belonged to them. The Limboo community believed they were the earliest settlers in this region, and it was their story. At the same time, the Newar populace claimed they were the potters who built the earthen tower, told a local from Daramdin .  Close to the vicinity of the Daramdin bazaar , there lays a cave made from the chink of a huge stone. Small openings take us to a chamber where the locals believe it to be a meditation room. Many locals said they had become aware of this cave since childhood and played around it. The so-called cave has a cube-shaped stone scored in such a fashion that it seems symbolic of some ritual activities. The walls on its left are closely associated with some inscriptions of the Limboo l...

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 ...