Good bye Namchi

 We will miss you .Back to home in Hyderabad. The woods are lovely,dark and deep but I have promises to keep.And miles to go before I sleep.

Sight seeing in Namchi

 

Though all the places in Namchi are worth seeing and the mountains and the forests are soothing to the eye the faculty took us to few tourist spots on 16th November , 2016. We first went to  Samdruptse where there is a giant statue of Guru Padma Sam bhavan

Samdruptse Hill; the 'wish fulfilling hill' is just 5 km away from Namchi, situated at an altitude of 2134 m (7000 ft). This epic hill is ornamented with a giant statue of the Guru Padmasambhava (Guru Rinpoche); the patron saint of Sikkim who has been showering its blessings since more than 1,200 years. It is a 45 m tall statue, overlooking the whole city, and is gilded with gold that glitters when the sunlight falls over it. The hill offers the vista of the magnificent Mt. Kangchenjunga amongst the richly forested hills under the blue painted sky. It is believed that the hill is a dormant volcano and only prayers can hold it from erupting, that is why the local monks offer their reverence and devotion to it. The repository within the premises of the statue, has a profound collection of historical photographs of sikkim also including the fading photos of Mahatma Gandhi, come as a delight for the history buffs. The statue is an incredible triumph of engineering, that took around seven years for its construction under the sponsorship of the Sikkim State Government. The foundation stone for the statue was laid by Dalai Lama in the year 1997.

Our second stop was at the  Buddha park in Ravengla where there is a beautiful Buddha statue. We had a fantastic view of Kanchenjunga from there. It was constructed between 2006 and 2013, and features a 130-foot-high (40 m) statue of the Buddha, erected to mark the 2550th anniversary of the birth of Gautama Buddha, as its main attraction. The statue, built of 60 tonnes of copper, is an example of repousse work. Mount Narsing forms the backdrop to the statue.

The Char Dham in Namchi

Hardly five km from Namchi is the Char Dham. There has been built a replica of the four pilgrimage sites, Uttarakhand’s Badrinath, Odisha’s Puri, Tamil Nadu’s Rameshwaram and Gujarat’s Dwarka and  are collectively called Char Dham. They are good replicas and one can get a beautiful view of the Kanchenjunga. There were lovely flower gardens.They had religious bhajan made to the tune of hindi film songs  blaring away.This was the only irritant in a otherwise beautiful place. The hills have a music of their own and there is so much serenity in the calm and quiet. I found this in the Buddhist viharas and gompas here. Why cannot our temples have that quiet and peace, I fail to understand.

 The replica of these four shrines, along with 12 jyotirlingas, have been built atop the Solophok Hill in South Sikkim’s Namchi. The replicas of the twelve jyotirlingas or Dwadash Jyotirlingas namely, Somnath, Mallikarjuna, Mahakaleswar, Omkareshwar, Kedarnath, Bhimashankar, Viswanath, Triambakeshwar, Vaidyanath, Nageswar, Rameshwar and Grishneshwar encompass the statue of Lord Shiva and the Char Dhams. Also known as the Siddhesvara Dham, the sweeping temple compound was inaugurated in November 2011. The picturesque complex also houses a 108-feet statue of Lord Shiva.

Rumtek Monastry in Sikkim

On 13th November, 2016, took a taxi and went around the local sight seeing tourists spots in Sikkim.The drivers are real experts and can negotiate in steep and narrow roads many of which have become very uneven due to the rains. Went to the monastery at Rumtek also called the dharma chakra centre and enjoyed the peace and calm and it was very difficult to get up from there.Rumtek meaning God left the Dharma Chakra Centre was  established in the year 1740. It is about 45 minutes drive from Gangtok (24 km), the seat of the Kagyud order of theTibetan Buddhism.Rumtek, a Kagyu monastery near Gangtok in Sikkim, was founded in the sixteenth century by the Ninth Karmapa, Wangchuk Dorje. It is the largest monastery in Sikkim and the seat of the Kagyu tradition in Sikkim. It was significantly rebuilt with patronage of the Sikkimese royal family by the Sixteenth Karmapa, Rangjung Rigpai Dorje, who in 1959 left Tsurpu in central Tibet and fled to Sikkim with his brother, the Sixth Dzogchen Ponlob, Jikdrel Tsewang Dorje and other followers. Rumtek is the tradition's primary seat in exile.The Sixteenth Karmapa's relics are installed at Rumtek. The monastery is currently the largest in Sikkim. It is home to the community of monks and where they perform the rituals and practices of the Karma Kagyu lineage. A golden stupa contains the relics of the 16th Karmapa. Opposite that building is a college, Karma Shri Nalanda Institute for Higher Buddhist Studies.The largest monastery in Sikkim, Rumtek Monastery is the seat of the Karmapa Lama, the third highest monk in Tibetan Buddhism. It also serves as one of the most important seats of the Kagyu (Black Hat) sect of Tibetan Buddhism outside of Tibet and is also known as Dharmachakra Centre.

Ban jhakhari has a beautiful fall and nature around it .The flowers grow wild with very sharp colours. A lovely environment  for nature lovers.

 

Nathula Pass

 On 11 th Novemeber, 2016, visited the Nathula pass at 14450 ft.above sea level. One of my Ph.D students Pabitra who is from Sikkim accompanied us. The ladscape  en route is awesome .It was a fun filled journey admiring nature, its rugedness and the research of my student. The yaks look very cute. From here we can see the Chinese border .Found it strange that though there were so many tourists and soldiers  from the Indian side there were no Chinese tourists or soldiers to be seen.Could not make out if they are not allowed or they are not interested. The air is chilly and one gets breathless due to little oxygen. It is difficult for one to stay here for long and one has to rush back to be in the warmth of the taxi.As I climbed down I could not help but salute the Indian soldiers many of them in their late twenties who are staying there in this harsh weather guarding our borders.

 Nathu La, one of the highest motorable roads in the world, is a mountain pass in the Himalayan peaks that co-joins Sikkim and China. Nathu La is one of the most important Himalayan passes in the country. Nathu means 'listening ears', and La means 'pass'. Nathu La is one of the three open trading border posts between India and China and is famous for its picturesque beauty and beautiful environment. The temperature here remains low for most parts. Located on the Old Silk Route, Nathu La Pass connects Sikkim to China’s Tibet Autonomous Region. It was sealed for almost 4 decades after the People’s Republic of China suppressed a Tibetan uprising in 1959. However, when the former Prime Minister of India, Atal Bihari Vajpayee visited China in 2003, talks to open the strategic route were resumed. The Nathu La Pass was reopened in 2006 and since then, it has served as an official Border personnel Meeting(BPM) Point.

Since it is one of the three open trading border posts between India and China, Nathu La Pass has played a key role in the Sino-Indian Trade. It has also shortened the distance between the important Buddhist and Hindu pilgrimage sites, thus strengthening the economy and improving border relations with China.