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.
