Way back about 100 million years ago, what would one day become India slammed rudely into China, grinding the land thousands of meters heavenward. The Himalayas were born.
Along with Mount Everest, several of the world's tallest peaks make their home there, including Kanchenjunga, at 8,598 meters (28,208 feet) the third highest. Nestled in a ridge between Nepal and Sikkim, it is considered the region's guardian deity, so sacred that even now, out of respect, mountaineers stop a few meters short of the summit.
Tiny Sikkim, formerly an independent monarchy and now a state of India, enjoys a culture and history as rich and varied as its terrain. Sheer mountain faces border it on three sides, and barren snow-capped crests teeter over lush subtropical valleys.
With Nepal to its west, Sikkim is bordered by Tibet to the north, Bhutan to the east and Indian West Bengal to the south, each of which has at one point or another acted as overseer of Sikkim's territory, either formally or not.
Sikkim's amalgamation of cultures is apparent in the languages spoken: People shift easily from Sikkimese to Tibetan to Nepali in one conversation, often with a smattering of Hindi and English.
In town markets, Nepalese children sell spices in the colors of the sunset to Bengalis on holiday, Tibetan refugees and Lepcha natives. Above them thick mountain mists create ever-changing vistas. The snowbound massifs play a constant game of hide-and-seek, as if testing one's belief that they're there. - The Last King Hope Cooke married the last king of Sikkim in 1963. The 20-year-old New Yorker's marriage to Palden Thondup Namgyal, a widower with three children, made headlines and crossed cultures, like a Grace Kelly lured farther east. Their youngest child is Hope Leezum Namgyal Tobden, now 30. Born in Sikkim and educated in the United States, she is known as ''Semla'' (Daughter of Our Country) in her home country.
Along with Mount Everest, several of the world's tallest peaks make their home there, including Kanchenjunga, at 8,598 meters (28,208 feet) the third highest. Nestled in a ridge between Nepal and Sikkim, it is considered the region's guardian deity, so sacred that even now, out of respect, mountaineers stop a few meters short of the summit.
Tiny Sikkim, formerly an independent monarchy and now a state of India, enjoys a culture and history as rich and varied as its terrain. Sheer mountain faces border it on three sides, and barren snow-capped crests teeter over lush subtropical valleys.
With Nepal to its west, Sikkim is bordered by Tibet to the north, Bhutan to the east and Indian West Bengal to the south, each of which has at one point or another acted as overseer of Sikkim's territory, either formally or not.
Sikkim's amalgamation of cultures is apparent in the languages spoken: People shift easily from Sikkimese to Tibetan to Nepali in one conversation, often with a smattering of Hindi and English.
In town markets, Nepalese children sell spices in the colors of the sunset to Bengalis on holiday, Tibetan refugees and Lepcha natives. Above them thick mountain mists create ever-changing vistas. The snowbound massifs play a constant game of hide-and-seek, as if testing one's belief that they're there. - The Last King Hope Cooke married the last king of Sikkim in 1963. The 20-year-old New Yorker's marriage to Palden Thondup Namgyal, a widower with three children, made headlines and crossed cultures, like a Grace Kelly lured farther east. Their youngest child is Hope Leezum Namgyal Tobden, now 30. Born in Sikkim and educated in the United States, she is known as ''Semla'' (Daughter of Our Country) in her home country.
''If I had my druthers, I'd close the borders. Sikkim is changing so fast. All of this — they wanted to put in a highway,'' she said, her hand gesturing toward a narrow, rhododendron-crowned trail used centuries ago by traders and yak herders in West Sikkim. She sadly charted the changes Sikkim has undergone, from the loss of traditional courting customs (men live as virtual indentured servants with their wife-to-be's family for up to five years) to the increasing urbanization of Gangtok, the capital (its population increased to 75,000 in 2007 from just 14,000 in 1975).
Semla heads TrekSikkim, a trekking company in Gangtok that also has an office in New York. Overseeing a network of experienced local guides and porters, Semla organizes three- to five-day tours, mostly in West Sikkim.
The Sikkimese believe that the five holy treasures: precious stones, salt, sacred scriptures, medicine and cereals are to be found on the foot of the Kanchenjunga. It took 30 years to persuade the Chogyal of Sikkim to let a British expedition to climb the north-peak of the third highest mountain in the world in 1955. The British climbers stopped short of the summit because they had an agreement with the Sikkimese King not to tread the holy summit. The local porters made offerings to the deities. Similar ritual offerings are performed in Nepal and Bhutan, although the religious beliefs of these people were not always respected. The deeply religious Buddhists and Hindus of the Himalayan regions feel that the traditions and religious sentiments have been trampled upon by the foreigners, as well as the local authorities who issue climbing-rights to the alpine clubs. The influence and importance of money has reached new heights in the Himalayas.
The hike toward the base of Kanchenjunga begins at Yoksum (1,769 meters), where the first king of Sikkim was crowned; it moves up to Tsoka, a tiny hamlet of Tibetans' and trekkers' huts (2,745 meters), and on through to Dzongri (4,023 meters). The morning of the third day, trekkers wake at 4 A.M. to climb up to Dablakhang (4,298 meters) and view the sunrise reflected on Kanchenjunga. Altitude makes the 30-minute hike through knots of juniper bushes feel like a day's work, but it's worth it: Stunning mountain ridges awash in sun and shadow are visible in every direction. trekking and relaxing The trekking is long (an average of six hours daily) and rigorous, but the pace is flexible and trekkers don't need to carry a thing. The dzos (half yak, half cow) do the heavy lifting, while the porters and guides pick up the slack. They meet every need, from serving tea every morning to trekkers in their sleeping bags, to setting up tents, to playing a pickup game of softball on a shorter day. On the trek the views are so breathtaking that it's no wonder the local reverence for nature has become imbued with a religious awe.
Kanchenjunga means ''the five treasures of the eternal snow,'' with the massif's peaks symbolically containing the five elements for the protection of Sikkim: gold, silver, gems, grains and holy books. To preserve its sanctity, no meat is cooked while trekking there; the only smoke to permeate the air comes from incense. Blessings are sent up to the gods through lungta'n (prayer flags), literally ''wind horses,'' so that the flags are like winged prayers. Colored flags are attached to poles horizontally, vertically, singly, in rows or layered on top of one another in almost every scenic mountain spot. Left to fade, the tattered pieces of fabric soon become translucent, like the misty air itself.
Gangtok is home to the Research Institute of Tibetology, the largest repository of rare manuscripts, statuary and thangkas (scroll-like tapestries) related to Tibetan Buddhism outside of Tibet. The Sikkimese practice a variation of Mahayana Buddhism called the Vajrayana school. Essentially, this means a Buddhism with Tantric flourishes, such as deities who are female and who can embody both benevolence and aggression. More than 100 monasteries called gompa (solitary place) dot Sikkim, among the most famous of which are Rumtek, near Gangtok, an exact copy of a gompa in Tibet, and Pemayangtse, on a hill near where Semla now lives with her Sikkimese husband. - AWASH in primary colors, the cheerful-looking monasteries would appear equally at home in Mexico.
On the third floor is one monk's vision of Buddhist totality, encased in glass and standing some four meters high, and carved from a single tree trunk. The monk died before it could be completed and another carried on his life's work. Tiny skulls mingle with all manner of deities in the finely detailed piece, expressing the message that death need not be feared. Everywhere at the gompas one sees the prayer ''O mani padme hom (O jewel of the lotus)'' carved into stone tablets and painted on large prayer wheels lining the perimeter. A spin of each prayer wheel on exiting (at Rumtek they are painted over mustard-oil cans) equals one utterance of the prayer, again relying on the wind to carry it. Mantras derive their strength in part from their sounds, rather than from their actual meaning. But the deceptively simple mani mantra can be interpreted to mean: ''May we all achieve our jewel-like, lotus nature — the Buddhahood.'' Sikkim's trekking season runs from late March to early June and mid-September to December.
Indian visas as well as travel permits (the latter obtainable in Sikkim) are required.
(Yishane Lee -International Herald Tribune)
