Tashiding

We arrived in Tashiding early afternoon and were captured by this little tiny village. It is one of the nicest places we have been so far....nothing much happening, friendly people and beautiful surroundings. Our guest house was great too....we only paid Rs100 for a comfortable double room and we could also avail ourselves of a sitting area....the food was cheap and good. That evening we made a very interesting encounter. An Indian guy checked in the guesthouse and we were intrigued by an animal horn he was carrying... so we had to ask him where he had got that from... it turned out that this was not the most interesting thing about this guy. He explained to us that he got that from a dead deer he found when he was trekking and then told us that he was a famuos musician. This was backed up by a portfolio of newspapers cutting featuring him playing in different places around Sikkim and West Bengal and much more, when we had our own private performance. He had a number of musical instruments, ranging from a bamboo guitar he had built himself to a nose flute to other small instruments he could play with his mouth... including a leaf. We spent the night with him playing cards. He was so excited we were spending time with him that he offered us two beers and everytime his phone was rang he was putting Sophia through, given that she can speak Nepali.This made our first night in Tashiding extremely pleasant... we had now to go and visit the much mentioned monastery. Standing in its majestic isolation on the top of a conical hill, with paintings equaling those of the Paimionchi, the monastery is in the heart of Sikkim. Tashiding is the holiest of holy hills in Sikkim and belongs to Nyingma-pa Sect. Tashiding is an important place for pilgrimage to the Buddhist because according to ancient beliefs, pilgrims are cleansed of all their sins if they only contemplate the great sacred chorten of Tashiding (Thongwa -Rangdot). It nestles on the top of a hill that looms up between Rathong and Ranjeet rivers. It is surrounded by a profusion of prayer flags that flutter in the air. There are so many chortens dedicated to Chogyals and some of the religious personalities of Sikkim. Carved skillfully on stone plates surrounding the monastery is 'Om Mane Padme Hum' by the master craftsman -Yanchong Lodil. The monastery was built in 1717 by Ngadak Sempa Chempo during the reign of the third Chogyal Chakdor Namgyal. The sacred ceremony of Bumchu is performed here at midnight of the 14th and 15th of the first Tibetan month. The experience at this monastery was terrific. After the long walk uphill we made ourselves comfortable on the steps of the temple, watching the monks having lunch. There was also a considerable number of locals....but no tourists. As soon as the monks were served they asked us to help oursleves from the food. We did not fill our plates as we were not that sure how the food tasted...but everything was delicious. It was our first meal at a monastery and it tasted really nice. Apparently, from what some locals told us, we were very lucky to have visited the monastery on that day as this kind of celebration happened only once a year.... After our visit to the monastery we headed back towards town... taking a different road by mistake but still making it back in time to the guesthouse before the rain starting pouring. We spent our last evening in Tashiding relaxing and playing cards. On the morrow we were to be off to Ravangla and Borong hotsprings.