BPD: Pelling's wish-fulfilling lake!

(BPD: Pelling's wish-fulfilling lake!, 22 Apr 15)

Pelling is just about 14 km from Darap and is a 20 minutes drive up the hill, which makes it easy to access the places of interest in and around Pelling, while staying in the tribal village. I was chiefly interested in 3 places of historic and/or religious importance - Khecheopalri or the 'wish-fulfilling' lake, Rabdentse palace ruins of the first capital of Sikkim and the 500-year old Tashiding monastery.

The scenic, Kanchenjunga waterfalls

I had tagged along with a group of Bengali tourists who had planned a local sight-seeing tour of the city. On a 'touristy' mode, we were driven around a list of places including the road-side Rimbi waterfalls, majestic Kanchenjunga waterfall and Singshore bridge, the second highest hanging-gorge bridge in Asia.

A suspension bridge at Rimbi	Selfie stick in action, at the waterfalls!

View of the river deep below, through holes in the foot of Singshore bridge!

Due to paucity of time, we couldn't visit the Rabdentse palace ruins. I enjoyed the visit to the Tashiding monastery that is a revered Buddhist place of worship, considering it was founded by one of the three wise men who unified the Sikkim Kingdom and identified its first King. During the evening time when we had visited, the daily prayer ritual was on and it was a fascinating one for the eyes and ears at first sight. Hundreds of young (and very young) monks were seated in rows, each with a small scrip of manuscripts neatly laid out on the desk in front of them. There were a line of monks with the 'dungchen', or Tibetan horn and another row of monks, each with a drum and gong. Facing all the monks, at the head of the table were 5 'senior' monks on a slightly elevated platform and leading in the prayer. As the monks at the head of the table chanted, all other monks followed suit, to a culmination with the high-frequency sound of the gong and beat of the drums. Apart from the sight, the sound of the chants was mesmerizing and I tried to capture a 2-minute audio grab of the same, posted here. We stayed back in the monastery, seated for over 45 minutes, lost in the beauty of the ritual.

The Khecheopalri or wish-fulfilling lake, is in the shape of a foot when viewed aerially from atop the hill nearby. The local folkore goes that no leaves are allowed to float on the lake and anytime a leaf (from the thousands of trees in the forest around) falls in, they are dutifully picked by the birds and taken away! The lake waters looked clean and clear when we visited as well. The lake had a teeming fish population that was hungrily feeding on the snacks thrown in by the tourists, an act which was forbidden for the tourists! Getting the blessings from a Nepali pujari who stood worshipping the lake, I paid a visit to the ancient-looking monastery adjoining the lake.

A Buddhist lucky sign	Nepali pujari at the lake

Colourful prayer flags	The Khecheopalri lake

Abundant fish life in the lake	Back at the home-stay, writing..

With the drive around Pelling done by the evening, I got back to the village home and spent the rest of the evening writing and interacting with the locals.