Tingvong Village, Upper Dzongu

This is my second trip to Sikkim. The first time I stayed in a village called Kewsing in South West Sikkim. Kewsing was a Bhutia village. I prefer to stay in a homestay in my travel. I like the concept of a part of the home being allocated to the guest. Women, children and old people are milling around. It is not as commercial and impersonal as a hotel. Needless to add, the presence of women and children imparts a sense of safety.  

My last visit to Sikkim was in the 3rd week of May, 2011. By then it had already started raining. The monsoon sets in early May in the mountains. It was wet and foggy. May is also known for leeches. Because of the fog, the birds were silent and the mountains were not visible. For a clear view of the mountains, I was told that I should visit in December/January when the sun shines brightly and the skies are clear. 

Hence my current trip in January, 2013. This time I found a homestay in Tingvong village, Upper Dzongu, North Sikkim district, among the Lepcha community. I reached Siliguri on 7th afternoon. If one books in advance, the round trip to Siliguri is quite affordable. I got a ticket for less than 10,000 rupees. Since the sun sets early in winter I decided to start the journey into the mountains the next day. My friends in Siliguri were generous enough to provide me transport until Mangan. Otherwise I would have traveled in a shared jeep, the only public transport in Sikkim, driven expertly by young adults. The only problem with the shared jeep being that its timings are not always convenient for our plans. 

Siliguri is the nerve centre for trade and transit into the five north eastern states, Bhutan, and Sikkim. It is surrounded by tea gardens. Goods from the borders arrive into Siliguri. My favourite pass time in Siliguri is to saunter around Bidwan market. Stylish clothes, woolens, socks, umbrellas, porcelain and if one is lucky a bolt of Chinese silk can be found in this market. And they are so affordable. Eating hot eggs and toast and sipping tea in  tiny  cafes in this market is yet another pleasure. 

The next day, I was lucky to reach Mangan by 2 in the afternoon which is 158 kms from Siliguri and takes about 5 hours. The road from Siliguri leading into Sikkim is undergoing extensive road widening and repair work. Traffic jams are common on this road due to continuous heavy truck traffic. I was told that all essential commodities for the entire region of Sikkim is transported from Siliguri. It was strange to see loaded trucks moving from Siliguri while empty trucks returned from Gangtok and other towns of Sikkim. When I enquired I was told "what can the hill people send to the plains"? All commodities cost that much more in Sikkim due to this travel component. 

I reached Mangan via Singtam. The road from Singtam to Mangan has very little traffic but the road is bumpy and uneven due to landslides. The rocks in this region when they disintegrate release a white fine soil, which makes it extremely dusty in the dry winter. My sinusy nose collapsed at the sight of the white dust on the roads, on the trees. It was everywhere. I almost stopped breathing and prayed fervently that I should not fall sick.

Mangan was cold, grey and extremely dusty. I informed my host Dupden Lepcha that I was waiting before the State Bank of India, Mangan  Within a few minutes a bright school girl and a stylishly dressed woman came for me and said that they were Dupden's daughters. The stylish woman (wearing a beautiful red coat and smartly cut hair) was a teacher in a government school in Mangan. I felt considerably warmer in their presence. After eating Chowmein in Mangan, we set out to Dzongu by a taxi. There, I was received by Dupden Lepcha.  

Dupden is a handsome man. He is tall, thin, wears a leather jacket,cowboy hat and an energetic pride, and rides an open top jeep.The ride to Tingvong village in the late afternoon light was quite an event with steep mountains on one side, gorges on the other and just a semblance of a road. At one point two gorges were connected by a bridge built with ropes and iron plates. There was a rattling sound when the jeep went on the bridge. And, of course, Dupden drives the jeep like a kinetic honda. 

We reached Tingvong village by about 4pm. There was a drizzle. The mountains were covered in fog and hardly visible. 

Casually, Dupden said that this is unusual weather for the month of January and that it may not clear for the next couple of days! He was an honest man and did not believe in misleading me. It was grey and bitterly cold. My fingers turned icy. Dupden advised me in all seriousness that layered clothing and sweaters was not enough. It should be supplemented by a good amount of whisky and that it is only such a combination that will keep one warm. So, like a good girl, I drank home made cinnamon arrack, warm fermented ragi beer and Sikkim distillery whisky to keep myself warm! Dupden's wife Choden fed me hot food and suggested that I sleep with a hot water bag under my blanket. Indeed, this was a new pleasure that I discovered. 

Since it was grey and threatening to rain, I walked around Tingvong village which has 45 houses and a population of about 450 people. It has a Secondary primary school, primary health care centre with a compounder, a ration shop and an ICDS centre. It is the home for Lepcha people who are Scheduled Tribes. One needs a permit to enter these areas. It is a Reserved area of the Lepchas. Of late, the   Sikkim government has designated the Lepcha community as a Primitive Tribal Group. 

In earlier times, the Sikkimese built their houses with wood. But now, due to escalating costs of wood, there are only cement houses. The wooden houses are warmer compared to the cement houses. Yet the old style is  maintained.

The Lepchas maintain their houses beautifully. Windows are adorned with white lace curtains. Despite the abundance of nature, they have potted plants and some even grow orchids on the ledges attached to the walls. 

I walked around to the neighboring villages. The roads are always so beautiful in the hills.

One can also take the short cut which is steep, cut into the mountain and makes you pant for breath.

Incidentally, these short cuts are now being repaired and built much more substantially under the NREGA, what the locals call as "job card" employment.

Some villages can be reached only through forest paths. Along these paths, my guide Pema would stop at a nearby house and we would rest briefly. I would then have the luxury of a fireplace, tea and conversations.   

Tingvong village has a government secondary school. The older people of Tingvong studied in this school. However, the current generation sends their children to expensive private schools in Mangan and Gangtok. It is said that the local government school does not teach their children English nor does it instill confidence into them. 

Some of the articulate Lepcha men are also critical about the curriculum. They are angry that the history taught in their schools has no reference to the unique history of Sikkim. In wry humor they point out about how they celebrate the Indian Independence day by organizing football tournaments and cultural programmes!

Among the educated there seems to be intense competition between the Bhutias and the Lepchas who are both Scheduled Tribes. Of late, the Sherpas from the Nepali community are also included in the Scheduled Tribes. It is felt that the Lepchas despite being the original inhabitants of Sikkim have been left out of the overall development of the State. That they continue to be backward and are not adequately represented in the bureaucracy or in other spheres of employment. 

The man below is Loden Tshering, the first Lepcha MLA of the Sikkim National Congress. He is now 82 years old. He was instrumental in getting the government to build roads in North Sikkim. He feels that Indian democracy has been good for Sikkim, that in particular, it pulled the Lepcha community out of utter poverty. 

He explained to me the intimate ties that Sikkim always had with Tibet. The Bhutias came from Tibet and introduced Buddhism in Sikkim. Until then the Lepchas were Animists and worshiped the mountain Kanchenjunga, the rivers Teesta and Rangeet. Even today the Lepchas combine Buddhism and their earlier forms of worship. 

1975 was a crucial year for Sikkim in more ways than one. Apart from the violent annexation of Sikkim to India, this was the year in which the 2nd land survey took place. Boundaries were fixed for all kinds of land usages. Prior to that the Lepchas were used to jhum cultivation and thereby moved from one patch of land to another depending upon its fertility. The land survey put an end to such mobility. 

Many of the Lepchas own considerable extents of land. Some of them own as much as 100 acres or even more. But they are quick to point out that the output from cultivation of these lands is equivalent to about two acres of lands in the plains.  

Like in our Agency areas, this region is governed by the Vth Schedule of the Constitution. Only the Lepchas can own land here. Even if they sell, they can do so only to fellow Lepchas. Except what they gain from agriculture, the land does not allow for any liquidity. It is said that the only way to earn extra money out of this land is to mortgage it to the Bank. 

They grow rice, potatos and vegetables such as squash, avocados, ginger, cabbage, peas, cauliflower and certain local leaves that I cannot readily identify. Cardamom is a major cash crop in this region but often attacked by pests. I was told that they grow enough food for their own use and the rest they buy from the ration shop. They feel that their agriculture is hardly remunerative both due to the hilly terrain and the use of organic manure. Sikkim has banned the use of fertilisers and pesticides in agriculture. I am not sure how rigidly this is deployed but it is definitely the official position. 

In winter there are not too many vegetables. My staple diet was a combination of potatos and a slightly bitter spinach. They have a rich vegetarian menu which includes tender bamboo shoots, fern shoots, wild mushrooms and several other plants from the jungle. However, January was not the season for any of this. 

I saw my first land slide. It was a long trail of white rock. It seems there was a deafening sound at about 2am in the morning near the village of Kursong. When they rushed out the mountain behind them was heaving and rolling out.  While some say that heavy rains caused the landslide, others attribute it to the massive tunneling of the mountains as part of the 1200 mega watt hydro power project being constructed on the Teesta river. 

Actually on my way to Mangan, I could hardly see the Teesta river. There is construction activity across the length of the river.  

I heard that 300 dams are being proposed on the rivers in these parts. A brief internet search told me that our Jagan Mohan Reddy is behind some of the proposals for the construction of these dams. 

Because of being at Dupden's home, I was invited to the funeral function of Dr Norbu Tshering Lepcha, the elder cousin brother of Dupden. He had worked as the Joint Director of Animal Husbandry in Mangan, one of the few Lepchas to have attained a powerful position. Lamas and Laminis from the nearby monastery offered prayers to enable his soul to depart peacefully. 

Below are some of the pictures from the function. 

  

Unlike the men, very few women could speak Hindi. Hence my conversations with them were quite limited. Also they were working all the time. From tending to fields to keeping the home and feeding chickens, pigs, cows and children, they gave me an impression that they had no time to feel disgruntled.   

During the function, both men and women were served beer and whisky. The older women drank beer before and after eating food!

The Lepcha men and women marry more than once. The official position of monogamy becomes a hurdle at the time of drawing pension from the government. So, there are cases where a woman has two husbands who are both dead. The question posed to me was if she can draw both the pensions... 

Below are two sisters. While the first one is a teacher in the local school, the younger one is the Vice President of the Gram Panchayat. They are both warming themselves at the fireplace. This is an old house with a large fireplace. With the new cement houses, even the fireplaces are getting smaller. 

Strangely, their kitchens only have aluminium, porcelain and plastic vessels. There are no steel vessels. 

All the three days, I walked around and spoke to lots of people. It was grey most of the time. The birds were absent as there was no sun. The village was silent except for the sounds of the chickens. There was no bird song. But, when the sun shone briefly, one could see the birds. 

On the day I was leaving the sun shone brightly. In the morning at about 5.30, I saw something white glitter in the mountains. 

Gradually it began to turn golden. It was a sight to behold. And then finally, I saw the entire range of snow capped mountains. 

I am the type to return to the same place. It is like returning to a a friend's home. Perhaps, next time, I will come here with Sarath and the child. Considering the long journey to reach the place, it is better if one plans to stay for a minimum of ten days. I am now told that the months of April and the beginning of May are beautiful in the mountains. It is the "season" and the time for flowers and birds. Maybe, next time, I will trek to the nearby Tholung monastery. It is a two day trek. These mountains are full of sacred lakes and monasteries. What the Lepchas consider as pilgrimages are now shared with the tourist as trekking destinations.