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Posted by Susan Sharma on May 06, 2020

Lachung

The coldest and most beautiful place we visited in Sikkim had to be Lachung.

Lachung is a mountain town in northeast Sikkim, at an elevation of about 9,600 feet (2,900 m). Lachung lies at the confluence of the Lachen and Lachung Rivers, both tributaries of the River Teesta. The word Lachung means "small pass". The town is approximately 125 kilometres from the capital Gangtok.

Tourists come from all over the world to visit the town between October and May, mostly on their way to the Yumthang Valley and the Lachung Monastery. Most of Lachung's inhabitants are of Lepcha and Tibetan descent.

Later I recorded a video on Usha Lachungpa, who served in the Sikkim Forest Department for many years. Her take on the forests and wildlife of Sikkim, throgh the medium of a casual conversation with my husband gives us a rounded perspective of Sikkim as a State.

Mountain town of Lachung in Sikkim and a visit to the Lachungpas in Gangtok

https://youtu.be/M5geErXGmx4

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Shashi Kant Sharma says

May 06, 2020 at 04:32 PM

Lachung town revealed itself to us in only a very small slice on the evening we arrived (when we spent sometime on the riverside and experienced nature at its unspoiled best), in the small eatries that the locals kept going, in the hope that the tourist season will set in soon and bring large numbers. We could see optimism in their eyes dancing in the dim light of candles and small lamps and toothless smiles that the tourist season will set in soon. And then the next morning, which dawned with the dawn of a New Year when we woke up to see new prayer flags having been strung all around. These made up the illusion of a Rainbow.......Their enthusiasm in bursting crackers is the only one that seems alien to those mystic surroundings.
Meeting the Lachungpas was a major highlight of our trip to Sikkim. The entire family of Usha was so wrapped in the blanket of love they had for one another, the attachment they had with their surroundings and ownership that they experienced for every single bush around their house, added to the welcome and warmth we experienced when we entered their abode.
Each one of them came out to be a natural story teller(in my experience all people who surrender to Nature and its elements are natural story weavers).
Every single stone, door frame, window, bush in the garden and also each stake in the hedge had a story.
And the Lachngupas honoured us in sharing with us their family moments of togetherness which was reflected in those stories.
We came away feeling we had known for a lifetime. Thanks Usha and family. That was our experience of Bliss