When we went to Sikkim, we didn’t really have a plan in mind concerning ‘things to do’. We had to use up our semester-end break, so thought of going someplace far off. Sikkim was a good choice as one of our group members had to ‘mandatorily’ visit his home in Calcutta for at least a few days. So, on an early morning outing in the bazaar of Gangtok, we had a thorough look at trekking agencies on the offering. Chose one with the best looks from outside (all of us were graphic designers in the making). Hopped in. Were told of possibilities with 7 days we had at our disposal. First of them was a trek, Yuksom to Dzongri, a 4 day deal (part of the main trek route that goes up to Goecha La). It was one of the most sought after trek routes in Indian Himalayas for the fine views of Khangchendzonga it offered. Also we would get to traverse through the pretty villages of west Sikkim on our way to Yuksom. How could we resist the multitudinous benefits, the photographers in us would say?
We didn’t really think of Yuksom as anything more than a ‘starting-point’ of a trek. And considered it to be true even upon our arrival. As our jeep entered a relatively open area after hours of winding, climbing, empty road, all that we could see were a couple of hotels and 3-4 restaurants, kind of shacks. It was almost dark and bodies were too lazy to venture out on walks.
It was only the next day that we could marvel at our beautiful surroundings. Neatly spread out houses, within an area of a square kilometre, a small murky lake and a temple gave the whole area an impression of being some sort of a ‘model’ village. Our guide offered an explanation; Yuksom lacks a direct view of Khangchendzonga or for that matter any mountain range and so this place hasn’t seen much ‘development’. All that you could see around you would be land rising to a couple of thousand feet with thickly forested slopes of Rhododendron and oak. And that’s where in lay the beauty of this place. It seemed disconnected from the outside world and yet one could feel the presence of colossal Khangchendzonga just behind one of those hills.
Yuksom (1780 mts.) literally means meeting place of 3 lamas, the lamas who crowned the first chogyal of Sikkim here in 1641. It’s now called Norbugang Park. And so Yuksom is supposed to be the first capital of Sikkim. The Norbugang Chorten still has the evidence of the consecration ceremony in the form of stone seats and a footprint of the head lama on a stone.
We had to leave early, for we had a long day’s walk to reach our first camp at Tsokha village (3050 mts.) and so couldn’t really venture out into other attractions of the place. On the top of the agenda should be a visit to Dubdi monastery (45 minute’s trek). Established in 1701, Dubdi gompa is touted as Sikkim’s oldest monastery. Then an additional whole day could be spent relaxing at the beautiful Phamrong waterfall, which is roughly 8 kms from Yuksom.
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