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Travelogues | Share This Page | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sillery Gaon |
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by Indrajit Bandyopadhyay |
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I and my friend Arnab decided to spend three days in the lap of Himalayan nature free from urban commotion. As such, we set out by Howrah-Dubrugarh express on 14th November, 2012 (day after Diwali). As we neared New Jalpaiguri the next morning, the Kanchendzonga peak was clearly visible from the train and that freshened our spirit.
As we reached Sillery after that tremendous car-ride, Dilip Tamang welcomed us with a grinning Namaste. We had to ascend some boulder-steps to reach Mr. Tamang’s Nirmala Resort, a beautifully decorated Home-Stay in posh green colors.
The sky was clear still though it was 2 pm, a rarity in Himalayan tourist ‘seasons’ but not in this time of the year. Soon we got busy with our cameras.
There is another part of the festival. Young villagers in groups visit houses singing/chanting the name of God, and the owner of the house then serve them fruits and some money. There is a similar festival in rural Bengal known as “Ghentu-Puuja.” We returned to Nirmala Resort in the evening after watching a spectacular sun-set from the forest just below a school at the bottom of the village. Dilip Tamang made the happy announcement of serving us chicken curry in dinner.
“Sillery” derives its name from a plant that grows in abundance in the region. This area is also well-known for its Cinchona Plantation that the British introduced in this region as a source of Quinine for treatment of Malaria.
The location of the village is also very interesting. If one stands facing north, beneath the sloping village is Rishi river - the other side of which is Sikkim. To the left is Nepal, and beyond the Skim mountains is Tibet. Gangtok can be seen in front as also the international airport under construction. What a view it would be from this village when flights land there! One has to wait a little more for that. The airport project is scheduled to be completed in 2015.
The other place of interest from Sillery is Damsang Fort built in 1690. It was the last home of the Lepcha King- Gyabo Achuk. The Lepchas lost the fort to the Bhutanese and then it finally passed to the British after the Anglo-Bhutan War of 1864.
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29-Nov-2012 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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