The Spirit of Yuksom

Day 54 and 55.

We walked up the mountain by 800 ft through the most beautiful of sacred forests upto Dubdi Monastery, the oldest monastery in Sikkim, and from where 300 years ago Buddhism began to spread into the region. The first Sikkimese King dynasty was founded here and blessed by three of the earliest Lamas ( Yuksom literally means three lamas) in the mid-17th century. This was my second visit to this deeply serene and spiritually charged monastery in a year. Ashim too was deeply moved and impacted. We met the head monk and teacher who also runs a school for monks in Yuksom down below.

After spending time here the monastery dog and I had a good nap in the shady grass.

We spent another day walking around Yuksom, past fields and the village, our walk culminating at the Coronoation stone and stupa of Norbugang. It was built in 1642 at the crowning of the first ‘ Chogyal’ of Sikkim.