The story of West & South Sikkim
Three lamas, a stone throne and two lost capitals
In 1642 three Tibetan lamas met in the forest at Yuksom: Lhatsun Chempo, Kathok Kuntu Zangpo and Ngadak Sempa Chempo. They had come over the mountains by different routes, and the local story says they were looking for a fourth man, from the east, to rule the hidden land that Guru Rinpoche had blessed centuries before. They found Phuntsog Namgyal and consecrated him as the first Chogyal of Sikkim at Norbugang. The stone throne, a chorten and an old pine still stand there, a short walk from Yuksom bazaar.
The kingdom's first monasteries grew around that moment. Tashiding was founded in 1641 by Ngadak Sempa Chempo and enlarged in 1717. Dubdi, above Yuksom, was built in 1701. Pemayangtse, founded around 1705 by Lhatsun Chempo's line, became the leading Nyingma monastery, whose head lama anointed the Chogyals. In 1670 the second Chogyal, Tensung Namgyal, moved the capital to Rabdentse, on a ridge below Pelling. It held until Nepalese invasions in the late 18th century, and in 1814 the court moved to Tumlong in the north.
Long before the lamas, this was Lepcha country, and the Limboos farmed its western valleys. Lepcha tradition tells of Tendong Hill above Namchi rising to save their ancestors from a flood, and Sikkimese of every community honour Kanchenjunga as the land's guardian at Pang Lhabsol. Today the same hills grow large cardamom, oranges and Temi's tea, and the Kanchenjunga range is still the first thing people look at each morning.
