The local story
A monastery, a retreat and a poisoned pond
Long before Sikkim had kings, these slopes belonged to Lepcha and Limboo families who cleared small fields in the forest and hunted along the ridges. After 1642, when Phuntsog Namgyal was consecrated the first Chogyal at Yuksom, the west of Sikkim became the heart of the new Buddhist kingdom, and monasteries rose on hilltops from Dubdi to Pemayangtse. Rinchenpong's own gompa followed in 1730. Its treasure is a statue of Adi Buddha, Kuntuzangpo, shown in yab-yum, the union of male and female, an image rarely displayed in Sikkim. Rinchen is the Tibetan word for precious.
The village also sits in the record of Sikkim's quarrel with British India. In 1849 Archibald Campbell, the superintendent of Darjeeling, and the botanist Joseph Hooker were seized and held by officials of the Sikkim court, and the British annexed the Sikkim Terai the next year. In late 1860 Campbell crossed into Sikkim with a small force and got as far as Rinchenpong before he was attacked and pushed back towards Darjeeling. A larger expedition in early 1861, with the envoy Ashley Eden, marched on the capital at Tumlong, and the Treaty of Tumlong that year opened Sikkim to British trade and roads.
Here history gives way to folklore. The local story is that during the campaign Lepcha fighters poisoned a pond on the ridge, and British soldiers who drank from it fell sick and had to fall back. People still point out the spot, called Bishey Pokhari, the poison lake. No British account we know of confirms the poisoning, so treat it as a village tale told with pride. Locally it is also said that Rabindranath Tagore once stayed at Rinchenpong, and a small park carries the name Rabindra Smriti Van. We have found no firm record of that visit either.
