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| The Mysterious "Border Stone" -looks more like a Shiva Lingham |
History of Sikkim is covered
with so many mysteries that it becomes a challenging job for a student of
History to differentiate between facts and fictions. Amid to the historical evidences
it becomes really tough for us to reach to a conclusion about certain places
due to the lack of authentic writings. Due to the lack of supportive inscriptions
many important places in the past are presently not getting much attention from
the modern Historians.
This is also a story of a forgotten
place named Torem which possibly had once occupied an important position in our
times of yore. Situated at Rhenock (a bordering town of East Sikkim that
borders with West Bengal) the place has drag attention of many individuals
because of a huge stone, which is said to have been erected by a Lepcha king of
Damsang Gadi (Damsang Fort). The natives of the place believe that the huge
stone used to be a border hedge in some unknown period. Few local youths of Aritar Arigaon are trying
to explore its historical importance and they believe that the place can be
converted into historical as well as pilgrimage tourism.
Mr. Santosh Sharma a native of
Torem, and my colleague informed me that many people have tried to deracinate
the stone from the said place but were unable to do it due its vast entombment.
Presently, the stone is three feet tall from the ground. Further, similar kinds
of stones are also available at a place called Hathichede and at Kutitar.
But, the huge stone of Kutitar was removed during the
construction of Lingsey Simana Road (Border Road). It is said
that a drilling machine took a whole day to dig up the stone. Though, the huge
stone has been removed, a mysterious footprint of a yak on the side of it is
still prevalent. The Hindus and the Buddhists natives of the said area worship
the footprint as a holy symbol.
The so called border hedge dragged
my attention because it is in the proximity of the present international
border. After a walk of two hours from Torem, we can reach to a tri-junction
i.e. the border of three different countries viz. Sikkim (India) Tibet (China)
and Bhutan. I have been hearing many stories about it since a long time. According
to a legend prevalent among the villagers of Torem, the stones were kept by the
Chinese during their march towards Sikkim. It is to be mention here that the
Chinese had never attempt to capture Sikkim in the past. While doing so, the
Chinese had to subdue the Tibetan first than only they could proceed towards
Sikkim. Further, Tibet has always regarded Sikkim as its child therefore; there
is no question of Tibetan aggression to Sikkim. Above all, Bhutan has drawn my interest
as it has played a vital role in the political upheavals of Sikkim in the
earlier times. It is to be noted here that, there used to be a frequent raids from
the Bhutanese into this part of Sikkim in the 18th century. In
addition to this, Kalimpong, presently a small town in the Darjeeling district
of West Bengal used to be a part of the Bhutanese. Likewise, the Bhutanese had
been able to capture a major portion of Sikkimese tracts during their aggression
to Sikkim in the 18th century. The history of Sikkim affirms that
with the intermediation of the 6th Dalai Lama of Tibet, the
Bhutanese had come for negotiation which ultimately led for the secession of
the lost territory of Sikkim to its ruler Chador Namgyal. After the reconciliation,
Bhutan made another invasion that led to the loss of Kalimpong and Rhenock
areas of Sikkim. The Sikkimese ruler Chador Namgyal put all his efforts to expel
the Bhutanese, but remained unsuccessful.
From the above evidences it seems
that, to confirm their sway over these tracts of Sikkim, the Bhutanese had erected
such stone hedges. But, due to its ambiguous history one cannot determine that
the said stones were indisputably kept by the Bhutanese. In the lack of
calligraphic substantiations the whole version of the “Border Stones” is thus encircled
by the myths, legends and tales which do not bear any credibility in
Historiography.
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| The place is now converted into a religious site |
The striking feature of the stone
lying at Torem is that is it not rudimentary in nature. It is a polished stone
which resembles Shiva Lingham (Phallus) of the Hindus. In the earlier days,
local of Rhenock used to carry Dabai Pani (medicinal water) to
sprinkle holy water to the “Border Stone” as most of them still believe it to
be a sacred one. The Dabai Pani (Medicinal Water)
originates at the slither area situated nearby to the mysterious stone. Presently, the so called border
hedge has been converted into a religious place which is being looked after by
a Sadhu
Rai of Torem and is also the head priest of the site.
The concept of keeping stone
pillars has its own history in India. Even Emperor Ashoka had erected many rock
pillars throughout his domain. The rock edicts of Ashoka have been incised with
the morals of Dhamma and are written in Brahmi and Kharosthi scripts. But,
the “Border Stone” of Rhenock does not bear any such incises. Therefore, due to the paucity of calligraphic
sources on this “Border Stone”, the responsible person or kingdom for its
erection will always remain enclosed with myths and legends.
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