Members of the joint India-Nepal mountaineering expedition that successfully summited Kangchenjunga in May. - ADGPI/X via ST/ANN
KOLKATA: It was in May 1955 that a British mountaineering team successfully climbed Kangchenjunga, the world’s third-highest mountain at 8,586m, for the first time.
But members of this expedition did not step onto the peak of the mountain on the border of Nepal and India. They instead stopped about 1.5m short of the summit, in deference to the wishes of locals in the region, who venerate this Himalayan mountain and did not want the climbers to sully its sacred peak by stepping onto it.
More than 70 years later, locals in the small Indian state of Sikkim, which lies in the heart of the Himalayas between Nepal, Bhutan and Tibet, are fuming over a mountaineering team having done just that.
A team comprising representatives from the Indian and Nepalese armies scaled Kangchenjunga’s peak in two waves on May 19 and 20, as part of the Indian government’s Har Shikhar Tiranga (Hindi for “A Tricolour Atop Every Peak”) initiative aimed at hoisting the Indian national flag on the highest point in all 28 Indian states.
The expedition, which flagged off on March 26, was organised by the National Institute of Mountaineering and Adventure Sports (Nimas), which functions under India’s Ministry of Defence and is based in the north-eastern state of Arunachal Pradesh.
As the Indian side of the mountain remains closed to climbers, the team approached it from Nepal.
Nevertheless, the ascent to the top of Kangchenjunga has angered locals in Sikkim, particularly members of the Bhutia and Lepcha communities, most of whom are Buddhists and consider the mountain as a guardian deity who has watched over them and their land for generations.
“They have defiled the sanctity of our Kangchenjunga,” said Tseten Tashi Bhutia, the convenor of Sikkim Bhutia Lepcha Apex Committee (Siblac) – an organisation that represents the rights and interests of these two communities – and a former minister with a previous state government in Sikkim.
The controversy has ignited concerns that the centuries-old religious and cultural traditions of indigenous Buddhist communities in Sikkim, India’s second-smallest state with a population of around 632,000, were disregarded to generate patriotic fervour.
It also highlighted the power dynamics between the central government, which organised the climb, and the state government, which expressly prohibits any climb atop Kangchenjunga.
Sikkim has maintained a formal climbing ban atop Kangchenjunga since 2001, one that followed another controversy in 2000 when the state government allowed an Austrian team to attempt the near-vertical trek up the peak in exchange for US$20,000. The team failed to make it to the summit.
“Whatever has happened, has happened. Now damage control has to be done,” Bhutia told The Straits Times, stressing the need for a “purification ritual” to placate their guardian deity. He also called for an apology from the climbers as well as the central government that organised the climb and the state government that failed to stop it.
“This type of blunder should also not be repeated in the future,” he added.
Neither the climbers nor the Indian government has issued any statement following the controversy. ST approached Nimas for a comment but did not receive a response.
On June 12, Siblac issued a statement saying that the recent climb had “deeply hurt the religious and cultural sentiments” of the Bhutias and Lepchas, and formally called for an apology.
The Lepchas believe they are descendants of ancestors who were created out of the snow of the holy Kangchenjunga.
Locals in the state also celebrate their unique relationship with the mountain during Pang Lhabsol, an annual festival that commemorates the consecration of Kangchenjunga as the guardian deity of Sikkim.
Siblac will organise a Buddhist purification ritual on June 15 at the Kabi Lungchok sacred grove in North Sikkim to seek the deity’s forgiveness and “restore the spiritual harmony and sanctity of our land”.
It was at this historic forest site that the Blood Brotherhood Treaty was signed between the Lepchas and Bhutias in the 13th century, marking the beginning of Sikkim’s unified rule. Kangchenjunga was invoked as a witness to the signing of this key treaty.
Locals fear angering their guardian deity could cause natural disasters, something the state has often been afflicted with. On June 1, a landslide hit the site of an army camp in Sikkim following days of heavy rains, killing at least six individuals.
Anger following the ascent has been widespread in Sikkim. A video of Sikkimese children pleading with everyone not to climb their revered mountain has been circulating online and even Sikkim’s Chief Minister Prem Singh Tamang, who heads the state government, expressed his concern.
He wrote to India’s Minister of Home Affairs Amit Shah on May 24 describing the recent ascent as “a violation of both the prevailing legal provisions and the deeply held religious beliefs of the people of Sikkim”.
Sikkim has maintained a formal climbing ban atop not just Kangchenjunga but also eight other sacred peaks since 2001. However, ascents are made from time to time from the Nepalese side of Kangchenjunga.
But Bhutia said the expedition team, irrespective of their approach path, had violated the sacred peak.
“They have blown the law (preventing any ascent on Kangchenjunga) to smithereens,” he said.
In his letter, Tamang also urged the Indian government to convince Nepal to ensure that no further expeditions are permitted on Kangchenjunga.
The demand for such a climbing restriction is not unique. China, for instance, prevents any climbing activity on Mount Kailash in Tibet, given its deep religious significance for followers of not just Buddhism, but also Hinduism, Jainism and Bon, an indigenous religion practised in Tibet.
Even Nepal, which has otherwise embraced mountain tourism enthusiastically, bans climbing on Machhapuchhare, an iconic 6,993m mountain whose name translates to “fishtail” and which is revered by local Gurung people.
Jiwan Rai, a political commentator based in Sikkim’s capital Gangtok, said it is important to view Kangchenjunga similarly through a “time-honoured Sikkimese lens”, one that does not consider the mountain as a “trophy for adventurers” but a symbol of cultural heritage and “the pinnacle of religious identity” for a significant section of the state’s people.
“This centuries-old indigenous world view now stands desecrated for the sake of some thrill to be felt by army personnel. Isn’t that a massive cultural cost?” Rai told ST.
Furthermore, the recent ascent of Kangchenjunga is being seen as an affront to not just Sikkimese cultural and religious values, but also their political rights.
Rai added that the Sikkim state government had failed to uphold its rights by not preventing the Indian government-led climb despite its official ban on any ascent atop Kangchenjunga.
“This lapse reveals the current government’s inability to withstand pressure from the centre. The only way to disprove this perception is by firmly demanding recompense for the violation of law and redress for the cultural sacrilege,” he said.
The state is currently governed by the Sikkim Krantikari Morcha (SKM), a regional party that Chief Minister Tamang leads as its president. The SKM is part of the National Democratic Alliance government at the centre, led by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.
Siblac had opposed the ascent publicly as early as April, with a letter sent to the state’s Governor O. P. Mathur, requesting him to call off the expedition. The governor of an Indian state is appointed by the Indian president on the advice of the prime minister and serves as its constitutional head, taking decisions based on the advice of the chief minister and council of ministers.
Said Rai: “A widespread perception is emerging that India is steering towards a uniform national identity, and a state with its distinct personality like Sikkim comes in the way. If Sikkim does not make its voice heard now, it risks losing its unique identity to India’s broader and increasingly homogenised national narrative.” - The Straits Times/ANN
