Pelling

Pelling, 25-02-1994. Making a hike way above Gangtok in misty and magnificent scenery I ran into Anne and Sandra who where on the way to Pemayangse Monastery inviting me to come along. This monatery is the oldest in Sikim and we arrived just in time to witness Puja-the religious gonig on-Two rows of monks seated and facing each other chanting, beating a drum and blowin away at big steel trumpets with a haed monk seated at the top of the row on a slight elevation, around these monk i see idols of local deities and -presumably- a statue of Buddha. In another room we see a replica which took one monk five full years to built and what they call the perfect heaven. The monks in Sikim are dressed in bright red to deep red robes and wear only wooden sandals on their bare feet, i try not to think of the biting cold in this place.