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Another monastery
Now we start along another road from the center towards
the Pemayangste monastery. The road is very beautiful except for the
obnoxious fume from the occasional vehicles. Kanchanjunga peeps
at you through the tall trees guarding the meandering road.
Warm sunshine trickles down softly through the leaves.
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| On our way to the P monastery |
At one point the road bifurcates. The right branch goes into a
forest and eventually leads to the ruins of a palace, situated in
what was the second capital of Sikkim. We did not take that
route, and it turned out to be good decision, as a bear had
injured a few of the locals recently in that forest.
The other route winded upwards at a very gentle slope overlooking
a rather
large dirty-looking pond.
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| The pond |
This monastery was a bit larger, though even less serene, than
the Sangacholing monastery. A driver
repairing his car in the yard is not exactly the picture that
goes with the traditional view of Buddhism! And the young monk
who was guarding the gateway (and also collecting the entry fee
of Rs 20 from any visitor) was busy reading some
pamphlet with the air of cramming important points
before an exam. Another monk near him was busy reading a cheap
pamphlet of General Knowledge.
The monastery is on a knoll behind which is a dense forest. We
walked around the monastery along the verge of the knoll. The
captivating beauty of nature was slightly marred by the sight of
a monk waiting to answer nature's call in front of a toilet
situated just beside the forest. On the other side there is a
large courtyard. Here is a view of the monastery from the
courtyard.
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| The Pemayangste monastery |
If a competition of noise level were held between the two
monasteries this one would surely win thanks to the little school
that was going on for young kids, dressed as monks though behaving
more like monkeys.
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| The monk training school at P monastery |
Turn around completely, stand very near the extreme verge of the
knoll and you'll see the ruins of the palace at the old second
capital of Sikkim peering at you across the forest.
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| The ruins of the second capital of Sikkim seen from Pemayangste monastery |
And of course, we must not forget about the Kanchanjunga, which
is visible from everywhere of Pelling. Our camera never tires of
snapping at the pretty peak, though you might very well be tired
of seeing yet another photo of the same dumb old snowcapped lump
of rock:
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| Kanchanjunga...again! |
Kanchanjunga-lovers may think that everything else pales before
this heavenly peak. But our automatic digital camera seems to
think otherwise: in its view everything actually darkens before
Kanchanjunga!
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