Tradition · festival of a guardian mountain · India
Pang Lhabsol
Sikkim's own festival, instituted in the fifteenth century by the third Chogyal, in which Khangchendzonga is worshipped not as a mountain but as the state's guardian deity, and the blood-brotherhood sworn between the Lepcha and the Bhutia is renewed. The Pangtoed Chaam is danced by monks in warrior dress for the mountain's warrior aspect. It is the clearest instance in the Himalaya of a peak treated as a political guarantor rather than a place.
- Function
- Arts & performance
- Confidence
- Not assessed
- Location
- 27.330, 88.610
Worth knowing
Sikkim's climbing ban on Khangchendzonga follows from this: the summit is the deity's person, so the 1955 British expedition stopped a few feet below it by agreement, and Indian law has prohibited the ascent since 2001.
Connections (2)
- Court associationPemayangtse Monastery, Sikkim
Pang Lhabsol is a state ceremony in religious dress. Instituted by the third Chogyal in the fifteenth century, it worships Khangchendzonga as Sikkim's guardian deity and renews the blood-brotherhood sworn between the Lepcha and the Bhutia — the compact the kingdom was founded on. Pemayangtse, the Nyingma monastery whose abbots consecrated the Chogyals, is where that arrangement was institutionally held, and its monks danced the warrior cham the festival turns on.
- AnalogueGangteng Monastery & Phobjikha
Two Himalayan places where a religious claim about nature has the force of policy. Sikkim treats Khangchendzonga as its guardian deity, so the summit is the deity's person: the 1955 expedition stopped short of it by agreement and Indian law has banned the climb since 2001. Phobjikha treats the arrival of three hundred black-necked cranes as an omen, so the valley's electricity was buried rather than strung on poles. In both, the protection is older and firmer than the conservation law that now agrees with it.
On these journeys
Sources
Wikipedia, “Pang Lhabsol” and “Kangchenjunga”. Government of Sikkim notifications on climbing; Namgyal dynasty chronicles.
Open Pang Lhabsol in the repository →