Told in the hills
Sky high: two giants and a hill that saved a people
Namchi's name is usually explained as 'sky high' in Sikkimese, and in the last 25 years the town has built upwards to match. In February 2004 workers finished a 135-foot statue of Guru Padmasambhava, Guru Rinpoche, on Samdruptse hill. He is the 8th-century teacher whom Sikkim's Buddhists credit with bringing Buddhism to the Himalaya and blessing Sikkim as a hidden land. The statue faces the snow range and can be seen from far down the valley.
A few kilometres away, on Solophok hill, the state later built Siddhesvara Dham, known to everyone as Char Dham. It brings together a 108-foot Shiva, an 18-foot Kirateshwar, replicas of the four dhams of Badrinath, Dwarka, Puri and Rameswaram, and models of the 12 jyotirlingas. Many Hindu families who could never travel to all four corners of India make the full round here in an afternoon, which explains the coaches you will see at weekends.
Older than both is Tendong hill, the long forested ridge above Damthang. Lepcha tradition holds that during a great flood their ancestors climbed Tendong and survived while the waters covered the land. Every year on 8 August, Tendong Lho Rumfaat, a Sikkim state holiday, gives thanks to the hill with prayers, offerings and a climb to the top. In Namchi, then, a modern Buddhist giant, a Hindu pilgrimage hill and a Lepcha flood story share one skyline.
Pinned to the board
Did you know
Mamley Stromatolite Park near Namchi was declared a National Geological Monument by the Geological Survey of India in 2014, for fossil algal stromatolites in Proterozoic dolomite of the Buxa Formation.
Namchi's Baichung Stadium is named after the Sikkimese footballer Baichung Bhutia and opened in 2021.
At the 2011 census Namchi had 12,190 residents, and close to three in four of them gave Nepali as their main language.
