The sound of the Gurbani resonates through the valley every morning. Gyaniji tells us he has been in Chungthang for five years now, looking after the Gurudwara that was built by the Assam Rifles in the 1980s. The place seems like an anomaly in a town otherwise predominantly Buddhist. Next to the Gurudwara stands a small Buddhist shrine, looked after by a local monk. A tree shaped like an inverted hook stands in the premises. The locals believe it is the walking stick of the Buddhist Guru, Padmasambhava who supposedly came here in the 8th century. For the devout Sikhs in the area (as well as those who come from far to pay obeisance at the Gurudwara), the walking stick is actually that of Guru Nanak. Justification is given for this fact. Apparently, this tree species – chinyali – is found only in the plains, and no other such tree exists anywhere in Sikkim. A huge rock that bears the footprints of a holy man (the point is moot- either Guru Nanak or Padmasambhava) is also found here and worshipped by both. Parallel legends thus surround the same holy place- these could be seen in opposition or in tandem with each other, depending on one’s point of view.
A few centuries separate both legends. Padmasambhava is supposed to have come to Chungthang in the 8th century, while some writings show that Guru Nanak came to the place around the 16th century. The people of the town believe that Padmasambhava rested there during one of his journeys, and placed his walking stick at the spot that later blossomed int
o the Tree. However, army personnel in the area who have been looking after the Gurudwara say that Guru Nanak passed through Chungthang en route to Bhutan. He rested here for a day or two because he found the place very beautiful. He called the place Changi Tha (meaning ‘it is nice to look at’ in Punjabi), from which the town supposedly got its name. They believe that the Tree actually sprouted from his walking stick. The fact that the Gurudwara is called ‘Guru Nanak Lama Sahib’ (a Buddhist monk is generally called a lama) probably reflects an effort to merge a difference of beliefs. The army’s version of the story is that Guru Nanak appeared in the guise of a monk, and was thus an avatar of Guru Padmasambhava himself. The two might appear different but are really one. But this does not mitigate the feelings of some local people who look at the Gurudwara as something that was imposed on them from the outside, an appropriation of a symbol that belonged to “their” religion. Today however, many local people revere both – the Gurudwara and the Buddhist shrine alike.
The Tree could be seen either as a syncretic symbol of two otherwise different religions, or as space of constant contestation. Is it representative of what happens to a place when people from the outside come in, bringing with them their own systems and beliefs? Or could one see it as a fusion of diverse processes that take shape and co-mingle with each other over time? Does the Tree typify the dominance of one myth over the other or is it a synthesis of various narratives that co-exist, constantly getting erased and restructured to give rise to something new?
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