It had been 20 minutes since Vaishnavi Rathore and I had begun our little trek in a dense forest in Dzongu in North Sikkim. We were lucky the rain had stopped just before we began, but the wet mud was a challenge we city folks were not ready for. I was worried about slipping, not just because of the risk of injury, but also of damaging the expensive camera in my bag.
We were being led by Mayalmit Lepcha, an environmental activist and local resident, whom we had met earlier in the day. We had been reporting on the impact of a glacial lake outburst flood that devastated parts of Sikkim in 2023 and on the broader consequences of hydropower projects in the ecologically sensitive region. As we spoke about what the construction of dams in the Himalayas meant for indigenous communities, Mayalmit said she wanted to show us a Lepcha ritual.
As we continued our trek, the sun had begun to set, and by the time we saw a small house emerging amidst the wild ferns, the sky had turned a purple-blue. It was the house of a shaman, a spiritual leader of the Lepcha community.
The ritual was to take place inside a small…
Source: Backstory: Witnessing a Lepcha shaman ritual in Sikkim
