Kanchanjungha
Below translates literally as ‘where the spirits are high, the head is up, where the knowledge is free, there the world is neither small nor is divided’. Tagore was referring to the independence of India with this poetry but it beautifully captures the essence of Kanchanjungha, the queen of the Himalayas (Chowdhury, 2015).
‘Chitto jetha bhoy shunyo, uccho jeta sheer
gyan jetha mukto, jetha griher prachir
apan prangantole dibassorbori
bosudhare rakhe nai khand khudro kori’.
This is probably the only range visible from the plains, particularly from the Terai areas of West Bengal. As if the range stands welcoming the spectators and the visitors who were probably there for their own business needs only and then she reminds them that it is her kingdom they have entered and they are welcome. No matter what they do or wherever they go they will be doing it under the Kanchunjangha’s nose and she will be aware of everything (Tsukamoto et al., 2002). This strong enigmatic presence of a dead being has been influencing thousands of artists from the primary days of development. One cannot forget the beautiful hilly town associated with the range, Darjeeling. She has been housing these beautiful minds for a long time.
(The five peaks of Kanchenjungha, source: ‘Darjeeling’ by Upendrakishor Roychowdhury, personal archives)
Kanchanjungha: The name and the placements
Upendra Kishor Roy Chowdhury (the man responsible for bringing a revolution in children’s literature, printing and book designing at the time of the Bengali Renaissance and grandfather of the great film-maker Satyajit Ray) once discovered from his gardener that the actual name of the range was ‘Khachen Jh nga’. ‘Khachen’ was the name of the range and since there are actually five peaks it is called ‘Jh nga’ in Nepali language. Later, somebody from the educated Bengali intelligentsia decided to make the name a little Sankritised and hence it landed up in ‘Kanchanjungha’. Again this name too pays complete homage to the beauty. ‘Kanchan’ is gold and jangha is peak. One cannot help but wonder to notice the ice-covered peaks resemble nothing less than gold in the sunset and sunrise.
A little bit of history of Darjeeling
The peak would have been unnoticed if the town to spectacle this greatness had not been developed. Darjeeling used to be a small hill station towards the beginning of the twentieth century when the British ruling India from Calcutta at that time visited this place as an escape in the summers. Roychowdhury states that this British person did not even dared to walk on the streets on his own. Instead, he made four local Nepali men carry him in a basket uphill. Then, slowly with the urgency to find a place to stay in a cooler place in Bengal, more British people started to set foot in this town. Slowly they developed the toy train and the market around it. The Nepali community never got a chance to be paid fairly for the work they were made to do instead as days passed the British rulers were replaced by the Bengali rich aristocrats. These hilly communities were further pushed to sacrifice their identity and appetite. ‘Khacheng jhong’ who was now turned into ‘Kanchanjungha’ witnessed the change silently.
Sleeping Buddha and the vision of the natives
Kanchanjangha is also known as the ‘Sleeping Buddha’. To be very honest I have tried to look at the range multiple times to figure out where are the feet of Buddha and where is his head. I could not find anything substantial at that moment but I had figured out a possible pattern in which the Buddha might be aligning his head, only to find out that it was way different than how a sibling of mine had imagined and it broke my heart. Years later, as I grew up I realized that when it comes to Kanchanjungha it is not the gesture of the body but the gesture of the soul that is what we are talking about. There is some magic in the presence of the range which reminds us of nothing but the Buddha sleeping in full peace. The mind gets cleansed up and there is an inbuilt spiritual calling that would draw the spectator in any case.
As mentioned earlier the range has five peaks. These are called JANU (25300FT), KABRU (24015FT), KANCHENJANGA (28156FT), PANDIM (22020FT), JURONU (19450 FT) and SIMVO (22500FT). Their position in the whole range is almost like a guardian angel standing there, probably this could be the reason for which the idea of Buddha sleeping himself is so popular.
Darjeeling has mainly three tribes as documented by Roychowdhury. This is the time when the town is still in the making. These are the Nepali, the Tibetan and the Bhutani tribes. It is needless to say that their sole worshipper has always been Buddha himself. So, when three tribes who are dealing with the similar natural disaster and sharing cultural heritage together name a particular range as their guardian God it is undoubtedly a magical presence that has captured and healed the anxiety and tensions of these tribes for a long time.
They regard the Kanchunjangha to be one of a kind (Ambrose et al., 2015). No other range or mountain peak could be matched by the sheer presence of the range. The Nepali gardener of Mr Roychowdhury has stated that they are five brothers who are staying together for a long time and watching over them. The indigenous tribes of the mountains are very much community-specific. It is difficult to find one single family making all the decisions and taking command of everything without consulting any other senior person of the tribe. It is also often a very vivid characteristic of most of the mountain tribes that they generally do not bow before anything that does not promise protection from nature. The reason could be the strong presence of nature in their everyday lives and livelihoods. Death and life are so near that it is a matter of chance and precise calculations that makes life possible in such a beautiful yet difficult land. In such a situation the presence of these ‘five brothers’ has made the communities stay together and stay loyal to one another as well as their beliefs. Hence, they will tolerate anything but disrespect for their beloved ‘Khachen Jhonga’.
Artworks inspired by Kanchanjungha
Now the first artwork that comes to mind when Sleeping Buddha is in mind is the movie made by Ray. This is about an urban upper class Bengali family visiting Darjeeling where the spectators are brought in front of the many layered problems that were becoming common in the 1960s urban intellectual families (Carpenter et al., 1994). The nature of the problem is all similar. Ray mostly focused on the inability of women to express themselves in front of a strong patriarch of the family. There is a broken marriage trying to survive, there is attempt at another forceful marriage, there is a guilty mother who does not want to find her daughter in the same way as she was, there are lecherous men chasing around hungrily behind Anglo-Indian women who likewise are using these men in any way they can, there are corrupted job offers, stained with nepotism and lastly there are rich men (made by the British) who are still not sure of the fact that independence was a required thing to happen. Nevertheless, Ray manages to capture the whole of the business with utter beauty and they all submit in front of the great peak Kanchanjungha.
Beautiful clouds and formations that made the painters
The sheer beauty of the Darjeeling town is not limited to the range only. In fact, the beauty grows with the presence of the multi-layered and dramatic clouds. Roychowdhury has stated that these mischievous clouds are not interested in wetting any other warm clothes but it is just his beard and the top of the woollen hat that gets attacked each time. The beautiful colours and their lower heights have surprised painters for ages. Here is a painting of Kanchanjungha done by the Mr Upendrakishor Roychowdhury himself.
Painting of Kanchanjungha by U. Roychowdhury,source: ‘Darjeeling’ by Upendrakishor Roychowdhury, personal archives)
This picture attempts to capture the light and the fundamental concepts of perspective that could be seen here. Other painters like Gaganendranath Tagore (brother of Rabindranath Tagore) and Edward Lear (1812-1888).
(Painting by Gaganendra Tagore, indianculture.gov.in)
The painting by Gaganendra Tagore shouts the painter to be an romantic practitioner of romantic art. His portrayal is somewhat European but still one can find the usage of the colors and the hues in an Indian way. The management is very accurately done and yet there are elements of emotions all over the painting. It seems like the presence is marked more important that finding the flaws or detailed beauties in it. In comparison to this Edward Lear’s portrayal is much more European.
(Painting by Edward Lear, source: Victorianweb, 2008)
This one looks like it is a portrayal of the European landscape, maybe somewhere in Sweden or Norway. However, no matter how beautiful the picture has turned out to be the essence of it being Indian is missing (Byers et al., 2020). However, it is also true that the Darjeeling town has developed with the help of the British and nobody can say this is wrong. So, the portrayal of this eternal range has grown across continents.
Conclusion
Nobody knows what was the environment like when this super range was forming. Some say it was due to some gigantic volcanic eruption followed by elaborate earthquakes others say it happened due to one consistent development of the soil. Whatever the main reason the range has developed into a fantastic cure and protector for anyone from any corner of the world. The sheer beauty and the pride with which it stays up in the sky is unparallel, and it makes stronger emotions come alive in humans. So it will keep doing for eternity.
Bibliography
Chowdhury, S., 2015. Ageless Hero, Sexless Man: A Possible Pre-history and Three Hypotheses on Satyajit Ray’s Feluda. South Asian Review, 36(1), pp.109-130.
Tsukamoto, S., Asahi, K., Watanabe, T. and Rink, W.J., 2002. Timing of past glaciations in Kanchenjunga Himal, Nepal by optically stimulated luminescence dating of tills. Quaternary International, 97, pp.57-67.
Ambrose, T.K., Larson, K.P., Guilmette, C., Cottle, J.M., Buckingham, H. and Rai, S., 2015. Lateral extrusion, underplating, and out-of-sequence thrusting within the Himalayan metamorphic core, Kanchenjunga, Nepal. Lithosphere, 7(4), pp.441-464.
Carpenter, C., Ghimire, S. and Brown, T., 1994. Report on the flora and fauna of the Kanchenjunga region. WWF Nepal Program Report Series, (13).
Byers, A.C., Chand, M.B., Lala, J., Shrestha, M., Byers, E.A. and Watanabe, T., 2020. Reconstructing the history of glacial lake outburst floods (GLOF) in the Kanchenjunga conservation area, East Nepal: An interdisciplinary approach. Sustainability, 12(13), p.5407.
Kanchenjunga, M., Trying Times: Aspiration and Failure in Kanchenjunga, Mahanagar, Pratidwandi and Jana Aranya.
