How Sikkim’s beauty enthralled Nicholas Roerich
On a visit in 1924, the Russian artist was taken in by the majestic Himalayan peaks, ancient Buddhist monasteries and the warm-hearted people of the kingdom.
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“Evokingly and sharply the arrows whistle across the gully from out the bamboo grove,” Nicholas Roerich wrote in the opening lines of a chapter on Sikkim in his travelogue Altai-Himalaya. “The Sikkimese remember their favourite ancient pastimes. One says: ‘The arrow is better than a bullet. It sings as it strikes, while the bullet screeches as it flies outward.’”
Roerich, a Russian painter, writer and philosopher, travelled to the Kingdom of Sikkim in early 1924, some months after his arrival in India with his wife Helena and sons Yuri and Svetoslav. It was the family’s first visit to the country, but their deep knowledge of Hindu texts and Buddhist doctrines bred a sense of familiarity. India is where they would eventually settle down.
The Kingdom of Sikkim was ruled by Chogyal Tashi Namgyal at the time. Nestled in snow-covered Himalayas, and largely isolated from the world, it was pristine and unspoilt. A delighted Roerich would write glowingly about its flora and fauna, about visiting its ancient monasteries and meeting its knowledgeable lamas. He fell in love with it.
“Deep ravines and grotesque hills rear up to the cloud-line, into which melts the smoke of villages and monasteries,” he said. “Upon the heights gleam banners, suburgans or stupas....
