Samsing Kyong
“Samsing Kyong is my topic and I chose it because I want people to know about the village dating back to the Namgyal Dynasty period.”
Mingma Dorjee Lepcha
“ᰀᰠᰪ ᰋᰤᰦᰭᰎᰤᰬᰌᰨᰛᰬ ᰠᰦᰮᰡᰧᰵᰶ ᰀᰤᰨᰵ ᰃᰪᰮ ᰣᰪᰰ ᰃᰨᰍᰪᰰ ᰋᰤᰦᰭᰎᰤᰬ ᰣᰦᰛᰬ ᰡᰬᰮᰢᰪᰵ ᰓᰫᰠᰦ ᰊᰰᰶᰌᰩᰭᰛᰬ ᰃᰨ ᰕᰪᰛᰩ ᰠᰴᰛᰤᰬᰮ ᰍᰦᰮᰃᰤᰬᰯᰋᰫᰭ ᰊᰗᰳᰶᰀᰦ ᰉᰧᰶᰢᰦᰮᰓᰫ ᰀᰠᰪ ᰀᰤᰨᰵᰛᰤᰬᰮ ᰜᰫᰵᰋᰤᰦᰭ ᰡᰴᰜᰦ ᰃᰨ ᰕ.” ᰕᰧᰵᰃᰦ ᰌᰨᰲᰙᰧᰶ ᰜᰬᰱᰆᰦ
Knowledge Keepers behind the expression
“While collecting stories, I went to one of the bonafide man of Kyong Samsing, Rinzing Lepcha, taking his time in his home, I had collected and the places I visited were so mesmerising with birds chirping, streams rivers flowing, giving me peace and a new way of enjoying my life.” Mingma Dorjee Lepcha
Samsing Kyong
Samsing is a small village of Sikkim, it falls under Pakyong District which is about 30km from the state capital Gangtok. The word Samsing is derived from the tree called “chelaunay” in Nepali (Schima wallichi) and comes from Bhutia language. It is also said that the name Samsing is given by the Lepcha too. The word “saam”, short for “saambraangkoong”, depicts the name of the tree in Lepcha language and “sing” means land or fields. Lepcha believe that at that time in Samsing kyung or village the chelaunay tree was found and so the name was given for the village.
In the land of Maayel Lyaang the village Samsing was bestowed by the king at the time of Namgyal dynasty as a retirement pension to one of his soldier named Aazyo Palden for serving as a guard. When the land was gifted to him, a deed was well signed between him and the king and the actual boundary of the land was drawn on a cloth map. But later on, the cloth map and signed paper of the land were misplaced and lost by his wife named Phool Maya. Somehow it has been secluded from the people of kyong (village).
At the time of the ancestors, it is said that in the village Samsing there were only seven or eight houses. Samsing was divided into different kyong by the Lepchas such as Kyong peen, Supthang, Kyong ghuu and so forth.
And then after the Bhutia community people entered as a worker from the Northern side of the Himalayas. And so on different communities migrated towards the village Samsing. And now we can see different people with different religion take refuge in the land of Mayel kyong Samsing.
Sacred places
Kaptabaong
A giant tree stands at this place. The ancestors worshipped it for its powers to heal from injury, and some of them used to practice prayer to gain knowledge. The tree is more than 90 years of age and is still there in the village of Samsing. But people of this generation don’t value the tree as before, people stopped offering prayers, as most of the people living in and around Samsing converted to other religions, but they do believe there is something unique about the tree and it is still present there.
Pungthong
It is a place or land where our ancestors they used to do worship such as Mut Rumfaat, Punzaok Rumfaat (Forest ritual), Fulo Mulo and different prayers. In this land we can see streams on the both sides and that stream got the name Pachyo Uungkyong where our grandfathers used to bring their cows and goats to drink.
Pachyo Uungkyong
Hitti Dhara
Hitti Dhara is a perennial stream or Dhara where people used to take a bath as usual. When I was doing this study and collecting the story of that Dhara, I spoke with people at the age of our grandfathers. They used to go there to take a bath to heal their body from wounds and diseases. Just on the opposite of that Dhara, in and around Kaptabong, there was a stream. There is myth that if diseased person wash the wounded part of their body in it, his/her wound will heal more effectively than before. But now that uungkyong has been blocked, because of roadways nearby. In Hitti Dhara still people practices prayers once in a year in mid August. A fact about Hitti Dhara was that there used to be warm water at dawn and cold at dusk. And talking about the source, no one is able to dig out the actual source of the water that comes out of the underground. But the hot water that used to come during our ancestors time, has now vanished and Hitti Dhara has lost its power compared to before.
Story by Mingma Dorjee Lepcha
Video and voiceover by Mingma Dorjee Lepcha
Translations by Mingma Dorjee Lepcha
Mentored by Minket Lepcha