Mountain Worshippers Lose Ancient Ritual After Death of Last Priest

In Kanchenjunga, the world's third highest peak, so-called worshipers could no longer conduct an 800-year-old ritual honoring the mountain they consider sacred because the last and only priest who knows the rite had died.

The Lepcha tribe, which dwell at the foot of the 8,586-metre Himalayan mountain in the Indian state of Sikkim, are facing the dilemma because high priest Samdup Taso passed away last week at the age of 83 without anointing a successor, according to Isikkim.com.

Taso, a descendant of the first priest who started doing the elaborate annual prayer, procession and hymn in the 13th century, has a son who did not want to become a bongthing or priest like his father. Other family members of Taso also did not want to succeed him.

The oral tradition is forever lost because no one can learn the ritual, according to a Lepcha named Sherap and Lepcha ethnographer Jenney Bentley quoted by the Times of India and Sikkim Express.

Another Lepcha named Dawa said part of their history and identity is being erased, BBC quoted him as saying.

The Lepchas consider Kanchenjunga as a mountain deity and observe the ritual, also called Kongchen, an abbreviation of the mountain, every February-March. The ritual starts with an overnight prayer at Taso's house in Nung, a village in the remote Dzongu region of north Sikkim. The following morning, Taso leads his people to a procession going to an altar while they sing songs that trace the history of the Lepchas and explain the ritual.

A translation of the song called It mu, Kong Chen by a Danish theologist tells the story of a native girl, whose six brothers became the guardians of the mountain. The girl promised that her children will worship her brothers starting the tradition.

With the conversion of Lepchas to Buddhism and Christianity, the ritual became less practiced, said Pema Wangchuk, co-author of the book Kangchendzonga: Sacred Summit on the Lepchas, according to Isikkim.com.