Flex Mentallo

So while the form of oppression may have changed from pseudo-religious to hydro-electric, essentially the same system is operant now as before, threatening tribal peoples everywhere. Perhaps one day a myth will be created to memorialize it. If so, the Lepcha (and other Tribals) will be portrayed as evil demons who blocked progress before being defeated by the saintly and enlightened industrialists.

The Lepcha argue that the large migrant worker population, mainly from the plains, that will arrive during the construction of the dams will threaten their society’s social and cultural fabric.

To date, the government of Sikkim has scrapped 10 dams, due to local opposition. People are concerned about the impacts of the dams on the environment and their way of life.

In Sikkim, the provincial government has awarded contracts to private operators for 26 large hydropower projects on the Teesta River, seven of which would affect Dzongu province. The Teesta River flows through the length of Sikkim, down through the Darjeeling Hills past the Sitong Valley and is considered to be the lifeline of the state. The proposed Teesta IV Dam and its construction, especially the intake tunnel, would destroy a sacred lake that is believed to be the heart of where the Lepcha clan originated.

Sadly these sacred place and the lives of the Lepchas are threatened by large hydropower projects.

The Lepcha believe that in death, the departed soul travels up the Teesta and Rangyong rivers to the base of Kangchenjunga, their sacred final resting place.

Lepcha culture is rich with stories and traditions – such as the all-night singing festival in which young Lepcha men and women woo their potential mate through songs – and rivers play a central role in many of these stories and in their beliefs.

They themselves believe they are indigenous to the southern flanks of Kangchenjunga and have always been there. Certainly they have been native to the area for thousands of years. Though they now generally wear western clothing and their small homes may have satellite dishes, they have otherwise preserved their cultural identity and are determined to protect it.

Their homeland is the tribal reserve of Dzongu in North Sikkim, but no-one knows where the Lepcha originated.

Among them are the Lepcha, who represent approximately 20% of the population of Sikkim, but were the entire indigenous population until quite recently.

Fortunately the tribal peoples of the Himalayas are far more peaceful!

I was once on a train in Central India that was literally held up by a tribe of musket wielding adivasis who blocked the tracks then demanded a free ride on the roof of the carriages. They got off as they had gotten on, in the middle of nowhere - or at least, no destination on any map.

Collectively known as adivasis, in theory legally protected by the Indian Government, there ways of life are under dire threat from a multiplicity of environmental and developmental events across the entire sub-continent, from power plants in the south, to dams in the Himlayas.

Over 100 million people in India belong to tribal groups considered to be the original inhabitants of India.

Precisely the same time that Durga Puja is celebrated across the rest of India...

This was originally danced by the tribal people of Saurashtra, and had been all but lost until a Fine Arts lecturer from the tribe decided to resurrect it in 1975. It is now performed around the world.

Along with other Fine Arts students at Baroda University I used to perform a tribal dance called Garba, which takes place during Navratri - the same nine nights of the October harvest moon during which Durga fought Mahishasura.

The animistic tribal beliefs survived only in a distorted form. So a local buffalo god was literally demonized, and 'slain' by the champion of the new reality.

In the process, they forced local tribal peoples to assimilate their own nascent Hindu religion.

History is invariably written by the victors. Whereas in Hindu orthodoxy the myth is characterized as a battle between good (goddess) and evil (demon), light and darkness, the story comes from a time about three thousand years ago when Aryan invaders from the steppes of Asia conquered the sub-continent. This was a battle for supremacy of The Word (Durga calls the demon illiterate, rather than evil).

When Mahishasura had half emerged into his buffalo form, he was paralyzed by the extreme light emitting from the goddess's body. The goddess then roared with laughter before cutting Mahishasura's head down with her sword...

Then Mahishasura began attacking once more, starting to take the form of a buffalo again. The patient goddess became enraged, and proclaimed to Mahishasura in a resounding tone, "Roar with delight while you still can, O illiterate demon, because when I kill you, the gods themselves will roar with delight".

First he was a buffalo demon, and she defeated him with her sword. Then he changed forms and became an elephant that tied up the goddess's lion and began to pull it towards him. The goddess cut off his trunk with her sword. The demon Mahishasur continued his terrorizing, taking the form of a lion, and then the form of a man, but both of them were gracefully slain by Durga. For nine days and nights they battled.

And the terrible Mahishasura rampaged against her, changing forms many times.

It is said that upon initially encountering Durga, Mahishasura underestimated her, thinking: "How can a woman kill me, Mahishasur—the one who has defeated the trinity of gods?".