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Of Lepchas and their way of life

Mandira Nayar

NEW DELHI: This is a film that has taken 27 years to make. Having come across the Lepchas on a visit to Sikkim in 1979, Deepak Roy waited for over two decades to finally capture their lives on film.

"I was not a filmmaker when I went to Sikkim in 1979 and came across the Lepchas. I was very impressed with their hospitality, their behaviour. They were peace-loving people. I knew if I ever got a chance, I would make a film on them," said Roy.

Titled "Children of Kanchenjunga", the movie tells the story of the only nature worshippers left in the North-East. While the Lepchas are the only tribe that has written literature in this part of the country, they are losing their language and themselves fast.

Sandwiched between three lands, they live in Nepal, Western Bhutan, Sikkim and the Darjeeling district of West Bengal. Governed by different laws, this community is struggling to keep its cultural identity together.

While the Lepchas are aboriginal inhabitants of Sikkim, they are now losing their language, their customs and slowly themselves. Minorities in their own land, Sikkim, they are now only 5 per cent of the population.

"They are now adopting mostly Nepalese culture and language. They are the only ones with a written script, 90 per cent of them can't speak the language. They have also started absorbing Bhutanese culture. In Sikkim their language is in the curriculum in schools. But in West Bengal it is not included and nor is it in Bhutan or Nepal," asserted the award-winning filmmaker.

An interesting tribe, the Lepchas -- on the verge of extinction -- were known as forest-dwelling fairy-worshippers in British time. With their rituals all centred around nature, their festivals also revolve around the same theme. "Children of Kanchenjunga" is an attempt to keep alive their way of life -- at least on film. .

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