cleansed of all their sins if they only contemplate the great sacred chorten of Tashiding (Thongwa -Rangdot).

It nestles on the top of a hill that looms up between Rathong and Ranjeet rivers. It is surrounded by a profusion of prayer flags that flutter in the air. There are so many chortens dedicated to Chogyals and some of the religious personalities of Sikkim. Carved skillfully on stone plates surrounding the monastery is 'Om Mane Padme Hum' by the master craftsman -Yanchong Lodil.

The monastery was built in 1717 by Ngadak Sempa Chempo during the reign of the third Chogyal Chakdor Namgyal. The sacred ceremony of Bumchu is performed here at midnight of the 14^th and 15^th of the first Tibetan month.

Phodong Monastery, Labrang Monastery and Tumlong Palace ruins, all these three are located within an area of one square kilometres, about 40 kilometres from Gangtok on the North Sikkim Highway.

Phodong Monastery, which belongs to the Kargupa Sed (Karmapa) is about a kilometre uphill by a motorable road that bifurcates from the North Sikkim Highway. It was built by the Chogyal Gyurmed Namgyal in the first quarter of the eighteenth century.

The main annual puja is performed on the 28^th and 29^th day of the tenth month of the Tibetan calendar when the religious Chaams or dances are also performed.

Another kilometre uphill from Phodong Monastery on the same motorable road is the Labrang Monastery which was built one hundred years later but belongs to the Nyingma-pa sect. Just below the road between Phodong Monastery and Labrang Monastery are the ruins of the third capital of Sikkim, Tumlong. In the beginning of the nineteenth century, the capital of Sikkim was shifted from Rabdanste to Tumlong which remained the capital of Sikkim for almost ninety years.

The Palace is now in ruins covered with a thick canopy of bushes but we can conjure up an image of what it looked like from Dr. Hooker's account during his visit and imprisonment here in 1849. The chortens surrounding the Palace have however withstood the vagaries of nature and many of them can still be seen.

He wrote in the Himalayan Journal: "It was an irregular low stone building of Tibetan architecture, with slanting walls and small windows high up under the broad thatched roof, above which, in the middle, was a Chinese looking square copper gilt canopy, with projecting eaves and bells at the comers, surmounted by a ball and a square spire. On either gable of the roof was round topped cylinder of gilded copper, something like a closed umbrella."

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