The Lepcha Story of Creation
The Lepcha god is Rom. In the beginning, Rom created the earth with all the mountains, rivers, plants, animals, and birds in it. Among the mountains he so created was the mighty Kangchenjunga, the snow-clad peak of the Himalayas.
The god Rom took two balls of pure snow from the top of Kangchenjunga. The ball of snow in his right hand he converted into a man and called him Phadong Thing which meant, ‘most powerful’. And the ball of snow in his left hand he converted into a woman whom he called Najyonguyu which meant ‘ever fortunate’. The Lepchas believe that these two were the first parents of the Lepcha people.
Since Phadong Thing and Najyonguyu were created by god with his own hands they were considered brother and sister by birth, thus forbidden to fall in love. And god Rom also warned them that if they ever disobeyed him and met without his knowledge, he would curse them and send them out to live in misery on earth. The god then put the man on the top of a mountain called Tangsen-Nareemchya. And the woman he put at the base of another mountain called Nagona-Tharath. As time went on the sister, Najyonguyu, grew up into a beautiful woman and like all women, she also wanted a man to be loved. She built a secret staircase to run from the base of her mountain Nagono-Tharath to the top of the mountain Tanesen-Nareemchya, where her brother lived. Without the knowledge of the god Rom she went up to meet her brother. Thereafter they met often and became friendly in the way that the god had warned them against. The god Rom soon came to know about their secret meetings and was very angry. He called them both to his presence, threw them out and cursed them: "You will suffer a great lot for your sin!”
So they came down to the foot of the mountains and began life as husband and wife. In one year's time a son was born to them, but the father, Phadong Thing, remembering the curse said: "This is an unholy child. We cannot keep him under our roof!" So Phadong Thing cruelly threw away the child into the jungle. This happened for seven years and seven children were thrown away! When the eighth child was born, the mother, full of love for her baby, cried out, "Whatever curse god has put on us cannot be washed away! No doubt, we have been living in sin and have to bear the consequences of such a life. But this poor baby has done nothing wrong. Let us not sin more by throwing away this innocent child." Thus the mother Najyonguyu pleaded with her husband and he no longer thought it necessary to throw away the children because of the curse of god. Phadong Thing and Najyonguyu had twenty more children, both sons and daughters. As years went by these sons and daughters married and had children. In the course of time, they spread all over the southern slopes of the holy Kangchenjunga. They are thus the ancestors of the Lepcha people.
The seven babies which were thrown away turned into powerful demons and constantly waged war on the Lepchas. And that, my friends, is a tale for another day.