Filming of Alexandra David-Neel in progress in Lachen

Sikkim Observer Jan 8-14, 2010
R. Namgyal

Lachen, Jan 7: The life and times of French adventurer and practitioner of Tibetan Buddhism Alexandra David-Neel who visited Sikkim early last century is currently being filmed in Lachen, North Sikkim.

The ‘tele-film’ is being made by Indian and French film makers who have come to Lachen to film her life in a cave at Dewthang near the village of Thangu where she spent her time in deep meditation.

David-Neel was born in Paris on October 24, 1868. By the age of fifteen she had already begun to study music and also obtained her first occult reading matter, an English journal produced by the Society of the Supreme Gnosis.

An opera singer and a scholar of eastern religion, David-Neel became the first Western woman to reach Tibet's forbidden city of Lhasa. Disguised as a pilgrim, and accompanied only by a young Sikkimese lama, she travelled by mule, yak and horse.

David-Neel first came to Sikkim in 1911-12 on  the invitation of Crown Prince Sidkeong Tulku.

In the period 1914-1916 she lived in a cave in Dewthang near Thangu in Lachen in North Sikkim near the Tibetan border. The young Sikkimese lama Aphur Yongden, who looked after her in Sikkim, also became her lifelong traveling companion.

During the 2 years in Sikkim she came under the spiritual guidance of Lachen Gomchen Rinpoche of Lachen Monastery, whose meditation cave was just above hers at Dewthang.

Jigme N Kazi offers khadas to HH Dalai Lama in Dharamsala in December 2009.