Tendong Lho Rum Faat

Local legend associated with the annual dance of Tendong Lho Rum Faat Fastival.

“Teesta (female) and Rangit (male) were born at the sacred lap of the Himalayan Mountains. They grew up together happily and as they became adults, secretly they began to love each other. But their secret story didn’t last forever, people got to know about this and started talking things about them. So they decided to leave the place, to go some somewhere they could be together forever. This place was no where but the valley where hill meets the plains, Lepchas called it “Pazook” which means place covered with dense forest (Now near Teesta bazaar).

Both didn’t know the path to “Pazook”, so the Rongnu (Teesta) took Parli-Bu the snake as her guide, and Rungit went with Tut-Fu (Danfey) the bird. It was like a little race, who will reach first. Snake with agile body reached Pazaok in time, but Tut-fo (Danphey) had taken a longer road thought the rocky and difficult terrain. Being hungry he stopped on the way to collect insects for his food. On the other hand Teesta was waiting for her love to arrive. When Rungit finally arrived, he was so ashamed to be defeated by a female even though fault was not his. So he decided to go back to his usual home back in Himalayas. As he started returning the water of the river began to rise up, swallowing the valley and the hill. All the people living in the valley gathered up to the Meanom and Tendong hill to save themselves from the deluge, the water was still out of reach in these hills.

They began to pray to the god to save them from this evil deluge, they offered “Chi” to “Itbu-debu-rum-doar” the creator and destroyer. Suddenly a bird appeared called “Kohom Fo” and drank the “chi”, and water then began to subside slowly and that was the end of deluge. Peace and happiness once again prevailed at the land of the Rongs, and people started celebreting Tendong Lho Rum Faat festival after that.