In 1860, relations between Sikkim and British India broke down over the kidnapping of British subjects and the flight of runaway slaves and debtors across the border. A small British force was sent into Sikkim and advanced to Rinchenpong, where it camped on the ridge.
The story told in Rinchenpong is that local people, Lepchas and Nepali villagers, put a mixture of poisonous herbs into the small lake that was the camp's only water source. Soldiers who drank from it fell ill and many died, and the force had to withdraw. A larger British expedition the next year led to the Treaty of Tumlong in 1861.
How many men died is not recorded clearly, and the details vary with the teller. What is not in doubt is that the British did retreat from Rinchenpong in 1860, and the pond is still known locally as bikh pokhari, the poison lake.
Today the lake is a small, quiet pond near the village. Villagers say nobody uses its water. It is a reminder that this calm ridge was once on a frontier.
Sources
- Rinchenpong (Wikipedia)
- Told locally in Rinchenpong
Legends are retold differently from village to village. Where a story is told locally rather than written down, we say so.
