Ask in Rishop where the name comes from and you will hear more than one answer. One common explanation splits it into two parts: ri, a mountain peak, and shop, which people in the village say means old trees. Put together, it describes what you see from the road: a high ridge covered in very old forest.
For most of its history Rishop was a farming settlement, home to Sherpa and Lepcha families who grew maize, potatoes and cardamom on the slopes below the forest. Visitors were rare. That changed in the late 1990s, when the village was developed as a tourist destination and families began putting up small cottages for guests.
What drew people was the view. From the ridge above the village, at a spot now called Tiffin Dara, the snow peaks of Sikkim line the horizon, with Kanchenjunga in the middle. Families built more rooms facing that view, and the homestay village grew from there.
Rishop still has no bazaar and no big hotels. Most of the money visitors spend goes to the families who run the homestays, cook the meals and guide people along the forest paths to Lava.
Sources
- Rishyap (Wikipedia)
- Told locally in Rishop
Legends are retold differently from village to village. Where a story is told locally rather than written down, we say so.
