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Rangit Water World - Legship, West Sikkim
It’s a complete day out with family and friends in absolute
nature… Legship, a small village in Western Sikkim,
situated on the banks of River Rangit and also called the gateway
of West Sikkim is fast coming to be a tourism hotspot of Sikkim.
Legship, Famous for its Kirateshwar Mahadev Mandir, with
mythological background of Mahabharata, in this very place where
Arjuna was meditating in this forest ,one day was disturbed by
sound of a roaring boar which was coming charging towards him, on
seeing this ,he took out his bow and shot at the animal, on the
background a couple too was after it and also shot on the same
lightening speed. While this hunter shot from the back and Arjuna
shot from the front. After debating for long time on the
possession of the dead beast, Arjuna, thought who could be this
man with such skill, no other then Lord Shiva himself. On
realizing this, Arjuna begged for forgiveness and thus Lord Shiva
gave Arjuna, his true picture and also was blessed by Lord Shiva
with his bow, with whose help he won against his own brothers at
the War. On this very spot, Now stands a Temple with Shiv Linga
and has many more such mythological stories attached to the
temple. Since Lord Shiva was dressed as a Karat, a hunter warrior,
the very name of this temple as Kiretshwar Mahadev Mandir.
This temple is situated on the southern side of River Rangit and
has a Dharamshala for accommodating more the 500 devotees, many
other temples of Lord Rama, Durga, etc are also there. The main
festival of this temple is Bala Chaturdesi, which falls on the end
of Dec, every year.
Legship-as said is a small village with less then One Thousand
Occupants, people are simple and do their own businesses to carry
own their livelihood. Since this place is the gateway to West
Sikkim’s very famous tourist spots of Pemayangtse, Yuksom,
Kechopalri Lake, Utteray, Tashiding and to Rabongla, Kew zing and
Ralong in the South.
With the coming of the River Dam in Legship, for Power Generation
by NHPC, the water body accumulated was an excellent opportunity
to develop this site for Water Based Tourism theme. Thus, it was
realized that it could be as a tourism spot as well have boating,
camping, picnicking and angling on this area. Accordingly, the
Local NGO, Manaw Sewa Samiti, Legship (MSSL), organized a meeting
with Surendra K Pradhan a local boy with Tourism Knowledge, doing
well in Tourism Sector at State and National level, was made the
Project Chairman and brain storming was done. It finally came up
with a draft that it will be the peoples project based on Absolute
Eco-tourism concept and make the local people the stakeholders of
this project. Accordingly, shares were collected from every member
of the community and action was taken and finally, the committee
procured 02 River Rafts from the Tourism Department on lease and
boating and theme park was created. On the 26th of Nov, 2002,
Honb’le Minister of Tourism, inaugurated the Peoples project as
“The Rangit Water World-Legship”. Later a Tourism Body was formed
as Legship Tourism Development Co-Operative Committee, LTDCC. &
Shri. Surendra K Pradhan was chosen to be the Chairman of this
project, who also happens to be the Managing Director of Siniolchu
Tours & Travels - Sikkim
Now this small village has acquired itself on the map of tourism
in Sikkim, most uniquely, its not owned by an individual, but as
Peoples Project. For this project, it was the people who
contributed to its happening in physical and financial needs, We
have the blessings of the Government and since it’s the peoples
project, it will go a long way and has put a stepping stone on the
creation of the destination.
What can be done on visiting Legship .
Its usually begun by visiting the Shiva Temple, then driving 04
kms to the Legship Hot Springs for a dip, as its got medicinal
values and also houses a holy cave ,return to Legship for Lunch
and visit the Rangit Water World for Boating and picnicking and
later visit the Herbal/Medicinal Park, created by NHPC .
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