A chartered accountant-turned-trekker, Sujoy Das’s presentation on February 17 at The Bengal Club in association with The Telegraph was a culmination of his passion. The illustrated talk titled Kangchenjunga, Exploration, Ascent and Inspiration was a detailed show that started from the early history of the mountain from the 1850s and culminated with the first ascent in 1955. The presentation accompanied by rare photographs of the mountain, expeditions, videos and maps, showcased journeys around Kangchenjunga both from Nepal and the Sikkim side.
Sujoy who has been trekking and photographing in the Kangchenjunga region of Darjeeling, Sikkim and Nepal for more than 35 years, said, “I have a long association with Darjeeling; every vacation would mean going there, and the mountain was in front of us. Also, it was quite commonplace to meet great mountaineers there so the bug bit me quite early in life. I pursued chartered accountancy but my passion always lay here. So after going on several expeditions and photographing the region, I opened my own trekking company, South Col Expeditions, in 2004. It guides people who want to go for trekking the Himalayas. That helped me pursue my passion and also earn some money.”
A glimpse of Sujoy Das’s presentation
A panoramic picture of the mighty Kangchenjunga, accompanied by other peaks on its sides, introduced us to the world that Sujoy is passionate about. And with each slide, he presented different facet of the peak that has challenged the greatest of trekkers. From the real pronunciation of the peak to its probable meaning and its significance in Sikkim and as the guardian deity of the people of Tibet, the presentation showed that it’s more than a chunk of solid mass standing at a high altitude and covered in snow. Several slides also brought to the spotlight various artists who captured the flora and fauna of the region in paintings, poetry and film including Satyajit Ray’s Kanchenjungha 1962.
Moving on, it brought to the fore various expeditions undertaken by a host of countries from different sides. From the legendary Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker who explored Sikkim and the Kangchenjunga region in 1848-1850 to Sarat Chandra Das who was an explorer, engineer, spy, scholar and was obsessed with Tibet and from Douglas Freshfield and Vittorio Sella’s circuit of 1899 exploring the route via Darjeeling-Gangtok-Lachen-Zemu Valley Lhonak Valley-Jongsong La into Nepal-Pengpema-KangbachenGhunsa-Chungerma Pass-Kangla into Sikkim-Dzongri-Goeche La and back to Darjeeling. The story of Aleister Crowley, who was one of the infamous characters in the history of British mountaineering and who led the first expedition to climb the mountain in 1905 by the Yalung glacier route, is particularly striking.
The later part of the presentation focussed on Sujoy’s expeditions. A beautiful mix of pictures and videos lured each one to join Sujoy and his passion. The slides also mentioned spots from where non-trekkers can see Kangchenjunga. “I would call the Green Lake expedition my most challenging one because one, the trail in the north had gone because of a landslide so we had to take a different route and that south trail turned out to be equally bad. Again, we had to make a makeshift bridge to cross the river and it was quite a challenge. So that was one of the hardest as the challenge was also to bring them all back alive,” said Sujoy who has written many books and plans to write one on Kangchenjunga.
Pictures: Biswajit Kundu