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59
TAILPIECE
LYANGSONG AND THE LEPCHAS
Lieutenant Colonel Richard Venning [1970 – 94]
One of the joys of working in the Gap Year industry has been an
association with the Lepcha people. These incredibly nice, gentle and
open people take volunteers into their villages and homes for three
months with a generosity of spirit that is quite remarkable. Almost
without exception the volunteer returns enriched by having found
genuine friendship in a culture that is as opposed to the ‘me first’
materialistic society as it is possible to get. True, it is possible to talk to
almost any part of this quite remote valley on a mobile phone, and a
few Lepchas have reached seriously high places, but there is a
simplicity and a connection with nature that greatly appeals to the first
class young people who volunteer.
2nd Battalion old hands will remember Lyangsong Lepcha, whom I
recall as a clerk in Hong Kong in the 1970s. He and I used to compete
against each other in the hurdles in rather more lissom days. Indeed
he was, I think, a part of the relay team when, in the stadium on the
Island, my shorts split (as it were from ‘ere to ere’) about halfway
down the track and I was faced with a choice between the risk of
indecent exposure and a place in the finals for the team. I chose the
latter, but recall the difficulties of hurdling with the knees together!
He was a very fine clerk and ended his service as Gurkha Major 28
AEC – one of the select band chosen to help sano sahibs understand
their place in the scheme of things as well as getting linguistically on
track. His name is appears as a co-author of the ‘triple’ dictionary
(English, Roman Gurkhali, Nagri) successor to the Meerendonk
version and on sale in the Museum which must have been created
around that time. He has since written several books or pamphlets on
‘things Lepcha’, including another dictionary (Lepcha-English) and a
pamphlet on Lepcha medicinal plants and their uses which was started