 Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker, the British botanist, made his Himalayan journey to Sikkim in 1849. He was one of the first to discover the beauty of this enchanting mountainous state of India. Sikkim, wrapped in a gossamer veil, its Elysian glades beckoned the weary and its fascinating forests tantalize the adventurer. Numerous prayer flags, the tacho, flutter in the mountain breeze, relaying the innermost cravings and fears of the worshipers to their gods. In Sikkim, as in many a great civilization, Elysian was also the fountainhead of art and culture and its motives inspired the exquisite scroll paintings and other aesthetic expressions. Waterfalls abound in the countryside and rained from flushing torrents to stately streams of cascading water. The ethereal mist moves on, kissing gently the infant buds and leaves. And it is this that gives Sikkim's team its unique and distinctive flavor. Carpet making calls for a high degree of skill and years of practice to perfect, as the Tibetan refugees have done with the exquisiteness of their designs. Craftsmen undergo a strict training at the government's directorate of handicrafts and handloom, the DHH in Gator. The DHH not only preserves the rich craft's tradition of Sikkim, but takes the lead in marketing the products. The same delicateness and intricate skill that helped Sikkim's arts and crafts to mature are also behind the success of the government's watch factory, the SITCO. The dexterous competence reminds us once again of its parallel with Switzerland and the vast alpine meadows of the state only reinforces the comparison. The mountain sides are honeycombed with caves and studded with lakes and hot springs, and some are sacred as abodes of saints. The performance of several dances convey the ultimate victory of good over evil. The base notes of the long hall, the bardo lomsol moves over the hills and veils signifying the limitlessness of time and space. As the music reaches its climax, the monks swing the devotion to the banging of drums and the clashing of cymbals until evil is eliminated in one symbolic strip. Life in the hills, whether for man or beast, or even a spider, is always a struggle. Yet it is the beauty of nature and the eternal peace that ultimately lingers on in the mind of the visitor as the twilight recedes into the dusk and the dusk moves into the night. An incredible calm descends upon this land and the celestial veil of mist floats around to remind all that it is now time for leisure, it is time for one's near and dear ones, for love,