Kanchenjunga In 1923, India and its border countries drew the Roerichs East. Their first destination was the Himalayan Kingdom of Sikkim and its border town, Darjeeling. The itinerary was possibly inspired by Nicholas' childhood icon, a painting of Sikkim's holy mountain Kanchenjunga that had hung in his childhood home. Another likely attraction was, according to Mme. Blavatsky, Sikkim had once been (the highly unlikely) home of the Mahatmas, the Theosphical spiritual messengers to mankind. The visits were the first sustained stops on a painting journey --heavily subsidized by an American millionaire and blessed by the U.S government-- that would take the family across the Himalayas and into Tibet, Chinese Turkestan, Altai and Mongolia. Kanchenjunga embodied several of Roerich's pet themes; it was a sacred landscape whose lower slopes, according to Sikkimese Lepcha tradition, guarded a secret paradise. As such it was a secret land within a secret land as Sikkim itself was a Bayul, one of the hidden countries mentioned by Guru Padma Sambhava who'd brought Buddhism to Tibet and the Himalayas. ( Sikkim's King, Sir Tashi Namgyal, who extended hospitality to the visitors, himself became a known artist whose inner visions of mountains echo Roerich's strong, flat, decorative style.)