This magnum opus is titled ‘The Veil’, with the installation revealing a snippet of the story authored by the artist, “Remembering Teesta and the Water Dragon”, and published in Himalaya, The Journal of Nepal and Himalayan Studies. Alyen Leeachum Foning evokes the tale of the river Teesta through the narrative of a muun, or a Lepcha tribe’s female shaman, recalling the roots of the Rongs and their connection to the ancestors, Itbu mu or mother earth, and the revered river of Teesta, who is materialised within the muun’s vision as a distingué water dragon

‘The Veil’ (2022) was a contribution by the artist for the exhibition, “Faint Traces: A Collective of Seven Exhibiting Artists (Taking Hayao Miyazaki’s Films as a subject for narrative pieces),” held at Rachna Books, Gangtok, Sikkim, on 1st and 2nd July 2022. The artist had displayed a three-dimensional and free-standing textile art piece, structuring both the story and the sculpture as a facsimile of the muun, the river, and the dragon. Heavy indigo hues and lighter cerulean colourings are employed so as to envision an enlivened river that flows in blooming waves that break past the bamboo frame that cannot contain it. An imagery of the water bellowing behind her, and then the zoomorphic transformation into a dragon completes the chronicle of mysticism in nature as narrated by the tales of the tribe from which the artist belongs to.

Alyen Leeachum Foning is an artist, a businesswoman, and a storyteller, who weaves masterpieces with threads of her Rong roots and folklore. Hailing from Kalimpong, West Bengal, Leeachum Foning belongs to the Lepcha tribe, was a student of Textile and Apparel design at NID, Ahmedabad and currently owns a design label, ALYEN FONING. Leeachum Foning has an impressive artistic corpus, with her installation ‘The Story of Munn’ exhibited at the ‘So Many Feminisms!’ conclave, by Godrej India Culture Lab in collaboration with Zubaan Books in February 2019. The research grant paper was also printed by Zubaan publishers and Sasakawa Peace Foundation Japan, and the artist has also published a textile art narrative, Mayellyang, under Zubaan.

The regions of Sikkim, Darjeeling and Kalimpong, where the artist hails from, were preoccupied by the Rongkups, colloquially known as the Lepchas, The ethnic Aboriginal tribe resided as a hunter-gatherer and temporary agricultural society in these Himalayan regions. Archaeologically, the existence of Rongkups can be traced to the Late-Neolithic era, corresponding to the 8000-4000 B.C.E., as “proto-Lepchas”, linking their movement to the Majiayao cultural assemblage. Given the disposition of the Rong tribe for naturalism and Mun religion linkage that personifies Kanchenjunga as their elder brother and the first son of mother creator Itbu Mu, under the Mun doctrine, it attests to this prosopopoeia of the peak as a deity.

Similarly, the rivers are also personified as Rongeet and Rongnyu, as the two ethereal water bodies created by Itbu mu, famed and worshipped for their grace, beauty and love for one another. Rongeet translates to ‘from where the Rongs originate’ and Rongnyu is identified as a Rong lady, masculine and feminine, the Ying and yang of the Lepcha faith. Their tale is a renowned story in their own right, conjoining to create the river Teesta, which is a vital vein of the Lepcha tradition, heritage and livelihood to this day.

Considering the prominence of local folklore within the Lepcha society, Alyen Foning’s ‘The Veil’ is a modern narrative of mythological nuances. The installation unravels as the artist traps a juncture in time when the veil shrouding the sacred realms beyond mortal understanding is unveiling. Linking the spiritual and the physical is the embodiment of the female shaman, or Muun, who offers herself as a channel to connect and emulate the river, envisioned as a dragon roaring through her. The dragon imagery is a direct reference to the Studio Ghibli movie, ‘Spirited Away’; Alyen Foning remarked “..like Chihiro and Haku from ‘Spirited Away’, I personally feel connected to the river Testa through a female Water Dragon”. The Teesta is a mighty water tributary with a mightier current, and perhaps, the visualisation of the river as a ferocious dragon is apt by Alyen Foning 

The two pieces are thus conjoined together to relay a narrative of nature. The waves are encased within a simple bamboo frame, whirlpooling with an intensity that mimics the riptides of the river. The Muun wears a gadha or the traditional tribal clothing of the Lepchas, with the dumbun, or the outer drapery, swathed in the opposite direction. Leeachum Foning chose to pin the left side first as opposed to the common right side to indicate how the installation is a reflection, with the dress reflected as it would on the other side of a mirror. The gadha is white in her purity as a shaman, while her locks are blue, much like the ripples behind the Muun and the dragon flowing through her. The divinity, the geometry and the artistry flow into this particular installation from the centre, where the spirit of Teesta is awakened through the Muun, and the tale of the river is revived through the artist. 

The artist is thoroughly inspired and influenced by Itbu mu and the femineity she embraces, reflected in her installation. The Veil is a peek into the goal set by Leeachum Foning, who aims to represent marginalised communities and showcase the skills of indigenous craftspeople like herself, while also focusing on producing modern-day and sustainable products. Leeachum’s translation of art, heritage and craft is inspired by aboriginal cultures, cloth, colours, and craft, expanding her artistry into the realms of textile art, printmaking, decorative designing, painting, doll making, music, and shamanism, for which she will be training under a muun of the Lepcha tribe.

Alyen Foning has attempted to enlighten the viewers about the cosmic presence of omnipresence in nature through simple mediums of textiles and mixed media. The artist believes that all that is divine in nature should not be forgotten, urging humanity to connect with our heritage and environment. The Muun and the Water Dragon are constructed to reconnect with Teesta, a river that is an important cultural component of the Lepcha tribe. The tale of Terra thus lives through the art of Alyen Foning, who essentially embodies her art as the modern Muun, calling all to remember the river Teesta:

“We are at a crucial time for our species, when our disconnection to nature is at its worst. Art and the wisdom of my tribe have helped me reconnect and remember our deepest connection and reverence to Mother Earth. I pray to be able to share this connection with love.”

— Alyen Leeachum Foning.