“Lest we forget” - from Save The Hills

From: Visions of Hell
http://savethehills.blogspot.com/2008/06/lest-we-forget-oct-1968-in-pictures.html

By: Praful Rao

Pictures from Das Studio

These amazing photos of the Oct 1968 Disaster in Darjeeling district are reproduced here kind courtesy Das Studio, Nehru Road, Darjeeling.
Having lived through the nightmare 4 decades ago as a young college student, these photographs bring back vivid memories.
To whose who don’t know about the 1968 disaster in this part of the world, here is a brief on it:-

“In 1968, floods in the Darjeeling area destroyed vast areas of W. Bengal and neighboring state of Sikkim by unleashing about 20,000 landslides and killing thousands of people, report Sankar et al. These slides were caused by a heavy downpour ranging from 500-1000 mm in three days. Such incidents have a return period of 100 years claim the meteorologists. The impact of the rains was such that the Darjeeling-Sikkim road was breached at 92 places and the road transport was totally disrupted.”

- Excerpt from “West Bengal Needs Better Disaster Management” by VK Joshi

http://www.kalimpong.info/category/picture/

Comments

JANHA BAGCHA TEESTA RANGIT

This was a national song of Sikkim sung in the Nepali language during the monarchy system. During the merger with India, the song got banned and later re-released. Two words on the 8th para, which earlier said 'Rajah rah Rani,' were replaced with "Janmah bhumi." This song was dedicated to the King and Queen of Sikkim. The song lyrics were penned by Sanu Lama, and the music was composed by Dushyant Lama. The song was first sung on the birth anniversary of Chogyal Palden Thondup Namgyal on April 4, 1970, at Gangtok by Aruna Lama, Dawa Lama, and Manikamal Chettri. JANHA BAGCHA TEESTA RANGIT, JAHAN KANCHENDZONGA SEER YEHI HO HAMRO DHANA KO DESH, TAPAWAN HO PYARO SIKKIM INTERLUDE PHULCHAN YEHA AANGANAI MAA, CHAAP , GURAS, SUNAKHARI SWARGASARI SUNDAR DESH KO HAMRO PYARO PYARO JANMAHBHUMI JANHA BAGCHA…… BATASHLE BOKCHAA YAHA, TATHAGAT KO AAMAR WAANI ...

India’s illegal occupation of independent Sikkim has to be reversed

Extracted from Pakistan Defence India’s “Chief Executive” in Gangtok wrote: “Sikkim’s merger was necessary for Indian national interest. And we worked to that end. Maybe if the Chogyal had been smarter and played his cards better, it wouldn’t have turned out the way it did.” It is also said that the real battle was not between the Chogyal and Kazi Lendup Dorji but between their wives. On one side was Queen Hope Cook, the American wife of the Chogyal and on the other was the Belgian wife of the Kazi, Elisa-Maria Standford. “This was a proxy war between the American and the Belgian,” says former chief minister BB Gurung. But there was a third woman involved: Indira Gandhi in New Delhi. Chogyal Palden met the 24-year-old New Yorker Hope Cook in Darjeeling in 1963 and married her. For Cook, this was a dream come true: to become the queen of an independent kingdom in Shangrila. She started taking the message of Sikkimese independence to the youth, and the allegations started flying thic...

Turning Back the clock of Singtam Town

BY SHITAL PRADHAN I wanted to be an archaeologist but destiny had other thoughts over me. Regardless of the impediment, it was my obsession towards historical findings in and around Sikkim I had over the years collected a few interesting and intriguing narratives. Being brought up at the small town of Singtam it was comprehensible that I could come up with its early history someday. The only major instance the place of Singtam finds its name in the golden page of Sikkim history was during the pre-merger movement in the early 70s when the gathered crowd in Singtam blocked the road near Bhanu Park and stopped on the run Crown Prince in his motor vehicle forcing him back to Gangtok. During that instant the pro-merger activists were caught, made captive and kept at Thakurbari mandir! The town of Singtam also mentions in world postal airmail history when 1935 a series of eight Rocketmail firings was conducted over the Singtam River. To its geographical reach the town of Singtam is located a...

Proud to be a Sikkimese: Sikkim Travel, Culture & Local Heritage

Search This Blog