Sikkim history should be re-written

At Kavi

BY SHITAL PRADHAN

Last month I was on a visit to the ruins of Tumlong, the third capital of Sikkim and the view to that site and the half done repairing work made me feel are we, I hear say are we Sikkimese really concern about our prime past. When I was going through the different pages of Sikkim history I believe there are many things we still do not know about our Sikkim or I can say we know very little about it. Time has come the account of Sikkim history should be re-written from its initial stages, though we know that we have limited resources along with us.

I am sorry to say but I personally find many things missing and vacant spaces to be filled up. Just to say that we know little of Sikkim prime is more of a layman excuses. If effort is taken I believe we can make most of it. Till recent time we have looked back Sikkim earliest record as dating back to 9^th century when Guru Padmashambhava had mystically flied to Tibet via Sikkim. Well let’s not make our prime past much of a folk tales, we have the evidences of the findings of the Neolithic tools from the state which says that the earliest men were present in Sikkim prior to 10,000 BC and I believe that is much before Guru Padmashambhava’s visit. Another instance that the finding of the murali maize fossils in 1950s from Sikkim had placed Sikkim as the secondary origin of maize also takes our existence towards 5,000 to 10,000 BC. If only we dare to find out our prime past we have ample chances that we can trace our origins.

Petrified fossil found at Shantinagar, Singtam

Let me talk about few stories which try to defy what we were been following so far. Let’s begin with Kavi, a journal mentions that blood of a limbu woman was used for the treaty, one of a book on Sikkim history mentions Chanakya’s death was successfully planned by the Lepchas, our so-called history say the generation of Khaye Bhumsa was predicted to rule the mountainous region of Sikkim but it is strange it took 300 years to prove, can we give surety it was all due to that prediction. Where is the written version of the blood brotherhood treaty? The list seems long…..so to the latest how many of us know about S. Mahinda Thero, a Tibetan Buddhist from Sikkim is regarded as a saint in Sri Lanka for spreading Buddhism in that tiny Island. Let’s be more specific can anyone name the mountain that is shown in the revenue stamps of Sikkim since 1930s, it is more of a strange the photograph used has never changed for the last 80 years, how about Sikkim Rocket mail Experiment 1935 that made Sikkim the first country to have world’s first parcel mail dispatch over the river.

History of a place seems incomplete without proper documentation, let we say; we have old photographs of Sikkim at our houses can we not share these immemorial treasures. The history of Sikkim is not confined within you and me; it is more of ours, for our coming generations. We need to give our coming generations the correct and appropriate presentation of accounts of Sikkim rather than like we do blaming our ancestors for not documenting their records properly.