Skip to main content

I want to become a Sikkim Historian

By himalayanreview


War objects found at Tumlong Palace ruins

I never wanted to be a teacher, and at the same time, I never had any options. I had always been interested in history since school, but destiny had another career for me. When I completed high school, I compromised my dream of becoming an archeologist and opted for Pure Science streams. In my early schooling days, we were taught to plant dreams, and I dreamt of becoming an archeologist. Tutankhamen, Stonehenge, El Dorado, Atlantis, Crop Circles, Incas, Mayas, ancient civilizations and many others were the only things I used to fantasize. I regularly visited forest areas in my hometown and searched for things, believing that I was an archeologist and was destined to discover them. My biggest irony of life one day I found a real plant fossil, it was a petrified fossil with an impression of a Gramineae leaf. Since 2003 I am trying to get more information of it but without any success.
I completed my Pure Science studies and opted for Botany Honours at Sikkim Government College in Tadong, Gangtok. After my dreams of being an archeologist were scattered, I could not set up goals for my life. I completed my Botany Honours, never knowing what was next! After that, I was to follow, which I had never ever given thought. I would say Lady Luck smiled at me. I joined Weekend Review Newspaper at Gangtok, and since then, there has been no looking back. Through the Weekend Review newspaper, I unfolded my fantasy of learning Sikkim. The year then was 2003.
The seed of archeology was there with me, but one incident changed my outlook toward my thoughts. It was in then Calcutta, my first visit to the metros I was surprised to find that most of the people out there never knew about Sikkim. Some thought it to be in Nepal, some in China, and others made my home state stand somewhere in Bhutan. Till then, I had never known what Sikkim was all about. Since that incident, I have been trying to study Sikkim, trying to understand what Sikkim is all about? I want to know more and more about my Sikkim, every step that played an important role in the making of Sikkim.
From archeologist to self-made Sikkim historian….I had changed the object of my life, but one thing that has remained untouched is my sincere approach towards my goal. Blogging is just a platform to make people like me understand Sikkim. What I write in this weekly column and in my blog “Proud to be a Sikkimese’ (http://sikhim.blogspot.com) is not a mere hobby of getting popular as I am said by my few friends who do not like me writing about Sikkim History. I had been told I was writing nonsense, and they believed digging the past only stinks. I am sorry for them, but I am not stopping my hunger to know about Sikkim. For each article, I go through numerous old, ragged pages of ‘fat books’ and other resources. I know my responsibilities, but my only greed lies in the fact that through my articles, I wish my younger generation learns more about our Sikkim history, which is not found anywhere else.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

History on Easter Sunday and Padari Ganga Prasad Pradhan

By himalayanreview
By Seira Tamang As noted by various scholars, Hinduism, the Nepali language, the monarchy and a rastriya itihas (a chronicle of progress in which the dark era of Rana rule is contrasted with the enlightened, progressive and modern period of Panchayat rule) formed the core of the Panchayat regime’s national culture. The formation and consolidation of this national culture have required the expunging of uncomfortable facts and stories that might raise ambiguities and questions. While the selection of what and who is and is not acknowledged to exist (or at least exist in historically important ways) in official Nepali history is complex, social scientists have begun to provide more comprehensive historical accounts of the past through oral histories and re-readings of historical documents. Such accounts reveal how ordinary people lived in the past, and offer ways to think through how ‘history’ is crafted, shaped and managed in order to reflect ‘the reality’ best suited to the status quo, ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Pandam Garhi and its surmise

By himalayanreview
--> RUINS OF PANDAM GARHI BY SHITAL PRADHAN The stories of the legendary ruined walls at Pandam, a 16 km uphill climb from Rangpo, as I had heard from old folks a few seasons back, had ever since excited me to visit this place. Never in the pages of a history book do we come across its talk about when it was built or how it was constructed at the top of the hill? Over the years, many theories have evolved regarding its origin. Some theorists associate the fort with some Lepcha legends, while few disagree with it and have their own adage.  They make us believe one of the Chogyals constructed it to stop the approaching Bhutanese army from entering Sikkim. The last theory to add up, already baffling and controversial, says it was one of the Gurkha Generals from Nepal who constructed the fort along with the Kalika Mandir, also called Nishani Mandir, just below it. With each theory making questions over my mind, I decided to have my second trek to the Pandam Garhi. I had ...
2 comments
Read more

Sikkim Mahinda Thero: A national hero of Sri Lanka

By himalayanreview
Sikkim Mahinda Thero BY SHITAL PRADHAN I first heard about S Mahinda Thero in 2005 while in Kolkata when I was asked by one of the stamp dealers whether I was interested in a 20 paisa stamp of S Mahinda Thero issued by the Sri Lankan Postal Department in the early 1970s. I collected philatelic items on Buddhism, but I never understood who he was talking about. He told me, as I was from Sikkim, I might be interested to know more about the person, and he went on to add it was Sikkim Mahinda Thero, a Buddhist monk who is regarded as a national hero, a famous poet in the Sinhalese language whose poetry promoted patriotism and the revival of Buddhism to this part of the Island. He promised to send me the stamp of S Mahinda Thero from Colombo through the mail, but I have never heard from him since then. However, regarding my limited concern, it was enough to know that such a person keeps the name Sikkim with honor and pride in Sri Lanka. I had the name...
9 comments
Read more