I want to become a Sikkim Historian

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.

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...

The Gorkhas - Sons of the Soil, Pride of the Nation

Nanda Kirati Dewan, a journalist from Assam traces the origin of the Gorkhas in India. Many people have misconceptions about the Gorkhas in India - that they are foreigners and have migrated from Nepal. There could not be a greater mistake than this. The Gorkhas are in fact the aborigines of India and they can trace their history back to ancient times. The Gorkha community is the product of Indo-Aryan and Mongoloid assimilation from ages past. As a linguistic group, they can trace their origin back to Indo-Aryan and Tibeto-Burman beginnings. In fact, the Gorkhas consist of both Indo-Aryan and Mongoloid racial groups. In the Mahabharata and Manusmriti names of Khasa are mentioned. They are in fact the Gorkhas. The Gorkhas spoke the language then known as Khaskura Khasas as a community existed in Nepal which it later changed to another ethnic name. The Lichchhavis, one of the aboriginal tribes of India originally lived in the plains of present Nepal. During the early centu...

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

Search This Blog