The
earliest mention of the name of Singtam is found in 1888 Lepcha-Bhutia Grammar
book where the town of Singtam was among the ten popular places in Sikkim. A
travel book published in early 1940s mention Singtam to be a small river-side
town with a Post Office. What is more fascinating is the fact that it was not
the present business capital of Singtam that was sought-after marketplace more
than eight decades back but a little heard of Sirubari now angelized Sirwani
that was more popular than Singtam and people far across the remote corner of
the state would walk down to Sirubari to buy or say exchange “siru” with their
belongings.
Singtam
at the moment is the busiest town among the four districts and its friday haat
one of the most popular in the entire state. But eight decades back the story
wasn’t the same as these days. Those days it was the small siru bazaar of
Sirubari (Sirwani) that was well known. People would never mind walking all
three days to reach to this place to collect siru. This was the period when
bazaar at Singtam was little heard off. But all of a sudden under mysterious circumstances
the then popular Siru bazaar came to a halt and today stands an isolated
Sirwani that helplessly gape up at vehicles passing by!
Jay
Dhamala in his book “Sikkim koh Ithihas” (1973) speaks about of a place called
Sinchuthang that was visible from the Bermoik Kazi kothi. The name Sinchuthang
is present day Singtam, marked the writer. It is familiar that on a clear
weather Bermoik Kazi kothi is noticed from this town but it must also be
mentioned that the other little known bazaar of Manglay (now also called
Sainotar) some 14 km from Singtam towards Timi Tarku is also called
Sinchuthang. Tracing back the meaning of the name Singtam; it is believed to be
a Lepcha word which means “collection of logs”. Singtam’s Lal Bazaar the
present haat ghar was more of a sand depository and wild bears moving freely
across the river banks had been witnessed by many folks. The river Teesta would
carry out logs and deposit at the river banks. The logs were collected in huge
extent such that it was sold to other place of necessity. Thus came the name Sinchuthang
i.e. collection of logs and later mis-spelt as Singtam.
“Kanchenjunga”
magazine published from Gangtok in the early 1960s in one of its issue carried
an article on Taksaari Chandrabir Pradhan, the same man behind the introduction
of Sikkim’s coin system. It said it was Taksaari Chandrabir Pradhan who got the
royal order from the Chogyal to cut down the jungles and set up a dweller at
Singtam. He further went up to establish Rangpo and Pakyong too. It is due to
lack of recorded documents in the past we know little about how the bazaar at
Singtam started up.
Sing means wood in lho khay.
ReplyDeleteSing means wood in lho khay.
ReplyDeleteOH...that is awesome. which language is it...
ReplyDelete