The name Singtam and its origin

The earliest mention of the name Singtam is found in the 1888 Lepcha-Bhutia Grammar book, where the town of Singtam was among the ten popular places in Sikkim. A travel book published in the early 1940s mentions Singtam as 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. Still, 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 exchange “siru” with their belongings.

Singtam, at the moment, is the busiest town among the four districts, and its Friday haat is one of the most popular in the entire state. But the story wasn’t the same eight decades back as it is today. Those days, the small siru bazaar of Sirubari (Sirwani) was well known. People would never mind walking all three days to reach to this place to collect siru. This was the period when the bazaar at Singtam was little heard of. 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 by the writer. It is familiar that in clear weather, Bermoik Kazi kothi is noticed from this town. Still, 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 to 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 many folks witnessed wild bears moving freely across the riverbank. The Teesta River would carry logs and deposits at the river banks. The logs were collected to a huge extent and sold to another place of necessity. Thus came the name Sinchuthang, i.e., collection of logs, and later misspelled as Singtam. 

In one of its issues, “Kanchenjunga” magazine, published in Gangtok in the early 1960s, carried an article on Taksaari Chandrabir Pradhan, the man behind the introduction of Sikkim’s coin system. It said Taksaari Chandrabir Pradhan 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. Due to a lack of past records, we know little about how the bazaar at Singtam started.