Not only is it old, but the very existence of the Himalayan land of Sikkim is looked upon more as being a part of ancient times. The archaeological findings of different Neolithic tools in this part of the Himalayas over the last six decades speak of its antiquity.
It may be of little importance to many. However, findings of various Neolithic tools from remote pockets in Sikkim over the past five decades have still collected vivid interest among people beyond this region. On three separate occasions, Neolithic tools had been dug out of Sikkim, which revealed the age of this Himalayan mountainland much earlier than we had supposed. "The term Neolithic Period, or New Stone Age, defines the second period, at the beginning of which ground and usually polished rock tools, notable axes, came into widespread use after the adoption of a new technique of stone working. With the beginning of the Neolithic, the retreat of the last glaciers and the invention of food crops involving agriculture and animal domestication were more or less contemporary events.
During this time, humans cultured themselves to raise crops and possess domestic livestock and were thus no longer reliant on hunting, fishing, and collecting wild plants. Neolithic humans made more valuable stone tools by grinding and polishing relatively hard rocks rather than merely chipping softer ones down to the desired shape. The farming of cereal grains enabled Neolithic societies to build long-lasting dwellings and come together in villages. The freedom from nomadism and a hunting-gathering economy gave them the time to track specialized crafts.
Archaeological evidence indicates that the changeover from food-collecting cultures to food-producing ones gradually occurred across Asia and Europe from a starting point in the Fertile Crescent. "Cultivation and animal domestication first appeared in southwestern Asia by about 9000 BC".
The evidence for the first Neolithic artifacts collected in Sikkim was unearthed by Janak Lal Sharma, a celebrated archaeologist from Nepal, in his paperwork titled "Neolithic Tools from Nepal and Sikkim," published in Ancient Nepal (1969). J.L. Sharma and Dr. N.R. Banerjee examined the ten tools found in Nepal and Sikkim. In his own words, Sharma described the lone early man’s tool from Sikkim as: "It is a thin chisel made of slate in the shape of a trapezium, the cutting edge is slightly chamfered on one side. It is 5 cm in length, 4.5 cm wide at its lower end, and 2.5 cm at the top, and the maximum thickness of the piece is .75cm.
It was found in the midst of a cultivated field at Odhare, Ramtek Basti, not very far from Gangtok on the southern slopes of the Himalayan ranges, in Sikkim, corresponding to the midland zone of Nepal’s topography. It is interesting to note that the word Odhare, where the specimen was found, means a cave. It would, therefore, point to the probable existence of such caves, where folks using such polished implements may have once lived in the remote past. Its occurrences in the cultivated field may be attributed in this context to a discard. The sides are flattened as in the cases of the other chisels from Nepal."
I, along with my two fellow friends, Padam Parajuli and Kamal Sharma, visited this remote village, Odhare, some time back. The widespread rocky location looked like a probable site for early men’s settlement. Considering the fact that Odhare lies adjacent to Sajyong (another excavated site of early man's tools) and the mere fact that these two places are found along the old routes connecting Nepal and Sikkim with those of Tibet before Younghusband's 1904 route from Jelapla, there are ample chances that more priceless findings could be explored. Although nothing extraordinary about any so-called caves was heard off at Odhare, old folks did mention listening to "ghost" (!) stories of the large Rocky Mountains that were used to scare them off by their parents during their early days.
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