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

By Arpan Pradhan Meena Rani Mukhia award ceremony was organized at Tadong Government Senior Secondary school on 3rd of December 2011, Saturday. This was the initiative taken by former principal of Tadong government senior secondary school to felicitate the top students of each class. And also the entire programme was sponsored by Mrs. Meena Rani Mukhia former principal of Tadong Sr. Sec. School. In the event class topper of every classes starting from class – i   to class – xii were awarded with a certificate and cash prize. As Mrs. Meena Rani Mukhia takes a bit more interest in the girl education she also had also initiated an award “best girl of Tadong School”. The criterion for “best girl of school” is, she must be studying in the school since the pre-primary level and the same was awarded to Miss Dil Kumari who studied in Tadong School for almost 13 years. In the programme area councilor Mr. Prabhat Gurung was also present. present in the event was Mrs. Doma L. Zimba, Pr...

RONGLI, NOVEMBER 12: BAC Regu/ HRDD / East organised sub- division level programme at Rongli Bazar on National Education Day, the birth anniversary of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, India’s first Education Minister on 11 th November 2011. The programme was attended by BDO, BAC/ Regu Sheri Dhiraj Pradhan as a Chief Guest followed by Assistant Director, HRDD/ BAC/Regu Shri Chador Bhutia, SDPO Rongli, P I Rongli, Principal/Headmaster and teachers of   different govt. and private schools of Rongli surroundings ( Rongli JHS, God Sunn’s   Prep. School, Sunrise Model School and Bidhya Bharati School) Staffs of Regu BAC, SMC members, guardians, local public and students of government and private schools. The programme started at 10.30 am with warm welcome address by AEO, BAC Regu/ HRDD, Deepak Rai. The host of the day, Krishna Pd. Dawari, CRC Coordinator highlighted the importance of the day and presented the brief biography of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad. The message of Hon’ble Prime Min...

shared by Rajen Upadhaya

I am thankful towards Sushma Sharma for sharing up these valuable photographs of old Sikkim. Each photographs are a gem of its own.

I am still looking for the earliest settlers at Singtam bazaar but with little success. As a student of Sikkim history when I try to wrap myself within the frame of that era where transportations and communications were only on the animal’s ride or possibly the “dollies” used by the wealthy social order, I would beyond doubt find myself the sole person to think what or how things could have happened then. When I look at the age old mango trees grown along the road side leading to Singtam Bazaar from the old Iron Bridge it makes me feel nostalgic. I could feel the thoughts of the people who had planted it. These trees are as old as Singtam and those people who first sowed the mango seed were the first to have thought to beautify this then small time river-side inhabitant. What was more fascinating was the fact that it was not the present business capital of Singtam that was sought-after marketplace more than half a decades ago but a little heard of Sirubari now angelized Sirwani that wa...

I enjoy what Gerda Lerner, a renowned historian, once quoted: “What we do about history matters? The often repeated saying that those who forget the lessons of history are doomed to repeat them has a lot of truth in it. But what are 'the lessons of history? The very attempt at definition furnishes ground for new conflicts. History is not a recipe book; past events are never replicated in the present in quite the same way. Historical events are infinitely variable and their interpretations are a constantly shifting process. There are no certainties to be found in the past. As a toddler, we are here to comprehend the beauty of those immemorial days that have lived up to its days.”  Fig 1. Delisle’s 1723 Carte d’Asie shows the first map of Sikkim, then written as Bramson Often repeated words that history should never be repeated but re-created, I personally believe we have come to that hour of need where we can have local writers brushing up with some history exemplar, pu...

Shital Pradhan, Singtam Legends are part of the developmental evolution of the human race and cannot be singled out as simply being imaginary. These legends had been the basis of many future findings that were once tales woven into the narration of reality and folklore. We belong to the land of Lepchas, which are termed primitive tribes. Yet, we cannot confront ourselves because we lack evidence to speak our minds. We believe in age-old ethnicity and the words of scholars. Still, the absolute truth remains the fact that our future generations need to be explained the mystic forces of time immemorial that built up our Sikkim, from the days of the so-called earliest life in a Lepcha tribe to the three-century-old Namgyal Dynasty and further towards the making of the Sikkim that we live in today. From the tiny Himalayan Kingdom to the 22nd state in the mighty Indian Union, the stamp-sized state of Sikkim has witnessed many major transformations. Much like folklore, the history of early Si...