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

BB Lal was the first governor of the state of Sikkim. He was in office from 18 th  May 1975 till 9 th  January 1981.  Interestingly, the magazine cut-off reads BB Lal was given a warm farewell on December 30, 1980, in the presence of NB Bhandari, the then Chief Minister of Sikkim. The photograph mentioned above is the last one to be clicked in Sikkim. He then left for Nainital, which is now in Uttrakhand.   He became the first governor of Sikkim to have his residence at the heritage building of the British residency, which was also known as Barra Khoti and is now more popular as Raj Bhavan. LD Kazi was the Chief Minister of Sikkim when Lal started his tenure as the Governor of Sikkim. Before 1975, Sikkim was an independent Himalayan monarchy ruled by Namgyal Dynasty. In 1979, NB Bhandari became the second Chief Minister of Sikkim. Lal passed away in 2008 at the age of 91. Facts related to BB Lal: Most of the bazaars in popular places are cal...

Sir Basil Gould , Britain's Political Officer in Sikkim, was fond of Sikkim's wool . Those handspun wools used to be made into sea boots stockings . The press clip from the TIMES reads that Sikkim's wool was well appreciated. It is mentioned that the lamas had prayed during the last War (probably the WWI ) for the success of farming the wools. The wool suited the best gumboot stockings. The wool was such that it was said the wool kept the heart and the feet 'well' of the Britishers.   Sir Basil John Gould, CMG, CIE (1883–1956) was a British Political Officer in Sikkim, Bhutan and Tibet from 1935 to 1945. An interesting sentence from Gould written by Anna Balikci Denzongpa in one of the articles published at Bulletin of Tibetology, Gangtok ; where in his memoirs " The Jewel in the Lotus ," he writes about the Raj Bhawan of Gangtok, the then British Residency as "perhaps the most attractive medium-sized home in the whole of India.