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

 

from News4u Gangtok : Having declared the year 2010 as the Year of Tourism, the Sikkim government has drawn up a plan incorporating as many as 13 local festivals in the list of popular events to be staged next year to woo tourists from across the country and abroad. Officials of the tourism department said that the celebration of the Year of Tourism will commence with the Sikkim Discover Festival to be held in March/April next year and conclude with the State Flower Show to be held at the state capital in March, 2011. In April 2010, a number of cultural events will be held at Rabong, Aritar and Temi-Tarku to delight the visitors. Apart from this, an international Rhododendron festival will be held at Shingba Lachung in North Sikkim and Varsey in West Sikkim during the first three weeks of May 2010.

BY SHITAL PRADHAN Sikkim has always been a peaceful abode and a traveller’s paradise. To understand its beauty, one needs to discover this heaven, its passion, and its perfect picture. There could be no better choice than to start the journey from Gangtok, the capital of Sikkim. Gangtok is one of the much sought-after holiday destinations in India today. Over the last five years, the number of tourists visiting India and abroad has increased. Tracing back the origin of the Gangtok city the book “ The Gazetteer of Sikhim” published in 1894 writes of a place called Gantok from where a common man Phungshog Namgyal was summoned to Yoksam in West Sikkim by the three Tibetan Lamas and proclaimed as the Chogyal (King) of Sikkim. The year is given as 1641. The existence of the hamlet of Gangtok remains unknown till 1894, when, in the reign of Chogyal, Sir Thutob Namgyal shifted the capital of the Namgyal Dynasty from Tumlong to the present Gangtok. The 300-year-old Namgyal Dynasty end...