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

Homai Vyarawalla, India’s first woman press photographer claimed to fame was her photographs that showed a transition of an Independent India in the first four decades. A winner of Padma Vibhusan , the second-highest civilian award of India, Homai Vyarawalla was an active press photographer from the 30s till the 70s when she finally retired She started her career from Bombay Chronicle and ended it with   The illustrated weekly of India . She passed away early this year at the age of 98.   Some of her poplar photographs included the celebration of the first Independence Day , Nehru lighting a cigarette on the lips of Ms. Simon, wife of the then British High Commissioner to India, funerals of great leaders in Gandhiji , Nehru, and others.    Interestingly it is written in Wikipedia that most of her photographs were published under the pseudonym “Dalda 13″. The reasons behind her choice of this rather amusing name were that her birth year was 1913, she got m...

  These newspaper cuttings belong from the personal collection of Late Pem Tshering and are now under her daughter Sabnam Lama. Late Pem Tshering had done marvelous work in putting off the newspaper cuttings that hit the headlines all over the world regarding the political turnover at Tibet in 1959 through the newspaper of Amrita Bazar Patrika, he passed away in 1975 and he was Inspector of Police, Frontier Check Post posted at Kalimpong.

View Full Album Towards the Nathula Border between India and China at Kupup , just opposite the famed Baba Harbhajan Singh Mandir , there is a Cafe 13000 , probably the highest cafeteria along with a gift shop just attached to it any one could had ever imagined at such height. The taste of coffee gives you the pleasure and the serene beauty of the surrounding sets the moment for which Sikkim is renowned across the world. Well this cafeteria did not excited me the most until i came across a rare "thing" that i had never ever come across in so far. Inside this unique surrounding in one of its corner lie three flags out of which one did really capitulated my attention. I had gone through different books on Sikkim history where the Sikkim National Flag was primly noticed in any state festive or in any occasions where the guest of honour was of royal family of Sikkim. But to see the Sikkim National Flag just in front of you and touching it, a breeze of pride r...

I came upon a blog of pukuli (sounds intresting, don't go by the name of the blogger). I even used to have a sister by this name and her name did made me nostalgic. Nevertheless i came through her blog that the LIFE website is publishing around 10 million of photographs from the archives of LIFE magazine. Here i took upon a chance to see whether there are any photographs related to Sikkim and i am glad i did so. There are few photographs clicked by Bill Ray during the India-China tussle of 1965, the area most probably is Nathula Border. The photographs shows army-men of India and China. 1.Chinese troops on Sikkim-Tibet border 2.Chinese troops on Sikkim-Tibet border 3. Indian soldier patrols on frontier between Sikkim and Tibet 4. Indian soldier on Sikkim-Tibet border 5. Life photograher Bill Ray (CR) with Indian soldiers

This article i found in a site Bhutan Times and i believe it is worth going for anyone interested to know more about Sikkim. India and Kazi Lhendup murdered Sikkim The last Prime Minister of the Himalayan kingdom of Sikkim , Kazi Lhendup Dorji, met an ignominious death. On the northern corner of West Bengal state of India , there is a hill station-- Kalimpong, which once hosted celebrities from all over the world. The hill town, where most of the settlers are of Nepali origin, no longer retains its old charm. But until a few weeks ago the last prime minister of a country—that has lost its independence—used to live here. Kazi Lhendup Dorji, who died on 28 July this year at the ripe old age of 103, had played a pivotal role in the merger of Sikkim into India . Dorji is seen as a ‘traitor’ in the contemporary history. He lived, and died, with the same ignominy. “Everybody accuses me of selling the country. Even if it is true, should I alone be blamed?” he asked me, when I met him in Kalim...

Indira Gandhi visited Sikkim a month before she was assassinated by her bodyguard on October 31, 1984, New Delhi, India. The photographs show: 1. Indira Gandhi’s helicopter arriving at the helipad, Gangtok 2. Indira Gandhi with Chief Minister N.B. Bhandari and Governor H J H Taliyarkhan. 3. Indira Gandhi with Armymen at Nathula (Sikkim-China Border). Shared by Nirmal Chettri, Shantinagar, Singtam

Lets also speak through old photographs.... The two photographs taken during 1973 revolt against monarchy rule shows two different pictures of the pre-merger activity at Sikkim that changed the political scenario of the then independent Himalayan Kingdom. The place shown in both pictures is MG Marg at the heart of Gangtok, the capital of Sikkim.

Akkar Bridge at Jorethang , South Sikkim that flows over Rangit River is the India's first Cable-stayed concrete bridge. Designed by Bergermann and Partner, Stuttgart was completed in 1989.  Materials used are steel for cables and concrete in rest of the structure. Its length spans 2 x 77 m, deck width 11.10 m and its pylon height 54.60 m.