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

On May 8, 2020, the Sikkim state cabinet meeting sanctioned different funds through different government departments. Among these sanctioned lists was the approval and sanction of Rs.6383.00 lakhs (Rupees sixty-three crores and eighty-three lakhs only) for the construction of the Pilgrimage Centre with a 54-foot-high statue of Nishani Kali Devi at Central Pandam, East Sikkim, under the Civil and Tourism Department. This project will definitely help the region grow and provide better prospects for tourism. Visitors who look for new destinations will appreciate the natural beauty around the mandir. The panoramic beauty of the hills across will rightly capture the exquisiteness of nature.  I have visited this place four times, and this mandir falls on the way to the historic Pandam Garhi ruins. We had always talked about Garhi ruins, but stories related to Kali Mandir or the Pandam Garhi Mandir were limited to oral rendition and followed from generation to generation. These ...

  I still remember RB Subba, Hon’ble Minister for Human Resource Development Department of Sikkim, during his recently concluded Teacher’s Day speech at Chintan Bhawan, Gangtok said, “…..this year is a sad one as one of my teachers passed away who had taught me at my elementary classes. A teacher with whom I fought against and defeated in his last political battle. He was none other than NB Bhandari, former Chief Minister of Sikkim”.  Nar Bahadhur Bhandari, three times Chief Minister of Sikkim, passed away two days before my 39th birthday day in New Delhi (July 16, 2017) after a prolonged illness. I was in shock, like most of the Sikkimese and Nepali-speaking population, that just a few weeks back, a letter written by Mr. Bhandari to Bhim Rawat, President of the Press Club of Sikkim, had surfaced on Social Media regarding his words on the ongoing Gorkhaland issue. He would come back to support the movement of the Gorkhaland.  Returning to my childhood, I don’t r...

--> Gandhiji was at Hill Cart Road near Kak Jhora with Anne Beasant and Deshbandhu Chitranjan Das in 1925. The Toy Train track runs alongside the road, and a hand-driven rickshaw is behind it.  (c) Fallen Cicada - Unwritten History of Darjeeling Hills by Barun Roy pic: beacononline.wordpress   The latest issue of  The Week , dated December 27, 2009, had something stored for me. The national magazine's cover story was “Myths of Our Time,” which had a few stories webbed around our cultural and social beliefs, but there was little truth in them. One article excited me the most; it was the sole reason I put my hand forward when I saw it hanging in one of the shops in Gangtok. The story's headline read, “Gandhi did not say Hey Ram when shot.”  The story was against the belief of Gandhi's followers that it spread to every corner of the globe. But the fact remains strong that Gandhi did not utter anything when he was shot by Nathuram Godse with...

Nineteen years ago, a small-budget Nepali film was shot entirely in Sikkim. Celebrated local artist Danny Denzongpa played the lead role. The film also featured popular Nepali artists Bhuwan KC and Tripti, Muralidhar from Nepal, and Rakshya, the child artiste.  The film ‘Saino’ was a huge success, and the music set by Ranjit Gazmer is part of a fairy tale. Each of its seven songs holds a legendary status sung by singers like Asha Bhonsle, Udit Narayan, Deepa Narayan, Kumar Kancha, Muralidhar, and Danny himself.    The film was shot in a short span and directed by Ugen Chopel, who became a famed director of Nepali cinema. Saino was more than a cinematic brilliance with dialogues of character actors getting mass appreciation. Who can forget the lines like “ daiba ko daya lay ….and the Pukar Gurung’s act with his signature line…” koi cha mah sangha khelnay ”. Saino was later made into Bengali and Hindi films but with little success. But its Hindi serial version...

updated on 22.05.2020 I am not an expert on Sikkim's history, nor am I a prolific historian; my interest in Sikkim's past makes me feel that there are various vacant spaces yet to be filled. When I reviewed different pieces of paper on Sikkim's history, I felt we knew very little about our country. Time has come, and the account of Sikkim's history should be reworked from its primary period, though we know we have inadequate resources. I am sure that capturing the early days of Sikkim (the era when we found the first settlements on this land) in 2020 isn’t as easy as it seems, but we can make an attempt. As a student of Sikkim history, I feel it is not within our perimeter to come up with the entire scene from the beginning until now at once, but we can create a room for our coming generations to carry forward those works we shall leave for them.  Today, we hold ourselves accountable to our ancestors (I am not referring to Rishley, Das, Ray, and others;...

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...