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Showing posts with the label Sikkim Expedition 1888

Revisiting Dalapchand - Second Part

The legend of Lampokhari and an unknown burial at Aritar I find myself fortunate that my effort to provide information about our state's bygone days through this column is appreciated. I have always considered myself a storyteller rather than a history digger.  I am just a medium through which these stories, anecdotes, and essays are shared so that readers can learn more about the state of Sikkim. I firmly believe that the more I share, the more I hear in return. To add to last week's article on “Revisiting Dalapchand,” today I share exciting stories of a legend of Lampokhari, which is not recorded in papers but passed on from one generation to another. BB Rai, my former staff member at Dalapchand SS, told me some exciting stories he had heard from old folks. When the British occupied Dalapchand after the 1888 Sikkim Expedition, the water of Lampokhari dried up. The British men then used the huge landmass to collect rations for the British soldiers and villagers near...

Century old British War Memorial at Gnathang in Sikkim

As always when I come across stories related to Sikkim history my feet have no boundaries. I had heard about a small war memorial at Gnathang along the Sikkim-Tibet border a few years back but due to unavoidable circumstances, I was not able to visit that place. So when I set foot at Gnathang this March I was very excited. Well, there is a War Memorial in Gnathang but more than that a neglected one. Despite its historic importance, I believe it has lost its existence. The dry overgrown grasses and the broken nameplates of the memorial speak of the negligence. World history remembers the event as the Sikkim Expedition in 1888. There are around 15 graveyards in the War Memorial of those soldiers representing the British Expeditionary Force that fought a war against the Tibetan Army in 1888 at Gnathang. The British Force stayed at this remote mountainous corner between 1888 to 1895 and the memorial reflects the determination and grit of those people most of whom were in their mid-20s and ...