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

A sketch of Tumlong Palace

I was at the ruins of Tumlong few months back where the restoration work of the Palace is going on. That was my second visit to the Chogyal's Palace of till late 1700s. Even in my first visit few sculptured artifacts were lying while more than a year later the same artifacts i had seen then were still found at that ground but one of the stone with a hole in its middle was found missing. I do not know whether the stone is moved or taken away from the site. I was looking for the photographs that i had taken of that stone in my last visit but in hundreds of CDs  went mixed up and i am happy i found it today. I believe the stone i saw was a significant one in terms of that era.

My outlook towards the Heritage Management Seminar-3 Visit to the Ruined Royal Palace at Tumlong  The second day of the Two Days Seminar on Strategy for Heritage Management for Sikkim organized by the Cultural Department gave us an opportunity to visit the ruined Royal Palace at Tumlong. I had earlier been to that place couple of years back but still, I believed I should go to it since I had a few questions in my mind after I had seen an old sketch from a European Journal while surfing at internet on Tumlong. The sketch provided the scene of the Palace from a distant place where a road with two chorten on its upper side is shown while a single chorten lower than the road along with few huts like dwelling place and few people around was clearly framed of that period of ancient Sikkim. It is believed that when Campbell and Hooker were captured they were kept in those hut-like. I talked about the Tumlong sketch with a few of the officials during our short meetings. The o...

War objects found at Tumlong Palace ruins Little is known about the collapse of the Tumlong Palace, the third official capital of the kingdom of Sikkim but the findings of few war-related objects from the ruins of the site have added some exciting tidings. Found from the Palace ruins are cannon balls, musket balls and an iron gear. These objects could probably be looked upon as a new era of warfare that was brought to the Himalayan land of Sikkim by the British. These materials are presently under the preservation of Archives Department, Gangtok. After Rabdenste, the second capital of Sikkim was repeatedly attacked by the Nepal royal army, Tshudpud Namgyal, the than Chogyal of Sikkim shifted his capital from Rabdenste to Tumlong in 1793. Tumlong was the capital of Sikkim till 1884 when Chogyal Thutob Namgyal shifted his capital to present day Gangtok. Musket balls Cannon ball

Artefacts lying at the ruins of Tumlong BY SHITAL PRADHAN Last month I visited the ruins of Tumlong, the third capital of Sikkim and the observation to that historical site and the half done repairing work made me feel are we, I hear say are we Sikkimese really concern about our prime past. When I was going through the different pages of Sikkim history I believe there are many things we still do not know about our Sikkim or I say we know very little about it. Time has come the account of Sikkim history should be re-written from its initial stages, though we know that we have limited resources along with us. I am sure to capture the early days of Sikkim (from that epoch when we find the first settlements to this land) in 2008 isn’t as easy as it seems, but we can give an attempt.   As a student of Sikkim History I feel it is not within our perimeter to come up with the entire scene of near the beginning era of Sikkim till now at once but we can create a space for our comi...

At Kavi BY SHITAL PRADHAN Last month I was on a visit to the ruins of Tumlong, the third capital of Sikkim and the view to that site and the half done repairing work made me feel are we, I hear say are we Sikkimese really concern about our prime past. When I was going through the different pages of Sikkim's history, I believe there are many things we still do not know about Sikkim, or I can say we know very little about it. The time has come for the account of Sikkim's history to be re-written from its initial stages, though we know that we have limited resources along with us. I am sorry to say that I find many things missing and vacant spaces that need to be filled up. Just to say that we know little of Sikkim's prime is more of a layman's excuse. If the effort is made, we can make the most of it. Until recently, we have looked back at Sikkim's earliest record dating back to the 9th century when Guru Padmasambhava had mystically flown to Tibet via Sikkim. Well...