Existence of the Devi lives on at Pandam Garhi Mandir

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 stories are events and a collection of anecdotes that made this Mandir grow stronger from one corner of the state to another and even beyond that. These stories are amazing and shelter self-belief to those who follow Devi and her auspicious presence.

ALSO READ -.Pandam Garhi and its surmise

Old folks of Pandam say they had heard from their elders that Devi used to visit their hills most often, and those happenings were much earlier than the stories of Damodar Parrhey’s legend. Those folks remember those who had seen Devi or felt her presence. Those villagers had been worshipping Devi Kali for ages, and the presence of the temple above the village of Karmithang is as old as its first human settlement in that region. The locals and the worshipers in neighbouring states firmly believe in the charisma of the Kali.

I have heard different accounts about Devi and her surroundings from RP Bhandari, a man in his eight decades of life. Some of the stories had lived up for ages, and a few were recent. In one such incident – a group of men was moving in the forest near the mandir when they came across a small girl. One of them had mistakenly made fun of the girl. Thereafter he got ill and had blood vomiting. Knowing they had annoyed Devi, he and his family went to the mandir that same evening and asked for forgiveness. He recovered from his illness after that.

Kali Devi Mandir - 2005

Another story says there was once a forest fire. The fire was big, and when it was about to approach the mandir premises, there was a rainfall around on the bright sunny day, and the fire was put off. Surprisingly, the rain too stopped, added the old man. There are various incidents of people visiting this mandir from far places when their child had a speech disorder and getting it recovered. Incidents where people had informed of coming across a tiger at the mandir make the place more mysterious.

RP Bhandari said he had been visiting the mandir with his grandfather since childhood, and they used to worship the tree out there. Upon asking why he was worshipping the tree, his grandfather would say, "We had been doing this for ages, and worshipping this tree would bring fortune to our area, and no ill effect would occur," remembers Bhandari. Devi was worshipped in the form of a tree, and the idol of Kali was kept later, I believe.

Add caption

Religious rituals and festivals are regularly performed at the Kali Mandir. Just below the mandir is a small water source that comes out from the muddy walls. The most famous oral narrative among the villagers says a popular warrior from Nepal, Damodar Pahrey, with his more popular name, Damodar Pande, had reached this place of Pandam after having a war with Sikkim. He was a worshipper of Devi Kali. The land then was very dry, and he had mysteriously pushed his finger into the wall, and water flowed from it from nowhere. Even today, the water still flows and has not dried up.

It is said he had washed his sword in that water. The story seems hard to believe in this 21st century, but these are legends, and people still talk about it. Damodar Pahrey was a mysterious person. In one of the books, I read that he was carried on a conch (sankha) from Kuerseong to Nepal. This was just to relate to his mystery. We shall talk about that various flying conch some other day. The chronology of Sikkim history mentions the presence of the Nepal army and Damodar Parhey in 1788-89.

An interesting anecdote shared by Arun Bhandari, son of RP Bhandari, he told me they never had any problem with water whenever they organized Maha Puran at the Devi Mandir. They never had to carry water for seven to nine days. But when there were construction works inside the mandir, the source of water would be much less than they had to be carried from nearby sources. 

The historic Pandam Garhi ruin is a 10-15 minute walk from the Kali Devi mandir. Various accounts claim to have built the Garhi, but nothing has been found correctly. My small mind shifts to the discoveries that happened in 2009. During the repairing of the walls and the construction of walking stairs, the workers underneath the shifted rock boulders and muddy debris found cannonballs like round river stones, pottery pieces, a ‘jhatoa’ used for grinding grains, stone tablets written in Ranjana lipi, burned blackened charcoal pieces and others. This finding was simply amazing, but in the last eleven years, nothing has been done about it. The carbon dating of pottery pieces and those burned charcoal could re-write the story of this Garhi. What were the stone tablets doing there? Many questions arise.

There are tales about the war between the armies of Pandam Garhi and the Namthang Garhi. They used to throw cannonballs like stones across each other and it is believed that a few busted walls found today are said to be by the strength of those stones thrown from Namthang Garhi. Though hard to believe since the distance between the two Garhi is far and wide, even more thought-provoking is to imagine the subject of the weapon technology of a couple of hundred years back.

2009

I do not know how others feel about the origin of the name “Pandam,” but what I learned about naming this place is related to one of the most hostile episodes in Sikkim’s royal history. Pende Ongmu, the half-sister of Chogyal Chakdor Namgyal, the third Chogyal of Sikkim, had successfully deliberated the murder of the Chogyal at Rabdanste and had gone hiding. 

She is believed to have been found at the fort of Pandam along with the physician who was her partner in crime; as such, the place was called Pendem after Pende Ongmu, who was later taken to Namchi, where she was put to death. The more popular name Pandam of today could be the angelized name of Pendem. The villagers do agree: Raja-rani was found hiding at Garhi, and they were caught!

Published in Sikkim Express - 17.05.2020

Archeological Exploration in Sikkim (2002-2004) finds place in a book

I still remember writing an article on early man tools found in Sikkim some time back. I had wrapped in brief three separate excavations completed in different parts of Sikkim. A few years later, I saw a complete package of excavation reports of the last excavation done at Sikkim (2004) in the form of a book, which was enough to excite my tiny heart. 

The book Archeological Exploration in Sikkim, written by Dr. PK Mishra, provides a report on the excavations done in 2002 and 2004 at Sikkim by the team led by Dr. Mishra from the Prehistoric Branch of the Archeological Survey of India. The book also illustrates photographs with information on early man artifacts discovered from over two dozen Neolithic sites in North and East Sikkim. 

Dr. Mishra writes that the tools recovered from Sikkim were collected from the fields under step cultivation and even from the local people who thought those were “Chattang ko Dunga” or the “Vajra Dunga” stone from heaven. I smiled when I first read about it. This reminded me of an interesting point from a well-read book, “Lepcha – My Vanishing Tribe” by AR Foning. The author AR Foning writes about his experience with “Sadaer Longs”, the so-called thunder stones that the old folks used to term as possessing blessings from the Thunder God.

According to the book, "interesting aspect of the excavation done at Sikkim pushed a significant breakthrough in the world of archaeology, the scholars considers that the region of Sikkim as a corridor through which the Neolithic Celt making techniques entered India from South East Asia. The tools found in Sikkim were derived from dolerite, shale, slate, and fossil wood. “The typological analysis of the tools suggests two phases in their development, which forms the basis for a twofold schema introduced for their identification. 

These phases are: (i). Early phase with tools being wholly chipped and the edge ground. (ii). Later phase with pecked and edge ground and fully ground tools. Using this schema, the early phase shows common features with the Hoabihian Culture of South East Asia dated to 10,000 B.C., and the later phase assignable to 8000 B.C. shows a close affinity with that of South China and South East Asia.”

I am sure these findings take back the origin of the land of Sikkim from when we had never thought. I still remember a news article published in ‘Now’ newspaper covering this very excavation that said the most excellent part of the exploration was the findings of a fossilized antelope horn in the Sajyong area near Rumtek that was reported to be about 1,50,000 years old. 

But somehow, nothing is written about the fossilized horn on any pages. The other major breakthrough of the excavation was the carbon dating of one of the Neolithic tools dating back beyond 2,500 BC in the East District of Sikkim.

Kapilvastu Day Movement Global Committee Formed

Shared by Ram Kumar Shrestha
Global Coordinator
Kapilvastu Day Movement Global Committee

As part of the World Peace Movement, Nepalese people living in different parts of the world last year decided to commemorate Lumbini and Kapilavastu, the birthplace of Gautam Buddha, by observing Kapilvastu Day as a global holiday in order to spread the Buddha’s peace and nonviolence messages all over the world. The Buddha is revered as a Messenger of Peace. He is also known as the Light of Asia who is actually the Light of the world as his message of peace and nonviolence has become more relevant as the world is facing the problems of violence today. The world today has become more violent than ever before. Therefore, we have decided to spread the messages of the Buddha all over the world by observing Kapilvastu Day every year. 

Originally, on December 1, 1896, Dr Anton Führer, a German archaeologist, had discovered the Buddha’s birthplace when he found the Asoka Pillar at Lumbini.  Even though this site was first discovered by Khadga Shamsher Rana before Führer had reached the site but Führer is credited for this discovery as he brought it into light and made it known to the international community.

The Asoka Pillar is the most important evidence that Buddha was born in Lumbini. Therefore, it was decided to observe December 1 as Kapilavastu Day. The historic Kapilavastu, located close to Lumbini, is considered to be another holy pilgrimage for the Buddhists since it was the place where the Buddha grew up and which he later renounced seeking to understand the cause of human sufferings. The result of years of excavations and researches by numerous national and international teams has been that Tilaurakot is the historic Kapilvastu which UNESCO should certify as another World Heritage, next to Lumbini.

After celebrating the Kapilvastu Day as the Global Day for the first time in history on December 1, 2009, we discussed on how to keep the program going ahead. Hence a 19 member committee (which will be of 21- member in the future) has been formed as the Kapilvastu Day Movement Global Committee under Ram Kumar Shrestha’s leadership. The committee is constituted as follows:

1. Ram Kumar Shrestha  Global Coordinator, UK
2. Abi Sharma   Coordinator, Canada        
3. Baburaja Maharjan  Coordinator, Newzealand
4. Bhanu Poudyal   Special Coordinator, Canada
5. Binay Shah   Coordinator, Hongkong
6. Chandra Rai   Coordinator, Canada
7. Dr. Hari Kumar Shrestha  Coordinator, Taiban
8. Hari Nepali   Coordinator, Qatar
9. Laxman Devkota   Coordinator, Portugal
10. Laxman Puri   Coordinator, Nepal
11. Mrs Laxmi Simkhada  Coordinator, USA
12. Om Gurung   Coordinator, Japan
13. Raj Shrestha   Coordinator, Nepal
14. Ramhari Shrestha  Coordinator, UK
15. Santosh Neupane  Coordinator, Belgium
16. Miss Sanu Ghimire  Coordinator, Australia
17. Shailesh Shrestha  Coordinator, USA
18. Shambhu Kattel   Coordinator, USA
19. Sujan Neupane   Coordinator, Australia

To make the movement more effective and to simplify the decision making process of the committee a nine member secretariat has been formed and the secretariat members shall be the regional coordinators of corresponding regions as follows: 

1. Baburaja Maharjan (Australia, Newzealand and surrounding countries), 
2. Hari Nepal (Middle East),  
3. Binay Shah and Om Gurung (Japan, Hongkong, China and surrounding countries), 
4. Shailesh Shrestha (USA and South America),
5. Chandra Rai (Canada)  
6. Santosh Neupane (Europe).
7. Raj Shrestha (SAARC)

The Global Coordinator shall be the Chief in the secretariat which shall be located in London.

Bhanu Poudyal shall be designated as the Special Coordinator, to inform those who are misinformed particularly on Lumbini, and the birth place of the Buddha.

To smoothly spread the Movement’s Peace Mission at national and International levels a seven member Advisory Board shall be formed with the following members:

a)  Mr. Agni Frank Eickermann (writer, Founder of Spiritual Teachers Training, Alpha Chi Consultants, and "Path into Light", Speaker: Spirituality, Traditional Chinese Medicine, Feng Shui, Management solutions, Golden Age, USA),  

b) Dr. Arzu Rana-Deuba (CA member and MP),  

c) HE Deepak Khadaka  (Consulate General, NSW, Australia),  

d) Ms Domo Geshe Rinpoche (Spiritual Director, White Conch Dharma Center, USA),  

e) Dr.  Kavitaram Shrestha (writer and founder of Aswikrit Movement), 

f)  Mr. Rajendra Shrestha (former minister), and 

g)  HE Dr. Rishi Adhikari (Nepali Ambassador to Malaysia) 

The Movement expects coordination and cooperation in attaining its objectives from Nepal government, intellectuals, journalists and all peace movement committed institutions from different part of the world and committed to give its hands to all peace loving institutions. 
  

Rabdenste Palace Ruins Pics (2009)

 

 

 

 

Wikipedia says:  

 

Rabdentse was the second capital of Sikkim. It was shifted from Yuksom in 1670 by Tensung Namgyal, the second Chogyal (monarch). However, Rabdentse was too close to the Nepal border, which had cold relations with Sikkim. After repeated raids on the capital by the Nepalese in the 18th century, the capital was shifted further inland to Tumlong in 1793 by Tshudpud Namgyal, then Chogyal.

The ruined capital is surrounded by thickly forested valley. It is nearby Pemayangtse Monastery. Rabdentse has also a bird sanctuary. This monument is declared to be of national importance by the Archaeological Survey of India. 

Sikkim history should be re-written

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 coming generations to carry forward those works we shall leave for them. Today we hold responsible towards our ancestors (hereby i am not talking about Rishley, Das, Ray and others, I believe our local people could had come with exact and more prominent accounts of our past) for not recording their times of yore and who knows the future age groups interested in learning about Sikkim shall act the same towards us if we too fail to put aside what little we know about our Sikkim.

I am sorry to say but I personally find many things missing and vacant spaces yet to be filled. Just to say that we know little on the subject of Sikkim’s prime is more of a layman excuses. If effort is taken I believe we can make most of it. Until now, we had looked back Sikkim’s earliest record as dating back to 9^th century when Guru Padmashambhava had his mysterious flight to Tibet via Sikkim. Well let’s not make our prime past much of a folk tales, we had the evidence of the findings of the Neolithic tools from the state which says that the earliest men were present in Sikkim prior to 10,000 BC and I believe that is much before Guru Padmashambhava’s visit. But after that what happened about those tools is little known. Those tools were the valued assets of Government of Sikkim and it should be brought back to where it belongs. How often we come across in news that such tools are dug out. But are we really concerned about it? 

Another instance that the finding of the murali maize fossil in 1950s from Sikkim had placed Sikkim as the secondary origin of maize also takes our existence towards 5,000 to 10,000 BC. If only we dare to find out our prime past we have ample chances that we can trace our origins, but if we wish too, is the big question?

Let me talk about few stories which try to defy what we had been following so far. Let’s begin with Kabi, a journal mentions that blood of a limbu woman was used for the treaty while there are other books that mention the blood brotherhood treaty was held between lepcha, bhutia and limboo, one of a book on Sikkim history mentions Chanakya’s death was successfully planned by the Lepchas, our so-called history says the generation of Khaye Bhumsa was predicted to rule the mountainous region of Sikkim but it is strange it took 300 years to prove, are we sure it was all due to that prediction. Where is the written version of the blood brotherhood treaty? The list seems long…..to the latest how many of us know about S. Mahinda Thero, a Tibetan Buddhist from Sikkim who is regarded as a saint in Sri Lanka for spreading Buddhism in that tiny Island. 

Let’s be more specific can anyone name the mountain that is shown in the revenue stamps of Sikkim since 1930s, it is more of a strange the photograph used has never changed for the last 80 years, how about Sikkim Rocketmail Experiment (1935) that made Sikkim the first country to have world’s first parcel mail dispatch over the river. Most of the books written about the early Sikkim is referred from 1884 published H.H. Rishley’s “Gazetteer of Sikhim”, say it a mother of all Sikkim based book. The book is no doubt very neatly written and very informative but can we put it as the final output of our history!

From a small Himalayan Kingdom to a 22^nd state in the mighty Indian Union, the stamp sized state of Sikkim had witness many major transformations. Much like folklore the history of early Sikkim is divided between the facts and the uncertainty. Sikkim is mysterious, very rich in legends and yet we have never presented ourselves in the scientific ways. We never tried to collect the exact data of those numerous folklore that had been part of every man’s life since ages. Defining the exact time eon of certain incidents including those of pottery pieces found around the fields of Daramdin and stories of the Great Flood at Mt. Tendong could possibly put the state of Sikkim on the world map in a different dimension. 

Myths of man-like animal Yeti heard on numerous accounts along the Himalayan range of North Sikkim could be the missing link between the early man and us. We can help out understand the evolution of mankind, its society and its ways of living. The foot prints found at Chungthang have developed a sort of controversy over the two scholarly men of the bygone centuries. There are mixed believers that those foot impression belong to either Guru Rimpoche or Guru Nanak! These are just few outlines from the strings of legend that are associated with our Sikkim.

With every passing days those folklore are being endangered and surely we need to preserve it who knows at the end we might never understand was these unsolved mysterious the very treasures that our ancestors had been talking about over the years. In order to organize ourselves and understand those numerous unsolved mysterious and preserve the ancient culture heritage of the state there is a need to re-organize our past.

We believe in age old ethnicity and words of scholars but the real truth remains the fact that our future generations needs to be explained the mystic forces of time immemorial that build up our Sikkim, from the days of so called earliest life of the first men in this land to the three century old Namgyal Dynasty and further towards the making of the Sikkim that we live in today.

Can it be a Sikkim Primitive…!

Petrified fossil found in Sikkim

BY SHITAL PRADHAN

A few months back, when a fossil of blue-green algae was discovered on one of the rocks at Mamley, Namchi, I was one of the few who was very excited to take notice of the news. For me, I had found a friend for my petrified plant fossil.

Has anyone ever realized the potential of finding possible fossil materials in Sikkim? The answer would undoubtedly be a tricky one. During my college days at Tadong, I asked one of my lecturers about the chances of finding fossils in Sikkim, and the prompt reply was, "It's a silly question." He added that Sikkim is a young mountain range, and there is no possibility of finding such materials in plants and animals. He made his fullest assumption, which did not affect my fanatical thoughts over my query. 

My wildest imagination would have me wondering what happened to the life forms beneath the so-called Tethys, from which the Himalayan mountains evolved, or what those vigorously, wildly grown tree ferns were doing in our Sikkim. Since elementary school, I've let my imagination run wild with those tree ferns, believing that these valleys may have been home to giant and fearsome animals such as dinosaurs and others in the distant past. Now that I have a graduate degree in botany with honours, I'm unsure if I was crazy for having those wild thoughts.

Call it a coincidence, but within a couple of months of interacting with my lecturer, I came across a fossil-like piece of jagged stone along the woods of Shantinagar in Singtam while maintaining our water supply. That piece of stone bore the imprint of a monocot plant, complete with parallel venation and a rachis.(Obviously, a layperson's question about how I know these botanical terms arises; all thanks to my Botany lecturers at Sikkim Government College who assisted me in identifying with botanical terms I had studied in my course studies and on laboratory practices during my stay as a Botany Honours student).

The impression on the left side was slightly cut compared to the right side, where it fell along the edge. At first sight, the fossil impression seems to be of a maize leaf, according to my wild imagination. The other interesting features of the stone were the presence of a faintly red round mark on the bottom connecting with the base of the monocot fossil and another leaf-like arrangement on its right side.

The following day, I went to see the same lecturer at college, who was astounded by my discovery, but nothing productive could happen as I had hoped. I was advised to meet the officers at Zero Point's Botanical Survey of India. The same afternoon, I stopped by BSI and met an officer who, to my surprise, said he was not interested in fossil materials. Yet I took out my findings and showed them to him; he added that there was no department for fossil study in Sikkim, so he told me to see anyone at the Geological Survey of India in Deorali.

I made my way through the doors of GSI; an officer out there was kind enough to look at my materials and told me that GSI is only concerned with studying rocks, and even showed me a couple of samples of fossils of earlier under-water organisms recovered in places like West Sikkim and South Sikkim. I could still recall the shell-like imprints and that small starfish-like mark on a grey piece of stone. He asked me to send my findings to Guwahati, but he feared the materials might not reach me later. Notable information I received from him then was about a person from the North East doing some sort of plant fossil study in Sikkim.

The incident occurred in 2002, and that fossil-like material has yet to make its presence felt over the last few years. It could be a watershed moment in Sikkim's ancient world of flora. Last year (2007), I had a chance to exchange words with the members of the Indian Museumology Association out in Gangtok during a three-day seminar on archaeology and museology. With archaeologists visiting from different states of India, I came across a lady who was concerned about my possessed stone. I added that it was a petrified fossil and wanted to congratulate me on my findings. That was enough for me to put a smile on my face. Finally, I have found a name for it over the years: a petrified fossil.

What is more interesting about my prized possession is that the impression on the stone more often gives me a sense of a leaf from a maize plant. I might be wrong, but my inner fantasy speaks of a different profundity. It has grown my eagerness to learn more about this fossil impression I have in my collection. I had surfed through the internet pages about the findings of maize fossils, and in one of its divergent segments, my joy had comparisons beyond its understanding.

I here want to talk about an exceptional maize fossil found in the pockets of North Eastern Himalayan regions known as "Sikkim Primitive." The Sikkim Primitive, better known as SP to the world of crop plant evolutionists and to the hills simply as "murali makai," had caught interest worldwide because it resembled pre-historic wild maize remarkably. Writing more about this particular murali maize variety is beyond my limited knowledge; thus, I will concentrate more on its origin only. I would like to take a quote from J.R. Subba's Agriculture in the Hills of Sikkim, where Subba writes, "The existence of murali maize in Sikkim, Bhutan and the North Eastern states which resemble the primitive hypothetical maize gave another thought to the origin of maize. It is believed that Sikkim and other North-Eastern states are the secondary centers of origin for maize."

Well, I do not want to dream big, the matter that is more concerning to me is the fact that my findings look similar to the maize leaf. I repeat it appears identical, so it piqued my interest.

It is a controversial speculation, and there have been many heated debates on the similarities between SP and Palomero Toluqueno, an ancient indigenous maize race of Mexico. What's more fascinating is that it is believed that the maize plant was first brought to the attention of Columbus in North America in 1492. The presence of Sikkim Primitive could well alter the course of different subjects in world history. It would shed light on the widely held belief that the natives of North America had much stronger ties with their Asian counterparts than previously assumed, and it would lend credence to the notion that they arrived in the Indian subcontinent before the Portuguese.

It was one of the biggest ironies that Sikkim is regarded as the secondary origin of maize when this place has been known as "the Valley of Rice" for ages. Isn't it fascinating?

Those early man tools found in Sikkim!

-->Display of Neolithic tools recovered from Sajyong, 2003 (Weekend Review)

BY SHITAL PRADHAN

Not only is the Himalayan land of Sikkim old but it is also considered ancient. The archeological findings of different Neolithic tools in this part of the Himalayas over the last three decades speak of its antiquity.

It may be of little importance to many. However, findings of various Neolithic tools from the remote pockets in Sikkim over the past five decades have still collected vivid interest in people beyond this region. On three separate occasions, Neolithic tools had been dug out from Sikkim, and that unfolded the age of this Himalayan mountain land much against the period we were supposed to. “The term Neolithic Period, or New Stone Age, defines the second period, at the beginning of which ground and usually polished rock tools, notably axes, came into widespread use after the adoption of a new technique of stone working. The beginning of the Neolithic, the retreat of the last glaciers, and the invention of food crops involving agriculture and animal domestication were more or less contemporary events. The period terminated with the discovery of metals.

The Neolithic stage of development was attained during the Holocene Epoch (the last 10,000 years of Earth's history). During this time, humans learned to raise crops and keep domestic livestock and were thus no longer dependent on hunting, fishing, and gathering wild plants. Neolithic cultures made more useful stone tools by grinding and polishing relatively hard rocks rather than merely chipping softer ones down to the desired shape. The cultivation of cereal grains enabled Neolithic peoples to build permanent dwellings and congregate in villages. The release from nomadism and a hunting-gathering economy gave them the time to pursue specialized crafts.

Archaeological evidence indicates that the transition from food-collecting cultures to food-producing ones gradually occurred across Asia and Europe from a starting point in the Fertile Crescent. Cultivation and animal domestication first appeared in southwestern Asia by about 9000 BC”.

The evidence of the first Neolithic artifacts collected in Sikkim was unearthed by Janak Lal Sharma, a celebrated archeologist from Nepal. In his paperwork titled “Neolithic Tools from Nepal and Sikkim,” published in Ancient Nepal, J.L. Sharma and Dr. N.R. Banerjee examined the ten tools found in Nepal and Sikkim. In his own words, Sharma described the lone found early man’s tool from Sikkim as: “It is a thin chisel made of slate in the shape of a trapezium, the cutting edge being slightly chamfered on one side. It is 5 cm long, 4.5 cm wide at its lower end, and 2.5 cm at the top, and the maximum thickness of the piece is .75cm.

It was found in the midst of a cultivated field at Odhare, Ramtek Basti, not very far from Gangtok on the southern slopes of the Himalayan ranges in Sikkim. This corresponds to the midland zone of Nepal’s topography.

Interestingly, the word Odhare, where the specimen was found, means a cave. It would, therefore, point to the probable existence of such caves, where folks using such polished implements may have once lived in the remote past. Its occurrences in the cultivated field may be attributed in this context to a discard. The sides are flattened as in the cases of the other chisels from Nepal.”

I, along with my fellow friends Padam Parajuli and Kamal Sharma, visited this remote village Odhare some time back; the widespread rocky location looked like a probable site for early men’s settlement. Considering the fact that Odhare lies adjacent to Sajyong (another excavated site of early man tools) and also the mere fact that these two places are found along the old routes connecting Nepal and Sikkim with that of Tibet before Younghusband’s 1904 route from Jelapla, there are ample chances that more priceless findings could be explored. Although nothing extraordinary narrative about any so-called caves was heard at Odhare, old folks did mention listening to ghost (!) stories of the large Rocky Mountains that were used to scare them off by their parents during their early days.

Once while surfing the web page on the internet, I came across the name of K.N Dixit, a member of the Indian Archeological Society; through him, another chapter of the prehistoric exploration in Sikkim was about to be unfolded. Dixit was kind enough to send me an attachment of two scanned pages on Sikkim Prehistoric exploration in 1980 published in Indian Archeological Society “Puratattva”. The article reports on the pre-historic potentialities of Sikkim exploration undertaken by the Prehistory Branch of Archeological Survey of India, Nagpur, in October- November 1980.

Certain places of North Sikkim and East Sikkim were preferred because of their different geographical and climatic forms. The headquarters of the entire exploration was set at Singhik near Mangan. Exploration was conducted along River Teesta and its tributaries, the entire Django (it should be Dzongu) area up to Dikchu on the west, while places up to Lachen and Lachung in the extreme north were covered. Well-polished Neolithic stone tools were recovered from different locations in North Sikkim. The tools included harvesters (2), knives (1), axes (7), adzes (13), and single and double perforated celts (3). These tools were mostly schist, shale, and a few pieces of basalt. The findings highlighted in north Sikkim were a beautiful single-eyed harvester and an Honan Knife. On the way to Lachen, a polisher with three conclave working sides and perforation on the top was recovered from the village north of Chungthang.

Except for a single polisher, no major tools were recovered from the area north of Mangan. The places in North Sikkim where the tools were recovered included Lingthen, Lingdon, Barpak, Sankalan, Gytong, Sangdong, Gnon, Tarang, Gor-Tarand, and Linkyong. In a short exploration in the district of East Sikkim around Pakhyong, six polished celts comprising two axes, four adzes, and a single polisher were recovered.

The article also confirms that perforated harvesters and Honan Knife were typical of the South Chinese Neolithic assemblage. Harvesters with one or more perforations in rectangular or semi-lunar shapes have been reported from the provinces of Honan in China. Similar single-perforated celts have also been reported from Kiangsu Province. However, double-perforated celts were typical of Sikkim.

Enthrallingly, it had been found in the villages of North Sikkim that the local people considered the Neolithic tools a source for the betterment of material life. These tools were worshiped and used for medicinal purposes, particularly during childbirth. They called those tools “Vajra Dunga”!

More recently, in January 2003, the archeologist team from the Prehistory Branch of Archeological Survey of India, Nagpur, again found some interesting Neolithic materials around the Rumtek-Martam area. The team led by P.K. Mishra, Superintendent Archeologist, ASI, Nagpur, surveyed the Martam, Adampool, Rumtek, Samdur, and Sajyong areas in the East district. Agriculture tools, along with other stuff, were recovered from these areas. The most excellent part of the exploration was the discovery of a fossilized antelope horn in the Sajyong area near Rumtek, which was reported to be about 1,50,000 years old.

Of course, in order to ascertain the route through which Neolithic Culture entered Sikkim, further work has to be conducted. Several research works are to be done on different subjects in Sikkim that might well place the age of Sikkim at the early primitive stage. A study on Sikkim Primitive, a fossilized maize variety found in Sikkim in the 1950s, has made Sikkim the secondary origin of maize after Mexico. Accounts of Yeti incidents in remote North Sikkim could be an interesting and path-breaking discovery. Much-talked human footprints scattered in places of Sikkim could provide ample chances of early man’s footprint rather than surrounded by myths. The presence of one of the oldest molar teeth of the human ancestors on earth, dating some eleven million years old, found in Nepal, results of the Neolithic tools found around Kalimpong and Peking Man found in China might create a ripple of the presence of more traces of the early men in Sikkim!