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

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 ...

from PLANTSMAN IN THE SIKKIM HIMALAYAS

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

A 12-hour bandh call by the supporters of the ruling SDF party was observed today. The bandh was called to protest the burning of Chief Minister Pawan Kumar Chamling's effigy by the Shiv Sena activists on the 11th of September in Siliguri, West Bengal charging CM Chamling with having 'dual nationality. Except for Army and GREF all other Vehicles, as well as shops, were closed. Such a state bandh was last held ten years back. (photographs from Singtam)

By.Major General (retd) Ashok K Mehta, on Rediff.com People have forgotten that India’s actual chicken’s neck lies along the 20km narrow Siliguri corridor formed by Nepal and Bangladesh. Staring ominously at the chicken’s neck is the Chinese dagger made by the strategic Chumbi valley whose two shoulders — one in Sikkim and the other in Bhutan — are personified in the majesty of Paunhuri and Chomulhari peaks that merge at the historic Sinchula Pass on the trijunction of China, Bhutan, and India. This is also the tip of the dagger just 100km away from the Siliguri corridor and a rather China-friendly Bangladesh. From a military and operational context, Sikkim is closest  to Lhasa. North Sikkim and the Chumbi salient — the gateway to the erstwhile trade route between Lhasa and Calcutta — offer India tactical and strategic military options against China, and vice-versa. In 1911, Captain Francis Younghusband pioneered the invasion of Lhasa through the Chumbi valley fighting battles ...