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

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...

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...