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

I have carved a small dream inside me to visit the Royal Palace at Gangtok ever since I enjoyed learning about my Sikkim. I had always romanticized how the Palace looked from the inside and how royal families did their day-to-day activities inside it.  My fantasy got a wing when surfing down the articles I found a very beautiful article written in a Time magazine some 40 years back when Hope Cook was the Gyalmo of the Kingdom of Sikkim. The rich brown-haired American Queen of Sikkim brought with her the Western world's attention towards the land of Sikkim, which was more of a favorite hub for some British naturists till then.  Hope Cook married Prince Palden Thondup Namgyal in a highly structured marriage ceremony at the Royal monastery on 20 March 1963, which was seen as the tying of the knot of the two worlds.  The grand marriage was also featured in National Geographic Magazine. Five years in her marriage and at 28, Hope Cook had two children Prince Palden at 4, and...

The late Jungkyang Chogyal Palden Thondup Namgyal, seated with his mother Queen Mother Denzong Lhayumkusho, daughter of Rakasha family of Tibet, and Prince Wangchuk whose late mother hails from the Samdrup Phodrang family of Tibet. Standing next to Denzong Queen Mother is the senior Rakasha Lhachamkusho, daughter of Raja Tsodrak Namgyal Taring of Sikkim, the eldest son of Chogyal Thutop Namgyal, who gave up the Sikkimese throne to his younger brother Sir Chogyal Tashi Namgyal in favour of staying in Tibet.  The Taring family of Tibet enabled into Tibetan high society by the great 13th Dalai Lama, is legitimately the unbroken elder line of the Royal Namgyal lineage of Sikkim, since Raja Tsodrak Namgyal was the Crown Prince of Sikkim, and his sons and grandsons today go by the Taring family name. Standing in the picture is also Princess Kukula, sister of the Chogyal married to the Phuenkhang family of Tibet.  Rakasha Tsetop, Rakasha Tseten, Yap Dr. Paljor, Soden Wangdi, Chimi ...