Sikkim History

The earliest important event in the history of Sikkim is the passage of the Buddhist saint Guru Rinpoche through the land in the 8th century. He introduced Buddhism to Sikkim, and foretold the era of monarchy in the state that would arrive centuries later. In the fourteenth century a prince. In 1642, the fifth generation descendant of Khye Bumsa, Phuntsog Namgyal, was the first king of Sikkim,marking the beginning of the monarchy. In 1670 he was succeeded by his son, Tensung Namgyal.

In 1700, Sikkim was invaded by the Bhutanese with the help of the half-sister of the king, who had been denied the throne. The Bhutanese were driven away by the Tibetans, who restored the throne to the king ten years later. Between 1717 and 1733, the kingdom faced many raids by the Nepalese in the west and Bhutanese in the east, culminating with the destruction of the capital by the Nepalese. In 1791, China sent troops to support Sikkim. Following Nepal`s defeat, Sikkim became a suzerainty of Qing Dynasty.

Little is known of Sikkim’s history prior to the 17th century. The state’s name is derived from the Limbu words su him, meaning “new house.” The Lepcha were early inhabitants of the region, apparently assimilating the Naong, Chang, Mon, and other tribes. The Bhutia began entering the area from Tibet in the 14th century. When the kingdom of Sikkim was established in 1642, Phuntsog Namgyal, the first chogyal (temporal and spiritual king), came from the Bhutia community. The Namgyal dynasty ruled Sikkim until 1975.

¤ Kingdom of Sikkim
Kingdom of Sikkim started in the 13th century on a formal basis. Guru Tashi, the exile prince of the Minyang dynasty of Tibet, is generally accorded the status of being the founder of the kingdom in Sikkim. He assimilated the Lepchas and the resident tribes into a kingdom and his descendants formally initiated the rule of the Chogyal kingdom at Sikkim.

The name of Guru Rinpoche is integrally connected to the history of Sikkim. The Buddhist preceptor traveled through Sikkim as early as in the ninth century and prophesied a kingdom to come, that would unite the discordant tribes into one sovereign head. His prophecy was fulfilled when Guru Tashi, the Tibetan prince entered Sikkim, on the basis of a divine revelation. He assimilated the Lepchas and the other tribes and founded the bedrock on which the future of the kingdom of Sikkim was to grow.

The Chogyals of Sikkim
The Chogyals were the kings of Sikkim. The first Chogyal of Sikkim was Phuntsog Namgyal, the fifth in the line of Guru Tashi. He was appointed as the king of Sikkim in the Yuksom, the historic conference of three lamas who came to Norbugang in West Sikkim from three corners of the state to grace the occasion. He was succeeded in the throne by Tensung Namgyal, the second monarch in the kingdom of Sikkim. His reign was peaceful, but chaos prevailed soon after his death, following the succession of his son by his second wife, Chadok Namgyal to the throne. Thereafter, kingship became a bone of succession in Sikkim. The kingdom in Sikkim was plagued by the intrusion of many foreign powers, including the Bhutanese, the Nepalese and the Tibetans. Things reached a catastrophe with the exile of Tenzing Namgyal to Lhasa. It was in 1793, that his son Tshudpud Namgyal came back to Sikkim to reclaim the throne.

¤ British arrival
The British arrival in Sikkim was related to the long animosity that the Sikkimese kingdom had with the neighboring state of Nepal. Under Nepalese attack, Tenzing Namgyal, the ruler of Sikkim in the middle of the eighteenth century, had to flee from his land and take up refuge at Tibet. Although his son, Tshudpud Namgyal, did manage to reclaim certain areas of Sikkim, the victory was far from conclusive.

Early Reasons behind the Arrival of the British in Sikkim
The British arrival in Sikkim was punctuated by the need that Tshudpud Namgyal felt, to find a friend in his struggle against the Nepalese kingdom. The British arrival at Sikkim was therefore perpetuated with a covert assent of the reigning Chogyal, who was keen to join hands with the British forces to fight the common enemy in Nepal. The result of the British arrival in Sikkim was an attack of Sikkim by the Nepalese troops, that necessitated direct intervention of the British army. It led to the Gurkha War of 1814, resulting in two separate treaties. The first of them was the Sugauli treaty, signed between Sikkim and Nepal, and the second was the Titalia treaty, signed between Sikkim and British India.

The Second Phase of the British Arrival in Sikkim
The arrival of British in Sikkim then entered a new phase. The British East India Company obtained the city of Darjiling from Sikkim in 1835. Incidents between the British and Sikkim led to the annexation in 1849 of the submontane regions and the subsequent military defeat of Sikkim, culminating in the Anglo-Sikkimese Treaty of 1861. The treaty established Sikkim as a princely state under British paramountcy (though leaving the issue of sovereignty undefined), and the British were given rights of free trade and of road making through Sikkim to Tibet. In 1890 an agreement was concluded between the British and the Tibetans that defined the border between Sikkim and Tibet. Tibet also acknowledged the special relationship of British India with the kingdom of Sikkim. A British political officer was subsequently appointed to assist the Chogyal in the administration of Sikkim’s domestic and foreign affairs, in effect becoming the virtual ruler of the state.

¤ Puppet state
The puppet state of Sikkim was a result of the British insurgency in the state following the arrest of two doctors who entered into the kingdom unannounced and ventured to roam in the mountains without any prior permission of the Chogyal. A punishment raid of the British army followed, resulting in the annexation of Darjeeling and Morang. Thereafter, the Chogyals were forced to maintain something of a puppet state in Sikkim, in a small region surrounding Gangtok.

The Ten Clauses Agreement
The Chogyals of what was by then the puppet state of Sikkim continued to maintain a steady rule in the small region around its new capital at Gangtok. However, it was not enough to curb the Tibetan attacks that the region faced in 1886. The Chogyal, Thutob Namgyal and his wife came to hold negotiations with the British in Calcutta, but were held prisoners. The British themselves took to the sword in 1888, the Tibetans were routed and the king was restored as something of a puppet king in the state of Sikkim. The Ten Clauses Agreement returned the sovereign to the puppet state Sikkim, but the king was allowed to have only judicial rights and nothing else of the monarchy that they erstwhile had.

Sidkeong Tulku
Sidkeong Tulku was the Crown Prince of Sikkim, when the Prince of Wales visited Calcutta in 1905. The princes befriended each other, a relationship that continued when the Prince went on to study at the Oxford University. It coincided with the time, when his old friend the Prince of Wales went on to become the King of England - assuming the appellation of George V. Soon after completing his studies abroad, Sidkeong came back to the puppet state of Sikkim and promptly introduced many reforms to change the entire social structure of the state for the better. His reign was short, but witnessed many changes. After his death in 1914, the puppet state at Sikkim was restored independence in 1918.

¤ Independent monarchy
The second phase of the independent monarchy in Sikkim started after the British granted full sovereign freedom to the state in 1918. However, problems started to brew soon after the attainment of the Indian independence in 1947. The new government of India under Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru conducted a popular poll in Sikkim to gather public opinion for Sikkim's joining India. The results went against it and the independent monarchy in Sikkim was allowed to persist. However, India maintained the external defense, communication and diplomacy of the independent monarchy at Sikkim.

The Indo-China War
The war between India and China had a direct repercussion on the rule of the independent monarchy in Sikkim. The border was a volatile combat zone. The results that went against India resulted in the closing of the Nathula Pass by the Chinese government, which would open as late as in 2006. The assumption of power by Smt. Indira Gandhi and the reign of the last hereditary Chogyal, Palden Thondup Namgyal led to new problems. The situation was complicated and took international dimensions after Hope Cook, the wife of the king wrote on it to attract international attention on the problems that plagued the independent monarchy of Sikkim. Amidst this controversy, the Sikkim National Congress Party came into existence in 1970, with a greater representation of Nepalese, and raising voices for a termination of Sikkim independent monarchy.

The End of Independent Monarchy in Sikkim
As anti-monarchical voices gathered force, the Kazi, or the Prime Minister of Sikkim, appealed to the Indian parliament for a change of Sikkim's independent status in 1975 and expressed the wish of the inhabitants to be a part of the Indian statehood. Steps followed each other, and was formalized in 1975. The United Nations was quick to recognize this change, except China. The office of the Independent monarchy in Sikkim was abolished in 1982.