Sikkim: Finding Shangri-La (November 7-17, 2008)

Sikkim is in northeastern India, nestled between the Nepal and Tibet borders. The main language spoken here is Nepali and most of the population originates from either Tibet or Nepal. The state has a unique identity when compared to other parts of India that might be considered more quintessentially "Indian." One Sikkimese man I spoke to who worked in the government tourism office had an eye-opening experience when he studied tourism at a university in south India. When his classmates asked him where he was from and he replied "Sikkim," they accused him of being non-Indian. Many had not even heard of the state.

Indeed, I found Sikkim to be a Shangri-La compared to "India." The air was cool, crisp and clean, the mountain views awe-inspiring. Khangchendzonga (kanchenjunga; 8598 m), the world's third-highest mountain, straddles the Sikkim-Nepal border. The Sikkim Tourism Department markets the state as an eco-tourism destination with good reason. Plastic bags are banned (though this was true in several other Indian cities, and paper bags made of reused newspapers were common throughout the country), and I even saw anti-smoking signs. Best of all, the people were among the most welcoming and helpful I met during my entire trip.

Since Sikkim has such a unique history, I have herein transcribed the summary of its origins from my Lonely Planet guidebook: "Lepchas, the 'original' Sikkimese, migrated here from Assam or Myanmar (Burma) in the 13th century, followed by Bhutias (Khambas) who fled from religious strife in Tibet during the 15th century. The Nyingmapa form of Mahayana Buddhism arrived with three refugee Tibetan lamas who bumped into each other at the site of modern-day Yuksome. Here in 1641 they crowned Phuntsog Namgyal as first chogyal (king) of Sikkim. The capital later moved to Rabdentse (near Pelling), then to Tumlong (now hidden ruins behind Phodong) before finally settling in Gangtok. At their most powerful the chogyals' rule encompassed eastern Nepal, upper Bengal and Darjeeling. However, much territory was later lost during wars with Bhutan and Nepal, and throughout the 19th century large numbers of Hindu Nepali migrants arrived, eventually coming to form a majority of Sikkim's population. In 1835 the British bribed Sikkim's chogyal to cede Darjeeling to the East India Company. Tibet, which regarded Sikkim as a vassal state, raised strong objections. In 1849, amid rising tensions, the British annexed the entire area between the present Sikkim border and the Ganges plains, repulsing a counterinvasion by Tibet in 1886...Sikkim's last chogyal ruled from 1963 to 1975, when he was deposed by the Indian government after a revolt by Sikkim's Nepali population. China has never officially recognised India's claim to Sikkim, so to bolster pro-Delhi sentiment the Indian government has made Sikkim a tax-free zone, pouring crores of rupees into road building, electricity, water supplies and local industry--including liquor production. As a result Sikkim is surprisingly affluent by Himalayan standards--and rates of alcoholism are the highest in the country. Meanwhile the Sikkim Democratic Front (SDF) state government has earned a reputation as the most environmentally aware in India, banning plastic bag and fining people who pollute streams" (569-570).