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Kingdom of Sikkim

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Not to be confused with Sikh Empire.

Kingdom of Sikkim
See list
  • འབྲས་ལྗོངས། (Sikkimese)
  • Drenjong
  • འབྲས་མོ་གཤོངས། (Classical Tibetan)
  • Dremoshong
  • ᰕᰚᰬᰯ ᰜᰤᰴ (Lepcha)
  • Mayel Lyang
1642–1975
Motto: "Oh, the jewel of creation is in the Lotus"[1]
Anthem: Drenjong Silé Yang Chhagpa Chilo[2]
"Why is Sikkim Blooming So Fresh and Beautiful?"
Status
See list
  • Presence of British Raj (1858–1861)
  • Protectorate of the British Raj (1861–1947) (de facto)[4]
  • Protectorate of India (1950–1975)
Capital
See list
Official languagesChöke, Sikkimese
Common languagesLepcha (early period), Dzongkha, Nepali (late period)
Religion
Tibetan Buddhism
Nepali Hinduism[5]
DemonymsDrenjop, Sikkimese
GovernmentAbsolute monarchy (until 1973)
Parliamentary constitutional monarchy (1973–1975)[6]
Chogyal 
• 1642–1670 (first)
Phuntsog Namgyal
• 1963–1975 (last)
Palden Thondup Namgyal
Prime Minister 
• 1949 (first)
Tashi Tshering
• 1974–1975 (last)
Kazi Lhendup Dorjee
LegislatureState Council of Sikkim
History 
• Established
1642
1680
1700
• Nepalese Invasion
1776
• Treaty of Titalia signed
1817
• Darjeeling given to British India
1835
• Palden Thondup Namgyal forced to abdicate
1975
• Merger with India
16 May 1975
CurrencyRupee
Today part ofIndia
File:Tibetan wa + (i).svg
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The Kingdom of Sikkim (Classical Tibetan and Sikkimese: འབྲས་ལྗོངས།, Drenjong, Dzongkha: སི་ཀིམ་རྒྱལ་ཁབ།, Sikimr Gyalkhab), officially Dremoshong (Classical Tibetan and Sikkimese: འབྲས་མོ་གཤོངས།) until the 1800s, was a hereditary monarchy in the Eastern Himalayas that existed from 1642 to 16 May 1975, when it was annexed by India.[7][8][9] It was ruled by Chogyals of the Namgyal dynasty.[10]

History

Foundation of the monarchy

According to legend, Khye Bumsa, a 14th-century prince from the Minyak House in Kham in eastern Tibet, received a divine revelation instructing him to travel south to seek his fortunes. A fifth-generation descendant of Khye Bumsa, Phuntsog Namgyal, became the founder of Sikkim's monarchy in 1642, when he was consecrated as the first Chogyal, or priest-king, of Sikkim by the three venerated lamas at Yuksom. Phuntsog Namgyal was succeeded in 1670 by his son, Tensung Namgyal, who moved the capital from Yuksom to Rabdentse (near modern Pelling). By the time of its foundation, Sikkim became a protectorate of Tibet (which at the time was part of The Khoshut Khanate until 1717 when it became part of the Dzungar Khanate and later to The Qing Dynasty in 1720.)

Nepalo-Bhutanese domination

In the mid-18th century, Sikkim was invaded by both Nepal (the then Gorkha Kingdom) and Bhutan (then ruled by Gyalsey Tenzin Rabgye) and was under both the Gorkha and the Bhutanese rule for more than 40 years. Between 1775 and 1815, almost 180,000 ethnic Nepalis[11] from Eastern and Central Nepal migrated to Sikkim.[citation needed] After the British colonisation of India, however, Sikkim allied itself with the British India in order to fight Nepal, their common enemy at the time.[citation needed] The Nepalese then attacked Sikkim, overrunning most of the region including the Terai. This prompted the British East India Company to attack Nepal in 1814, resulting in the Anglo-Nepalese War.[citation needed] The Sugauli Treaty between Britain and Nepal and the Treaty of Titalia between Sikkim and British India resulted in territorial concessions by Nepal, which ceded Sikkim to British India.[12]

British and Indian protectorate

Under the 1861 Treaty of Tumlong, Sikkim became a British protectorate.

Thutob Namgyal, the 9th Chogyal of Sikkim, looked to the Dalai Lama for spiritual leadership and during his reign the Tibetan government started to regain political influence over Sikkim. In 1888 the British sent a military expedition to expel Tibetan forces from Sikkim.

Sikkim became an Indian protectorate in 1950.[13]

Accession to India

In 1975, allegations of discrimination against Nepali Hindus in Sikkim led to resentment against the Chogyal.[14][15] According to some accounts, these developments contributed to the movement of Indian Army personnel into Gangtok. According to journalist Sunanda K. Datta-Ray of The Statesman, in April 1975 the Indian Army carried out a surprise operation during which the palace was surrounded and palace guards were killed.[13]

Following the disarming of the palace, a referendum on the monarchy was held, which some sources describe as having taken place under questionable circumstances. Official results indicated that an overwhelming majority voted to abolish the monarchy. Subsequently, the newly formed parliament of Sikkim, led by Kazi Lhendup Dorjee, passed a resolution requesting that Sikkim become an Indian state, which was accepted by the Government of India under Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.[13][16]

International reactions

The Government of the People's Republic of China and the Government of the Republic of China in Taiwan both consistently depicted Sikkim as a sovereign state on their official maps since Indian independence and did not stop the practice in 1975. China condemned India's annexation of Sikkim in September 1974[17] and continued to consider Sikkim a de jure independent state and the annexation illegal as of 2003.[18]

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China gave de facto recognition of Indian sovereignty over Sikkim with the Sino-Indian Memorandum in June 2003 in return for India reiterating Chinese sovereignty over Tibet[19][20][21] and stopped publishing maps showing an independent Sikkim or listing it as a bordering country in 2005. Taiwan also eventually started using depictions of actual territorial controls by India.[22]

Culture and religion

In culture and religion, Sikkim was linked closely with Tibet, from which its first king migrated, and Bhutan, with which it shares borders. The presence of a large ethnic Nepali population, mainly from eastern and central Nepal, also leads to cultural linkages with Nepal.[citation needed]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Sikkim / Dämojong". Archived from the original on 22 November 2021. Retrieved 22 November 2021.
  2. ↑ Hiltz (2003), pp. 80–81.
  3. ↑ The Encyclopaedia Britannica: A Dictionary of Arts, Sciences ..., Volume 25, page 89.
  4. ↑ Mullard (2011), p. 184.
  5. ↑ "Nepali speakers of Sikkim reflect on 'foreigners' label".
  6. ↑ Sikkim votes to end monarchy & merge with India, nytimes.com. Accessed 11 April 2024. "Kazi Lendup Dorji, Sikkim's pro-Indian Chief Miniser, sent the results of yesterday's balloting to Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by cablegram and asked her "to make an immediate response and accept this decision." ... The Cogyal, who was reduced to a figurehead monarch after an uprising against him two years ago, said he had not been allowed to leave his palace since the Indian army surrounded it last Wednesday and disarmed his 400-man army."
  7. ↑ "16th May 1975: The Kingdom of Sikkim and its Annexation with India". 16 May 2018.
  8. ↑ "Did India have a right to annex Sikkim in 1975?". India Today. Retrieved 27 May 2023.
  9. ↑ Abrahams, Pema (1 June 2023). "The Forgotten Kingdom". Foreign Policy. Retrieved 27 May 2023.
  10. ↑ Marathe, Om (20 August 2019). "Explained: Sikkim, from Chogyal rule to Indian state". The Indian Express. Archived from the original on 13 November 2022. Retrieved 13 November 2022.
  11. ↑ Chettri, Mona (2013). "Ethnic politics in the Nepali public sphere three casesfrom the eastern Himalaya" (PDF). SOAS Research Online. Archived (PDF) from the original on 13 November 2022. Retrieved 13 November 2022.
  12. ↑ "History of Nepal: A Sovereign Kingdom". Official website of Nepal Army. Archived from the original on 7 June 2011.
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 "Indian hegemonism drags Himalayan kingdom into oblivion". Nikkei Asian Review. Nikkei. 21 February 2016. Archived from the original on 3 April 2017. Retrieved 24 July 2018.
  14. ↑ Larmer, Brook (March 2008). "Bhutan's Enlightened Experiment". National Geographic. Bhutan. (print version). Archived from the original on 20 March 2021. Retrieved 7 September 2016.
  15. ↑ "25 years after Sikkim". Nepali Times. No. #35. 23–29 March 2001. Archived from the original on 31 January 2018. Retrieved 7 September 2016.
  16. ↑ Sethi, Sunil (18 February 2015). "Treaties: Annexation of Sikkim". No. 2. India Today. India Today. Archived from the original on 28 January 2016. Retrieved 4 December 2016.
  17. ↑ "Foreign Relations of the United States, 1969–1976, Volume E–8, Documents on South Asia, 1973–1976：Document 254". Office of the Historian, Shared Knowledge Services, Bureau of Administration United States Department of State. 1974.
  18. ↑ "Sikkim". Ministry of Foreign Affairs (China). Archived from the original on 11 October 2003.
  19. ↑ Rajan, D. S. (10 June 2008). "China: An internal Account of Startling Inside Story of Sino-Indian Border Talks". South Asia Analysis Group. Archived from the original on 13 June 2010.
  20. ↑ "India and China agree over Tibet". BBC News. 24 June 2003. Retrieved 19 June 2011.
  21. ↑ Powers, John; Templeman, David (2012), Historical Dictionary of Tibet, Scarecrow Press, p. 184, ISBN 978-0-8108-7984-3
  22. ↑ "印度共和國 Republic of India". Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Republic of China (Taiwan). 中華民國外交部.

Sources

Further reading

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