Told in the hills
From a Himalayan kingdom to India's 22nd state
Sikkim's royal line began in 1642, when Phuntsog Namgyal was consecrated as the first Chogyal, or dharma king, at Yuksom in the west. The capital moved from Yuksom to Rabdentse and then Tumlong. In 1861 the Treaty of Tumlong made Sikkim a British protectorate in all but name, and in 1894 the ninth Chogyal, Thutob Namgyal, shifted the court to Gangtok. A small settlement of monks and farmers became the capital.
Gangtok grew as the gateway to Tibet. Wool, musk and salt came down over Nathu La and Jelep La; cloth, sugar and tea went up. The royal chapel at Tsuklakhang hosted coronations and weddings. Under a 1950 treaty, Sikkim became an Indian protectorate while keeping its king. Palden Thondup Namgyal, the last Chogyal, was crowned in 1965, two years after marrying the American Hope Cooke.
The 1970s brought political unrest and pressure for democratic reform. In a referendum on 14 April 1975, voters backed abolishing the monarchy, and on 16 May 1975 Sikkim became India's 22nd state, with Kazi Lhendup Dorjee as first Chief Minister. People in Sikkim still hold different views about how the merger came about. What everyone agrees on is that the palace chapel, the dances and the old families of Gangtok keep that royal past in daily view.
Pinned to the board
Did you know
Gangtok has been Sikkim's capital only since 1894, when Thutob Namgyal moved the royal court there from Tumlong.
Sikkim was declared India's first fully organic state in January 2016.
The 14th Dalai Lama laid the foundation stone of the Namgyal Institute of Tibetology in Gangtok in 1957, and Jawaharlal Nehru opened it in 1958.
Nathu La was sealed after the 1962 war and reopened for India–China border trade only in 2006.
Aritar's Dak Bungalow was built in 1895 by John Claude White, the first British Political Officer in Sikkim.
