The Chogyals of Sikkim and the 1975 merger

Sikkimese tradition traces the royal line to Khye Bumsa, a prince from the Minyak house in Kham, eastern Tibet, who according to legend received a divine sign to travel south. Tradition also holds that Khye Bumsa swore a pact of blood brotherhood with the Lepcha chief Thekong Tek at Kabi Lungchok, north of Gangtok, binding the Bhutia and Lepcha peoples. That pact is remembered each year at the Pang Lhabsol festival. These are traditions, not documented events, and we tell them as such.

The documented history begins in 1642. That year Phuntsog Namgyal, a fifth-generation descendant of Khye Bumsa, was consecrated as the first Chogyal at Yuksom in West Sikkim by three revered lamas, who tradition says arrived from the north, west and south. The stone throne at Norbugang in Yuksom is still shown as the coronation site.

The kingdom's centre moved several times as threats and politics changed. Tensung Namgyal, the second Chogyal, moved the capital from Yuksom to Rabdentse near today's Pelling after 1670. Later rulers moved north to Tumlong, and in 1894 the ninth Chogyal, Thutob Namgyal, moved the capital to Gangtok, where a new palace and state buildings were built. Gangtok has been the capital ever since.

The table below gives the key dates we rely on. All are drawn from standard histories and Wikipedia's articles on the kingdom and its rulers.

Sikkim was small and squeezed between larger neighbours. In the eighteenth century it was invaded by both the Gorkha kingdom of Nepal and Bhutan, and lost territory west of the Teesta for a time. Sikkim sided with the British East India Company against Nepal, and after the Anglo-Nepalese war the Treaty of Titalia in 1817 restored land to Sikkim and drew it into the British orbit. In 1835 the Chogyal granted the British the hill that became Darjeeling.

The 1861 Treaty of Tumlong made Sikkim a de facto British protectorate and opened it to British trade. When Thutob Namgyal looked to Tibet and Tibetan troops occupied ground near Jelep La, the British sent an expedition in 1888 and appointed John Claude White as Political Officer in 1889, with real power over the kingdom's affairs. The 1890 Convention of Calcutta saw China recognise Sikkim as a British protectorate.

Large-scale migration from Nepal during the British period changed Sikkim's population. By the twentieth century the Nepali-speaking communities were the majority, while the Bhutia and Lepcha communities, from whom the royal court drew most support, were a minority. That imbalance shaped the politics of the 1970s.

Palden Thondup Namgyal was born in Gangtok on 23 May 1923, the son of Sir Tashi Namgyal, the eleventh Chogyal. He led the team that negotiated Sikkim's relationship with independent India in 1949–50. In 1959, as a widower, he met Hope Cooke, a young American student, in the lounge of the Windamere Hotel in Darjeeling. They married in Gangtok on 20 March 1963, a wedding that brought Sikkim worldwide press attention. Sir Tashi Namgyal died the same year, and Palden Thondup Namgyal was crowned on 4 April 1965, with Hope Cooke as Gyalmo, or queen.

The couple had two children. He financed Satyajit Ray's 1971 documentary Sikkim, and he was a keen amateur radio operator. Hope Cooke left for New York in 1973, and they divorced in 1980. The last Chogyal died of cancer in New York on 29 January 1982.

Under the old electoral system, votes from the Bhutia and Lepcha communities carried extra weight, which many in the Nepali majority saw as unfair. In 1973 large protests in Gangtok demanded one person, one vote. India mediated an agreement in May 1973, and in the 1974 elections the Sikkim National Congress, led by Kazi Lhendup Dorjee, won 31 of 32 seats. The new assembly passed the Government of Sikkim Act in 1974, which reduced the Chogyal to a constitutional role. That September, India's Parliament made Sikkim an associate state.

The Chogyal objected that this broke the 1950 treaty. Tension grew through early 1975, with clashes in Gangtok. In April 1975 the Indian Army disarmed the palace guard. Indian accounts say this followed a request from the Chief Minister; critics describe it as a forcible takeover. On 10 April the assembly resolved to abolish the monarchy and seek full union with India, and a referendum followed on 14 April. Official results showed 97.55 per cent in favour, 59,637 votes to 1,496, on a turnout of about 63 per cent. Sikkim became India's 22nd state on 16 May 1975, and Kazi Lhendup Dorjee became its first Chief Minister.

People in Sikkim and historians describe 1975 in different ways, and we think visitors should know the main positions rather than one version. Supporters of the merger, including the democratic movement of the time and its leaders, saw it as the end of an unequal system and as the choice of the people of Sikkim, confirmed by a large vote. Kazi Lhendup Dorjee was later honoured by both the Government of India and the Government of Sikkim.

Critics, including the Chogyal, who called the referendum illegal, and the journalist Sunanda K. Datta-Ray, questioned whether a fair vote could be organised across the mountains in a few days, and described the events as an annexation. In 1978 India's then Prime Minister, Morarji Desai, called the merger not a desirable step, while also saying most people in Sikkim had wanted it. China did not recognise the merger until 2003.

Today Sikkim is a settled and proud Indian state, and many Sikkimese hold more than one view at once: affection for the old kingdom's culture and loyalty to the state they live in. If you talk history with locals, listen first. It is a family story for many people here.

You can trace the kingdom's story in a day or two around Gangtok, and more on a West Sikkim trip. Opening hours and access change, so check current status before you travel.

• Tsuklakhang, the royal chapel in Gangtok, used for coronations and royal weddings; it hosts Pang Lhabsol in late summer and the Kagyed dance in early December. The palace beside it is private.
• Namgyal Institute of Tibetology, named after Sir Tashi Namgyal; the Dalai Lama laid its foundation stone in 1957 and Jawaharlal Nehru opened it in 1958. Entry around ₹10–50.
• Rumtek Monastery, rebuilt in the 1960s by the 16th Karmapa with help from the royal family, about 24 km from Gangtok.
• Norbugang and the coronation throne at Yuksom, West Sikkim, where the first Chogyal was consecrated in 1642.
• The ruins of Rabdentse, the second capital, near Pelling, now protected as a heritage site.
• The Windamere Hotel in Darjeeling, where the last Chogyal met Hope Cooke in 1959.