Kingdom of Sikkim

Not to be confused with Sikh Empire.

Kingdom of Sikkim འབྲས་ལྗོངས། (Sikkimese) Drenjong འབྲས་མོ་གཤོངས། (Classical Tibetan) Dremoshong ᰕᰚᰬᰯ ᰜᰤᰴ (Lepcha) Mayel Lyang
1642–1975
Flag Coat of arms
Kingdom of Sikkim
Status	Protectorate of Tibet (until 1890) Bhutanese domination (1680/1700–1792) Nepalese domination (1776–1792) Nepalese-Bhutanese presence (1792–1816) British presence (1816–1890) Princely state of the British Raj (1890–1947) Protectorate of India (1950–1975)
Capital	Yuksom (1642–1670) Rabdentse (1670–1793) Tumlong (1793–1894) Gangtok (1894–1975)
Government	Absolute monarchy (until 1973) Parliamentary constitutional monarchy (1973–1975)
Chogyal
• 1642–1670 (first)	Phuntsog Namgyal
• 1963–1975 (last)	Palden Thondup Namgyal
History
• Established	1642
• Treaty of Titalia signed	1817
• Darjeeling given to British India	1835
• Palden Thondup Namgyal forced to abdicate	1975
• Merger with India	16 May 1975
Succeeded by Sikkim

The Kingdom of Sikkim (Classical Tibetan and Sikkimese: འབྲས་ལྗོངས།, Drenjong), officially Dremoshong (Classical Tibetan and Sikkimese: འབྲས་མོ་གཤོངས།) until the 1800s, was a hereditary monarchy in the Eastern Himalayas which existed from 1642 to 16 May 1975, when it was annexed by the Republic of India. It was ruled by Chogyals of the Namgyal dynasty.

History

Nepalese-Bhutanese domination

In the mid-18th century, Sikkim was invaded by both Nepal (then the Gorkha Kingdom) and Bhutan (then ruled by Gedun Chomphel) and was under both the Gorkha and the Bhutanese rule for more than 40 years. Between 1775 and 1815, almost 180,000 ethnic Nepalis from Eastern and Central Nepal migrated to Sikkim. After the British colonisation of India, however, Sikkim allied itself with British India as they had a common enemy – Nepal. The infuriated Nepalese attacked Sikkim with vengeance, 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. 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.

British and Indian protectorate

Map of Sikkim, 1898

Under the 1861 Treaty of Tumlong, Sikkim became a British protectorate, then an Indian protectorate in 1950.

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.

Accession to India

In 1975, allegations of discrimination against Nepali Hindus in Sikkim led to resentment against the Chogyal. Their instigation led to Indian Army personnel moving into Gangtok. According to Sunanda K. Datta-Ray of The Statesman, the army killed the palace guards and surrounded the palace in April 1975.

After disarming the palace, a referendum on the monarchy was held, in which the Sikkimese people overwhelmingly voted to abolish the monarchy, and the new parliament of Sikkim, led by Kazi Lhendup Dorjee, proposed a bill for Sikkim to become an Indian state, which was promptly accepted by the Government of India.

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.

See also

• Sikkim
• History of Sikkim
• Chogyal
• List of heads of government of the Kingdom of Sikkim
• List of political officers in the Kingdom of Sikkim

Further reading

• Duff, Andrew. Sikkim: Requiem for a Himalayan Kingdom. Edinburgh: Birlinn. ISBN 978-0-85790-245-0.
• Rai, Rajiv (2015), The State in the Colonial Periphery: A Study on Sikkims Relation with Great Britain, Partridge Publishing India, ISBN 978-1-4828-4871-7
• Rose, Leo E., "India and Sikkim: Redefining the Relationship", Pacific Affairs, 42 (1): 32–46, doi:10.2307/2754861, JSTOR 2754861
• Rose, Leo E. (1971), Nepal – Strategy for Survival, University of California Press, ISBN 978-0-520-01643-9
• Sharma, Suresh Kant; Sharma, Usha (2005), Discovery of North-East India: Geography, History, Culture, Religion, Politics, Sociology, Science, Education and Economy. Sikkim. Volume ten, Mittal Publications, pp. 117–, ISBN 978-81-8324-044-4
• Singh, Amar Kaur Jasbir (1988), Himalayan triangle: a historical survey of British India's relations with Tibet, Sikkim, and Bhutan, 1765–1950, British Library, ISBN 9780712306300

External links

• "Buddhist Monasteries of Sikkim". Sikkim.nic.in.
• Kingdom of Sikkim at Curlie
• Climbing the clouds to Sikkim
• Kings of Sikkim
• The Sikkim saga, through an American lens