Indigenous Peoples of Sikkim - History

History

The Lepcha is the earliest ethnic group settled Sikkim. The believe they are the autochthones while others considered that they were settled by the thirteenth century, coming from the Assam hills before the arrival of the Tibetan Bhutias. The Bhutia who immigrated to Sikkim claimed descent from a common ancestor, a Khampa prince or chief named Khye-bum-sar, and were divided into fourteen main families. Relations between the Lepcha and Tibetan peoples began in the thirteenth century with the signing of a blood brotherhood by the Lepcha Chief Thekong Tek and the Tibetan Prince Khye Bumsa at Kabi Lungchok in north Sikkim. The Bhutias introduced Buddhism to the region.

In 1642, the Bhutia established a monarchy headed by the Chogyal (Tibetan: ཆོས་རྒྱལ་, Wylie: chos rgyal; divine king), and opened relations with Tibet. By the founding of the Bhutia monarchy, Tibetan sources considered Tibetans (Bhutia), Lepchas, and Limbus to be the "original races of the kingdom."

Around 1819, the Lepchas were still the most numerous population, comprising roughly half of all Sikkimese, followed by Bhutias (30%) and Limbus (20%); sources disagree on whether the Bhutias outnumbered the Limbu or vice-versa, but in any event, the Limbu frequently intermarried with the Lepcha. At this time there was apparently no appreciable Nepali population present.

Throughout the nineteenth century, further groups of Tibetans known as Rui-chhung ("little families") migrated to Sikkim under British rule.

Between the 1890s and the early 1900s, the large scale immigration of Nepalis began, encouraged by colonial landlords in order to raise rents in otherwise densely forested Sikkim. Indigenous groups pressed the British Empire to stop such settlement on Lepcha and Bhutia lands, however by the turn of the century, the Nepalese population constituted a majority, and indigenous populations amalgamated into a composite Lepcha-Bhutia socio-ethnic group. Discrimination between the heterogeneous Nepalese and other groups became a pressing social issue, however the government of the Chogyal in its later years strove to treat all subjects equally as citizens, and allowed democratic changes to move forward. These democratic and demographic changes culminated in a plebiscite in 1974, resulting in union with India as a State. Since joining India, indigenous groups have expressed anxiety over losing land, resources and power to those they view as non-Sikkimese "far above in terms of political consciousness, resource position, education and manipulative qualities."