Home › Political & Historical › Former Countries
The Kingdom of Sikkim
A Himalayan Buddhist monarchy that became India's 22nd state in 1975
For more than three centuries, a small mountain kingdom wedged between Nepal, Tibet, and Bhutan was ruled by the Namgyal dynasty, whose kings took the Tibetan title Chogyal, or dharma king. Few states have packed so much relief into so little ground: Sikkim climbs from subtropical river valleys a few hundred meters above sea level to the summit of Kangchenjunga, the world's third-highest peak. It spent its last century as a protectorate, first of British India and then of independent India, and in 1975, after a referendum, it merged into India as its 22nd state. The Chogyal called the process illegal, India described it as the expressed will of the people, and the debate has never entirely faded.
Sikkim covered 7,096 square kilometers, about 115 kilometers from north to south, almost all of it the watershed of the Teesta River and its tributary the Rangeet. Its western rampart is the Kangchenjunga massif on the Nepal border, rising to 8,586 meters, and its northern plateau touches Tibet near glacial lakes above 5,000 meters. The high passes of Nathu La and Jelep La carried the old trade route between Kalimpong and Lhasa through the Chumbi Valley. Rhododendron forests, cardamom groves, and terraced fields cover the middle slopes. The 1971 census counted about 210,000 people, Lepcha, Bhutia, and a Nepali-speaking majority. The territory is today the Indian state of Sikkim, while Darjeeling, ceded to the British in 1835, belongs to West Bengal.
Phuntsog Namgyal was consecrated the first Chogyal at Yuksom in 1642. Wars with Bhutan and Nepal cost the kingdom territory, and British India gained influence after 1817, made Sikkim a protectorate by the Treaty of Tumlong in 1861, and moved the capital to Gangtok in 1894. A 1950 treaty made it a protectorate of India, which took charge of its defense and foreign relations. Protests against the Chogyal in 1973 led to an elected assembly and, in 1974, the status of an Indian associate state. In April 1975 Indian troops disarmed the palace guard, and in a referendum on April 14 officially 97.55 percent voted to abolish the monarchy, a result critics of the process contested. Sikkim became an Indian state on May 16, 1975.