Old Photographs from Sikkim, Darjeeling and Tibet

Bhutias of Darjeeling in 1860's Pic Courtesy Old Indian Photos

Gangtok Residency Pic: Charles Alfred Bell

Chumbi Valley Utensils Pic: C.A Bell

Nepalese in Lhasa Pic: C.A Bell

C A Bell with the Tibetans in Lhasa 

Sky Burial in Tibet Pic: C A Bell

Namchi Bazar in the 70's

Last Sikkimese Queen Hope Cooke with her son Prince Palden

Mr. N.B Bhandari the Second Chief Minister of Sikkim in the 70's

Mr. N B Bhandari  in the 80's

Note: The pictures posted above are collected from various websites and social networking sites. 

Charles Alfred Bell: The Second British Political Officer of Sikkim

C A Bell -The second Political Officer of Sikkim

Charles Alfred Bell was born in Calcutta (now Kolkata) India, on 31 October 1870 - the son of Henry Bell of the Indian Civil Service (ICS). He was Educated at Winchester school and New College, Oxford. After accomplishing his studies, Charles also joined the ICS in 1891 and spent the next nine years in various posts in Bengal, Bihar and Orissa, before being transferred to Darjeeling in 1900. It was in Darjeeling; Bell came to be familiar with the Tibetans settled there and began to learn their language. His devotion towards the Tibetan language leads to the publication of his first book, A Manual of Colloquial Tibetan, a two-part grammar-phrase book and dictionary in 1905.

Gangtok British Residency picture taken by C A Bell

 Apart from a Tibetan scholar, Bell also had a passion of photography. During his stay in Tibet, he has taken many photographs related to the daily lives of the Tibetans, which are greatly helpful for the study of Tibetan culture and civilization. In 1904-5 he was put in charge of administration of the Chumbi Valley, which had been temporarily ceded by Tibet to Britain under the terms of the Younghusband Mission. It has to be mentioned here, the Chumbi valley was once a part of Sikkim which was later transferred to Tibet after the Anglo-Chinese convention.

After the retirement of Sir James Claude White, Charles Bell was appointed as the Political Officer of Sikkim in 1908. The most momentous event during Bell's tenure as Political Officer was meeting the Thirteenth Dalai Lama in 1910. Due to the political hostility between the Chinese and the Tibetans his Holiness the 13^th Dalai Lama was forced to flee Tibet and he sought refuge in Sikkim. As Political Officer of Sikkim, Bell provided necessary assistance to his Holiness during his exile. The two formed an intimate and lasting friendship, which later proved objectionable to the British in their future negotiations and dealings with Tibet after the Dalai Lama's return to Lhasa in June 1912.

Bell continued as Political Officer for Sikkim, Bhutan and Tibet until 1918. During this time he continued his communications with the 13th Dalai Lama and advised him on the modernization policies he was developing for Tibet. Bell was widely acknowledged in British circles as the primary authority on Tibetan matters at this time.

Sky burial in Tibet Pic. C A Bell

After 1918 Bell took leave from the Civil Service and devoted himself to the study of Tibet, spending the next two years in Darjeeling. Although for many years he had an open invitation from the 13th Dalai Lama to visit Lhasa, the British Government did not allow him to do so. In 1920 Bell was finally given Government permission to visit the Tibetan capital as part of a diplomatic mission, arriving in Lhasa on 17 November. Bell's role was to advise the Tibetans on foreign policy. "The Dalai Lama showed his more than friendly intentions by receiving Sir Bell, at the very first interview, informally, sitting with him at a small table in his private apartment, with no witness present.

Nepalese in Lhasa Pic. Charles Bell 

Bell remained in Lhasa for the best part of a year. After his return, in 1921, he left the ICS and applied himself to writing about Tibet. In his retirement, Bell published several books on Tibetan culture and history - Tibet: Past and Present (1920), followed by The People of Tibet (1928), and The Religion of Tibet (1931). Bell also continued his personal correspondence with the Dalai Lama.

In 1934 Bell returned to Tibet once again and this time with his wife, Cashie. Unfortunately he was too late to meet his old friend again, for the 13 th Dalai Lama had passed away in December 1933. Bell continued his travels in Central Asia during the next few years visiting Mongolia, Manchuria and Siberia. Fittingly, Bell's final work was a result of the strong bond that he had formed with the 13 th Dalai Lama since their first meeting in 1910. The book, Portrait of the Dalai Lama, was completed only a few days before his death in Canada (where he had recently migrated) on 8 March 1945.

Picture of Rabden Lepcha who accompanied Bell during his visit to Lhasa 

Sir Charles Bell was probably the most influential British officer to serve in Tibet. He set the groundwork for Anglo-Tibetan relations, and his visit to Lhasa in1920 paved the way for subsequent British officials to travel to Tibet. Bell's strength lay in the way he was able to immerse himself in Tibetan culture and language, becoming, in his own words, "in a large measure Tibetanised". This earned him the respect and acceptance of the many Tibetans. As one Tibetan official "When a European is with us Tibetans I feel that he is a European and we are Tibetans; but when Lonchen Bell is with us, I feel that we are all Tibetans together".

The above article is compiled by Claire Freeman, Curatorial Assistant, Pitt Rivers Museum (Emphasis added) http://tibet.prm.ox.ac.uk/tibet_Charles_Bell.html. The photographs with this post bears copyright of Pitt Rivers Museum University of Oxford. 

Mystifying "Border Stone" of Rhenock

The Mysterious "Border Stone" -looks more like a Shiva Lingham

History of Sikkim is covered with so many mysteries that it becomes a challenging job for a student of History to differentiate between facts and fictions. Amid to the historical evidences it becomes really tough for us to reach to a conclusion about certain places due to the lack of authentic writings. Due to the lack of supportive inscriptions many important places in the past are presently not getting much attention from the modern Historians.

This is also a story of a forgotten place named Torem which possibly had once occupied an important position in our times of yore. Situated at Rhenock (a bordering town of East Sikkim that borders with West Bengal) the place has drag attention of many individuals because of a huge stone, which is said to have been erected by a Lepcha king of Damsang Gadi (Damsang Fort). The natives of the place believe that the huge stone used to be a border hedge in some unknown period.  Few local youths of Aritar Arigaon are trying to explore its historical importance and they believe that the place can be converted into historical as well as pilgrimage tourism.

Mr. Santosh Sharma a native of Torem, and my colleague informed me that many people have tried to deracinate the stone from the said place but were unable to do it due its vast entombment. Presently, the stone is three feet tall from the ground. Further, similar kinds of stones are also available at a place called Hathichede and at Kutitar. But, the huge stone of Kutitar was removed during the construction of Lingsey Simana Road (Border Road). It is said that a drilling machine took a whole day to dig up the stone. Though, the huge stone has been removed, a mysterious footprint of a yak on the side of it is still prevalent. The Hindus and the Buddhists natives of the said area worship the footprint as a holy symbol.

The so called border hedge dragged my attention because it is in the proximity of the present international border. After a walk of two hours from Torem, we can reach to a tri-junction i.e. the border of three different countries viz. Sikkim (India) Tibet (China) and Bhutan. I have been hearing many stories about it since a long time. According to a legend prevalent among the villagers of Torem, the stones were kept by the Chinese during their march towards Sikkim. It is to be mention here that the Chinese had never attempt to capture Sikkim in the past. While doing so, the Chinese had to subdue the Tibetan first than only they could proceed towards Sikkim. Further, Tibet has always regarded Sikkim as its child therefore; there is no question of Tibetan aggression to Sikkim. Above all, Bhutan has drawn my interest as it has played a vital role in the political upheavals of Sikkim in the earlier times. It is to be noted here that, there used to be a frequent raids from the Bhutanese into this part of Sikkim in the 18^th century. In addition to this, Kalimpong, presently a small town in the Darjeeling district of West Bengal used to be a part of the Bhutanese. Likewise, the Bhutanese had been able to capture a major portion of Sikkimese tracts during their aggression to Sikkim in the 18^th century. The history of Sikkim affirms that with the intermediation of the 6^th Dalai Lama of Tibet, the Bhutanese had come for negotiation which ultimately led for the secession of the lost territory of Sikkim to its ruler Chador Namgyal. After the reconciliation, Bhutan made another invasion that led to the loss of Kalimpong and Rhenock areas of Sikkim. The Sikkimese ruler Chador Namgyal put all his efforts to expel the Bhutanese, but remained unsuccessful.

From the above evidences it seems that, to confirm their sway over these tracts of Sikkim, the Bhutanese had erected such stone hedges. But, due to its ambiguous history one cannot determine that the said stones were indisputably kept by the Bhutanese. In the lack of calligraphic substantiations the whole version of the “Border Stones” is thus encircled by the myths, legends and tales which do not bear any credibility in Historiography.

The place is now converted into a religious site 

The striking feature of the stone lying at Torem is that is it not rudimentary in nature. It is a polished stone which resembles Shiva Lingham (Phallus) of the Hindus. In the earlier days, local of Rhenock used to carry Dabai Pani (medicinal water) to sprinkle holy water to the “Border Stone” as most of them still believe it to be a sacred one. The Dabai Pani (Medicinal Water) originates at the slither area situated nearby to the mysterious stone. Presently, the so called border hedge has been converted into a religious place which is being looked after by a Sadhu Rai of Torem and is also the head priest of the site.

 The concept of keeping stone pillars has its own history in India. Even Emperor Ashoka had erected many rock pillars throughout his domain. The rock edicts of Ashoka have been incised with the morals of Dhamma and are written in Brahmi and Kharosthi scripts. But, the “Border Stone” of Rhenock does not bear any such incises.  Therefore, due to the paucity of calligraphic sources on this “Border Stone”, the responsible person or kingdom for its erection will always remain enclosed with myths and legends.

J. C. White the First British Political Officer of Sikkim

Being sandwiched between warring nations, Sikkim lost much of its territory to the Bhutanese invaders in 1788, to the Nepalese invaders in 1789 and was forced to cede beautiful hills of Darjeeling in 1835 to the British for their ‘selfless’ help in repelling the Gorkha invaders. The un-demarcated Sikkim-Tibet frontier also greatly suffered the sandwiched Sikkim. In 1885, British Indian Government sent Macaulay Mission to Tibet but had to abort due to the Tibetan occupation of a fort at Lingtu. For almost five years from 1885 to 1890 Sikkim had to resist pressure from both North and the South. It was only after the Anglo-Chinese Convention the frontier between Sikkim and Tibet was delimited.

J.C White Sitting cross leg position, on his right  Sir Ugen Wangchuk Prime Minister of Bhutan. This picture abides copyright of British Library, London (www.bl.uk)

It was at this juncture, the British Indian Government appointed J.C. White as a Political Officer in Sikkim. An Engineer by profession Mr. White had a huge responsibility to solace the confrontational powers i.e. Tibet and India and to maintain peace and security in the Sangri-la. It was in the month of November 1887 Mr. White first visited Sikkim. On the outbreak of Sikkim-Tibet war 1888, he was sent as an Assistant Political Officer with peditionary force, and on conclusion of peace the following year he was offered the post of Political Officer in administrative charge of the State of Sikkim. On the subject of his appointment as the Political Officer he comments- “Naturally I gladly accepted an appointment which would give me an opportunity of living in a country I was sp anxious to see more of, and I have never regretted my decision; although in consequence of the view taken by the Government of India of my special employment oon the frontier, and the fact that I left the Public Works Department to take up this appointment, I have been a looser from a pecuniary point of view to a very large extent”…

Regarding his service in Sikkim he  writes “ At the conclusion of hostilities the Government of India made a proposal that I should remain in Sikkim, with the title of Political Officer, and administer the affaires of the state in conjunction with a Council composed of the Chief Dewans, Lamas and Kazis, and of which I was to be President”.

After the appointment of Mr. White as the Political Officer of Sikkim the British Government decided to remove Maharaja Thotub Namgyal and Maharani Yeshey Dolma from Sikkim to Kurseong, in Darjeeling District of British India. After their removal, Mr. White became the de-facto ruler of the Kingdom. It was during his tenure as a Political Officer Sikkim witnessed the birth of  Zamindari System, Thikadari System Kalobhari, Jharlangi and Theki-bethi.