The Lepchas are confronting the authorities in India’s West Bengal state over their right to have their language taught in the local schools. The controversy, covered in the Indian news media over the past month, echoes the even more serious conflicts of two years ago when the Lepchas sought to… Continue reading…
India has three national holidays, one of which, Republic Day, is celebrated every year to mark the date on which the national constitution came into effect, January 26, 1950. The primary focus of the nation’s annual celebration is a Republic Day parade, held along a major avenue in New Delhi…. Continue reading…
According to Kachyo, police officers stationed at the entrance to the Dzongu Reserve in Sikkim have hardly any work to do—there is very little crime among the Lepcha people. One of the reasons might be their ancient ceremony, called the thoursu, which is performed to keep the peace among them… Continue reading…
A book by Anita Sharma published in 2013 described growing gender inequities in Lepcha society, but a current journal article gives an even more negative assessment of the situation. The differing conclusions were based on investigations of very different communities and they were conducted 10 years apart, but their contradictions… Continue reading…
The Lepchas, like most of the peaceful societies, are frequently stressed by changing cultural, social and economic forces, some of which affect their patterns of nonviolence. Anita Sharma published a book last year that seeks to enrich our understanding of, and appreciation for, those changes Lepcha society. A major goal… Continue reading…
A brief journal article published last year describes the ways the Lepchas have attempted to maintain their traditions despite outside domination and internal religious divisions, issues they are beginning to overcome. The article, by Rip Roshina Gowloog, was published in the journal Studies of Tribes and Tribals and is freely… Continue reading…
According to Gorer’s book Himalayan Village, effective speech is highly prized by the Lepcha people, and storytelling is among their most valued skills. Gorer explains that “story-telling is the major Lepcha art and distraction (p.265).” Stories told around the fire in the evenings are sometimes of such length that they… Continue reading…
The government of Sikkim announced last week that out of the 401 school students who had taken exams last December to apply for scholarships, the top three winners were all Lepchas. Mongit Lepcha, from the Mangan Senior Secondary School, won the top score in the Chief Minister’s Special Meritorious Scholarship… Continue reading…
The Digital Journal, an Internet news service based in Canada, published an opinion piece last week about a British Library project to archive in digital format the artifacts of written Lepcha culture. Fortunately, the story provides a link to the British Library website where one can find more information about… Continue reading…
“Lepcha was the language spoken in the Garden of Eden,” thought G. B. Mainwaring, the British general and scholar who published in 1876 a comprehensive grammar of the Lepcha language. Geoffrey Gorer provided that quote on page 39 of his book Himalayan Village: An Account of the Lepchas of Sikkim…. Continue reading…
