HISTORY OF SIKKIM

A brief history 

Guru Rinpoche or Padmasambhava

The patron saint of Sikkim is Guru Rinpoche who travelled extensively around Sikkim in the eighth century and fortold that many different Sikkimese tribes would later be under one rule of a King in the seventeenth century. He is profest to be second Buddha' across Tibet, Nepal, Bhutan, and the Himalayan states of India

The First King of Sikkim

In 1642 the first king of Sikkim, Phuntsog Namgyal was coronated at Yuksom by three Lamas. The Dalai Lama sent the new king a silk scarf, the mitre of Guru Rinpoche and a sand image of him as a coronation present. This picture shows the temple of the highest Lama of the three Lamas at Yuksom

Bristish Rule

After a brief time Sikkim was under thr King of Nepal but with the help of the British East India Company and it's army reclaimed the area back to the King of Sikkim in 1817. Sikkim was strategic area in providing alternative silk roads to China for the benefit of British trade. Sikkim subsequently became a protectorate of the British but regained it sovereignty in 1947. The monarchy ruled until 1975 when it was was dissolved and Sikkim became the 22nd. state of India in 1975