the Lepcha community, their rich culture and their woes

ESSAY: Beacon of the eastern Himalayas

Subrata Chowdhury profiles the Lepcha community, their rich culture and their woes

HISTORIANS and anthropologists are divided on the origin of the Lepchas but quite a number of them believe the lines go back to Mongolia. This, they deduce, was where it all began thousands of years ago and that a considerable section of this tribe — numerically one of the largest in the east — moved southward and came to settle in present day Sikkim.

It is stated in the Chunakh Akhen, an ancient Lepcha history book, that Pohartak Panu, Lepcha king of Sikkim, had sent an army contingent to help the Hindu king Chandra Gupta Maurya repel an attack by Greek invader Alexander the Great. That was in the fourth century BC.

There are many stories marked with glory concerning this ethnic race, undoubtedly one of the oldest in the Indian subcontinent. This tough and hardworking clan makes up a chunk of the population that helps the wheels turn in the magnificent but challenging mountain tracts starting from the northern Dooars ending up in Tibet and beyond.

Life up there is not easy. It’s a demanding task to live and sustain oneself, except for a few landed and privileged ones. There is no industry at that altitude other than cottage- and handicraft-based ones. Bamboo-craft is the mainstay and the varied items resulting from this artful pursuit find a wide market within the country and outside. The Lepchas in Sikkim are, of course, mostly employed in government and non-government organizations, while some run their own businesses and others are engaged in agriculture or handicrafts.
The Lepchas settled outside Sikkim, all around the North-east, take to a little agriculture in scattered patches in valleys or on slopes cleared of woods that yield two types of paddy, Dumbra and Ongrey-Zo. The quality of the rice husked from these types is of a very fine grain. During the celebrations ushering in the Lepcha New Year, Nambun, or during a marriage ceremony, the aromatic rice is cooked and served with much gusto. Kunchung is the Lepcha name for the maize they cultivate uphill and Mongbree, the millet they grow, is mostly a staple food.

Civil works, like removing boulders or bulwarking the base of the gradients against possible landslides, are other opportunities for uneducated and impoverished members of this hill tribe to earn a living.

The Lepchas who spread to West Bengal’s Darjeeling district a long time worked, till not too long ago, as labourers, but have, of late, embraced education as an honourable means to an end. Many Lepcha youths are well educated and are employed in the electronic and Information Technology fields.

Predominantly Buddhists, a significant portion of Lepchas, by the turn of the 19th century, converted to Christianity, perhaps owing to British rule. The Lepcha culture is full of absorbing folklore and a bibliophile would find much interest in browsing through their history.

The Lepchas believe they were born of a union between Fodongthing an Nazaongnyoo, the male and the female created by God from the sanctimonious snow peak of Kingtsoom Zaongboo Choo, the Lepcha name for Mount Kanchenjungha. This, in fact, makes a Lepcha a devout lover of nature. Like Kanchenjungha, they worship other peaks, too, and have Lepcha names for each.

An offshoot of history can be referred to here that relates to King Turve. It is narrated in Lepcha scriptures that the king was a very courageous and resolute person who had taken the responsibility to reform, mobilise and unify the Lepchas into a cognizable mass in his kingdom of Sikkim, which was considered one of the most powerful kingdoms in the subcontinent then. King Turve, or The Punu, the Lepcha term, is said to have demarcated his kingdom into as far a part of Darjeeling in association with the Limbu tribe and had his capital in the vicinity of Kurseong.

The Punu Turve ruled during the first half of the 15th century and mustered an army that could fight any type of war, from guerrilla to front-to-front combat.

That the Lepchas have age-old roots in the North-east is evident from the fact that most of rivers, valleys, ravines, gorges, mountains and places around the eastern Himalayas bear Lepcha names. The names of Sonada (the Sleeping Place of the Bear), Mirik, Kalimpong, Kurseong, Pokharibong, Darjeeling (Darjulang) and Lebong (Aleybung) deserve mention. The Lepcha language is called Rongring and is a little akin to Tibetan and Burmese. The Gazetteer of Sikkim states that the Lepcha script was officially introduced by Chador Namgyal, the third Chogyal of Sikkim. But it is a matter of controversy.

Many historians say that it was done several hundreds of years earlier and accredit a few luminous names to it.

The sartorial taste of the Lepchas is unique and of a very colourful nature. Thokro-Dum is the name of the traditional men’s wear and the ladies wear Dumvum. Both garbs equip a person from head to foot and stand out as trademarks.

But the amenable and peace-loving Lepchas staying in West Bengal, especially in Darjeeling, are a bit discontented of late. Though domiciled in the state for a long period, they are not considered citizens of the state.

According to Bhupendra Lepcha, a 32-year-old lawyer from Sonada and convener of the Lepcha Youth Association, the state government categorises them as “Sikkimese” in the “Security Certificate” issued to them since 2004. As a result, they are not considered eligible for recruitment in the state police or armed forces. Some 200-odd Lepchas, including 16 women, had gone on a hungerstrike for an indefinite period at College Square in Kolkata from 8 September, 2010. The latest information says they are patiently awaiting a hearing by the state government which has so far turned a deaf ear since the 3 September when Bhupendra led a delegation to Writers’ Buildings following a demonstrations in Siliguri from 8-14 August.

source; the statesman