INTEODUCTION. 



On the northern border of the British district of Darjeeling, the 

 main chain of the Himalayas throws out to the southward two 

 enormous spurs — the Singilela and Chola ranges. These almost im- 

 passable barriers enclose three sides of a gigantic amphitheatre, hewn, 

 as it were, out of the Himalaya, and sloping down on its southern 

 or open side towards the plains of India. I'he tracts of mountainous 

 country thus shut in consist of a tangled series of interlacing ridges, 

 rising range above range to the foot of the wall of high jDeaks and 

 passes which marks the " abode of snow " and its offshoots. The steps 

 of this amphitheatre make up the territory known 



ysica ea ures. ^^ Independent Sikhim (Sukhim or 'new house') ; 

 the encircling wall of peaks and passes forms on the north and 

 east the frontier of Tibet, while on the west and south-east it divides 

 Sikhim and Darjeeling from Nepal, and the Dichu forms the boundary 

 between Sikhim and Bhutan. Pursuing our simile a little further, 

 we may add that the lower levels of the Sikhim amphitheatre, the 

 valleys of the Tista and Balasan and Mahanadi rivers, are similar 

 in character to, and virtually form part of, our frontier district of 

 Darjeeling. The northern hills, on the other hand, whence the snow- 

 fed torrents of the Lachen and Lachung struggle down through pre- 

 cipitous valleys to unite in the broader but hardly less turbulent 

 Tista, are moulded on a grander and more markedly Himalayan scale. 

 Geographically speaking, these heights are of closer kin to the snow- 

 clad giants which dominate them than to the lower elevations and 

 tamer scenery of Sikhim Proper. With the latter, indeed, all inter- 

 course is cut off during five months of the year, and during this time 

 the people of the highlands dwell a^iart except for occasional visits 

 from traders, who find their way over the Kaugralama pass in Tibet. 

 Of the early history of Sikhim a few doubtful glimpses reach us 

 through the thick mist of Lepcha tradition. The 



ar y is o y. Lepchas, or as they call themselves, the Rong-pa 

 (ravine-folk), claim to be the autoch-thones of Sikhim Proper. Their 

 physical characteristics stamp them as members of the Mongolian race, 

 and certain peculiarities of language and religion render it probable 

 that the tribe is a very ancient colony from Southern Tibet. They 

 are above all things woodmen of the woods, knowing the ways of 

 birds and beasts, and possessing an extensive zoological and botanical 

 nomenclature of their own. Of late years, as the hills have been 

 stripped of their timber by the European tea-planter and the pushing 

 Nepalese agriculturist, while the Forest Department has set its face 



