ii INTRODUCTION. 



against primitive methods of cultivation, the tribe is on the way to 

 being pushed out. The cause of their decline is obscure. There is no 

 lack of employment for them: labour is badly wanted and well paid; 

 and the other races of the Darjeeling hills have flourished exceedingly 

 since European enterprise and capital have made the cultivation of 

 tea the leading industry of the district. The Lepchas alone seem to 

 doubt whether life is worth living under the shadow of advancing 

 civilisation, and there can, we fear, be little question that this interest- 

 ing and attractive race will soon go the way of the forest which they 

 believe to be their original home. 



The legendary account of the founding of the Sikhim Raj con- 

 . . nects the establishment of settled government in 



The Sikhim Ea]. ^-^^^ country with the great ritualistic schism in 

 the Tibetan Church. Tradition tells hovT three monks of the dukpa or 

 red-hat sect, flying from the persecution set on foot by the reforming 

 party in Tibet, met after many wanderings at the village of Yaksun, 

 under Kinchinjunga. Here they sent for the ancestor of the Rajas 

 of Sikhim, Pencho Namgay, an influential Tibetan then residing 

 at Guntuk, and an alliance was formed, having for its object the 

 conversion of the Lepchas to Buddhism, and the installation of 

 Pencho Namgay as the Raja of the whole country. Both objects 

 were attained. The easy-going Lepchas readily accepted the ex- 

 ternals of Buddhism, monasteries and churches rose to preserve the 

 memory of the missionary monks, and the descendants of the Tibetan 

 settler are recognised to this day as the rightful rulers of Sikhim. 

 The external policy of the petty princedom thus formed was deter- 

 mined by the manner of its creation. In the East religion is still a 

 power, and all things take their colouring from the faith of the ruler. 

 The chief of a barbarous tribe, raised to power by the ingenuity of 

 Tibetan monks, must needs, in default of stronger influences, ac- 

 knowledge the religious and political predominance of the rulers of 

 Tibet. As the craving for ritual revived, and the hostility between 

 the rival sects showed signs of abating, the religious and political 

 bonds linking Sikhim with Tibet began to be drawn tighter. Doubtful 

 questions of discipline and procedure were referred to Lhassa for the 

 decision of the Dalai Lama, and his mandate was virtually, if not 

 statedly, admitted to be the final appellate authority for Sikhim 

 Buddhists. Wliile this religious rapprochement was going on, the 

 Rajas of Sikhim were brought within the attraction of a civilisation 

 far higher than their own. Wool, silk, tea, all the comforts and 

 ornaments of life, came to them from Tibet ; while intercourse with 

 other countries was difiicult. Small wonder, then, that their con- 

 tinual eflbrt was to show themselves to be thorough Tibetans; that the 

 Tibetan language came into use at their court, and that their chief 



