Kolkata Fest

Khamri...

Kolkata Lepcha Association celebrated the annual get together on the 14 th of February. It was a great experience and all of us had tonnes of fun. In  fact the entire gathering had lucid view of the real lepchas and real lepcha songs and dances.. Actually i use the word "real" here cos we have seen lots of posers who just can't get the real hang of being Lepcha....

Dr. James Simick (Vice-president) sure had one up his sleeve when he came up with nice Laaso Lemshi song and his entertaining improvisations was a real rib tickler with doses of appreciation thrown here and there. The real deal of the song he performed was not the song and its lyrics but his confidence that enabled him to take the song notch higher. First he started with oral tuning of his invisible TUNGBUK (Lepcha stringed guitar). But his vocal musical instrument tuning was not limited to TUNGBUK alone....he went further and tuned his invisible SUT SAANG (another Lepcha Instrument). And then he called in 2 younsters Don Lepcha and (woops..i forgot his name..but he is Ivan Lepcha's brother) in the "improvised" versions of TUNGDAAR (here congo) and PO PAKREK (here merreca)  ....he even managed the TUNGBUK solos in the middle of the song with his oral humming...he simply rocked the gathering with his baritone voice and humble cover of the song.....a pure Rock star in heart....yet a Doctor by profession...aachuley to that.

Rev. Phillip Lepcha from AG church recollected his teenage days with the song "Reesum Taro Pheere pheere'  but somehow i feel the second verse he sang was from another song called "Sek maariyo along chyo laye"....There were two dances performed by the children of Ren OT Lepcha...which kept the Rongkups hooked to their seats.The group song they performed set the mood of the naam aal.

But the real show stealers were the Lepcha students of Kolkata. My better half with her patience and timely scoldings ensured that the kids practiced everything perfectly. You should have seen my house every evening when i returned from office. There were lepcha kids to be found in every nook and corner. The whole house seemed to echo with "anum" anom"...."am hungry"..etc etc..blah blah...these kids real gathered their wits and ensured that entire programme went smoothly. There were 4 Rongmiths with mind-blowing dancing...Rinkee Lhamu, Mayelmit (we called her Merina), Lyangmith (we called her Chumpi) and Premith who had practiced themselves to perfection. And yet the guys with their sore throats and croaking voices gave a tough competition with their group songs. You should have seen dedications of Tenzing Thinley (we call him Nasha),  Chungtuk, Neema Tshering, Lee ong, Lakpa(he really has a good diet), Rikzing , Mayeldok, Damian and the rest of the gang.....they performed "Lyang Areysa" and Kongchen Kunglho very nicely. But the best they did was with "Amu Ring rey".....

Conclusion after the event...besides Ren Simick and few executive members of the Shejum..most just wanted to be a part of the fun section only. Hats off to ReN James Simick, anum Ajay, Anum Jyoti, Anum Mingma, Anum Sushil, .......and renyu euepundee....(my wife who came up with such nice dances).....

The Naturalised Bhutias of Sikkim.

I came across this term very often in my personal venture into the opinions of different authors regarding the history of MayelKup (Lepchas) and erstwhile kingdom of Sikkim. I did not pay much attention to the term at my initial readings but later as the term became more prominent in the writings I became more curious.

If we refresh our history-after 1642 the king of Mayel Lyang (it came to be known as Sikkim only after the Second Chogyal married the Limbu wife) Phuntsog Namgyal was crowned in Yoksam he appointed 12 MayelKup Governors called Dzongpens and some number of Kahlons called Bhutia Councillors. The introduction of Class of Aristocracy in the Class less society of the MayelKup did bring about a certain amount of confusion. But real role was played by Lama Lhatsun Chempo who in his eagerness to convert the local populace into Tibetan Buddhism translated all the Buddhist Texts into Lepcha and ensured that every household had one copy of these Buddhist Lepcha texts called the Naamthars. It is also believed that huge number of original and pre-Buddhist Lepcha Naamthars were collected and burnt to make way or the new religious texts The Chogyal, to appease his Tibetan Patrons, proclaimed the Nyingmapa Buddhism as the State religion. Thus came the class structure with the monastic class and layman class. The Mayelkups did not have much problem in the beginning as there was enough to share with the steadily increasing immigrants from Tibet. But the increase in numbers of the Tibetan in the state soon saw clashes with the aborigines (Mayelkups). The Monastic order also had only Tibetan Lamas who played a major role in the History of the Kingdom-right from validating the royal lineage to the day to day Buddhist life of the recently converted Mayelkups.

This new yet appealing class disparity brought about a new surge among the determined and shrewd Mayelkups to climb up the social ladder by equating oneself with the community of the regal family- Bhutia. This adoption was ensured by getting married to daughters of the Bhutia landlords and subsequently assuming Bhutia traditions and culture. The Bhutia Landlords also accommodated this arrangement as most Mayelkups then had huge property in the thinly populated nation. It also became a trend to get wives from Tibet itself like the Chogyal himself. The off springs of such unions were encouraged to adopt the culture of Tibetan mothers. After all in the simple life of the Lepcha this sudden upgrade ensured favours and goodwill from the ruling class. Thus down the ages many ambitious Lepcha families gave up their Lepcha roots to adopt the ruling Bhutia clans. There has been steady decline in the percentage population of he Mayelkups down the ages.

Many authors like RN Thakur, HG Joshi, even Claude White (political officer) have observed he phenomenon and they have mentioned in it in their works. Mr. SK Datta Ray has also mentioned that there were only 12 listed Kazis (the noble families). But this has increased to more than 20 today.

So the term “Naturalised Bhutias of Sikkim” has become a coin word that is often tossed here and there by many authors.

Annual Celebration of Kolkata Shezum

Khamri to all

Its been real long since i came up with anything. Actually life has been busy and i had to stay busy with it. 

The Indigenous Lepcha Tribal Association Kolkata branch will be celebrating its anniversary on the 14th of February and if any readers will be in Kolkata then i am sure we will not mind having you over for this close knit Lepcha event. As usual there will be a short programme with dinner to end it. Rs.100 from adults and Rs.50 from students are being collected for the event. The venue for the celebrations is St. Andrew's Church premises BBD Bag, Kolkata 01. The event is scheduled to start at 4 pm.

I rather not divulge the entire cultural programme on this blog. But yes, since the lepcha students of Sikkim are right now participating in the North East Festival, they are planning to bring the same dance for the event also. I have come to know that the dance has been conducted attractively and has been taught by our own Rinkei Lepcha from Namchi. Well my dear wife has planned to teach the students two group songs so i guess the 12th and 13th February will be a very crowded day at my place. 

I have been asked to MC the event and i just feel i will end up disappointing many folks like last year. Some how many of my fellow Shezum mates are kinda crazy about mike. They just can't stop once they get hold of the stage and end up boring the entire gathering of mums and apas and bajeys and bojus and ......guess everyone will turn up for the event.....

well the practice is full on....any folks with new ideas and new concepts...do drop by....