Darjeeling 2010 – Tribal Future for All!

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THE VOICE OF THE INDEGINOUS PEOPLE

By Rabden Rongkup

Couldn’t help but listen to the sagas told to us every evening by our grand parents , tales mostly relates to the ancient glories past of these hills and hillocks of the Mt Kanchanjunga ranges handed to them by their fore fathers.When I grew up as a native I came to understand much had changed then the history related to me, but the language that we speak “Rong –a – Ring” commonly known to the world as Lepcha Bhasa deciphered everything. As so many important things are incorporated inside which is useful in my day to day life, for example it starts from simple things such as names of the places , what is the landscape like ? whether it is right to settle out there , whether medicines are found out there ? what kind of trees, birds ,animals are found? How strong is the flow of the water in the river ………etcI would like to give you few example each song , poems , spontaneous songs called APPRAVOM Laments of the ancient country called the MAYEL-LYANG, the boundary stretches to every direction from Mt Kanchanjunga ,lets us begin from the rivers , Ranu , Rangeet, Rumong etc this language is a systematic language and most names of the rivers start from the letter “R” because we believe that it is starting from the ‘Rum-Lyang’ i.e. Rum means God and Lyang –means land as the believe in Lepcha religion is that the 1st man and women was created from the snow of the Holy Mountain , so when we die we return back to the mountain , so since its coming from RumLyang all the snow fed rivers start from “R” yet there is a junction that we call TEESTA , this is the point where River Ranu meets Rangeet, and Questions –TEE-SATA if literally translated means When did you come? yet all the names of the rivers starts from R?Landscapes will be a huge list but I’ll try my best in a short paragraph , lets us climb up from the rivers . Why the Names??? Eg. Mully – in lepcha it is ‘Mutly’ which means earthquake belt area , Mongpong- Mong- medicine and Pong – place where we assemble or gather , Sanada- Sana means Bear ,Da- means sleeping, Singritam particular species of trees found out there ,Dello –Da means pond Loo means hillock , AlGARA –Al means new GRI means fortress , PEDONG—PAY means grass DONG means to search , LAYBONG – ALY BONG shaped like a tongue , POKRABONG –means bamboos have been cut, SINGAMAREE – SANG means wood MAA means to hide LEE means house. TAKVAR_ Prikvar means wasp. DARUMDIN – DA means lake RAM means destroy DEM rebuilt , MIRIK –ME means fire RIK means caught , now just above Mirik is THORBOO tea estate which means to run away from the fire , SYOK tea estate the people rested out there and took out the lice . SITRABONG is SADAR means Lightening and light out of fire i.e. when the Britishers arrived and made electricity the people saw it as fire from the other side , the natives were made Night guards and they made a hut to rest that is DALI….SILLIGURI means string the bow, SEVOK jungle has been cut down then comes the history of ZOULASI now Jalpaiguri Where they saw it as flat land of paddy cultivation and how the princess from the plains taught us to plant paddy . Sangsay, Suruk, Pringtam, Tashiding, Phosur, Kakeybong, , , Gidawlling, each has a meaning that is useful to survive in the hills and hillocks of these ranges. All this is because the pivot of the lepcha religion is based on nature and it is according to the nature the names have been given. Sometimes people say that Kalimpong and Darjeeling is a Tibetan given name , but as far as I know it literally translates into KA-Kayu means we LEM means gather and PONG means again place ,to my surprise if the town Kalimpong was a Tibetan name then why didn’t they name the villages too , as far as I know Kalompong is the spot up there in the Gulf ground of the army base and the previous name is Damsanglyang on of the last kings fort is till up there in Algara and in Gurubathan adjacent to the Doars plains the Palace is called Dalimgri , same goes with the name Darjeeling , RUMDARJU literally means ADODE OF GOD and LYANG means land in lepcha so the same argument if it was a name of Tibetan origin they why dident they name the villages such as Laybong etc..same goes to other places inside Sikkim, this land we call Rengyong lyang in Lepcha , and in southern part of Bhutan this land we call “Prolyang” and in western Nepal we call Payu lyang.The Holy books used by the natives called the “Namthers” deciphers most of it as it contains religion, history, medicine, geographical location and soothsaying . Now sometimes it is very hard for a native to talk about these things because these books have history along with the beginning of the Indian history, now if you see Indian history starts with the advent of Alexander the Great, where Chandra Gupta Moria resisted the invasions, yet again there is a mention of the the lepcha king Phorthak Panu who sent forces to help Chandragupta Moria ,Chandra Gupta is mentioned as Chandragop in the books, things like that the The lepcha king Tarvu panu who had his capital in Kursong in the 16th century when Renzyong boundry now Sikkim was being carved out the contampery of Kazir Khan etc. these are a whole lot and the names of these places were before birth of Christ. That is the reason most people do not understand the exact meaning if the names of the places. The Namthars tells us the reason for each andeverything of how the nature is going to react as the original Namthar is believed to have come a particular gauge inside the mountain of now Dzongu in North Sikkim, and to my utter surprise the hill is still there and the books and letters are carved out in the mountain the location is in such a place the it is impossible for any human being to go out there and carve it.

In Black and White and Colour

Om Shanta Om!

All Photos by Rajesh Pradhan and Sunil Pradhan

There was a massive turnout for the rally protesting the statement made by the unpopular local GNLF MLA (Misunderstood Lady Adamant) Shanta Chhetri in her interview with Kolkata TV on the 22nd supporting the Sixth Schedule,she should learn from her colleague Pranoy Rai what to say and what not to say.I wonder if she has Gorkha blood in her,I heard some bystanders saying she needed to undergo a DNA to determine her genes,they are right

Here she is…..dressed to get burnt..

ashes to ashes dust to dust……goodbye Shanta….

raato tika nidarma….talakka talkiyo

The GJMM strongly believes in Youth Power.

We are waiting for you Shanta Chhetri.

What did you bark in Kolkata TV to get this royal treatment.

In Black & White

In Black & White

‘King of hills’ clings to crown- Ghisingh meets CM, rules out resignation from Darjeeling council

Kolkata, Feb. 23: Subash Ghisingh today ruled out resigning as administrator of the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council (DGHC) before his term expired on March 24. [Inset: Ghisingh at Writers’ on Saturday. Picture by Aranya Sen]

The Gorkha leader, who met chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee at Writers’ Buildings, also claimed that he could enter Darjeeling whenever he wanted, but was staying away to avoid triggering violence.

“Let people go on demanding, but I will not put in my papers before March 24. Let this not be treated as a political issue,” Ghisingh, who heads the GNLF, said.

“The GNLF is not politically weak and is very much there in the hills. I can enter Darjeeling whenever I feel like. I still consider myself king of the hills. But I do not want any clash and confrontation because of this. The hill people are very much with me.”

Ghisingh has been holed up in Pintail village, 3km from Siliguri, since returning from Delhi on Monday, with Gorkha Janamukti Morcha supporters blocking all roads to Darjeeling. Yesterday, he flew to Calcutta, prompting jubilant protesters to claim that he had fled under pressure.

But the GNLF leader today said he had been resting in Siliguri after a hectic Delhi tour. “I went to Delhi to find out the fate of the Sixth Schedule bill, which will be placed in Parliament shortly. It was a hectic tour and so I decided to rest in Siliguri and then come to Calcutta. I will meet the Bengal governor on Monday and also brief the state chief and home secretaries,” Ghisingh said.