Gangtok History: From Tumlong to Statehood

A hill top before a capital

The name is the best place to start. Gangtok is commonly translated as "hill top", from the Tibetan sgang tog, and that is exactly what the town still is: a long ridge at about 1,650 m, with houses stepping down both flanks and the monastery of Enchey near its upper end. For most of Sikkim's history this ridge was not important. The kings of Sikkim, the Chogyals of the Namgyal dynasty, ruled from other seats, and Gangtok was a small hamlet among fields and forest above the Ranikhola valley.

The first sign of something more is religious. In the 1840s a small gompa was built on the Enchey site. The local story is that the ground had already been blessed by the tantric master Lama Drupthob Karpo, who is said to have flown here from Maenam Hill in South Sikkim. That is folklore, and we tell it as folklore, but it explains why the site was thought worth a monastery long before there was a town around it. The present Enchey building, which visitors see today, dates from 1909, and its name is usually explained as "solitary monastery".

Treaty, war and a changing frontier

Through the 19th century Sikkim sat between two larger powers: British India to the south, which had taken Darjeeling from Sikkim earlier in the century, and Tibet to the north, to which the Chogyals were tied by religion, family and trade. In 1861 the British and Sikkim signed the Treaty of Tumlong, named after the royal capital of the time in North Sikkim. It brought Sikkim much further under British influence and opened the way for roads and trade through its territory.

Tension with Tibet came to a head in 1888. Tibetan troops had built a fort at Lingtu on the high road towards Jelep La, inside what the British treated as Sikkim. A British expedition drove them out, and on 22 May 1888 Tibetan and British forces clashed at Gnathang, the high valley on today's Silk Route. Travellers on the Zuluk–Gnathang road still pass war memorials on that stretch. A year later, in 1889, John Claude White arrived as the first British Political Officer in Sikkim, and the balance of power in the kingdom shifted decisively.

1894: the capital moves to Gangtok

In 1894 Chogyal Thutob Namgyal, the 9th Chogyal, moved the capital of Sikkim from Tumlong to Gangtok, under British influence, and a new palace was built on the ridge. The move made practical sense for the new order. Gangtok was closer to the trade road south to Kalimpong and the plains, closer to the British administration, and on a ridge where a small government town could be laid out.

The British presence spread across the east of the kingdom in these years. At Aritar, the dak bungalow is dated locally to 1895 and linked with John Claude White, and Sikkim's first treasury and first police outpost, in 1897, are said to have been on the same premises. Down the hill, the royal chapel of Tsuklakhang became the centre of court ritual, and it still hosts the Pang Lhabsol dances in late summer and the Kagyed cham in December.

The trade road to Lhasa

For the next half century Gangtok and East Sikkim lived beside one of the great mule roads of the Himalaya. Wool, salt and Tibetan goods came down from the Chumbi valley; cloth, tea, sugar and manufactured goods went up. The main Raj-era wool route ran from Kalimpong to Pedong, Rhenock, Rongli and Zuluk and over Jelep La at 4,390 m into the Chumbi valley. Rongli grew into one of Sikkim's oldest markets, and Zuluk was an overnight halt for the mule trains until the events of 1959 in Tibet.

Nathu La, at 4,310 m and about 56 km from Gangtok, was the other gate. J. W. Edgar surveyed it in 1873 and the Jelep La side in 1874, and Francis Younghusband's expedition used Nathu La in 1903–04. In the 1950s it was a trade route of the Kingdom of Sikkim, and Gangtok's shopkeepers did good business with the caravans. This is the route that today's travellers call the Old Silk Route, though in its working life it was mostly a wool road.

Monasteries, an institute and a closed border

The mid-20th century gave Gangtok several of the buildings visitors see first. Do-drul Chorten, the great white stupa with 108 prayer wheels, was built in 1945–46 by Trulshik Rinpoche of the Nyingma order. The local story is that the site was thought haunted and the stupa was raised to subdue negative forces. Nearby, the 14th Dalai Lama laid the foundation stone of the Namgyal Institute of Tibetology on 10 February 1957, and Jawaharlal Nehru inaugurated it on 1 October 1958. It is named after Chogyal Sir Tashi Namgyal.

After 1947 Sikkim remained a monarchy under Indian protection, and the trade with Tibet over Nathu La and Jelep La carried on until the upheavals of 1959 and the war of 1962 closed it. The passes were sealed and there were further clashes at Nathu La in 1967. In 1959 the 16th Karmapa came from Tibet to Rumtek, 24 km from Gangtok, and with land given by Chogyal Tashi Namgyal rebuilt the ruined monastery there, inaugurated at Losar in 1966.

1975 and the modern state

In 1975 the monarchy ended and Sikkim became India's 22nd state, on 16 May 1975, with Gangtok as its capital. The events of that year are still discussed with feeling in Sikkim, and we leave the arguments to the historians. For visitors the practical change was steady growth: government offices, schools, hotels and the dense concrete town that now covers the ridge.

Growth on steep slopes in seismic zone IV has a cost. In June 1997 landslides killed 38 people in Gangtok, and every monsoon still brings slips on the town's roads. The town has also learnt to manage itself well in places. MG Marg, the main street, was renovated in 2008 as a pedestrian mall where vehicles, smoking, littering and spitting are banned and fines are collected, and it has become the town's evening meeting place.

A timeline in one table

Since 2000 the dates have come quickly. Nathu La reopened to border trade in 2006, for part of the year and on limited days, and the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra route through it opened in 2015. In January 2016 Sikkim was declared India's first fully organic state. Pakyong Airport opened in 2018, though its scheduled flights have been irregular, and in December 2021 Pakyong district was created from East Sikkim. On 4 October 2023 the South Lhonak glacial lake outburst sent a flood down the Teesta that hit Rangpo and the NH10 corridor, and the road below Gangtok has had repeated closures since.

Where to see this history

• Enchey Monastery, for the oldest religious site on the ridge and the winter cham dances.
• Tsuklakhang, the royal chapel, open to the public mainly at Pang Lhabsol and the December cham.
• Namgyal Institute of Tibetology, for thangkas, manuscripts and statues; small entry fee, closed some days.
• Do-drul Chorten and its 108 prayer wheels, a short walk above the Institute.
• Rumtek, 24 km away, for the 1966 Dharma Chakra Centre and the old monastery downhill.
• Gnathang and Zuluk on the Silk Route, for the 1888 battlefield country and the mule road over Jelep La.
• Aritar, for the 1895 dak bungalow linked with John Claude White.