Until fairly recently Sikkim ('New House') was an independent Himalayan kingdom though in treaty relations with the Indian government which allowed the latter to control Sikkim's foreign affairs and defense. In 1975, however, following a period of political crises and riots in the capital, Gangtok, India annexed the country and Sikkim became the 22nd Indian state. The move was far from universally popular at the time though tensions have now cooled and the central government has been spending relatively large amounts of money to subsidies road building, electrification, water supply, and agricultural and industrial development India's motivation for much of this activity was undoubtedly its fear of Chinese military designs in the Himalayan region and even today you see a lot of military activity going on along the route from Darjeeling to Gangtok.

For many years, Sikkim was regarded as one of the last 'Shangri Las' in the Himalayan region because of its remoteness, its spectacular mountain terrain, varied flora and fauna and its ancient Buddhist monasteries. It was never easy to get there and even now a special permit must be obtained from the central government before a visit can be made. It's likely that this requirement will continue for the foreseeable future but it's becoming more and more a formality as tourism is promoted. Foreign visitors are now permitted to trek up into the remote Dzongri region of western Sikkim without further permission being required but, for the present, much of eastern Sikkim alongside the Tibetan border remains out of bounds.

The country was originally people by the Lepchas, a tribal people who are thought to have migrated from the hills of Assam around the 13th century. The Lepchas were forest foragers and small patch cultivators who worshipped nature spirits and wore a pacific people in temperament. They still make up some 18% of the total population of Sikkim though their ability to lead their traditional life style has been severely limited due to immigration from Tibet. and, more recently, from Nepal,

The Tibetans started to migrate into Sikkim during the 15th and 16th century due to various Lamalst seets at that time. In Tibet itself the yellow hat sect the Sak to which the Dalai Lama belongs gradually gained the upper hand whereas in Sikkim the red hat sect Nying-ma-pa remained in control and was, until the country became a part of India, the official slate religion. Though the Lepchas originally retreated to the more remote regions in the face of the waves of Tibetan immigrants a blood brother hood was eventually engineered be between their leader, Thekong Tek, and the Bhutyas leader, Khye-Bumsa, and the heavy hand of spiritual and temporal authority Imposed on the anarchistic Lepchas. The union generated a good deal of suspicion between the two groups particularly when the Lepchas were persuaded to bring all their literature and totems to a ceremony where it was destroyed by the Tibetans. Having imposed their control over the Lepchas, the Dalai Lama in Lhasa appointed Pen-choo Namgyal as the first king of Sik-kim in 1641. At this time the country included the whole of the area bounded by the present state plus a part of eastern Nepal, the Chumbi Valley (Tibet), the Ha Valley (Bhutan) and the Terai foot-hills from the present border down to the plains of India including Darjeeling and Kalimpong.