200 words On Cultural dresses Of Sikkim
Answers
The people of Sikkim are more commonly known as the Sikkimese. The prehistoric times of the state of Sikkim was occupied by three tribes namely Naong, Chang and the Mon. But however they were soon overtaken by the groups of people who were mainly from the neighboring country namely the Lepcha who belonged to the clan of Nagas. Soon Sikkim had three groups of major tribal people namely the Lepcha who migrated from Tibet, the Bhutias who are the descendants of Buddhists from Tibet and finally the Nepalese from Nepal and they are the descendants of Hindus. The culture of SIKKIM can be best expressed as comprising the following :
ORIGIN AND ETHNICITY
The Nepalese constitute the majority of the population of the people of Sikkim of about nearly 67% followed by the Bhutias of about 16% and then the Lepcha contributing 13% of the total population. The people of Sikkim are nature worshippers and peace loving and they still stick on to this feature. Nepali is the most common spoken language spoken by the people of Sikkim but other languages like Bhutia, Dzongkha, Groma, Gurung, Kafle, Lepcha, Limbu, Magar, Majhi, Majhwar, Nepal Bhasa, Rai, Sherpa, Sunuwar, Tamang, Thulung, Tibetan, and Yakha are also spoken by different groups of tribal people. The majority of the people living here in Sikkim are Hindus which is nearly 60.9% and Buddhism religion is followed by at least 28.1% of the population. The Lepcha tribes are mostly converted to Christians after the British missionaries who came during the 19th century.
Due to majority of the population having been migrated into the state from the neighboring country Nepal, the people of Sikkim are more of Nepali ethnic in origin. It was the Lepchas group of people who were the original occupants of the state even before the entry of the Bhutias and the Nepalese. The Lepchas live in the central part of Sikkim and they speak the tribal language 'lepcha' which is not very common among other groups of people. They are very good at archery. The northern part of Sikkim is mostly occupied by the Bhutias who migrated from Tibet during the late 15th century. Sikkim has its religion incorporated with Bhutias. The Sikkimese language is spoken by the Bhutias. It was much later after the entry of the Lepchas and the Bhutias, the Nepalese came into the state and now they form the most dominant community in the state. The Nepalese are sub-divided into various castes and tribes like Bawans (Brahmans), Chhetries, Gurungs, Tamangs, Rais, Limbus, Magars, Damais, Kamis, etc. The majority of the Nepalese who migrated to Sikkim follow the religion of Hinduism. Some of the other migrant resident communities dwelling in South Sikkim and Gangtok are the Biharis, Bengalis and Marwaris.
CULTURE
The people of Sikkim have a rich cultural heritage with a homogenous blend of different religion, customs and traditions of different communities of people living. Apart from the traditional Sikkimese language and the tribal languages the people of Sikkim also speak other languages like Hindi and English. They are generally characterized as warm and friendly in nature for even in spite of different communities occupying the state they still live in peace and harmony. Even small festivals are celebrated with great enthusiasm and devotion. There are social or religious gatherings or celebrations which cannot miss out the music and dance of the people of Sikkim.
The mask dance is very famous here and is performed by the monks in the temple during religious festivals. The monks cover themselves with gaily-painted masks, ceremonial swords and sparkling jewels where they dance according to the sound of resounding drums, trumpeting horns and religious chanting. The earliest inhabitants of the state namely the Lepchas are predominantly Buddhist and Christians, but however before the introduction of these two religions they believed in the bone faith or mune faith based on the spirits, good and bad for they prayed to the spirits associated with nature like mountains, rivers and forests. Their settlements are quite small for each hut in a village is made of bamboo and is raised about five feet above the ground on stilts. There are just a couple of rooms with only small minimum essential requirements of life.