The Himalaya main ridge separates the barren highlands in the north and west from the green hilly country made luscious by the monsoon, with deeply notched river valleys in the south and east. This fertile expanse has had a strong attraction for centuries to different groups of people. Mongolian nations from Central Asia crossed the mountains again and again and interbred with ethnic groups from eastern Asia. From the south, from the overpopulated plains of the river Ganges, Indoarians continue to come to settle in the area at the foot of the Himalaya. They once reached India from the Middle East across the passes of the Karakorum.
The cultures originating in the Himalaya are closely linked to religions which developed in India. They came into a symbiosis with the belief of the people in a nature animated by spirits, Gods and demons. From Kashmir, in the west, Buddhism spread across Tibet where it underwent a change to Lamaism with its variety of schools. It reached the southern side of the mountains in waves over the passes of the Himalaya. The monasteries were the cultural centres because they were the places of learning and the monks could be active in fine arts as they were released from the duties of the daily struggle for survival. The people have a close, often also familiar connection to their monasteries. The monks teach the children and are responsible for the religious rites in which they ask the deities for a rich harvest or a good rebirth. Talented pupils are trained in medicine, mathematics or astrology.
From the beginning of the 10th century, over a period of 700 years, Muslim armies from the west penetrated the Indian subcontinent, plundered the prosperous Hindu empires, destroyed the temples in religious delusion and slaughtered the population. Many tribes, among them also Hindu rulers with their followers, fled into the deserted, life-threatening jungles at the foot of the Himalaya and further moved into the fertile valleys of Nepal. A mixture of Hinduism with the prevailing Buddhism and the belief in an animated nature developed there and shaped a unique culture.
Since the colonial age the Christian belief had also gained a foothold, generally supported by the excellent boarding schools especially in Darjeeling and Kalimpong. Open to every religious community these training centres are regarded rather as a place of western upbringing and discipline.
The independence of India in 1947, with its division into a Hindu Republic and a Muslim State, brought on a mass exodus. Some Muslims took this route to the religiously tolerant southern part of the Himalayas.
A mixture of this ethnic, cultural and religious variety can be found in a small area in the 22nd state of the Indian Union, in Sikkim, and in the former hillstations of the colonial age, Darjeeling and Kalimpong, lying south of it.
The western world came to know of Sikkim through the romance of the American Hope Cooke with the crown prince of this remote Himalayan Monarchy. They married in 1963 and in 1965 she became the last queen of the small country.
Darjeeling is known for its tea. During colonial times Darjeeling was appreciated by the British as a summer resort and as a retreat from the intolerably hot monsoon in their former capital Calcutta and developed it into a hillstation similar to Kalimpong. The climate favoured the cultivation of the tea plant imported from China.
Kalimpong was an important stopover on the trade route to Tibet. The close proximity of this country occupied by China is emphasised today by the numerous refugees. In recent years new monasteries have been built by monks of the Gelugpa sect who fled from Tibet.
Between its altitudes of 227m in the Teesta valley and the third highest mountain on earth, the Kanchenjunga with 8598m, almost all climates of the earth can be found in the area. Sikkim is subdivided into four districts; the sparsely populated Northern District with steep slopes and rough climate, the Eastern District with the capital Gangtok, the Southern District with the country's only Bon monastery and the historic Western District with its paradise for trekking. To the south, the holiday resorts Darjeeling and Kalimpong form the mountainous appendix of the Indian state of Western Bengal.
The population of these three areas distinguishes itself considerably from that of the Indian lowlands. The call for independence is heard time and again.
Although Sikkim has been open to Europeans since 1904, it is not as well known as its neighbouring countries Nepal and Bhutan, which only granted admission to foreigners from 1950 or 1974 respectively. The first visitors were naturalists or members of an expedition to the Kanchenjunga. The restrictions to visitors have been gradually loosened. Travel to Darjeeling and Kalimpong is possible without a special permit. The fourteen days residence permit for Gangtok can be easily extended and since recently foreigners are also allowed to visit certain zones within the border areas to Tibet / China in an organised tour.
The two of us, Gabriele Fritz and Dimitri Gerasimou, have travelled around the area several times. Most photographs are the result of our residence of one month each in May and October 1995 and in November 1996. Gabriele Fritz has been a tour guide in the area since 1989. This gave rise to the idea of this book.
