Figure 1.-- This photo postcard shows Lepcha cooly boys. They have the large back baskets there were used to carry cargos in the rough nountain paths of the Himilayas. The boys are barefoot and wear traditional clothing. The Lepcha or Róng people are the aboriginal, tribal people of Sikkim in the eastern Himilyas. , who have a population of 50,000. They are the aboriginal inhabitants of present day Sikkim.

The Lepcha people are also known as the Rongkup meaning in their language the children of God. Other names include the Rong, Mútuncí Róngkup Rumkup. They are one of the indigenous peoples of Sikkim and the easten Himilay in general. The Sikkim population numbers some 30,000-50,000 people. The total population may be as high as 80,000. Many Lepcha also live in western and southwestern Bhutan, Tibet, Darjeeling, the Mechi Zone of eastern Nepal, and in the hills of West Bengal. The Lepcha are composed of four main distinct communities: the Renjóngmú of Sikkim; the Támsángmú of Kalimpong, Kurseong, and Mirik; the ʔilámmú of Ilam District, Nepal; and the Promú of Samtse and Chukha in southwestern Bhutan. The origins of the Lepcha are not well established, but debated among anthropologists. There are indcatins that they variously originated in Myanmar, Tibet, or Mongolia. Lepcha legends firmly place them as indigenous to the Sikkim and surronding Himayan regions. Thy firmly believed that they originated is Nye Mayel Lyang maning essetially Sikkim. The Lepcha do not accept antropological evidence that suggest that they migrated into Sikkim. They speak a Tibeto-Burman language which may provide clues to origins and is commonly classifed as Himalayish. This leads to the most common anthropological thought that they emigrated directly from Tibet or from Eastern Mongolia south into the Himilayas. Some suggest wider origins, including Japan or Korea. There are also theories which postulate a more complex migration that began in southeast Tibet.

Created: 5:29 PM 1/7/2018
Last updated: 5:29 PM 1/7/2018