INTRODUCTION.
I now proceed to give an account of the various states and principalities which this mountainous region contained, and of the manner in which they became subject to the chiefs of Gorkha; and I shall commence at the Eastern extremity, proceeding westward regularly, so far as I can, without interrupting the account of each family.
CHAPTER FIRST.
of the states east from the river kali.
SECTION I.
country of sikim.
Inhabitants.—Government.—Extent.—History.—Geography.
The most eastern principality, in the present dominions of Gorkha, is that of the Lapchas, called Sikim. Although the prince of Sikim was a Bhotiya, the strength of his army consisted entirely of the Lapchas, who inhabited the higher mountains between the Kankayi and Tista. The Bhotiyas themselves are a very timid race, entirely sunk under the enervating effects of what they call religion.
Besides the Bhotiyas, who surrounded the prince, and the Lapchas by whom he was guarded, the mountains of Sikim contained many people of the tribe called Limbu, who have been already mentioned. My informant thinks, that of the whole population three-tenths were Bhotiyas, five-tenths Lapchas, and two tenths Limbus.
The princes of Sikim, as I have said, were Bhotiyas. They were of a family of high rank from Lasa, and took the title of Gelpo. The next person in the state was the chief or Hang
of the Lapchas. I suspect that the Gelpo possessed little power, except in matters of religion; for it is said, that his neighbour, the Deva Dharma Raja, although a mere priest, appoints whomsoever he pleases to manage the temporal affairs of his country; but in Sikim the office of Hang is hereditary. I have not learned the succession of the princes of Sikim; but it is probable that the Bhotiyas have governed the country for a considerable time.
At one time the princes of Sikim had extended their dominion far south, into the district of Puraniya, and possessed the low country on the east of the Mahananda, as far as Krishnagunj, a part of the country which was originally possessed by the Koch and Paliyas, the natives of Kamrup and Matsya, now the districts of Ranggapur and Dinajpur. The Rajas of Sikim were driven from the greatest part of this most valuable of their possessions by the Moslems; but they still retained a small space of the plain to the north of the Pergunah of Baikunthapur, when they were attacked by the Gorkhalese. Although the Kankayi, in the upper part of its course, was nearly their boundary, they never would appear to have possessed the plain between the Kankayi and Mahananda; but they were lords of the lower hills, occupied by the tribe called Dimali, who, I am assured, are the same with the Mech, a tribe now confined to the eastern parts of Kamrup or Ranggapur.