Socio-Cultural Environment - Affected Citizens of Teesta (ACT)

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CISMHE
ignorance and servility” (R.N. Thakur, 1988). However, time is changing
for them too, and the urban and educated Lepchas are found to take up
jobs in the offices and educational establishments. They are now
conscious about their identity and are more assertive in voicing their
views and opinions.
2.3.2 Bhutia
The Bhutias who once ruled the land are distributed in all the four
districts of Sikkim and are found to occupy most vantage locations. Their
concentration is particularly dense in the colder and less humid tracts of
North, East and West Sikkim. They are the descendents of migrant
Tibetans who shifted their base from southern Tibet to Sikkim. The
Bhutias were instrumental in bringing Buddhism to Sikkim and till date
they practice the religion in traditional manner. The language of the
Bhutias is a variant of Tibetan that has gathered local flavour over
centuries of stay in Sikkim.
The Bhutias are a land-owning class and own large landholdings.
They are also skilled in animal rearing and trade. An average Bhutia in
Sikkim owns several acres of land, cattle, yak, and sheep and quite
often, a business establishment. The Bhutias of North Sikkim, especially
of Lachen and Lachung, practice transhumance. The people of Lachen,
for example, shift to the plateau of Thangu in the upper reaches of North
Sikkim every summer. Almost every family of Lachen has a piece of
cultivable land and a semi-permanent residence in Thangu. During the
summer months when the ground-snow melts, the farmers of Lachen