The Royal Curse of Sikkim
It is a year since we launched Masala History by Siva and I want to thank all the readers & listeners who have been following us in multiple platforms, providing reviews, asking questions and sending feedback. It is also time to thank the branding team that has driven discipline in me to publish histories periodically and also enabled such a large reach. Also as some of you may have noticed, we have paused the podcast versions of our stories — I plan to open Season 3 of the podcast in July, so thanks for your patience and understanding then.
When I started more formally writing this series, the first story was based on a Royal Curse — the curse that fell on the Royal House of Wodeyars and continues till today. So as a first anniversary episode, I thought I would you the story of another curse that fell on a Royal family in India and continues till date. So without further delay, lets board our time machines and set the destination to the Himalayan state — modern day Sikkim.
Many in India are not aware of when and how Sikkim became part of this country. It may be news to many that Sikkim was annexed on May 16, 1975 and formally became part of the Indian Union. (Infact Darjeeling, which is part of modern day state of West Bengal, was part of the Kingdom of Sikkim until it was annexed by the British East India Company in 1816). Originally Sikkim was an independent kingdom in its own right nestled between two other rival kingdoms (Nepal and Bhutan) ruled by the House of Namgyal. It became a protectorate along with Bhutan under British India since 1861 and remained so until India annexed Sikkim in 1975 — the only Princely state where the ruler was not asked to sign the instrument of accession during Indian Independence . The King of Sikkim is usually referred as the “Chogyal” — which means ‘righteous ruler’. Some day we will do a write up of the story of how Sikkim became India’s 22nd state — a tale of twists and turns and surprises. For now lets stick to the royal curse or the Namgyal Curse.
What is the curse? It is that no physically “perfect” man can rule the Kingdom of Sikkim. It is of course very subjective to define what “perfect” means, but to simplify, the ruler will have an observable handicap of some sort. And the worst part of the curse meant that if the heir/crown prince was “perfect”, high chances that he would die before being crowned King or Chogyal — most often the firstborns would never rule in the dynasty.
Before we dismiss this as another story of unfortunate coincidences, lets look at evidence.
Evidence #1: The current titular King Wangchuk Namgyal wears glassess and has issues with his eyes. He wasn’t the original heir — His elder brother & royal heir Tenzing Namgyal, who was highly educated (from Cambridge), also a sportsman and considered an extremely perfect royal heir died in a freaky car accident, leaving the crown to the less perfect younger brother.
Evidence #2: Maharaja Chogyal Palden Thondup Namgyal (father of current titular King) was the last King of Sikkim until he was deposed in 1975.The last Maharaja wasn’t perfect & had a speech impediment. He was also not the first son or the original royal heir. His brother, Crown Prince Paljor — the “perfect” original heir, died as a pilot of the RAF in 1941 at Peshawar during a World War II raid.
Evidence #3: Now that we have seen 2 cases, let’s go one more level up. The penultimate ruler, Maharaja Chogyal Tashi Namgyal (father of Palden Thondup) had the second longest reign in the dynasty for 49 years. He was blind in one eye! And as you expect, his elder brother, Sidkeong Tulku, a man ‘perfect’ in body and soul, died tragically in 1914 when, a physician administered a surplus dose of brandy in his veins!!
Tashi Namgya’s father had hare’s lip & was the second son of the previous ruler before him. And the story keeps going on and on….
Lets look a little bit on the history of the curse. For several centuries, Sikkim was occupied by the Lepcha tribe. Somewhere in the 17th century, the Bhutias, aTibetian Buddhist tribe emigrated into Sikkim. Over time, the Bhutias decided to establish a Buddhist kingdom in the region, finally establishing the Namgyal dynasty. But there was a twist. When the Namgyal dynasty was established, there was an agreement with the Lepchas that the Namgyals would renounce Buddhism and worship the Animist Lepcha Gods. Of course, once in power, the Namgyals didn’t care much about the agreement. They continued with their usual Buddhist worship, maintained strong diplomatic and marital ties with Tibet and even accepted the religious jurisdiction of Tibet. (Infact, Sikkim being an extension of Tibet, is the foundation of China’s claim over Sikkim). The failure to follow the original promise is what is attributed to why the curse was placed on the Royal House.
The Namgyas believe that It is the “sih”, a curse that is developed through black magic over a long period of time. The curse is usually first evoked, then it has to be cleverly hidden. Then it has to be bred through more prayers. This starts then affecting the family forever. There are no clear ways for the curse to be lifted off!
Given this complexity, even the final journey of the Namgyal Royal family members is complicated. After any royal personage is cremated, there is a long ritual of shifting through the ashes. It is widely believed that in the case of genuinely blessed reincarnates, three organs never burn — the eyes, the tongue and the heart! Sometimes religious symbols, like the auspicious Tibetan sign of Aah, “appear” on bones. These relics are taken away and placed in the royal chapel and guarded forever.
Let me end the story with the same finish line I used for my first — Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown. (King Henry by Shakespeare)
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#royalhistory #weirdhistory #folklore #northeastindia
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