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 While
on election duty in Sikkim I came across a most enchanting place
called Yamthum situated in north Sikkim. A visitor is able to get a
real glimpse of the authentic Sikkmese culture over here. This is the
place where yaks are bred and many products are prepared from their
milk. The excess yak milk is sun dried and made into surpi, a kind of
dried cheese. Everybody chews surpi as we chew chewing gums. Surpi is
rich in protein and can be easily preserved and stored. It can act as
an emergency ration and can be used as a nutrition supplement in case
of shortage of fresh food in winters when the land is totally covered
by snow.
The favourite food of the people at Yamthum as in
rest of the Sikkim is momos. Momos are little steam cooked balls of
meat, wrapped in rice flour dough. For making momos you can use
poultry, pork or the yak meat. Sikkimese also make stuffed pancakes
(which are just like our South Indian dosas) from the buck wheat and
are stuffed with cooked potatoes, butter and wild onion (khuri).
Sikkimese make their own version of corn flakes, handmade from their
own home grown corns, which they either eat plain or with milk. They
drink Suja tea (a tea to which salt and butter is added) in order to
maintain body heat and body salts in winter. This tea is very similar
to salt tea (Sheer Chai) drunk by the people of Kashmir.
Yamthum is famous for its 'Cham' festival which
takes place in the month of December. The ancient Lama dance or Gompa
(temple) dance is performed on this occasion. This is a religious
mask dance through which stories of Buddha are told and resembles
very closely the dance forms of the Kathakali of Kerala and the
Bhagvad Mela of Tamilnadu. Every family has to attend the annual
dance and camp under the open sky for the duration of the festival.
Non attendance of the festival is viewed very seriously by the
community. The most unique feature of Yamthum is a very ancient form
of grass root level democracy practiced by the Bhutia community in
the villages of Lachen and Lachung. The inhabitants of these villages
are supposed to be the descendants of the earliest settlers, who came
from Chumbi valley in Tibet to Sikkim along with the first king
Phuntsong Namgyal. For hundreds of years these communities have been
practising an ancient system of democracy called the Pipon system.
The Pipon is the elected head of the village who
is assisted by another elected representative of the people known as
the junior Pipon. The term of the Pipon is only two years unlike the
panchayat presidents who get elected for five years. However a Pipon
can be re-elected any number of times. There are two gyapons who
assist the pipons in arranging the meetings and in carrying out all
other functions connected with the administration. It is compulsory
to attend a meeting called by the Pipon. A fine of 100 rupees is
levied for not attending the meeting. If a family sends a member,
less than 18 years of age to attend the meeting they are fined 50
rupees. The Pipon delivers justice, tries cases, gives punishments.
Normally punishments are in the form of fines. People have been fined
heavily at times. Sometimes even a fine of twenty to thirty thousand
has also been levied. The money so collected is equally distributed
to all the families in the village.
The Pipon can also impose physical punishment on
the people. The place where physical punishment is given is called
Jumra which is an open thatched roof structure standing on a central
pole. For effecting corporal punishment, the culprit, a man or a
woman as the case may be, is stripped naked and tied to this pole.
After that he or she is given the number of lashes as per the
punishment granted. This mode of punishment though technically
admissible even today has become rather rare. The Pipon also fixes
the terms of reference for marriages and divorces and decides all
other social issues. The Pipon solves all village level problems. He
attends to any incidence of violence (though these are only rare and
hardly ever occur). As far as possible the police is not involved and
all local matters are taken care of by the Pipon.
All rural development works are carried out under
the guidance of the Pipon. Whenever a scheme is sanctioned the Pipon
asks all the families to send a family member to come and work on the
scheme. It may be a roadwork, a school building or a primary health
centre. Every family contributes a family member to work. They are
not paid anything; they also have to bring their own lunch. After the
project is over the entire money sanctioned by the government is
distributed among all the households in the village. No house hold
can refuse to accept the share in the project money. Any refusal is
also viewed very seriously. In the village everyone is equal and all
must abide by the community discipline.
In this manner all the government sponsored
schemes are executed by the Pipon correctly and appropriately. The
income generated goes to the people in the village and not to some
outside contractor. No bribery or corruption takes place in the
execution of schemes as there is no politically nominated contractor
or middle men involved. The schemes undertaken are also well
conceived and need based. The money is used to create real assets for
the community. The benefit of rural development programme goes cent
per cent to the village and there is no cut of any type at any level.
With the introduction of the Panchayati Raj system in the country
there was a move to replace the ancient Pipon system with the modern
day panchayats in Lachan and Lachung by the vested interests. This
move was fiercely resisted by the people of Lachan and Lachung.
Eventually they won their battle for retaining their ancient
democratic institution. The state assembly of Sikkim in the year 1997
formerly passed a bill to preserve the Pipon system in Lachan and
Lachung.
This means that the unique and ancient system of
primary democracy will not be forcibly changed to the panchayati raj
system. All decisions regarding the village will continue to be taken
by the Pipon keeping in view the merit of the situation. There are
two seats reserved on the Tashi Namgyal Academy in Gangtok for a
student from Lachan and Lachung. These can never go to the son of a
big or influential man. The Pipon asks the Head Master of the local
school to select the most talented students from the village and
those students make it to the academy. In this manner hundreds of
students have made it to very high position through their education
in the academy. Normally a Pipon could also influence the voting
pattern in the village. Till recently people used to vote as advised
by the Pipon, though recently there has been some change. It is
believed that during the current elections held in 1999, 80 % of
people voted as advised by the Pipon. The Lachen was supporting
Sikkim Sangram Parishad and Lachung was supporting the Sikkim
Democratic front, the ruling party. It is openly made known if the
village is not supporting a particular candidate. At the same time
there are no expectation from the candidate they did not support in
case he wins. It is all very transparent and very fair.
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