 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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