{"id":58775,"date":"2025-08-09T14:03:23","date_gmt":"2025-08-09T08:33:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=58775"},"modified":"2025-08-11T16:11:43","modified_gmt":"2025-08-11T10:41:43","slug":"lepcha-tribe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/lepcha-tribe\/","title":{"rendered":"Lepcha Tribe"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><b>Lepcha Tribe Latest News<\/b><\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sikkim recently celebrated Tendong Lho Rum Faat, the traditional nature-worshipping festival of the primitive Lepcha tribe.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>About Lepcha Tribe<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They are an indigenous people of eastern <\/span><b>Nepal, western Bhutan, Sikkim <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">state, and the <\/span><b>Darjeeling district of West Bengal.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They are classified as a <\/span><b>Scheduled Tribe in <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">the state of <\/span><b>Sikkim<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Lepchas<\/span><b> call themselves \u2018Rongs\u2019 or \u2018Rongkups\u2019.<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They occupy the s<\/span><b>outhern and eastern slopes of Mt. Kanchenjunga<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (world\u2019s third highest mountain).\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The region Lepchas inhabit varies in elevation from 230 m (750 ft) in the Sikkim basin to the summit of Kanchenjunga at 8,586 m (28,168 ft) above sea level.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They are thought to be the <\/span><b>earliest inhabitants of Sikkim<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> but have <\/span><b>adopted many elements of<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> the culture of the <\/span><b>Bhutia people<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, <\/span><b>who entered Sikkim from Tibet in the 14th century <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and afterward.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While some intermarriage has occurred between the two groups, t<\/span><b>hey tend to stay apart and to speak their own languages<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, which are <\/span><b>dialects of Tibetan.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They speak the <\/span><b>language of Lepcha,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> which has its <\/span><b>own script based on Sanskrit.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They are a <\/span><b>vanishing tribe<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> with a dwindling population. Lepcha has an estimated population of around <\/span><b>42,909 individuals<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> at the time of the Indian Census 2011.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Livelihood<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: <\/span><b>Traditionally hunters and gatherers<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, the Lepch\u0101 now also <\/span><b>engage in farming and cattle breeding.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Religion and Beliefs<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">:\u00a0<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Originally, <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Lepchas were <\/span><b>nature worshipers<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and had belief in witch-craftship and spirits. But in <\/span><b>due course they embarrassed Buddhism.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The community would traditionally have <\/span><b>worshiped Mt. Kanchenjunga,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> which they regard as their guardian deity. <\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\" aria-level=\"1\">They have <b style=\"font-size: inherit;\">regular festivals<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> involving singing and dancing, as well as <\/span><b style=\"font-size: inherit;\">archery contests.<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Source<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/eastmojo.com\/sikkim\/2025\/08\/08\/sikkim-lepcha-tribe-festival-tendong-lho-rum-faat-celebrated\/#google_vignette\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">EM<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lepchas are an indigenous people of eastern Nepal, western Bhutan, Sikkim state, and the Darjeeling district of West Bengal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":59066,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2096],"class_list":{"0":"post-58775","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"tag-lepcha-tribe","9":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58775","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58775"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58775\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59066"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}