Bhutia

The Bhutia བོད་རིགས (in Sikkim: Denzongpa; Tibetan: འབྲས་ལྗོངས་པ་, Wylie: 'Bras-ljongs-pa ; "inhabitants of Denzong;" in Bhutan: Dukpa) are a community of people of Tibetan ancestry, who speak Sikkimese, a Tibetan dialect fairly mutually intelligible to standard Tibetan. In 2001, the Bhutia numbered around 70,300. Bhutia here refers to Sikkimese and Nepalese of Tibetan ancestry; in contrast, the Bhotiya are a larger family of related Tibetan peoples in northeastern Nepal of which the Bhutia are one member group.

Language

The language spoken by the Bhutias in Sikkim is Sikkimese, which is 85% mutually intelligible with Tibetan and Dzongkha, the language of Bhutan. Most Bhutias practice the Nyingma school, followed by the Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism. The Bhutias are spread out over Nepal, Bhutan, and in northern West Bengal, especially in the towns of Kalimpong and Darjeeling.

History

The ancestors of the Bhutia migrated from Tibet to north eastern Nepal, Sikkim, Darjeeling, Kalimpong, and other parts of modern-day Nepal, India and Bhutan. They migrated through the different passes ("La" in Tibetan means "hill") in the Himalayas. Geographical indications in the name of Bhutias' last names are common. In Northern Sikkim, for example, where the Bhutias are the majority inhabitants, they are known as the Lachenpas or Lachungpas, meaning inhabitants of Lachen (Tibetan: ལ་ཆེན་ ; "big pass") or Lachung (Tibetan: ལ་ཆུང་ ; "small pass") respectively.