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Concept
Lepcha people
Summary
The Lepcha (ˈlɛptʃə; also called Rongkup (Lepcha: ᰕᰫ་ᰊᰪᰰ་ᰆᰧᰶ ᰛᰩᰵ་ᰀᰪᰱ ᰛᰪᰮ་ᰀᰪᰱ, Mútuncí Róngkup Rumkup, "beloved children of the Róng and of God") and Rongpa (Sikkimese: )) are among the indigenous peoples of the Indian state of Sikkim and Nepal, and number around 80,000. Many Lepcha are also found in western and southwestern Bhutan, Tibet, Darjeeling, the Koshi Province of eastern Nepal, and in the hills of West Bengal. The Lepcha people are composed of four main distinct communities: the Renjóngmú of Sikkim; the Dámsángmú of Kalimpong, Kurseong, and Mirik; the ʔilámmú of Ilam District, Nepal; and the Promú of Samtse and Chukha in southwestern Bhutan.
The word Lepcha is considered to be the anglicised version of the Nepalese word lepche meaning "vile speakers" or "inarticulate speech". This was at first a derogatory nickname, but is no longer seen as negative.
The origin of the Lepcha is unknown. They may have originated in Myanmar or Tibet, but the Lepcha people themselves firmly believe that they did not migrate to the current location from anywhere and are indigenous to the region. They speak a Tibeto-Burman language which some classify as Himalayish. Based on this, some anthropologists suggest they emigrated directly from Tibet to the north, Japan or from Eastern Mongolia. Others suggest a more complex migration that started in southeast Tibet, a migration to Thailand, Burma, or Japan, then a navigation of the Ayeyarwady River and Chindwin Rivers, a crossing of the Patkoi range coming back west, and finally entering ancient India (this supported by Austroasiatic language substrata in their vocabularies). While migrating westward through India, they are surmised to have passed through southern Bhutan before reaching their final destination near Kanchenjunga. The Lepcha people themselves do not have any tradition of migration, and hence they conclude that they are autochthonous to the region, currently falling under the state of Sikkim, Darjeeling District of West Bengal, eastern Nepal and the southwestern parts of Bhutan.
Official source
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