Apryaa Vom is the oldest and richest form of Lepcha classical folk song. The descendants of Fadongthing and Nuzaongnyoo, the Lepchas, in praise of Eetboo Deboo, the Creator, Kingtsumzaongboo, the Guardian Deity, Fadongthing and Nuzaongnyoo, their progenitors, offered their prayers in the form of an ‘Aprya Vom’. During, ‘Soogi Lyaot Tek’, an offering of prayers, invocations, devotion, and thanksgivings to Tamsangthing, Nyoolik Nyoosong Mun, Azaor Boongthing, and their respective Gurus, the Lepcha Mun and Boongthing sing ‘Apryaa Vom’. Normally there are two parties; one represents the ‘Dangmoo Rum’, a God of low land, and another party represents as the ‘Sangnyo Rum’, a God of the mountains and high lands. The singers representing the ‘Dangmoo Rum’ sing using the ‘Dangit Nyoo’ bird’s tone and the other party representating ‘Sang Nyoo Rum’, imitates and sing in ‘Chyak Doon’ and ‘Kakoo’ birds tones.
There are mainly three types of Aprya Vom Sut (tunes) for common Lepchas:
1. Renjyong Sut: As the name suggests, Renjyong sut is related to the Sikkimese tune. The Darjeeling and Kurseong Sub-Divisions are historically included in Sikkim; therefore, the Lepchas of these two Sub-Divisions also follow the ‘Renjyong Sut’. The tune flows like a stream.
2. Damsang Sut: Damsang Sut pertains to the Lepchas of present day Kalimpong Sub-Division. Damsang Sut is , vigourous and flowing.
3. Illam Sut: It is related to Illam, east Nepal. Illam Sut is always in rhyme. It is little bit slow in rhythm but it flows slow and steady without stop.
Apryaa Vom is sung on all occasions and there are basically four kinds of Apryaa Vom as follows:
1. Sawo Apryaa Vom - Prayer song 2. Aagao-Apryaa Vom - Joyous song 3. Asyaot - Sam Kyao Apryaa Vom - Sad song 4. Dungeet Aprya Vom - Patriotic song
In the old day Apryaa Vom was also sung during funeral and death ceremonies but, today, unfortunately, it has almost ceased to be sung except one person, Lapon Sonam Tshering Lepcha of Kalimpong.
While singing an Apryaa Vom, a singer must observe and strictly adhere to the following rules and regulations:
a. It must be sung in the standing position.’’
b. His or her head-gear, if any, must be in his or her hands.
c. No musical instruments will accompany the song because Apryaa Vom started well before the advent of the Lepcha musical instruments.
d. A singer normally has to concentrate on a particular, relevant subject demanded by the situation, and spontaneously compose his or her song then and there, describing and stressing the points and very frankly expressing his or her thoughts, without any restraint, to the audiences.
e. it must flow like a river, smooth, cool and non-stop.
f. A singer is allowed freedom to use praise, humour and sarcasm, where applicable, without restraint in his or her song.
g. Apryaa Vom normally starts with the word, ‘Haa Aey’ and if it is a patriotic song, ‘Aachuley’ is used. At the end of the song, all will shout out ‘Aachuley!’. It is an expression of admiration, praise and joy all rolled into one except on ‘Aasyaot’ or ‘Samkyao Vom’ (Sad song) all will remain silent for obvious reasons.
To protect, maintain and develop this unique Lepcha traditional classical folk song, Apryaa Vom, workshops and competitions among the Lepchas, young and old, male and female, are being organised from time to time in Kalimpong, West Bengal.
For the first time after the country became Independent, the Government of India is proposing the formulation of a National Policy on Scheduled Tribes.
The policy seeks to bring Schedule Tribes into the mainsream of society through a multipronged approach for their all-round development without disturbing their distinct culture.
There are 67.8 million Scheduled Tribe people, constituting 8.08 per cent of India’s population. There are 698 Scheduled Tribe spread all over the country barring States and Union Territories like Chandigarh, Delhi, Haryana, Pondicherry and Punjab. Orissa has the larest number- 68- of Scheduled Tribes.
Scheuled Tribes are those which are notified as such by the President of India under Article 342 of the Constitution. The first notification was issued in 1950. The President considers characteristics like the tribes’ primitive traits, distinctive culture, shyness with the public at large, geographical isolation and social and economic backwardness before notifying them as a Scheduled Tribe. Seventy-five of the 698 Scheduled Tribes are identified as Primitive Tribal Groups considering they are more backward than Scheduled Tribes. They continue to live in a pre-aricultural stage of economy and have very low literacy rates. Their populations are stagnant or even declining. The Constitution through several Articles has provided for the socio-economic development and empowerment of Scheduled Tribes.(You may list the provisions here, if necessary.) But there has been no national policy, which could have helped translate the constitutional provisions into a reality. Five principles spelt out in 1952, known as Nehruvian Panchasheel, have been guiding the administration of tribal affairs. They are:
Tribals should be allowed to develop according to their own genius
Tribals’ rights in land and forest should be respected
Tribal team should be trained to undertake administration and deveopment without too many outsiders being inducted
Tribal deveopment should be undertaken without disturbing tribal social and cultural institutions
The index of tribal deveopment should be the quality of their life and not the money spent
Realising that the Nehruvian Panchasheel was long on generalities and short on specifics, the Government of India formed a Ministry of Tribal Affairs for the first time on October 1999 to accelerate tribal development. The Ministry of Tribal Affairs is now coming out with the draft National Policy on Tribals. Based on the feedback from tribal leaders, the concerned States, individuals, organisations in the public and the private sectors, and NGOs, the Ministry will finalised the policy. The National Policy recognises that majority of Scheduled Tribes continue to live below the poverty line, have poor literacy rates,suffer from malnutrition and disease and are vulnerable to displacement. It also acknowledges that Scheduled Tribes in general are repositories of indigenous knowledge and wisdom in certain aspects.
The National Policy aims at addressing each of these problems in a concrete way. It also lists out measures to be taken to preserve and promote tribals’ cultural heritage.
Formal education: Formal education is the key to all-round human deveopment. Despite several campaigns to promote formal education ever since Independence, the literacy rate among Scheduled Tribes is only 29.60 per cent compared to 52.21 per cent for the country as a whole (1991 Census). The female literacy rate is only 18.19 per cent compared to the national female literacy rate of 39.29 per cent. Alienation from the society, lack of adequate infrastructure like schools, hostels and teachers, abject poverty and apathy towards irrelevant curriculum have stood in the way of tribals getting formal education.
To achieve the objective of reaching the benefit of education to tribals, the National Policy will ensure that:
Tribls are included in the national programme of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan run by the Ministry of Human Resource Development.
Schools and hostels are opened in areas where no such facilities exist. At least one mode residential school is located in each tribal concentration area
Education is linked with provision of supplemenary nutrition.
Special incentives like finalcial assistance, pocket allowance, free distribution of textbooks and school uniforms are provided
Teaching is imparted in tribals’ mother tongue at least up to the primary level. Educated tribal youth are given employment as teachers, wherever possible. (This will obviate the need to employ teachers belonging to far-off places who find commuting is as difficult as staying in a village with no basic amenities).
Pedagogy is made relevant so that tribals do not find it as alien.
Curriculum and cocurriculum include aspects of meta skill upgradation of tribal children.
Curricula for meta skill upgradation are to include aspects of tribal games and sports, archery, identification of plants of medicinal value, arts and crafts and culture, folk dances and folk songs, folk paintings etc.
Emphasis is laid on vocational/professional education. Polytechnics are set up for studies in subjects like forestry, horticulture, dairying, veterinary sciences, polytechnics.
Traditional wisdom: Dwelling amidst hills, forests, coastal areas, deserts, tribals over the centuries have gained precious and vast experience in combating environmental hardships and leading sustainable livelihoods. Their wisdom is reflected in their water harvesting techniques, indigenously developed irrigation channels, construction of cane bridges in hills, adaptation to desert life, utilisation of forest species like herbs, shrubs for medicinal purposes, meteorological assessment etc. Such invaluable knowledge of theirs needs to be properly documented and preserved lest it should get lost in the wake of modernisation and passage of time.
The National Policy seeks to: Preserve and promote such traditional knowledge and wisdom and document it
Establish a centre to train tribal youth in areas of traditional wisdom
Disseminate such through models and exhibits at appropriate places
Transfer such knowledge to non-tribal areas
Health: Although tribal people live usually close to nature, majority of them need health care on account of malnutrition, lack of safe drinking water, poor hygiene and environmental sanitation and above all poverty. Lack of awareness and apathy to utilise the available health services also affect their health status. In wake of the opening of tribal areas with highways industrialization, and communication facilities, diseases have spread to tribal areas. Endemics like malaria, deficiency diseases, venereal diseases including AIDS are not uncommon among tribal populations. However, lack of safe drinking water and malnutrition are well-recognised major health hazards. Tribals suffer from a deficiency of calcium, vitamin A, Vitamin C, riboflavin and animal protein in their diets. Malnutrition and undernutrition are common among Primitive Tribal Groups who largely depend upon food they either gather or raise by using simple methods. The poor nutritional status of tribal women directly influences their reproductive performance and their infants’ survival, growth and development.
Tribal people, who are self reliant and self-sufficient, have over the centuries developed their own medicine system based on herbs and other items collected from the nature and processed locally. They have also their own system of diagnosis and cure of diseases. They believe in taboos, spiritual powers and faith healing. There are wide variations among tribals in their health status and willingness to access and utilise health services, depending on their culture, level of contact with other cultures and degree of adaptability.
Against this background, the National Policy seeks to promote the modern health care systen and also a synthesis of the Indian systems of medicine like ayurveda and siddha with the tribal system.
The National Policy seeks to: Strengthen the allopathy system of medicine in tribal areas with the extension of the three-tier system of village health workers, auxiliary nurse mid-wife and primary health centres. Expand the number of hospitals in tune with tribal populaion
Validate identified tribal remedies (folk claims) used in different tribal areas
Encourage, document and patent tribals’ traditional medicines
Promote cultivation of medicinal plants related value addition strategies through imparting training to youth
Encourage qualified doctors from tribal communities to serve tribal areas
Promote the formation of a strong force of tribal village health guides through regular training-cum-orientation courses
Formulate area-specific strategies to improve access to and utilisation of health services
Strengthen research into diseases affecting tribals and initiate action programmes
Eradicate endemic diseases on a war footing
Displacement and Resettement: Displacement of people from traditional habitations causes much trauma to the affected people. Compulsory acquisition of land for construction of dams and roads, quarrying and mining operation, location of industries and reservation of forests for National Parks and environmental reasons forces tribal people to leave their traditional abodes and land - their chief means of livelihood. Nearly 85.39 lakh tribals had been displaced until 1990 on account of some mega project or the other, reservation of forests as National Parks etc. Tribals constitute at least 55.16 per cent of the total displaced people in the country. Cash payment does not really compensate the tribals for the difficulties they experience in their living style and ethos.
The National Policy for Tribals, therefore, stipulates that displacement of tribal people is kept to the minimum and undertaken only after possibilities of non-displacement and least displacement have been exhausted. When it becomes absolutely necessary to displace Scheduled Tribe people in the large interest, the displaced should be provided a better standard of living.
The National Poicy, therefore, mandates that the following guidelines be followed when tribals are resettled:
When displacement becomes inevitable, each scheduled tribe family having land in the earlier settlement shall be given land against land. A minimum of two hectares of cultivable land is considered necessary and viable for a family(comprising man, his wife and unmarried children).
Tribal families having fishing rights in their original habitat shall be granted fishing rights in the new reservoir or at any other aternative place
Reservation benefits enjoyed at the original settlement shall be continued at the resettlement area. Additional financial assistance equivalent to nearly one and a half year’s minimum agricultural wages for loss of customary rights and usufructory rights of forest produce shall be given.
Tribals are to be resettled close to their natural habitat by treating all the people so displaced as one group to let them retain their ethnic, linguistic and socio-cultural identity and the network of kinship and mutual obligations
Free land is to be provided for social and religious congregations
If resettlement is possible only away from the district/taluka, then substantively higher benefits in monetary terms shall be given.
When tribal families are resettled en masse, all basic minimum amenities shall be provided at the new sites. They include roads and passages, electricity, drainage and sanitation, safe driking water, educational and health care facilities, fair price shops, a community hall and a panchayat office.
Forest villages: Tribals’ age-old symbiotic relationship with forests is well known. Recognising this fact, even the National Forest Policy committed itself to the close association of tribals with the protection, preservation and development of forests and envisaged their customary rights in forests. It is, however, a matter of serious concern that about 5000 forest villages do not have minimum basic living conditions and face a constant threat of eviction. The National Policy suggests that any forceful dispacement should be avoided. Human beings move on their own to places with better opportunities. The forest villages may be converted into revenue villages or forest villages may be developed on par with revenue villages to enable the forest villagers enjoy at least the minimum amenities and services that are available in revenue villages.
The National Policy, therefore, mandates that
Educational and medical facilities, electricity and communication, approach roads and such other basic amenities be provided to forest villagers.
Public Distribution System (PDS) and Grain Banks be established to prevent food problems.
Advanced agricuture and animal husbandry technologies be introduced so that forest villagers raise their production, incomes and economic standards.
Bank and other institutional loans be made available for entrepreneurs with viable projects of income generation
Tribals be given opportunities to partake in joint forest management and encouraged to form cooperatives and corporations for major forest related operations
Integrated area development programmes be taken up in and around forest areas
Tribals’ rights in protection, regeneration and collection of minor forest produce (MFP)be recognised and institutional arrangements made for marketing such produce Efforts be made to eliminate exploitation by middlemen in cooperative like Tribal Development Cooperative Corporations(TDCCs), Large Sized multi Purpose Societies (LAMPS) and Forest Deveopment Cooperatives by introducing minimum support prices for non aricultural produce on the lines of minimum support prices for agricultural produce.
Shifting Cultivation: In the evolution of human civilisation, shifting cultivation preceded agriculture as we know it today. In shifting cultivation, tribals do not use any mechanized tools or undertake even ploughing. A digging stick and a sickle are the usual tools. It is widely practised in whole of North-Eastern region besides the States of Andra Pradesh, Orissa, Tamil Nadu and to some extent in Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand. Though the practice is hazardous to environment, it forms basis of life for tribals. Traditionally, shifting cultivation has been in vogue in hilly terrains where tribals have had the right on land either individually or on community basis. Because of poor yields, crops do not meet their food requirement for more than four months or so in a year.
The tribals involved in shifting cultivation do not seem to have any emotional attachment to the land as an asset or property needing care and attention as in non-tribal areas. In shifting cultivation lands, no attention is paid to the replenishment of soil fertility. Tribals merely believe in harvesting crops without putting in efforts or investments. Land is just left to nature to recoup on its own.
To handle the problem of shifting cultivation, the National Policy will focus on the following aspects:
Land tenure system will be rationalised giving tribals right to land ownership so that they will invest their energy and resources in checking soil erosion and fertility - which have hitherto been neglected as land belonged to no one but was subject to exploitation by every one.
Agricultural scientists will be asked to focus on shifting cultivation and evolve suitable technologies to improve production.
The shifting cultivators will be ensured sufficient food supply through the pubic distribution system and grain banks. Tribals will be encouraged to raise cash crops and horticultural plantations.
Training and extension prorammes will be organised to sensitise tribals about alternative economic strategies so that they can come out of shifting cultivation.
Land Alienation: Scheuled Tribes being simple folk are often exploited to forgo their foremost important resource - land - to non-tribals. Although States have protective laws to check the trend, dispossessed tribals are yet to get back their lands. Yet, another form of land alienation takes place when States promote deveopment projects like hydro-electric power stations and mining and industries. These developmental activities, which do not confer any benefit on tribals directly, render them landless. The National Poicy for Tribals seeks to tackle tribal land alienation by stipulating that
Tribals have access to village land records
Land records be displayed at the panchayat
Oral evidence be considerd in the absence of records in the disposal of tribals’ land disputes
States prohibit transfer of lands from tribals to non-tribals
Tribals and their represenatives be associated with land surveys
Forest tribal villagers be assigned pattas for the land under their tillage since ages
States launching development projects take adequate care to keep tribal lands intact and when not possible, allot land even before a project takes off
Intellectual Property Rights: Scheduled Tribes are known for their knowledge and wisdom of ethnic origin. There is, however, no legal and/or institutional framework to safeguard their intellectual property rights.
The National Policy, therefore, will aim at making legal and institutional arrangements to protect their intellectual property rights and curtailing the rights of corporate and other agencies to access and exploit their resource base. Tribal Languages: The languages spoken by tribals - tribal languages - are treated as unscheduled languages. In the wake of changing educational scenario, many of the tribal languages are facing the threat of extinction. The loss of language may adversely affect tribal culture, especially their folklore.
The National Policy aims at preserving and documenting tribal languages. Education in the mother tongue at the primary level needs to be encouraged. Books and other pubications in tribal languages will be promoted.
Primitive Tribal Groups (PTGs): Primitive Tribal Groups (PTGs) are Scheduled Tribes known for their declining or stagnant population, low levels of literacy, pre-agricultural technology, primarily belonging to the hunting and gathering stage, and extreme backwardness. They were considered as a special category for support for the first time in 1979. There are 75 Primitive Tribal Groups spread over 15 Sates and Union Territories. The 25 lakh PTG population constitutes nearly 3.6 per cent of the tribal population and 0.3 per cent of the country’s population.
PTGs have not benefited from developmental activities. They face continous threats of eviction from their homes and lands. They live with food insecurity and a host of diseases like sickle cell anemia and malaria.
The National Policy envisages the following steps to tackle PTGs’ problems:
To boost PTGs social image, their being stigmatized as ‘primitive’ shall be halted.
Efforts shall be made to bring them on par with other Scheduled Tribes in a definite time frame. Developmental efforts should be tribe-specific and suit the local environment.
Effective preventive and curative health systems shall be introduced.
PTGs’ traditional methods of prevention and cure shall be examined and validated.
To combat the low level of literacy among PTGs, area and need specific education coupled with skill upgradation shall be given priority.
Formal schooling shall be srengthened by taking advantage of ‘Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan’. Trained tribal youth shall be inducted as teachers.
Teaching shall be in tribals’ mother tongue/dialect
Considering PTGs’ poverty, school-going children shall be provided incentives.
Emphasis shall be laid on vocational education and training.
PTGs shall enjoy the ‘right to land’. Any form of land alienation shall be prevented and landless PTGs given priority in land assignment.
Public distribution system (PDS) shall be introduced to ensure regular food supply. Grain banks shall be established to ensure food availability during crises. PTGs’ participation in managing forests shall be ensured to meet their economic needs and nourish their emotional attachment to forests.
Scheduled Tribes and Scheduled Areas: Although the Constitution is clear about the concept and strategy adopted for defining Scheduled Areas and tribal areas in terms of Fifth and Sixth Schedules under Articles as 244(1) and 244(2),there is some confusion among those concerned with implementing them.
The National policy, therefore, envisages the following steps.
The regulation making powers of State Governors to maintain good governance, peace and harmony in tribal areas will be further strengthened. It will be ensured that Tribal Advisory Councils meet regularly and focus on speedy developmental works and prohibition of land transfers. Money lending menace shall be curbed through implementation of money lending laws.
Tribal Advisory Councils will be established in States which have Scheduled Areas and even in States wherea substantial number of tribal people live although Scheduled Areas have not been declared.
The Autonomous District/Regional Councils in North-Eastern States will be further strengthened. The Councils are elected bodies having powers of legislation, an execution and administration of justice. Administration: The existing administration machinery in States and districts comprising Integrated Tribal Development Agencies (ITDA) and Integrated Tribal Development Projects (ITDP) have not been up in terms of the quality of performance and development indicators.
The National Policy seeks to revitalise the administration by proposing the following:
Skill upgradation-cum-orientation programmes shall be conducted for tribal administration officials.
Infrastructure development shall be given priority so that officials will function from their places of posting.
Only officials who have adequate knowledge, experience and a sense of appreciation for tribal problems shall be posted for tribal administration. As the schemes meant for improving tribals’ condition take time, a tenure that is commensurate with their implementation shall be fixed for officials.
Research: The National Policy acknowledges the importance of a good database to deal with Scheduled Tribes’ affairs. Research on tribals’ethnic profiles, spectrum of problems and prospects and developmental constraints and monitoring and evaluation of schemes and projects needs priority attention.
The National Policy for Tribals proposes that the existing Tribal Research Institutes located in different States shall be further strengthened for carrying out purposeful research and evaluation studies and work towards the preservation of the rich tribal cultural heritage. It also envisages the establishment of a national-level research institution.
Participatory Approach: The National Policy recognises the importance of participatory approach to development. Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) and Voluntary Agencies (VAs) act as catalysts in reaching benefits of Government prorammes and policies to the grass-root level and thus optimise the desired accomplishment. Such oranisations have direct linkages with people and are conversant with their problems. NGOs can underake and promote family and community based programmes and mobilise resources in tribal areas. Some well-established NGOs are eager to take part in the development of Scheduled Tribes in general and Primitive Tribal Groups in particuar.
The National Policy, therefore, seeks to enlist and encourage NGOs in tribal development activities. They can play an important role in the opening of residential and non-residential schools, hostels, dispensaries, hospitals and vocational training centres, promotion of awareness programmes and capacity building.
To bring the tribals with country’s mainstream, the National Policy envisages the following
Identification of tribal groups with ‘primitive traits’ shall be done away with on a priority basis. The ‘distinct culture’ of the tribes reflected in their folk art, folk literature, traditional crafts and ethos shall be preserved. Their oral traditions shall be documented and art promoted.
Opportunities shall be provided for tribals to interact with outside cultures. Their geographical isolation shall be minimised through development of roads, transport and means of communication and provision of concessional travel facility.
This article is a sketch of an impact of commercialization of Indian agriculture on the marginal people of this country like the Lepchas. The Left-Front Government (LFG) led by CPI(M) proposed for a new agricultural policy in 2002. This agricultural policy in tune with the Mckinsey Report is another dimension of the global pressure on the Indian farmers in general and tribal agriculturists in particular. The basic target of this policy is commercialization of agriculture to the extent to ensure full utilization of land, its products and manpower for satiating global demands. This proposal has an apparent a priori logic that villagers would be benefited, because this policy will ensure employment and income generation for the farmers. At the same time this policy will, on the one hand, relieve the cash-trapped Government of its responsibility in safeguarding the interests of the poor farmers of Bengal and, on the other hand, release the same from the pressure of the global business houses and their Indian agents.
This new policy was a prelude to a major shift from agriculture to agribusiness, which ‘is central to West Bengal’s 2010 Agribusiness Vision.’ This policy was, in fact, a product of McKinsey Report on problems and prospects of agriculture in West Bengal. The McKinsey, an American consultancy firm, was first invited by the LFG in 1993. The McKinsey Report proposed for three fundamental changes in agricultural sector: a) opening of agriculture sector to private companies and multinational corporations (MNCs), b) bringing variation in agricultural products, and c) initiating into contract between farmers and corporate (MNCs) for production and selling of particular products. The first draft of the agricultural policy was vehemently criticized by different sections of people and even by the smaller partners of the Left Front. The LFG was forced to replace this policy with two other policy-drafts under the supervision of Nirupam Sen, the Minister of Industry, Government of West Bengal. However, these were fundamentally similar to the former one. Such recalcitrant attitude of the LFG primarily lies embedded in hurriedness of LFG for industrializing West Bengal through free hand of private players. It propagandizes agriculture as an unprofitable engagement for livelihood. So, industrialization is the only panacea. To the CPM veterans, farmers should sell his land and deposit the money in the bank for living on interests. The urban bhdralok leadership of CPM never likes tilling field and enjoying jatra as, to them, it is meant for churl only. In fact, the ideological base of the dominant section of the LFG also inspires such mode of thinking. It is thought that agriculturists and their ethnic nexus to land are detrimental to ‘socialist path’ of progress. This disdainful attitude to farming naturally propagandizes agriculture as an unprofitable affair for livelihood. So, industrialization is the panacea. However, analysis of the class character of those LFG propagandists reveals that they are urban-centric, none of them are real tillers of land and they have come from upper-middle class or from local elites of any class and caste. Instead of nourishing the agriculture potential of the state, what is long due, they obviously have prescribed shift from farming to multinational contract farming -- the McKinsey solution.
Denuding the land is the consequential action of such institutional arrangement. On the one hand LFG lays bare land for physical extortion through hi-tech chemical farming and scrubs of land from the psychosocial heritage on the other. Such aggressive advances need certain legal instruments – acquisition and commercial use of land. In consonance with this purpose and suggestions offered in the McKinsey report, the LFG enacted a new land reform policy: the West Bengal Land Reform (Amendment) Act in August 14 2005. The Section 14(Z) of this new act legalizes entry of FDI in all sectors, like contract farming, tourism, plantation, etc. It further empowers government to change land use pattern at its whim. The results are: a) total destruction of small and medium business including agriculture, b) total opening of rural areas for FDI, & c) economy, management and administration in rural areas will be controlled by MNCs. On the other side, the LFG puts the British colonial policy of land acquisition of 1894 on use for facilitating industrialization in West Bengal. Such attempt has already gained notoriety, as the clause of “public purpose” of 1894 act becomes handy instrument for serving private purposes of the big business. In any case, agricultural lands are guillotined for non-agricultural use of land.
So, the agriculturists have two options: either giving up land for industrialization or surrender to commercialization of agriculture. Commercialized agricultural practices do not oppose cultivation of staple food crops but propose for decreasing of cultivation area for food crops. In order to increase production of food crops in decreasing land-area, the LFG policy-makers encourage plentiful use of chemical fertilizer, high-yielding seeds and insecticide. Interestingly, the farmers have to buy all these again from the MNCs. It also needs good irrigation system, which West Bengal in general lacks. They also propose for use of land, extracted from land for food crops, for “dream products” such as mango, litchis, pineapple, cashew nut, vanilla, coco, mushroom, spices, potato, tomato, vegetables, aromatic rice, and flowers and ornamental plants, etc. The private players will select the products primarily according to the nature of land. Kalimpong, for example, may be selected for floriculture only. It has further been concluded that the processing of these products and exporting abroad will be handled by eleven native and foreign MNCs. In order to facilitate the whole operation, number of small and big marketing centers will be established in the concerned areas. Hence, according to McKinsey Report, the MNCs a) will decide what to produce, b) will decide what type of seeds and fertilizer and how much of water be used, c) will give loan against fixed rate of interest as primary capital and d) will buy the produces partly in fixed rate and partly in market rate.
II
McKinsey has divided West Bengal into four zones mainly in terms of the nature of lands and other commercial facilities. The second zone of these four zones comprises of Darjeeling, Jalpaiguri and North and South Dinajpur. It has also earmarked 15% of total land of this zone now used for paddy cultivation will be used for commercial production of those “dream products”. In order to bypass any sort of wrangling over negligence to food crop production, the McKinsey report tries to compensate with the proposal that production of rice per hectare will be raised from 1.79 ton to 2 tons through high-tech farming as mentioned above. Especially for Darjeeling, McKinsey often talked about the horticultural potentiality of the hills. In fact, the Indian business houses and MNCs have plans for capturing horticulture business (like cultivation of orchids, gladioli, etc.), which has already made Kalimpong famous for its contribution. It might have been possible that these big players will spread their tentacles through local entrepreneurs. The LFG certainly has accent on such entrepreneurships. Besides, the LFG has exchanged ideas with the Mckinsey on the future of cinchona plantation of Mongpoo. The Media reports reveal that it seeks global buyers for cinchona plantation of Mongpoo, which covers an area of 8,000 hectares and has work force of 5,000 people. – Mckinsey had proposed restricting the plantation area to 2,000 hectares and distributing excess land to workers and providing them with marketing and technical support for the first five years to make them worthy for agribusiness. However, the Standing Committee on Commerce, GOI, rejected the proposal and recommended cultivation of crops like turmeric and cardamom and also sericulture. The workers (Members of the Hill Employees Association, Cinchona Zonal Plantation Committee & members of the Sanjukta Morcha comprising of five unions) of cinchona plantation of Mongpoo also opposed the downsizing as suggested by Mckinsey.
So it is found that corporate profiteering motivates the attitude and policy of the policy-makers and business groups regarding the future of Indian agriculture. A renowned expert on agriculture, Devinder Sharma, has already laid bare the ominous nexus among the trinity: the national and local governments, MNCs and Indian business houses. He has observed that the Indian government follows prescription of WTO and business interest groups like, the CII, Assocham, and FICCI and is working to turn Indian agriculture into a “food factory”. In their opinion, shift from agriculture to agribusiness would usher in “rainbow revolution”. Sharma also reported that the Assocham has also prepared a report (“Strategic Plan for Indian Agricultural Sector”) for boosting food crops production to 5,000 million tones and suggested modification of land lease norms, transfer of irrigation management contracts to the private sector and removal of trade barriers all at the cost of government expenditure. After ‘green’ it is the era of ‘rainbow’ where revolution will again be propelled not by tillers of the land but by industrialists. One can see a close entente between those business houses and Mckinsey as all their attempts are found laced with prescribed formula of Mckinsey. In Sharma’s opinion it is part of the global design as ‘the WTO seeks to liberalize global agriculture trade by increasing market access through their personal agreement on agriculture. It reduces domestic support for farmers and export subsidies and lowers tariff barriers to imports, backed by provisions that limit the role of public stocking of food crops.’
III
This little bit lengthy but critical introduction about the role of the trinity in restructuring Indian agriculture is indispensable to analyze the fate of the Indian farmers in general and the Lepcha farmers in particular. Suffice it say, farmers in general have been heading towards a bleak future for such new agricultural policy. However, farmer-tribes have certain other unique characteristics or so to say in Spencer’s approach, unfitness, which have made them unsuitable for Mckinsey prescription.
To begin with the study of effect of such prescription on the Lepchas, one should take a look at the Lepcha agriculture. There are few but critical studies on that issue. A quick summarization of Roy’s observation, a recent study of the lot, would be a good beginning. To his opinion, the Lepchas 1) are dependent heavily on agriculture, 2) are mostly small landowners, 3) are dependent on household labor, 4) believe in communal ownership not individualistic ownership 5) follow traditional method of cultivation so they belong non-capitalist society; or so to say, as ‘tribal peasants’ they practice a pre-capitalist society based agriculture, 6) try to mix capitalist farming with peasant economy of late: especially in case of production and marketing of cash crops, 7) thrive on subsistence economy: grow food mainly to eat, 8) have strong social and kinship obligations and 9) preserve seeds for next year for domestic and communal use. Having these critical features in mind, he further pointed to certain new but disturbing trends have already shaken Lepcha agriculture. For example, more and more lands are being brought under the cultivation of cash crops at the cost of food crops even if such cultivation of cash crops denies traditional communal leanings. Young Lepchas have started taking land on lease on contractual basis either by paying cash or kind for cash crops cultivation, which flares up sex and generational differences within the community. Besides, cultivation of cash crops is capital intensive that drives them into trap of money lenders. Moreover, the mono-crop pattern is now replaced by multi-cropping with a typical objective of producing food crops for consumption and cash crops for money. As luck would have it, these new developments certainly create tension within the community as it requires changed mine-set and necessary support base, which they lack in general. On the other side, due to pressure of middlemen in marketing of cash crops they cannot get the benefit of hard work. Finally, such developments also destroy the already vulnerable food security of the Lepchas.
So, the Lepcha economy, which is highly contradictory to McKinsey policy, faces new challenges thrown by expansionism of capital over the globe, which can be summarized as a conflict between the Lepcha value system (Like absence of desire for accumulation) and private initiative of capitalist mode of economy based on commercialization of agriculture (Cash crops in particular instead of food cereals) of late. The agricultural policy of the Government of West Bengal has further endangered the future of small and marginal tribal farmers whose economic interests have already been jeopardized in the face of indifferent attitude of the government and sheer profit-making tendency of the Indian and foreign business houses. In absence of freedom of the farmers scheme of mechanized and commercial farming will reduce the farmers to agricultural workers who will remain indebted to investors forever. All these economic factors have hardly offered a better economy for the Lepchas in place of subsistence economy.
The draft agricultural policy proposes for corporatization of farming under the guidance of the government and private actors, namely, the district administration, local body and MNCs. All agricultural activities will be controlled by a contract between the small or big farmers and the MNCs. The State, particularly the district administration and local bodies, will play the role of the mediator in case of any crisis grown out of such contract. The farmers’ cooperative is replaced by such joint venture farming. The farmers will be accountable for any loss bourn due to ground reality. Landless agricultural laborers are to be employed in the food processing and marketing sectors again controlled by those MNCs. This policy, though wants variety in produces, encourages production of cash crops only rather than food crops.
IV
To conclude this sketchy write-up one has to give attention to some other alarming issues exhaled out of profiteering venture of the MNCs and its veiled and unveiled supporters. These are as follows: a) Commercialization of agriculture gives way to massive unemployment by displacing agricultural laborers from their own hearth: since 1950, 50 million evicted for development projects of which 40% are tribes. b) The big business groups also attempts to capture retail business so that they can destroy any resistance in their way to profiteering. So, the Lepchas cannot produce and sell their own produces. c) Dominated by small land holdings Indian agriculture, according to the experts, is in no position to adopt the high-tech farm practices espoused by commercial agriculture, which does not take into account of the differential needs of small and marginal farmers. d) This policy opposes three cardinal issues of agriculture: opposes freedom of the agriculturists, opposes sustainability of agriculture as it ignores natural potential of land & opposes production of staple food. e) The MNCs and their followers want to build ‘food parks’ for ‘food factories’ through uprooting the farmers out of their land. The food factory projects have already uprooted millions of subsistence farmers. Not only that, poor man’s food (maize, bajra, millets, potato, etc.) would become rich man’s edible and drink (beer, whisky) in the near future. The food crop production in India has registered a downward trend due to bad policies of the global and native players and their ‘fatal obsession with intensive agriculture based on chemical fertilizers. Such practices generate ecological imbalances as well. As a consequence, starvation deaths would be natural consequences as land becomes sick and unproductive.’ f) Further, Dr. T.N. Prakash and Dr, Tejaswsini of the University of Agricultural Science, Bangalore, observed that intensive floriculture, which is now becoming popular especially in Karnataka, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Andhrapradesh and Maharashtra, will certainly ruin the land, rendering it unfit for cultivation on the one hand and pesticides and chemical fertilizers pollute environment and contaminate ground water on the other.
Do marginal Lepchas have spirit and power to fight against corporate giants propped up by local bureaucracy and political leaders? The answer may not be affirmative but constant vigil and good reason would be an amulet for the Lepcha community or any other affected people.
Nuzaongnyoo saa aache aakup, Fadaongthing saa kasaok baan kup,
Eetboo Rum saa kurvongnu
Toonu leewang go faatdet myaong RaongKup?
Tuklyaang sahaor gloonu malaatnu sukdum lyaang rey kaa,
Bom shyo, taar shyo Rong Kup doongeet,
Sathaalaa mafaatnu lyaang rey kaa,
Lyaang Eet Rumsaa daakemnu,
Nuzaongnyoo Fadaongthing lyaang rey kaa
Maaknu sathaa laa, naong mathaon
Snaong tarao kaapbu ngaannu
Ep ngak ngaan kaayoom huneenu
Toonu leewang go faatdet myaong RaongKup?
Raongnyoo Raongeet oong aazoom daanyee
Nuzaongnyoo saa soot bunu,
Ding gaat aanom, aanum ing
Aathing Raathaap zong aalut bunu
Toonu leewang go faatdet myaong RaongKup?
Pano Gaeboo Aachyok maak mathaon
Pro saa baan payook oreynu,
Raong song rem lik ngaan,
Daamsaang greenu,
Dam pla RongKup hao, lee leenu
Tukbaam moong tyaang soo phaleenu
Toonu leewang go fatdet myaong Raong oKup?
Who says the Lepchas are vanishing ?
Composed by Sonam Tshering Lepcha
Published in Lepcha Folk Lore And Folk Songs
The beloved children of Nuzaongnyoo,
The aboe and gifted children of Fadongthing,
Originated from the laps of Creator,
Who says the Lepchas are vanishing ?
The stars do not drop on this world from the sky,
The Lepcha culture will never fade away,
It has never gone off course,
From the blessed land of Fadongthing and Nuzaongnyoo
Covering their heads with snowy shawls,
Fadongthing and Nuzaongnyoo are still peeping at us
Who says the Lepchas are vanishing ?
The rivers Teestaand Rongeet are still alive
With a message from Nuzaongnyoo,
‘Brothers and sisters, Stand up
With a heart of Athing Rathap!’
Who says the Lepchas are vanishing ?
King Gaeboo Achyok did not die in vain
From the Bhutanese swords,
He’s summoning and warning
From his Fort Damsang,
‘Quick, you Lepchas, come out from your houses;
Black clouds are gathering on four sides.’
Who says the Lepchas are vanishing ?
VorJU VoriÜ^
ipbU - ih*daim^ Vorim^
&q Õ_bU - saihÃa Aekadeim
aC Vîa-Vor VdUig^ VlUÃNe aC
VorJU VoriÜ^ qMu pNu!z
sVor GNUda Vîa pasX
VjU AaVîaresa ÜMu v) !l
Vsure kayU aÄbMabU
tDUaf, pir*bunu VlU$lbU
VorJU VoriÜ^rMe VlUqMubU
Aa[q ]Ö [qir(nu dMareZz
kDa Aa:f_ kDa Aa%bZz
iT sTa Vîabunu :t_CUVon
VorJU VoriÜ^ VAU mUtNuicbU
sXudMuka Vor Vîa VlUtRabU
mayLe VÎasa VAU AaVoqbU
Vsure v)ka VTe aTka
gNusa AalDu Von TBaaTka
iT sTa Vîare VorkBusa
Rongnyoo Rangit
Composed by Mrs. Hildamit Lepcha
Published by Sahitya Akedemi
Published in Lepcha Folk Lore And Folk Songs
Rangnyoo Rangit tshum Punzaok,
Saraong ngoon daa bryaang Pasok,
Jyoong aabryang rey saa ayum vam laok.
Sung rey kaayoo thyo baam boo,
Toot fo, Parilbunu loong laon boo,
Raongnyoo Raongit ryem loong tshumboo.
Aachaom flaot tshaom riknu daam rey zong,
Kaat aaphing kaat aabop zong,
‘Thee-sa-thaa’ bryaang bunu tingchyoo naong.
Raongnyoo Raongit oong Mutanchee boo,
Sukdum kaa Raong bryaang loong taar boo,
Maayel Lyaang saa oong aachaong boo.
Sung aarey vam kaa thyeng tho kaa,
Gun saa aalut naong thaap tho kaa,
‘Thee-sa-thaa’ bryaang rey RaongKup saa.
Teesta and Rangit
Composed by Mrs. Hildamit Lepcha
Published Sahitya Akedemi
Published in Lepcha Folk Lore And Folk Songs
The confluence of Teesta and Rangit at ‘Panzaok’,
Today it is called ‘Pasok’,
Though the original name is ‘Sa ayum Vam Laok’.
We hear the Lepcha folklore now and then,
‘Toot fo’, the bird,
‘Paril Bu’, the serpent,
United the two rivers at Panzaok.
Like combing a maiden’s long, flowing hair into strands,
In two colours, blue and muddy grey,
Embracing together they flow forever
Towards the plains of India,
With a Lepcha name, ‘Thee-sa-thaa’.
The water of teesta Rongit,
Flowing, carring and expanding,
The Lepcha name in the world.
Oh! you holy water of Maayel Lyaang.
Let us sing this Lepcha lore,
To imprint deep on all and more,
‘Thee-sa-thaa’ is the Lepchaname.
vRaat AamU rMu ag m_bU gMu
ipbU - nRubU iC:r_ VorkBu
&q Õ_bU - saihÃa Aekadeim
aC Vîa - Vor VdUig^ VlUÃNe aC
vRaat AamU rMu agbU gMu
vRaat AamU ksa Voso [l gMu
vRaat AamU ag caok mDabU
vRaat AamUZYka ÅNeir iJ)bU
ih+dU mUsil), isK, iAsaiA
bUids, zy+ ANu PaRis
my+ hunNu t+!d Aaresa
gNu Aa!Î gMu huad dNuka
igta, baiAb*, akrNa, gUrUà+T
y+t+ Aareka miJ+ huadM
m+id@, q@q, msizd, gUrUdbara
hu sTala Von m$T
AadMU Aa!nsa Vsu miFnubU
imig^ kUig^sa AaÒDe miJ+bU
$ziJ+ Aace gNu huadsa
Vtuil VtuVossa s) buwMabU
Voso Voso Aair^ miJ+bU
imig^ imig^ bXe AaÅDU mY+bU
id(Vlu sXaic+ mid( mY+bU
AaS) apiliÝ(s ÉDe mbMabU
tU pan ANu tU VoâbU
tU ÉXubU tU jNebU
äDenu G(ZS òMu miJ+bU
huad dNuka gNu kta:r_
TMaib( TMaVc_ nMuiS)nMubMu
sXU buwMabU sXudMusa gNu
AaÂBa AamNa miJ+ tUadMla
$Àid^ huadsa dNead gNuka
TMa]p ir)]p TXUib Vodla
VjeaS, ]paS kayU t+!dka
s) sVoz sNa bunula
tNebMa kayMU VlUjUZSka
AaWMe kNuVdU kayMU abVlu
sXU AaVobnu ibaSbU
PNay+ kadnNu SUla m$TbNa
caok mDaaS kayUsa
VÎa sXudMurMe kRuVov kDaka
Aa[j Aat+sa AaÀDe AaÀMUka
VlU$lbU Voso [l Aareka
:d_ s)[l AaadM saaw iJ ksa
vRaat AamUadM ag !É qaaS
Varto amoo Rum go ma boo gum
Composed by Nurbu Tshering Lepcha
Published by Sahitya Akademi
Published in Lepcha Folk Lore And Folk Songs
Varto amoo rum go ma boo gum,
Varto amoo kasa saongyao laom gum,
Varto amoo go chhyakao mat boo,
Varto amoo plong kaa denri nyim boo.
Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Isahi,
Buddhist, Jain, and Pharsi,
Mayan Hunan tandok aarey saa,
Gun aalyok gum hudo dun kaa.
Gita, Bible,Koran,Gurugranth,
Yantan arey kaa manyin hudom,
Mandir,Church,Masjid,Gurudwara,
Hu sathaa laa naong mathaon.
Aadoom aanaok saa sung maflinu boo,
Migit koogit saa aavyet manyin boo,
Jaonnyin ache gun hudo saa,
Tunglee tungsaong saa sam buwaam boo.
Saonggyao Saonggyao bek aarit manyin boo,
Meegit meegit bek aadyoot ma plan boo,
Dik lung saakchin madik matan boo,
Aashyam politics phyet ma bam boo.
Too Pano an too Prongboo,
Too phyuk boo too jyen boo,
Bretnu ngakshyong hrim manyin boo,
Hado dunkaa gun kataa ring.
Thaambik thaamchyang numshim numbum,
Suk boowamboo sukdum saa gun,
Agyaap aaman manyin too dom laa,
Kyaondit hudo saa dendo gun kaa.
Thaampot rimpaot thookbee daong laa,
Jyek shyo, pot shyo kayoo tandaok kaa
Sam, sajaong saan bunu laa,
Ten baam kaayoom loong joo shyong kaa.
Aaklem kundoong kayoom boloong,
Sook abaongnu bee shyo boo
Phaanyan kado nun shyoo laa mathon baan,
Chyaakoo maat shyoo kayoo saa.
Lyaang sukdum rem karbaong kaat kaa
Aachhyaom atun saa aakyet aakyoom kaa,
Lung laon bu saonggyoo laom arey kaa,
Ding sam laom aadom savo nyee kaasaa,
Vaarto-aamoo dom go phyaok chaa shyo.
Mother Nature, I’m Your Worshippers
Composed by Nurbu Tshering Lepcha
Published by Sahitya Akademi
Published in Lepcha Folk Lore And Folk Songs
I’m a Nature Worshippers,
She is my religion,
I’m a server,
And believer in Mother Nature.
Hindu, Muslim, Sikh,Isahi,
Buddhist ,Jain, Pharsi,
Mother Nature knows not them,
They are all the same to her.
Gita, Bible, Koran, Guru Grantha,
She has no knowledge about them,
Mandir, Masjid, Church and Gurudwara,
She never visits them.
Showing no discrimination,
Among the black, white and yellow,
Asking no questions on the differences,
Among the classes and clans.
But all are beloved children,
In her pure and sacred heart.
Devoid of views on different religions,
Devoid of arguments and differences on issue races,
Devoid of thoughts on unequal policies,
Devoid of dirty politics.
Who is the king and who is the beggar?
Who is richer and who is poorer?
She has no laws to separet them,
All are equal in her front.
Animals, insects, birds and humans
With life in the world;
To her
All are equals,
Kind and considerate,
To them all.
Fruits, grains and vegetables,
Producing and providing for us all,
Enduring the heat and cold
She feeds us to live.
Giving sweets, tasty fruits
Without asking anything in return,
And always serving unselfishly for us,
Like the banana tree giving her life for free.
To bring the whole world under one roof,
In peace and prosperity,
Your lead role,
I accept it with my heart and soul,
Oh! Mother Nature,
I’m your worshipper.
sZT ANu téXU Vsu
Üa Üaba nMaka sZT kDasa téXU kDare :A_Voz yMuba m aA.huiJre sba VonZgla dBekaad [éla VonbMa m aA.kaiÄ+ kDa huiJ JDebUre sA) lavka TLa aHka Von m aA, ANu aAba iTnu VAU d_ Aait)mU pNuka iTnu GaasVlU GNaiJba sZTrenu :A_Voz téXUsa AaVcaka S( G(ib m aA.SNela S( kDala miS+nu m aA.AaVol téXUrenu ilba ag Aaadsa S( G(ab aS.téXUrenu sZTsa AaVcaka S( AaÂBamU is m ANu èBu mKNunu Aailsa ca !l m aA.aAalM mDanu sZTsa S(Zpre stDe KDutDe ]sib m aA.
A_ huiJ kDanuZzka S( AaalM G(reZz mDabMaba iP[tka iP[t Y_ m aA.sZTrenu ilba kiJ Vdanu Aaba aHka iTba kiJnu [lka SU SU azaTpU AaVol kiJad ]m G(ka aA.aAalM ilnu sZTrenu nhNa ]myDuSNe SXa[Jsa fDa]m yDu m aA.téXUrenu ]myDucNe sZTsa AaÌLe h) ]m yDu m aA.
sZTsa AaÌLe h) ]myDubU isnu sZTre ca ar m aA ANu s)ka sXa:c_ba agre m+TabMabU TMaVc_ agVrUlaZy AaÌLe ktBala m]mne.Aare hure SXamXU TabMabU agVrUlaZy hunure sZTsa AaÌLe h) ]myDu m aA.Aare hunure ag my+nu miS+nuba manu sZT ]snu TabMa !Î m aA.téXUrenu AaÌLe ]m[TbUrMe iSnu hure arnu AaVol agla Aaib huaddBe bMaZgne ksMula ]sTaaS!ÎZy sXa:c_nu hure aAibalM t(laad :t_pRutMa lLela it^$n m aA.hure aAalM it^nu $ndDeba owmU kDanu [lka qMunu hMu ÒDe m aA. ohre AatDe AakNaka sib$ndDeVtu ag Zy?AakNaka sZTrenu ilba ag téXUrMe arnu ca it^bMa m aA.téXUrenu sZTZprMe gNula ]snu ca TalLe fDa m aA.sZTsa VsurMe aÄnu owmUre VT_VoÌ sXa:c_nu il m aA.oh ksMu aAre téXUrMe JDeabce hu srBeZzpU agla kMa G(iS m aA.SNela sZTre arnu mJNeba owmUrenu ilba oh arM mgDane.oh arZg tXuap Aaresa ksu p%tka dMa ANu Vruos Aa:k_ kDare Aaad Vp_ka dMa ANu AaalM mDanu kiJad dBeka Vonka aA.
AaalM tXuapnu kDanukDa dMabunu huiJ JDebU aHlMe olVoè SNe téXUre ZlZYka $èGNanu sZT :A_VozrMe sTa oliTpUZy G(GNa SNe sZTsa owmU JDebUrMe isnu téXUrenu huadsa AaÄXarMe G)la G)la il m aA.sZT :A_Voz A_Zy ohre sib fDa$n ag Zy?agre Aaadsa [l G(!Ýnu ÈLenu Aaib ZlZYka GNaiJ m aA.téXUsa aAre Aa:r_ aÄnu sZTre arnu AaVol Aare hunu ksMu [zSDead yMubaZy sXa:c_nu owmUrMe òaÝDubunu :t_lMe olit^ m aA.:t_kala iTnu G( SNe hunu owmUrMe p%talM òaÝDusa VÎaka owmUre Üa sTanu mXa$n aT m aA.aAre it^VÎarNe sZTsa owmUre sTala aHka mbManubUsa t+re aAre gMu m aAZy y) m aA.
kaiÄ+ kDa aAlXa kDanu téXUrMe ÄRe qManu qNUbunu l)$ndDeba téXUrenu aAlXarMe ilba, oh ksMu ]snu azZSZgne TLa aHVkuka buVonnu ]s az aA.aAre aÄnu VT_pUZy sXa:c_nu téXUrMe TLa aHVkuka buVonnu aTnu ]sZS tq^ka olda téXUrenu ilba oh ksMu ]sZS nhNa VAUkMa VoT$k aA, ag VAUGUnu ca mXasaZz GNUbMa m aA.aAlXare téXUnu il+bU Aa:r_ JNenu hMu olda aAibalM qNUbunu VAU d_ pNu kDaka buVonnu aTbNa VAU ib VoT$k m aA ANu ]sTaZS bXeka téXUrenu il m aA.ohre yXumNu Aait)bU gMu m aA.ksMu ]sTaZS nhNa rMurMe saaw mNu[l %t ANu maiJ Vo aA ANu ktBa ksMu ]snu Ta aA.aAlXare téXUsa Aa:r_rMe VT_VoÌad sXa:c_nu téXUrMe yBuaT kDa ]Înu mNu[l %tZS AXa AXaZy il(bMa bXeka téXUre ca ÃXunu VAU d_ sVogka ÄDenu ÌXu$n m aA.aAalM mDanu téXUre aAlXasa AaVbUalM &T m aA.aAre tq^nu téXUre aAlXanu ]spUZysa AaarMrenu nla VAU d_ka ktBa bMa mMa m aA.
AaibnNu kayUZsnula y)gDaVtusa Vsureka nMuiS)JUZsnula SUad aÜX!ì zXU agVrUla JXaad ir(bU ÂMunu zXUgDa m.ag magNpUZy ÍUla G( iäLunu ANu AalDu s)ka ÍUla sXa:c_nu, n- ic(bNa ktBa VÅa#È nhNa apgDa m aA.mNanuZgne kala sZT, téXU, owmU ANu aAlXaZpZz pat &SZS m aA.
Sathong Aun Takryook Sung
Aya ayabaa naamkaa Sathong kaatsaa Takryook kaat reyIngzaong yumbaa ma O.Hunee rey sabaa naong gonglaa depkaado kryaomlaa naongbaam ma O.Kaathin kaat hunee nyetboo rey sam lavokaa thaal lhokaa naong ma O, aun obaa theenu oong da aatimmu punkaa theenu ngaasoloong ngaa nyeebaa sathong reynu ingzaong takryooksaa aachyaangkaa syak ngak bee ma O.shenlaa syak kaatlaa masyinnu ma O.Aalaong Takryook reynu leebaa go aadosaa syak ngak bo syo.Takryook reynu sathongsaa aachyaangkaa aadosaa syak ngakbosyo.Takryook reynu sathaongsaa aachyaangkaa syak aagyaapmaa shyi ma aun hrup makhunnu aaleesaa chyaa laok ma O.Olom maatnu sathongsaa syakpong rey satet khut tet saot bee ma O.
A hunee kaatnu zongkaa syak aalom ngakreezong maatbaamba pheetaom pla ma O. sathong reynu leebaa kanyee daangnu aabaa hlokaa theebaa kaaneenu laomkaa syu- syu zo tho poo aalaong kanee do maot ngak kaa O. Olom leenu sathong reynu nahaan maot yut chyen syaaknyaomsaa faat maot yut ma O.Takryook reynu maot yut chyen sathongsaa aamyel ham maot yut ma O.
Sathongsaa aamyel ham maot yut boo shyeenu sathong rey chyaa ro ma O, aun samkaa saakchying baa go rey man thaa baamboo thaamchyang goroonglaa yong aamyel kataaplaa mamaot ney.Aarey hurey syaakmook thaabaamboo goroonglaa yong hunu rey sathongsaa aamyel ham maot yut ma O.Aarey hunu rey go mayan mu mashyinnubaa maanu sathong saotnu thaabaam lyaok ma O.Takryook reynu aamyel maot thomboo rem seenu hu rey ronu aalaong golaa aabee hudodep baamgongney kasamlaa saot thaashyee lyaok yong saakchyingnu hurey obeelom taklaado thingpurtaam lellaatitnaon ma O.Hurey olom titnu naondetbaa homoo kaatnu laomkaa chumnu hum vyet ma O.“Ho rey aatet aakaankaa sabee naondet tung go yong ?” aakaankaa sathong reynu leebaa “ go takryook rem ronu chyaa titbaam ma O.Takryook reynu sathong rem gunlaa saotnu chyaa thaalel faat ma O”.Sathongsaa sungrem thyonu homoorey thang myaong saakchyingnu lee ma O.“ Ho kasam orey takryook rem nyet bochey, hu sareyzong poo golaa kaam ngakshyee ma O”.shyenlaa sathong rey ronu manyen baa homoo reynu lee baa ho rom magaat ney. Ho rogong tukpo aareysaa kasu pataopkaa daam aun runso aaking kaat rey aado pungkaa daam aun aalom maatnu kanyee do depkaa naongkaa O.Aalaom tukponu kaatnu kaat daambunu hanyee nyetboo hlolem laahraong chyen takryook rey long plangkaa hraon ngaannu sathaong ingzaong rem sathaa laathipoo yong ngak ngaan chyen sathaong saa homoo nyetboo rem seenu takryook reynu hudosaa aathyaak rem ngam ngamlaa lee ma O.Sathong ingzaong o yong horey sabee faatnaon go yong ? go rey aadosaa laom ngakkraoknu pelnu aabee longplaong kaa ngaanyee ma O.takryooksaa orey aaring thyonu sathaong rey ronu aalaong aarey hunu kasam zaomsyet do yum ba yong saakchyingnu homu rem hryaa krut bunu tinglem laatit maO.Tingkaa laathnu ngakchyen hunu homoo rem patoplom hryaa krut bun lyaangkaa homu rey ayaa sathaanu maaknaon tho ma O.Orey titlyaangren sathongsaa homurey sathaalaa hlokaa mabaamnuboosaatunrey orey gum ma o yong yam ma O.
Kaathin kaat olaak kaatnu takryook rem thyer chaamnu chookbunu lamnaon detbaa takryook reynu olaak rem leebaa “ ho kasaam saotnu zo syong gongney thaal Lhokungkaa bunaongnu saot zoo”. Orey thyonu thangpoo yong saakchingnu takryook rem thaal hlokungkaa bunaongnu thonu saotsyong tatsat kaa laodaa takryook reynu lee baa ho kasam saotsyong nahaan Oongkaam thaong kaon o, go oong ngoonu chyaa maaksaazong ngoonbaam ma O.Olaak rey takryooksaa linboo aaring ngennu hum laodaa obeelom choonbunu oongda pun kaat bunaong thobaan oongbee thaongkaon ma o aun saot thaasyong bekkaa takryook reynu lee ma O. Ho rey yukmun aatimboo gum ma O.kasam saot thaasyong nahaan rum rem saho munlaom top aun maanyee gyaong o aun kataap kasam saotnu thaa O. Olaakrey takryook saa aaring rem thang myaong do saakchyingnu takryook rem yuptho kaat lyaotnu munlaom topsyong aak aak yong likbaam bekkaa takryook reychyaa tyuknu oongda sagaongkaa thetnu myuknaon ma O.Olom maatnu takryook rey olaaksaa aaboonglom thaor ma O.
Orey tatsatnu takryookrey olaaknu saotpoo yong saa aaraom reynu nulaa oongda kaa kataap baammaam ma O.
Aabeenun kaayusongnulaa yam gaat tungsaa sung reykaa namsyimnyoo songnulaa syudo ayok pryaok zook goroonglaa nyaakdo rikboo gyumnuzook gaat ma.Go magaonpoo yong ryoola ngakbrilnu aan aalut samkaa ryoolaa saakchyingnu nap phik baan kataap dyaangpyaol naahaan pogaat ma O.Manu gong ney kaayulaa sathong, takryoot, homoo aun olaak pong zong pata syaor syong ma O.
The Tiger and the Toad
Once upon a time, a tiger and a toad were fast friends and they used to live together.Onc day, when they were going up to the hills, they rested near the bank of a river and drank some water.While they were resting there, the tiger asked his friend the toad to hunt for lice on his back.The toad found a lot of lice there and began to lick them off with his sharp tongue and, while licking off the lice, he also licked the tiger’s hairs.When he felt tired, the tiger said, ‘Now it is my turn- let me see if I can find any lice on your body’.However, as the toad’s body was quite plain and without any hair, he could not find any.
The tiger asked the toad, ‘What did you eat for breakfast this morning?’The toad answered, ‘Nothing, only green leaves and mud’.The toad asked the tiger, ‘What have you eaten?’The tiger answered, ‘A deer’.
Now the tiger asked the toad to vomit to see whether each of them had told the truth.First the tiger vomitted, but only flesh and white foam came up, but when the toad vomitted, lots of tiger hairs came up.When the tiger saw this he was surprised and frightened and thought, ‘The toad, my friend, must be a tiger eater!’
Seeing this, he was so frightened that he ran away to the plains.While he was running away, he met a jackal and he asked him why he was running away in this way, and said that he should be ashamed of seeing it, as he was the king of the jungle.Then the tiger related him his story.The jackal could not believe this and asked the tiger to take him back to the toad as he wanted to see him.
When the jackal knew that the king was too afraid to return, he said, ‘You need not be afraid of the toad, fasten this cane around your waist and tie the other end round my neck so that we shall always be together’.
After fastening the cane rope, they both returned to the mountain rever where the tiger had left behind the toad.When the toad saw the tiger had left behind the toad.When the toad saw the tiger returning with the jackal, he said to the jackal, ‘Why are you late?It is more than a year that I sent you away to find me twenty tigers, and now you have come back with only this frightened one.Bring him near, I want to see how fat he is’.
On hearing this the tiger became even more frightened and ran down to the plains dragging the jackal with him.After many days and nights when finally arrived in the plains, he found his friend the jackal was dead as he had dragged him down by the neck through the jungles, rivers and hills.
The Lepchas believe that this is the reason why tigers and jackals are never found in the hills but are always found in the plains, and as the jackal continued to stay with the tiger until he was dragged to death, the jackals still share the spoils of the tiger without sharing the danger.
