A moment of pride for the Sikkimese Bhutia language

Dear Editor,
?????? ???????????? ??????????? ?????????? ?????????????? ???????? ???????? ????????????? ??????? ????????? ?????????? ??? ??????? ?????? ???????????? ???????? ????????? ????? ???? ??? ???? ??? ????? ???????? ????????????? ????????? ????????????? ?????????? ???? ?????? ???????? ?????? ???????????? ????? ????????? ???????? ???????? ???????? ??? ???????? ????????? ?????????? ??????? ???? ? ? ? ?
The Hon’ble Speaker Shri Arun Upreti while concluding the assembly session on 16th of September 2022 used the above phrase in the Sikkim Legislative Assembly from the Chair of Speaker which is highly commendable. To our non Lho-Po (Bhutia) brethren a question may arise as to, what does it actually means and what are its implication?
Generally speaking it was a vote of thanks that the Hon’ble Speaker gave towards the end of the session. But here in this case it is not as simple as that. We should understand the significance and acclaim the effort of the Hon’ble Speaker. I being from a Bhutia community and a trained linguist in this context here, would like to explain the syntax.
The history of the development of Bhutia language and the struggle it had to endure during the initial stages of development as a recognized Language was justifiably summed up when the Hon’ble speaker chose to gave his remarks in Bhutia language and this was a moment to be cherished.
Back in the 70’s, in this very Assembly a member of the House had raised a question on the origin of Bhutia community on the basis of not having a written language. The then, leader of the house refused to answer the question citing that he doesn’t belong to that community, which created a lot of confusion in the society and insecurity among the community who had administered the land for more than 330 years.
It was not that, the Bhutia Community didn’t had a language of their own. In fact, the existence of Bhutia Language and community on this land was recorded since the 8th century in ancient orthography which was observed by all the Higher ranking Lamas and Scholars from time to time. During the 17th century, the construction of Chorten “Thongwa Rangdol” at Tashiding West Sikkim, one among the four yogi brothers who had established the Namgyal Dynasty - Lama Ngadak Sempa Chenpo addressed the mass gathering as "You the Drenjongpa people and we the Tibetan, together with outmost sincerity…" It was on the basis of the language that he had differentiated the two communities of the Tibetans and the Bhutias.
Similarly, in the biography of Jigme Paw, the 3rd incarnation of one of the four yogi brothers Lama Lha Tsun Chenpo had clearly recorded a spoken language of Bhutia community in the 18th century.
Later, in the early 19th century, British Priest and Tibetan Scholar Graham Sandberg observed the same when he was working in the then Bengal region including Darjeeling and Sikkim. He realized that there was huge difference between Sikkimese colloquial language or lingua franca and the court or Darbar official language of Sikkim. Hence, he started working on Sikkimese Bhutia language which he found rich, beautiful and different from the other language. Later in the year 1888, the findings of the same was published as "Manual of the Sikkim – Bhutia Language or Dé-jong ké" and it became the first Sikkimese Bhutia Language manual book.
However, after Sikkim merged with India, suddenly the community which had a history of more than 1100 years on the land faced an identity crisis for merely not having a written language. To make the matters worse was the then leader of the house abandoning his community like an orphan by evading the question asked.
This incident worked as a “Blessing in disguise”, as a group of young enthusiasts started working on having our own writing system with proper recognition from the highest authorities. One among them was Padmashree Shri Norden Tshering. During that time he was working as a translator in the assembly who had observed all those things very closely. With his far sighted vision he took the ambitious and herculean task of enshrining Bhutia language in a written form with proper recognition. In the late 70s his dream of getting the language recognized as independent written language was achieved along with recognition of many other languages in year to come as State language of Sikkim.
At present, in the state of Sikkim, there are 11 state recognized languages which can be used as working language in the Assembly. However, apart from two major languages no other language was seen being used in the assembly for reasons unknown to many.
However, on many occasions we got to witness Shri Arun Upreti as a leader encouraging and inspiring the people to follow the Sikkimese culture with his action, wearing different ethnic dresses. Like Mother Teresa, who had never given a single speech on non-violence and community harmony rather she practiced it with her action by living harmoniously among all the communities.
On the 16th of September 2022, when Hon’ble Speaker from the chair of most sacred place in Indian Democratic System chose Bhutia as a Language for the vote of thanks ceremony; it was an answer to all the people who had questioned the identity of the community for merely not having a written language.
It’s also a lesson to the people who still think this language doesn’t have much scope and cannot be recognized under the 8th schedule of Indian constitution and supporting other languages over our own mother tongue, (beauty and importance of this language is always valued and appreciated by other communities, with this history is repeated again)
For this historic moment I, would whole heartedly like to thank the Hon’ble Chief Minister of Sikkim, Shri Prem Singh Tamang for creating an atmosphere in the society where people respect and value each other’s language and culture also introducing a APATAN Fellowship for development of regional languages of Sikkim.
Thank You Hon’ble Speaker Shri Arun Upreti for creating history by choosing Bhutia as a Language for Vote of Thanks on 45th anniversary of Bhutia language recognition day.
Exactly 45 year ago, on Friday 16th of September 1977 with bill no. 7 Bhutia language got recognition as a State language of Sikkim along with Lepcha and Nepali Language.      
“THUJECHE”
Your’s etc,
Dr. Kunzang Namgyal
(Email: kunzang49348@gmail.com)