ABSTRACT
The state lies in the eastern Himalayas, traversed by the Great Himalaya and some of its southern spurs. The topography is dominated by the deep valley of the River Tista (Teesta) and, to its west, the rising mass of Kangchenjunga (Kanchendzonga-‘House of Five Treasures’), which, at 8,586 m (28,179 feet), is the highest mountain in India, the third highest in the world and the presiding deity of the surrounding country. Only 40 km (25 miles) from the peak of Kangchenjunga, however, is Sikkim’s lowest point, at 221 m, in the southern foothills. This indicates the variety and extremity of the altitudinal changes in the landscape, affecting the climate and the flora. About one-third of Sikkim is covered with dense, often inaccessible, forests of sal, sambal and bamboo. The mountainous terrain is slashed by deep ravines and green valleys watered by rivers fed with both snow and rain. The main river, the perennial Tista, flows from north to south, steeply down the east and centre of the state, ultimately flowing into the Brahmaputra (until the great floods of 1787 altered its course, the Tista had been a tributary of the Ganges). It has sources in the Tista Zhangse and the great Zemu glaciers, in the bleaker, colder north-east of Sikkim, where the more desert-like terrain is barely softened by the two main tributary river valleys, of Lachen and Lachung. The main river system flowing through the southwest of the state is that of the Rangit (Ranjit). The climate can range from tropical in the southern foothills, through temperate, to arctic in the very north and north-east or on the mountain heights. Sikkim generally experiences a considerable amount of rainfall, ranging from 1,260 mm (50 inches) to 5,100 mm per year, varying considerably according to altitude or how far north the place is. Gangtok, the hill-top capital, receives the maximum annual average of rainfall (3,494 mm), while Thanggu, high in the north-west, has the minimum (82 mm). Most rain falls between June and September, when the monsoons penetrate deep into the Himalayas up the valleys of the Tista and the Rangit. Fog is also common throughout the state at this time of year. Average January temperatures in Gangtok range from 4°C to 14°C (39°F-57°F), while by May the lowest average equals the winter month’s highest, ranging up to 22°C (72°F).
