Lake, People and Forest in Sikkim: An Indigenous Perspective

Abstract

Sikkim is tiny but beauty. The state is gifted from diverse natural resources like glaciers, peaks, caves rocks and lakes etc. According to different report shows that there are almost 200 small and big lakes are situated in different corners of the state of Sikkim Himalaya as well. But the report of the Ecclesiastical department of Sikkim shows that 11 lakes are considered as sacred. The Kecheopalri lake is important one which is located under Chhojo block of West district of Sikkim. The surrounding village of the lake is inhabited by Lepcha, Bhutia and Nepali people. They are mainly following the Tibetan Buddhism. The people of the lake have close relationship to the lake since time immemorial basically for their livelihood purpose. But now a day the lake has threatened by several activities. Following the idea of Michael Foucault’s surveillance religion playing the role of indigenous knowledge to conserve the nature. The paper is trying to find out the possible indigenous techniques through religious line and length from contextual perspective by using sociological tools and techniques.

Keywords: Lake, Sacred, Indigenous Knowledge, Conservation, Buddhist Religion etc.