Discovery of 300-year-old Bhutanese forts in West Sikkim

Hissey Wongchuk Bhutia

Lying amidst the forest between DPCA School and the Pelling senior secondary school in West Sikkim are the ruins of two Bhutanese forts known as Paru dzong and Drakchung dzong. I discovered these places along with my friends Dawa Tshering Lepcha, Nimcho Bhutia, Norden Bhutia guided by a student from DPCA School, Sumras. After walking for about 30 minutes from DPCA School I spotted the Drakchung Dzong first, and I also saw a small cave just below the Drakchung Dzong. The Paru Dzong is 15minutes away from Drakchung Dzong. Some locals believe that the erstwhile Chogyal used to live in the Paru Dzong while he was having an affair with a Bhutanese girl. When I reached the Dzongs I felt very happy because it was a big dream of mine to explore these places. After an offering of incense (sang) to purify the place as it is believed that guardian deities dwell in such places. I took the photographs of these two forts after I thoroughly cleaned the walls and measured the forts.
These forts might have been built during the period of Bhutanese occupation of Sikkim i.e. 1696-1705 A.D. Several records are available about the period, but as per the archival records and other primary sources that I have come across during my research work, the years 1696 to 1705 are recorded as the period of Bhutanese occupation of Sikkim.
It is believed that during the period, many forts were constructed here in Sikkim such as Namgyal Thong dzong at Dzongu in North Sikkim, Taktse dzong at Gangtok and Ongdi phodrang at Pakyong in East Sikkim. The existence of these forts are commonly found in various written records while there are no records available about these two forts, the Paru dzong and the Drakchung dzong in Sikkim.
[The writer is a Research Assistant at Namgyal Institute of Tibetology, Gangtok]