CHOGYAL "Religious King"

CHOGYAL "meaning "Dharma Raja" or "Religious King"(NAMGYAL DYNASTY)

The Chogyal ( ཆོས་རྒྱལ) were the monarchs of the former kingdoms of Sikkim  ruled by the Namgyal family. The Chogyal, or divine ruler, was the absolute potentate of Sikkim from 1642 to 1975, when monarchy was abrogated and annexed by India to  make Sikkim India's 22nd state on16-th.May 1975 The Sikkim Kindom was occupated by India .

The reign of the Chogyal was foretold by the patron saint of Sikkim,Guru Rimpoche. The 8th-century saint had predicted the rule of the kings when he arrived in the state.

In 1642, Chogyal Phuntsog Namgyal was crowned as Sikkim's first ruler in yuksom The crowning of the king was a great event and he was crowned by three revered lamas who arrived there from three different directions, namely the north, west and south.

From 1642 to 1975, Sikkim was ruled by the Namgyal Monarchy (also called the Chogyal Monarchy), founded by the fifth-generation descendants of Guru Tashi .Chogyal means 'righteous ruler,' and was the title conferred upon Sikkim's Buddhist kings during the reign of the Namgyal Monarchy.

In 1641, Lama Lutsum Chembo travelled from Tibet to Denjong (meaning hidden country) now known as Sikkim to propagate the Buddhist religion. He was then joined by two other lamas, Sempa Chembo and Rinzing Chembo. The trinity of the most revered lamas belonged to the Kham district in Tibet. Their primary aim was to perpetuate Tibetan hold on Sikkim and with a mission to propagate Buddhism in Sikkim. They assembled from different directions at Norbugang, later came to be known as Yuksom ( originally spelled in lepcha Meaning meeting point of three hold priest) 

  . The area in Rathong chu valley at Narbugong was considered as blessed by Guru Padma Sambhava (Guru Rim-bo-che). Since the vision of Saint Padmasambhava (Guru Rim-bo-che) had predicted the essentiality of a fourth person for the purpose, the Lamas went in pursuit of the fourth person, as the three lamas represented three directions of North, South and West in Tibet. According to legend, Guru Rinpoche, the 9th-century Buddhist saint had also foretold the event that a Phuntsog from the east would be the next chogyal of Sikkim. In 1642, the three lamas went in search of the chosen person in the eastern region. Near the present day Gangtok, they found a man churning milk. He offered them some refreshments and gave them shelter. So impressed were they by his deeds that they realised that he was a chosen one. They also identified Phunstsog Namgyal's ancestral royal links with Tibet and decided that he was the right person to become the temporal and religious head of the region, and then they brought him to Yuksom. They then crowned him at Norbugang near Yuksom as the temporal and religious king of Sikkim, with the title of “Chogyal”. The crowning took place at Norbugang on a pedestal set in stones, in a pine-covered hill, and he was anointed by sprinkling water from a sacred urn. At that time he was 38 years of age. He was a fifth generation descendant of Guru Tashi, a 13th-century prince from the Mi-nyak House in Kham in Eastern Tibet.

Thereafter, the dynastic rule of Chogyals, propagation of the Buddhist religion and building of monasteries and chortens took firm roots in Sikkim. The Namgyal monarchy of 12 kings lasted from 1642 till 1975 (333 years). Tibetan Mahayana Buddhism known as Vajrayana sect was introduced, which ultimately was recognized as the state religion of Sikkim.

#	Reign	Portrait	Ruler	Events during reign
1	1642–1670		Phuntsog Namgyal	Ascended the throne and was consecrated as the first Chogyal of Sikkim. Made the capital in Yuksom.
2	1670–1700		Tensung Namgyal	Shifted capital to Rabdentse from Yuksom.
3	1700–1717		Chakdor Namgyal	His half-sister Pendiongmu tried to dethrone Chakdor, who fled to Lhasa, but was reinstated as king with the help of Tibetans.
4	1717–1733		Gyurmed Namgyal	Sikkim was attacked by Nepalese.
5	1733–1780		Phuntsog Namgyal II	Nepalese raided Rabdentse, the then capital of Sikkim.
6	1780–1793		Tenzing Namgyal	Chogyal fled to Tibet, and later died there in exile.
7	1793–1863		Tshudpud Namgyal	The longest-reigning Chogyal of Sikkim. Shifted the capital from Rabdentse to Tumlong. Treaty of Titalia in 1817 between Sikkim and British India was signed in which territories lost to Nepal were appropriated to Sikkim. Darjeeling was gifted to British India in 1835. Two Britons, Dr. Arthur Campbell and Dr. Joseph Dalton Hooker were captured by the Sikkimese in 1849. Hostilities between British India and Sikkim continued and led to a treaty signed, in which Darjeeling was ceded to British India.
8	1863–1874		Sidkeong Namgyal
9	1874–1914		Thutob Namgyal	Claude White appointed as the first political officer of Sikkim in 1889. Capital shifted from Tumlong to Gangtok in 1894.
10	1914		Sidkeong Tulku Namgyal	The shortest-reigning Chogyal of Sikkim, ruled from 10 February to 5 December 1914. Died of heart failure, aged 35, in most suspicious circumstances.
11	1914–1963		Tashi Namgyal	Treaty between India and Sikkim was signed in 1950, giving India suzerainty over Sikkim.
12	1963–1975		Palden Thondup Namgyal	The 12th Chogyal, Indian sovereignty post plebiscite.

The son from the first marriage of Palden Thondup Namgyal, Wangchuk Namgyal, was named the 13th Chogyal after his father's death on 29 January 1982, but the position no longer confers any official authority.