Thapoo Thapoo… (Once Upon a Time) Tales from my Grandma is an attempt to preserve the precious folklores and the old bedtime stories passed on through hundreds of generations, especially in the Bhutia Tribal Community of Sikkim, who used to live and interact with nature on daily basis. Some of the stories are straight forward interpretations of interactions with nature which used to surround our ancestors. Some deal with moral values, some are light-hearted and some filled with mystery. There was a time when every other lazy afternoon or every other dinner table, in the tiny kingdom of Sikkim (the present-day the Northeastern State of India), the Old Grandmother of the house would often narrate an invigorating story to the twinkly and keen-eyed children of the household. Some phrases in the old Bhutia dialect have been kept the way it has been passed with the English translation supplied. The intention is to preserve some of the crude elements of the story in its literal form. Modernization has hit us hard and with the disappearance of the dusty old houses, free-flowing streams and natural music played by the birds and with the emergence and manifestation of the mammoth concrete, these little folklores seems to have dissipated in the current day artificial environment. Every story in this book is as precious as a gem, carefully passed on by my grandmother from hers and the other grandmothers of my beautiful and enchanting birthplace called Sikkim.

A collection of thirty folktales from Sikkim, a state in northern India.

'In the beginning there was nothing but vast emptiness on earth and in the sky. Itbu-moo, the Mother Creator, shaped the mountains, rivers and lakes. But something was missing. Why did her creation feel empty? So, taking a fresh ball of snow, she created the first man . . . and then the first woman. These became the chief deities of the Lepchas.' Thus begins one of the stories in this delightful book, a compilation of folk tales of the Lepchas, passed down through the ages. Custodians of a language and script of the same name, the Lepchas inhabit regions that currently fall under the state of Sikkim, in Darjeeling district of West Bengal, Ilam district of eastern Nepal and the south-western parts of Bhutan. Ancient lore suggests that they have inhabited in the region from time immemorial. The tales included in this collection-describing gods, goddesses, people, animals and nature in a cohesive world where one cannot do without the other-skilfully bring to life the beliefs and rich culture of this unique community. Accompanying each short story are stunning illustrations, etching the lyrical sweep and mood of the tale.

Mythology is a miscellaneous collection of old tales and legends which embraces all of what we now call religion, science and philosophy (natural moral and metaphysical). The Myths are the spiritual instructions of our forefathers. The mythical stories are not entertainment stories or folk-tales; because they can be told only at certain times of the year and under certain conditions. The belief systems of all the 14 (fourteen) mountain tribes and races of Sikkim were sandwiched between the faith of Buddhism from the north and Hinduism from the west in the beginning; and then Christianity from the south mainly during the chiefdom periods of Sikkim (1642-1975 A.D.) and Nepal (1769-2008 A.D.); affecting their indigenous belief systems tremendously. Today, the different tribes and races of Sikkim have awakened not against anybody else but themselves from within and have started rediscovering their own belief systems and traditions. Many of these hill tribes or races have adopted many well developed religions of the world with insignificant traces of their own within it. This book is an attempt to collect the valuable information of these lesser known oriental Belief System or Religion and Mythologies of the different ethnic mountain people of Sikkim for the first time for further research and development.

'In the beginning there was nothing but vast emptiness on earth and in the sky. Itbu-moo, the Mother Creator, shaped the mountains, rivers and lakes. But something was missing. Why did her creation feel empty? So, taking a fresh ball of snow, she created the first man . . . and then the first woman. These became the chief deities of the Lepchas.' Thus begins one of the stories in this delightful book, a compilation of folk tales of the Lepchas, passed down through the ages. Custodians of a language and script of the same name, the Lepchas inhabit regions that currently fall under the state of Sikkim, in Darjeeling district of West Bengal, Ilam district of eastern Nepal and the south-western parts of Bhutan. Ancient lore suggests that they have inhabited in the region from time immemorial. The tales included in this collection-describing gods, goddesses, people, animals and nature in a cohesive world where one cannot do without the other-skilfully bring to life the beliefs and rich culture of this unique community. Accompanying each short story are stunning illustrations, etching the lyrical sweep and mood of the tale.