Long before Sikkim joined India in 1975, the villages of the Lachung and Lachen valleys governed themselves through a council called the Dzumsa. Every household sends a member. The council chooses a headman, the Pipon, usually for a year, and he settles disputes, organises shared work and represents the village to outsiders.
The Dzumsa decides how pasture and forest are used, when herds move to higher grazing grounds and how festivals are run. Fines are set by the council, and it can rule on matters that elsewhere would go to a court or panchayat. Sikkim's panchayat law recognises the Dzumsa in Lachung and Lachen in place of an elected panchayat.
Travellers see the system mostly in small ways. Village rules on plastic, noise, the use of common land and the hiring of local vehicles come from the council. Some years the Dzumsa has asked visitors to respect bans on littering in Yumthang or limits during religious events. When a hotel owner tells you something is a Dzumsa rule, it is worth taking seriously.
Sources
- Dzumsa (Wikipedia)
- Lachung (Wikipedia)
- Told locally in Lachung
Legends are retold differently from village to village. Where a story is told locally rather than written down, we say so.
