It is said that , following the steps of Chengis Khan, groups of Mangars under the leadership of SHIN MANGAR & CHITTU MANGARS, migrated south entering Sikkim and making their settlement therein, building forts and fortify their strong hold in the region. The earlier settlers called these new ‘arrivial’s as ‘TAMSANG THAPAS, meaning ‘ people coming from the North’. These new settled Magars/Mangars strengthened their hold in areas of settlement , building forts which they called as ZONG/JONG/ DZONGS ( meaning – ‘fort’.) and naming their areas of domain as MANGRATH or MAGARLOKS, as found in some book, a large number of ruins of Mangar zongs are still found in parts of SIKKIM till date.
Over a period of time the Mangars divided themselves into twelve ( 12) sub groups and called themselves BARHAMANGRAT, ‘BARHA meaning 12, and MANRATS meaning MANGARS., under the leadership of— HANYONG THAPA, HANGYANG THAPA, HIRJALI THAPA, HANGSE THAPA, HUNGCHUM THAPA, HUNGEHUM THAPA, SINJALI THAPA, BARCHA THAPA, MUNDEY THAPA, CHODEY THAPA, ISLOR THAPA, UDOA THAPA, Mr. S.C. Das, a famous Bengali explorer and historian narrates the history of the time when the upper valley of the KANGBACHEN RIVER in Sikkim was inhabited by the Tibetans, under the Magar king who was suppossly had harassed and taxed them heavily. Even the kings deputies were reported to have troubled them for extra income, so they conspired to have the Magar king assassinated. Then on one of the king’s official visit, the Magar king fell to the hands of the conspirators. In an act of vengeance, the Magar queen organised a grand funeral feast six miles up the river half way between the two villages and invited all to attend. it is said that after her people had finished, she had poisoned wine served to the Tibetans subject, thus killing large number of them. So today this place where the deed was committed is known as ‘TONGSONG PHUG’, meaning ‘a place of thousand corpses’. After which a war of attrition followed , the Magars went to the losing end, driven out of the Kangbachen valley of Sikkim, some, we find settled in areas of east NEPAL, some, moved west under the leadership of Phalemi Khan and settled in Palpa region of Nepal. We also find references in history wherein the 17 th century , the Magars continued to actively oppose the KARGYU Red hat Sect of Tibetans who were driven out of Tibet by the Gelyungpa sect of Yellow hats now settling in Sikkim
It is predicted that almost for two hundred years attempts to find a viable solution to the problem had been initiated, to no avail. The enimity between the two communities reach to such a point that Mangars left Sikkim and it is accepted that the LAST MANGAR KING, died at a place in Darjeeling that later became the PHUBUNG CINCHONA PLANTATION.. And during the 18 th century, Sikkim dropped all references of the Magar tribe in their records. Sir . J.Hooker, in Himalayan JOURNAL , Vol I,writes ‘ THE MAGARS , a tribe now confined to Nepal west of the Arun, are aborigins of Sikkim, where they were driven by the Lepchas westward into the country of Limboos, and by these latter further west still. They are said to have been savages, and not of Tibetan orgin, and now converted to HINDOOISM. ....a somewhat mythical account of a wild people still inhabiting the Sikkim mountains, will be alluded to elsewhere.
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