Tinkitam is a small town in

South Sikkim Namchi District is a district of the Indian state of Sikkim. Its headquarters is at Namchi. Geography South Sikkim lies at an altitude of 400 to 2000 metres and has a temperate climate for most of the year. Major urban centres include Nam ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. The town is located 45 minutes from the district headquarters

Namchi Namchi is a city and the administrative headquarter of the Namchi district in the Indian state of Sikkim. The appellation Namchi means ''Sky (Nam) High (Chi)'' in Sikkimese. Geography Namchi is located at . It has an average elevation of . ...

. The town is being promoted as a tourist destination. Mount

Kanchenjanga Kangchenjunga, also spelled Kanchenjunga, Kanchanjanghā (), and Khangchendzonga, is the third highest mountain in the world. Its summit lies at in a section of the Himalayas, the ''Kangchenjunga Himal'', which is bounded in the west by the T ...

is near the town. The local area contains rare species of

orchid Orchids are plants that belong to the family Orchidaceae (), a diverse and widespread group of flowering plants with blooms that are often colourful and fragrant. Along with the Asteraceae, they are one of the two largest families of flowering ...

s and Paphiopedilum Faireanum and other orchids of the

Cypripedioideae Cypripedioideae is a subfamily of orchids commonly known as lady's slipper orchids, lady slipper orchids or slipper orchids. Cypripedioideae includes the genera ''Cypripedium, Mexipedium, Paphiopedilum, Phragmipedium'' and ''Selenipedium''. The ...

genus, also called "lady's slipper". Most orchids near this village are terrestrial, blooming in October and November. Nearby are the Temi Tea Gardens, the only

tea Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared by pouring hot or boiling water over cured or fresh leaves of ''Camellia sinensis'', an evergreen shrub native to East Asia which probably originated in the borderlands of southwestern China and north ...

estate of Sikkim. Tinkitam offers a view of a dormant

volcano A volcano is a rupture in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. On Earth, volcanoes are most often found where tectonic plates are ...

that one can come across during the trek from

Damthang Damthang is a town in Haa District in western Bhutan. It is located in the Ha Valley, 11 km from the Ha town and 75 km from the Paro Airport. Damthang is the location of the Royal Bhutan Army's China-focused base to protect disputed pasture lan ...

to Tendong National Park. The economy of this town mainly concerns its

cardamom Cardamom (), sometimes cardamon or cardamum, is a spice made from the seeds of several plants in the genera ''Elettaria'' and ''Amomum'' in the family Zingiberaceae. Both genera are native to the Indian subcontinent and Indonesia. They are r ...

plantations. Locals are mostly of

Bhutia The Bhutia (; sip, Drenjongpa/Drenjop; ; "inhabitants of Sikkim".) are a community of Sikkimese people living in the state of Sikkim in northeastern India, who speak Drenjongke or Sikkimese, a Tibetic language fairly mutually intelligible w ...

and Nepali ancestry. Nepali is the predominant language. The town has a temperate climate.

Notable people

Tinkitam was the birthplace of Indian

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

captain

Baichung Bhutia Bhaichung Bhutia (born 15 December 1976), also spelled as Baichung Bhutia, is an Indian former professional footballer who played as a striker. Bhutia is considered as the torchbearer of Indian football in the international arena. He is often ...

. Many members of his family continue to live in the village. It is also the birthplace of the first female IAS officer from South Sikkim who is an Economic (Hons) graduate from St.Stephens (Delhi University), Tshering Yangden Bhutia. It is also the birthplace of Norbu Dadul Bhutia who was the first elected Zilla Adhyakshya of South Sikkim after the State of Sikkim enacted the Sikkim Panchayat Act in 1993.

References

External links

* ''Tinkitam's Little Buddha''; Deepak Sharma; ''

Mumbai Mirror The ''Mumbai Mirror'' is an Indian English-language newspaper published in Mumbai, Maharashtra. Launched in 2005 as a compact daily newspaper, its coverage focuses on city specific local news and civic issues concerning education, healthcare an ...

''; pg 10; Sunday, 27 November 2005. Cities and towns in Namchi district {{sikkim-geo-stub