Bhutia

Tibetic-speaking ethnic group of India Ethnic group A Bhutia woman with precious coral headdress, agate Buddhist prayer beads, turquoise earrings and silk chuba before 1915 in Darjeeling The Bhutias (exonym; Nepali: भुटिया, 'People from Tibet') or Drejongpas (endonym; Tibetan: འབྲས་ལྗོངས་པ་, Wylie: Bras-ljongs-pa, THL: dre-jong pa, 'People of the Rice Valley') are a Tibetan ethnic group native to the Indian state of Sikkim who speak Drejongke, a Tibetic language which descends from Old Tibetan. The majority of Bhutias live in Sikkim, while a significant number also reside in the Darjeeling and Kalimpong districts of northern West Bengal and in countries such as Nepal and Bhutan. Language The language spoken by the Bhutias of Sikkim is Drejongke, a Tibetic language which has a lexical similarity of 65% with Dzongkha, the language of Bhutan. By comparison, Drejongke is only 42% lexically similar with Standard Tibetan. Sikkimese has also been influenced to some degree by the neighboring Yolmo and Tamang languages. History Migration from Tibet to Sikkim in small numbers occurred since the 8th century. However, the 13th century saw an increase in mi