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o he o n as to of of to of & n a a k t f PARIPEX - INDIAN JOURNAL OF RESEARCH Volume-8 | Issue-2 | February-2019 | PRINT ISSN - 2250-1991 from the peasants for their survival, whilst, monasteries and lamas of Chinese History). 3. Mullard, Saul. (2011). Opening the Hidden land: State Formation and the were exempted from all kind of taxes and labour services to the Construction of Sikkimese History. London: Brill. king. Moreover, monasteries also acted as a central of 4. Mullard, Saul. & Tsarong. (n.d.). Tibetan Buddhist Monasticism: Social, administration to their villagers and solve petty cases. Psychological and Cultural Implications. The Tibet Journal. 5. Mullard, Saul. & Wongchuk, Hissey. (2010). Royal Records: A Catalogue of the Sikkimese Palace Archive. : Namgyal Institute of Tibetology. Regarding to lord-peasant relationship under the monastic 6. Namgyal and Dolma. (1908). . (Dawa, Samdup. Trans.) Gangtok. estates, all the monks acted as collective landlord where the head 7. Rahul, Ram. (1969). The Government and politics of Tibet. Delhi: Vikas Publication. 8. Sinha, A.C. (1975). Politics of Sikkim: A Sociological Study. Delhi: Thomson Press. lama appoints senior monks as different officials to look after 9. Upadhyay, Rajen. (2017). Peasants’ Resentments and Resistance: A Glimpse on various matters of the monastery and one of the official were given Rural Past of Sikkim 1914-1950. Delhi: Kalpaz Publications. the authority to collect taxes from the villagers on behalf of the 10. Vandenhelsken, Melanie. (2012). “Secularism and the Buddhist Monastery of Pemayangtse in Sikkim”. monastery. Before the Nepalese immigration, the peasants or the families connected to the monastic estate was known as 'Miser'2 who were bound to the monasteries. The miser has to pay their rents on land and at the same time, they have to render labour services to the monastery along with tilling the monastery's demesne land. Some of the big monasteries like Pemayangtse also possessed landless miser or landless labourers who were attached to the monastery and were expected to cook, bring firewood and water for the lamas as well as to cultivate the monastery's fields in exchange for a percentage of the harvest (Balikci, 2008).

However, the British Land Settlement Programme implemented from 1889 onwards, brought many changes in the land holding system in Sikkimese monasteries. The traditional land grants given to the monasteries were collected by the British official, J.C. White and were redistributed and leased out to lessee landlords. As part of White's land reform, Sikkim's thirty five monasteries lost part or all their land holdings with the exception of five important monasteries – Pemayangtse, Tashiding, Phodung, Rumtek and Phensang. However, the position of these five monasteries changed under this new land revenue system. These five monasteries were given a function similar to those of the landlords or manager of landed estates. Similar to other landlords, monasteries were given pattas for a certain period of time which shows that monasteries do not own the land permanently under British administration. The monasteries could collect taxes on their respective estates, but have to pay back the house tax to the state and could keep other taxes like land rent for religious activities. They also had the right on tenants' labour services. Under this new system, within the monastic estates, tenants like Pakhureys and Chakhureys were found which is basically a new term brought by the Nepalese settlers. The exact meanings of these terms are not clear but some scholars say that, the Pakhureys were landless agricultural labourers just like landless miser settled under the monasteries. It has been noted that, they would receive plots in those estates in lieu of their services of manual labour rendered by them to the monastery and the lamas. Since there were no terms and conditions laid down for this compulsory labour, normally the tenants had to send one member of their family for such labours daily or whenever required by the monastery (Upadhyay, 2017).

CONCLUSION Due to the British land reform policy, monasteries lost all or part of their land which they enjoyed since decades. Although they were provided with subsidy annually, most of the monasteries began to face financial problems. There were many cases of monks moving out of the monastery since it became impossible to maintain strong monk-body once the monasteries were stripped of their land holdings. In addition to that, monks of these monasteries lost their privileges and obliged to pay taxes to the state. Thus, monasteries lost their influence over political activities of the state under the British Officer.

1. Chogyal is a Tibetan word, meaning, a ruler or a king who ruled according to the religious law or dharma. 2. According to Goldstein, Miser was those peasants who were hereditary bound to manorial estates and under the judicial/ administrative authority of the lord of such estates. Misers held hereditary tax base fields from their lord and were physically bound to manorial estates.

REFERENCES 1. Balikci, Anna. (2008). Lamas, Shamans and Ancestors: Village Religion in Sikkim. London: Brill. 2. Brook, Timothy. (2012). The Logic of Monastic Property in a commercial Economy: Theft and Patronage in the Suzhou Region, 1570-1640. Chugoku Shigaku (Journal

2 www.worldwidejournals.com