British relations with Sikkim began in 1816, when the Tarai or submontane portion of Sikkim (now included in Darjeeling), which had been occupied by the Nepalese, was restored to the raja by the treaty concluded at the end of the Nepalese War. In 1839 the site of Darjeeling was ceded to the British for use as a sanatorium. In 1849 the British resumed the whole of the Tarai and the outer hills, as punishment for repeated insults and injuries culminating in the imprisonment of Dr. Campbell, super intendent of Darjeeling, and Sir Joseph Hooker, when travelling in Sikkim. In 1861 the despatch of a British force was required to impose a treaty defining good relations. The maharaja, however, refused to carry out his obligations and persisted in living in Tibet ; his administration was neglected, his subjects oppressed, and a force of Tibetan soldiers was allowed, and even encouraged, to erect a fort in Sikkim territory. The Government was forced in 1888, to send an expedition, which drove the Tibetans back over the Jelep pass. A convention was then concluded with China in 189o, whereby the British protectorate over Sikkim was acknowledged and the boundary of the State defined; to this was added a supplemental agreement relating to trade and domes tic matters, which was signed in 1893. A British political officer
was appointed to assist the maharaja in the administration with a Durbar or Council composed of the chief civil officers and lamas. The maharaja refused to co-operate and tried to flee to Tibet through Nepal, where he was stopped by the Nepalese and made over to the British. He then resided as a State pris oner near Kurseong in the Darjeeling district and died in The present maharaja, Sir Tashi Namgyal, K.C.I.E., who suc ceeded in 1914, was invested with full ruling powers in 1918.
See Hooker, Himalayan Journal (1854) ; Gazetteer of Sikkim (Cal cutta, ; L. A. Waddell, Among the Himalayas (1898) ; D. W. Freshfield, Round Kangchenjunga (19o3) ; J. Claude White, Sikkim and Bhutan (19°9) ; Earl of Ronaldshay, Lands of the Thunderbolt (1923).