Palden Thondup Namgyal was the 12th and last Chogyal or king of Sikkim Wikimedia Commons
One of the last links with the lost kingdom of Sikkim and, more specifically, with its last king, Chogyal Palden Thondup Namgyal, ended with Karma Topden's cremation recently. Karma's political and emotional involvement with the Chogyal went far beyond any ordinary bond between monarch and loyal subject. Although the Chogyal was long dead and Karma himself moved many years ago out of Gangtok's enclosed world into national politics and international diplomacy, Sikkim remained his ultimate reality.
Our first meeting was on the palace lawn in Gangtok. 'You know this character?' the Chogyal said in fond banter as Karma went through the three full-length prostrations, the ko-tow of Manchu ritual called dhokin Sikkimese, that he performed meticulously. Karma asked me to dinner in the government bungalow he enjoyed as the Chogyal's deputy secretary. There I met Cherry, his English wife, a solicitor who had done her internship in Cambridge where she shared lodgings with Sonia Maino. Showing me out afterwards, Karma pounced on my scarf which I had left in the hall with my coat and gloves and ran back into the sitting room, yelling 'Cherry, Cherry, why is my university scarf lying here' It turned out we had been to the same university in England, though some years apart. Karma was younger. I shouldn't be writing this at all.