In the early 1960's the Dalai Lama, with the assistance of Jewarhalal Nehru, opened a residential Tibetan school in Darjeeling. These schools, which now enroll several thousand students, saved many refugee children from joining road-gangs and engaging in delinquency. In 1988, after several years of unrest, the Darjeeling area was granted limited local autonomy. Located in south central Asia in the southeastern Himalayas, Sikkim is a former independent nation that is now a state of India. The capital is Gangtok, Sikkim's only town, in the southeastern quarter of the state.
Rainfall is mainly monsoonal and heavy.
Tibetan Buddhism is the state religion, but Hinduism is professed by the majority of the population. The ruling family is of Tibetan origin, and Sikkim was a dependency of Tibet until the British government of India established its protectorate in 1890, following the expulsion of the Tibetans in 1888. A 1950 treaty made Sikkim a protectorate of independent India. Nominal independence ended in 1975 when voters decided to merge their country with India, and Sikkim was incorporated as India's 22d state. The Inner Himalayas in Bhutan are dissected by a series of fertile north-south valleys where most of the population is concentrated.