The history of Sikkim takes us back to the time when Lepchas, Limbus and Magars were the original inhabitants of the state. It is known that Buddhist Saint Guru Rinpoche passed through the land in the 9th century and introduced Buddhism in the state. Buddhism took its distinctive Sikkimese form four centuries later, when three Tibetan monks, dissatisfied with the rise of the reformist Gelukpas, migrated to Yoksum in western Sikkim. Over the centuries, the territory was lost to the Bhutanese, the Nepalese and the British. After the Independence from British rule in 1947, Sikkim remained an independent country. Then, on 26 April 1975, it became a part of India and the 22nd state of the country.