Tikajit Pun was born in a village called Nangi, in the district of Tehsil, Nepal, he enlisted into the 1st Battalion of the 2nd Gurkha Rifles in November 1922, and saw his first active service on the North West Frontier in 1924, being awarded the Indian General Service Medal 1923-24. He served on the frontier again with the battalion in 1937 and was awarded his second IGSM for the 1937-39 campaign.  He was granted the Viceroy's Commission in 1937 and transferred to the 3rd Battalion when it was re-raised in 1940. In 1943 as a Subedar in the Chindits, he took part in the First Wingate Expedition, leading a group of very young and inexperienced Gurkha Riflemen behind enemy lines in Burma. Here he performed outstandingly well under very difficult and arduous conditions and ended up being awarded the Indian Distinguished Conduct Medal for his efforts that year. Here is the citation transcript for that award, as recommended by his commander Major R. Bromhead :

For a much more detailed account of the military life and career of Tikajit Pun, please click on the link below. Congratulations must go the gentlemen who produced the website pages, especially Mark Sellar who compiled the information on Tikajit Pun.Tikajit Pun went on to serve with the 2nd Gurkha Rifles after the war in places such as Malaya, he continued to excel and impress during this period. In the photograph opposite he can be seen in the centre of the back row. This photo was taken in the 1950's and is of the 1st battalion 2nd GR, at the Ulu Pandan barracks in Singapore. By this time Tikajit was a Lieutenant in the battalion, but went on to achieve the rank of Captain.

The family tradition of faithful service to the 2nd Gurkha Rifles was continued by his eldest son Lalbahadur, who became the first Gurkha Rifle recruit to attend Staff College, passing out from Sandhurst in 1959. Lalbahadur was awarded the Military Cross in 1965 during the 1st battalion's tour of duty in Indonesia. He led a successful ambush attack on a large group of insurgents just inside the Indonesian border and nullified their future effect on proceedings. Seen below is the full medal entitlement of Captain Tikajit Pun, a real Chindit hero in every sense of the word.

Hambo Lama Itigelov, born in 1852 always wanted to be a monk and that’s why at the mere age of sixteen he started his religious education from Anninsky Datsa, a Buddhist university in Buryatia, which is in ruins now. He became Pandido Khambo Lama-the head of Russian Buddhist in 1911. During the First World War Itigelov created an organization called “Buryat brothers”. The organization helped the army with meals clothes and money. Itigelov with the help of fellow lama brothers also built hospitals for the wounded soldiers. In 1926 Itigelov advised the Buddhist monks to leave Russia, since ‘the red teaching was coming”, though Itigelov never left Russia. A year later, when Itigelov was 75 he told other monks that he was ready to die and to begin meditation ceremonies and funeral rites, but the monks disagreed as he was still alive. So Itigelov started to meditate on his own and later the monks also joined him, Itigelov died while meditating.

Itigelov had left behind a testament in which he had said that he should be buried in the same position that he was when he died, sitting in a lotus position. It was written in the language of Old Mongolian vertical script and was passed to Ivilginski temple from Inner Mongolia of China in 1996. He had also wished to be put in a pine box. His body was to be exhumed within several years by the monks, one of the clauses of the testament claimed. In 1955 and 1977, while Itigelov’s body was being taken out the monks were surprised to see no signs of physical decay on the body. The monks were too afraid to reveal this astonishing finding, since communist regime had not left any space for religion in society. It was only in September 11, 2002 that the body was finally exhumed in front of the members of Buddhist Traditional Sangha. 

The body was later transferred to Ivolginsky Datsan, a residence of today’s Hambo Lama. The body as examined by monks, scientists and pathologists.The statement was issued that:” the body looked like it died only 36 hours ago.” The body was well preserved, with no signs of decay whatsoever, whole muscles and inner tissue intact and with soft joints and skin all in place. For two years after the exhumation of Itigilov’s body it does not perish nor decay, no fungus, no negative things happen to it. The Buddhist monks approach him as a living person and shake hands with him. Some Monks even claim that Hambo Lama Itigelov is still alive and is in Nirvana like state.

 Name : Shri T S Gyalsten
Duration : 26-04-1975 - 31-03-1980

 Name : Shri M P Pradhan
Duration : 01-04-1980 - 09-05-1984 

 Name : Shri K M L Chabra
Duration : 01-05-1984 - 8-12-1986 

 Name : Shri H.M. Singh
Duration : 9-12-1986 - 31-03-1989 

Duration : 01-04-1989- 31-07-1991

Duration : 01-08-1991- 19-04-1993 

Duration : 20-4-1993 - 22-8-1993  

 Name : Shri K A Vardan
Duration : 23-8-1993 - 29-06-1996 

 Name : Shri Sonam Wangdi
Duration : 30-6-1996 -11-09-1996/ 15-04-1998 - 10-09-2000 

 Name : Shri K S Rao
Duration : 12-09-1996 - 15-04-1998 

 Name : Shri S W Tenzing
Duration : 11-09-2000-2-11-2004 

 Name : Shri N D Chingapa
Duration : 3-11-2004- 12-08-2009 

 Name : Shri T T Dorji
Duration : 13-08-2009-31-03-2011

 Name : Shri N D Chingapa
Duration : 01-04-2011-31-07-2011 

 Name : Shri Karma Gyatso
Duration : 01-08-2011 - 28-02-2013 

Name : Smt. R. Ongmu
Duration : from 01-03-2013 - Till Now

The History of Darjeeling is intertwined with that of Sikkim, Nepal, British India and Bengal. Until the early 19th century, the hilly area around Darjeeling was controlled by the kingdom of Sikkim, while the plains around Siliguri were intermittently occupied by the kingdom of Nepal,with settlement consisting of a few villages of Lepcha and Kirati people.The Chogyal of Sikkim had been engaged in unsuccessful warfare against the Gorkhas of Nepal. From 1780, the Gorkhas made several attempts to capture the entire region of Darjeeling. By the beginning of 19th century, they had overrun Sikkim as far eastward as the Teesta River and had conquered and annexed the Terai. In the meantime, the British were engaged in preventing the Gorkhas from overrunning the whole of the northern frontier. The Anglo-Gorkha war broke out in 1814, which resulted in the defeat of the Gorkhas and subsequently led to the signing of the Sugauli Treaty in 1815. According to the treaty, Nepal had to cede all those territories which the Gorkhas had annexed from the Chogyal of Sikkim to the British East India Company (i.e. the area between Mechi River and Teesta River). Later in 1817, through the Treaty of Titalia, the British East India Company reinstated the Chogyal of Sikkim, restored all the tracts of land between the Mechi River and the Teesta river to the Chogyal of Sikkim and guaranteed his sovereignty.

In 1828, a delegation of the British East India Company (BEIC) officials on its way to the Nepal-Sikkim border stayed in Darjeeling and decided that the region was a suitable site for a sanatorium for British soldiers.The company negotiated a lease of the area west of the Mahananda River from the Chogyal of Sikkim in 1835. In 1849, the BEIC director Arthur Campbell and the explorer and botanist Joseph Dalton Hooker were imprisoned in the region by the Sikkim Chogyal. The BEIC sent a force to free them. Continued friction between the BEIC and the Sikkim authorities resulted in the annexation of 640 square miles (1,700 km2) of territory by the British in 1850. In 1864, the Bhutanese rulers and the British signed the Treaty of Sinchula that ceded the passes leading through the hills and Kalimpong to the British.[6] Further discord between Sikkim and the British resulted in a war, culminating in the signing of a treaty and the annexation by the British of the area east of the Teesta River in 1865.By 1866, Darjeeling district had assumed its current shape and size, covering an area of 1,234 square miles (3,200 km2).During the British Raj, Darjeeling's temperate climate led to its development as a hill station for British residents seeking to escape the summer heat of the plains. 

The development of Darjeeling as a sanatorium and health resort proceeded briskly. Arthur Campbell, a surgeon with the Company, and Lieutenant Robert Napier were responsible for establishing a hill station there. Campbell's efforts to develop the station, attract immigrants to cultivate the slopes and stimulate trade resulted in a hundredfold increase in the population of Darjeeling between 1835 and 1849. The first road connecting the town with the plains was constructed between 1839 and 1842. In 1848, a military depot was set up for British soldiers, and the town became a municipality in 1850. Commercial cultivation of tea in the district began in 1856, and induced a number of British planters to settle there. Darjeeling became the formal summer capital of the Bengal Presidency after 1864. Scottish missionaries undertook the construction of schools and welfare centres for the British residents, laying the foundation for Darjeeling's notability as a centre of education. The opening of the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway in 1881 further hastened the development of the region. In 1899, Darjeeling was rocked by major landslides that caused severe damage to the town and the native population.

Under British rule, the Darjeeling area was initially a "Non-Regulation District", a scheme of administration applicable to economically less advanced districts in the British Raj; acts and regulations of the British Raj did not automatically apply to the district in line with rest of the country. In 1919, the area was declared a "backward tract". During the Indian independence movement, the Non-cooperation Movement spread through the tea estates of Darjeeling. There was also a failed assassination attempt by revolutionaries on Sir John Anderson, the Governor of Bengal in 1934. Subsequently, during the 1940s, Communist activists continued the nationalist movement against the British by mobilising the plantation workers and the peasants of the district.Socio-economic problems of the region that had not been addressed during British rule continued to linger and were reflected in a representation made to the Constituent Assembly of India in 1947, which highlighted the issues of regional autonomy and Nepali nationality in Darjeeling and adjacent areas. 

After the independence of India in 1947, Darjeeling was merged with the state of West Bengal. A separate district of Darjeeling was established consisting of the hill towns of Darjeeling, Kurseong, Kalimpong and some parts of the Terai region. While the hill population comprised mainly ethnic Nepalis who had migrated there during British rule, the plains harboured a large ethnic Bengali population who were refugees from the Partition of India. A cautious and non-receptive response by the West Bengal government to most demands of the ethnic Nepali population led to increased calls, in the 1950s and 1960s, for Darjeeling's autonomy and for the recognition of the Nepali language; the state government acceded to the latter demand in 1961.The creation of a new state of Sikkim in 1975, along with the reluctance of the Government of India to recognise Nepali as an official language under the Constitution of India, brought the issue of a separate state of Gorkhaland to the forefront.  Agitation for a separate state continued through the 1980s, included violent protests during the 1986–88 period. The agitation ceased only after an agreement between the government and the Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF), resulting in the establishment of an elected body in 1988.

From the end of the Indian Rebellion of 1857 until the start of World War I the Gurkha Regiments saw active service in Burma, Afghanistan, the North-East Frontier and the North-West Frontiers of India, Malta (the Russo-Turkish War, 1877–78), Cyprus, Malaya, China (the Boxer Rebellion of 1900) and Tibet (Younghusband's Expedition of 1905),World War I (1914–18), World War II (1939–45), In the Second World War, Gurkha strength was expanded to 45 battalions. Soldiers saw action in Iraq, Persia, Cyprus, Tunisia, Italy, Greece, Burma, Malaya and Indonesia.

भारतीय संस्कृति में रचे बसे जनजाति विषयक लोक गीत गाहे बगाहे हिन्दी फिल्मो के रुपहले परदे पर देखने को मिल जाता है । उसी कड़ी में कई साल पहले, तकरीबन 44 साल पहले आई " तलाश' नाम की फिल्म में एक गीत बेहद लोकप्रिय हुआ था। इस गीत के बोल थे "जुनेली रात मा" और इस गीत को लता मंगेशकर और मोहम्मद रफ़ी ने अपनी आवाजें दी थी। जब इस गीत को मैंने ( अपनी आदत के अनुसार में दिन में कुछेक मिनट रेडियो ट्यून करके सुन ही लेता हूँ ) सुना तो पाया कि इस गीत के बोल नेपाली भाषा में है , तो मुझे सहज इस गीत के ऊपर और अधिक जान्ने की जिज्ञासा हुई सो श्रीमान गूगल के दरबार में पहुंचा तो उन्होंने सूचना दी कि यह गीत विख्यात गीतकार मजरूह सुलतानपुरी और संगीतकार सचिन देव बर्मन की रचना है । इतना जानने के बाद मैंने फिर यूट्यूब में जाकर इस गीत के वीडियो को देखा तो लगभग सकपका के रह गया ।

 हुआ दरअसल ऐसा कि जो गीत मैंने अब तक सुना तो उसे देखकर एक गंभीर समस्या "पहचान" की ओर बरबस ध्यान चला गया । इस गाने में नेपाली गीत का इस्तेमाल आदिवासियों के पारंपरिक गीत लोकगीत के रूप में हुआ है, जो बेहद आपत्तिजनक है । भारत में रहने वाले भारतीय मूल के गोरखाओ का अपना वजूद रहा है और इन्होने कभी भी घूमंतू और कबिलेनुमा जीवन को व्यतीत नहीं किया है। नेपाली भाषा के प्रयोग की मैं सराहना करता हूँ और साथ ही इस फिल्म में जो कुछ बताया और दिखाया गया , उससे मैं इत्तेफाक नहीं रखता
लेकिन लता जी मंगेशकर की आवाज़ में मधुर संगीत में नेपाली परिवेश का सम्मान करना  है।

Hidden within the Himalayas, 155ft from the ground, these man-made caves are one of the World's greatest archaeological mysteries. Thousands of holes are carved into the fragile, sandy-coloured cliff in a gorge so large it dwarfs the Grand Canyon. The astonishing number of caves, some dug into the cliffside, others tunnelled from above are thousands of years old but who built them and why remains a mystery. It is also not known how people climbed into the caves which are dug into a cliff 155-foot above the valley floor. An estimated 10,000 of these mysterious human-built caves have been found in the former Kingdom of Mustang in North, Central Nepal.

Those who have seen the mysterious caves say the effect of them on the cliff face makes it look like a giant sandcastle. Adventure photographer, Cory Richards joined climber Pete Athans, archaeologist Mark Aldenderfer and a team of explorers to unearth the hidden relics of the ancient and remote caves. Mr Richards said: 'I was in Nepal working in this village called Forte, where Pete [Athans] and I were teaching a group of Sherpas climbing techniques, safe climbing techniques so they could climb Everest. 'And Pete asked me if I would be interested in this project in Mustang. 'He started telling me about this place where we were going. The words he was using conjured these images of a place I couldn't really imagine.

'Quite honestly when I got there it was even bigger and more grand than anything I ever could ever have imagined. 'We're talking about somewhere that reminds us of the Grand Canyon, the desert south west but then has this incredible history to it. You see these caves carved into the rock and now they're completely inaccessible.' As we started getting deeper into it, I started to see the magic of what we were approaching, the culture in practice, a 12th century village underneath the caves they used to live in, caves that are now forgotten. 'We started asking questions about how did people get into them?

'I started wondering how do I light up people's imagination to make them think what it would have looked like thousands of years ago, that was my final challenge, how do I give people that imagination. 'One of the ways we did that was lighting up the caves, going them into them a night, spending the night in caves, using lights to light them up and strobes. 'Trying to give people the feeling this is a very ancient place, this is a place that has so many stories to tell us so much more than we can even really imagine in our lifetime.' Climbing into the sky caves was no easy feat, the rock was unstable and posed a real danger to the team of explorers.

In fact climbing into the caves was so dangerous, Mr Richards lost his footing, fell and broke his back. On another assignment to Mustang the following year, videographer Lincoln Else was hit by a falling rock, fracturing his skull. He said: 'This was real exploration. It's dangerous it's loose rock it's scary. Everything is loose, everything around you feels like it's crumbling. You feel like when you're climbing everything is going to collapse.' 'One of the things I think we forget when we're talking about adventure, science and exploration is it gets dangerous at times one of the reasons its so exciting is because there are consequences and big consequences.

'On my first trip there I was trying to climb in and a foothold broke and I fell about 12-20 feet, I landed on my butt and I broke my back. 'It was an eye-opener because yes it this was really exciting, really engaging, I want to tell this big story but I just broke my back, maybe this isn't as important as I thought. 'The next year we came back to try again. I took this shot and my friend Lincoln Else was filming right next to me. 'Next thing I heard was Pete's wife scream, she said "oh my god, oh my god" Lincoln was lying on the ground with blood pouring from his head and convulsing. 'A rock had fallen from above, hit him and given him a 21cm skull fracture, it completely depressed his skull.

'Again it was a point of realisation that yes what you are doing is very important but it's also very dangerous and when you talk about adventure there are sides to it that are unpleasant. 'Lincoln made a full recovery, I thought for certain I think we all thought at the point that Lincoln was going to die. 'Essentially at the end of the experience, what was illuminated to me the marriage of science and exploration and culture is the ultimate in how we bring the world to everyone. 'We have to make it exciting, digestible but we also have to give the knowledge of what's out there to everyone else.'

Albert Einstein 14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist who developed the general theory of relativity, one of the two pillars of modern physics (alongside quantum mechanics). While best known for his mass–energy equivalence formula E = mc2 (which has been dubbed "the world's most famous equation"), he received the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics "for his services to theoretical physics, and especially for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect". The latter was pivotal in establishing quantum theory.

Albert Einstein was born in Ulm, in the Kingdom of Württemberg in the German Empire on 14 March 1879. His father was Hermann Einstein, a salesman and engineer. His mother was Pauline Einstein (née Koch). In 1880, the family moved to Munich, where his father and his uncle founded Elektrotechnische Fabrik J. Einstein & Cie, a company that manufactured electrical equipment based on direct current.On 17 April 1955, Albert Einstein experienced internal bleeding caused by the rupture of an abdominal aortic aneurysm, which had previously been reinforced surgically by Dr. Rudolph Nissen in 1948. He died in Princeton Hospital on April 18, 1955 at the age of 76, having continued to work until near the end.

 Scientist Albert Einstein Rare Childhood Exclusive Pictures