name	Sikkim
native name
type	State
image seal	Seal of Sikkim color.png
map caption	Location of Sikkim in India
image map1	Sikkim locator map.svg
map caption1	Map of Sikkim
coor pinpoint	Gangtok
coordinates type	region:IN-SK_type:adm1st
coordinates display	inline,title
coordinates region	IN-SK
subdivision type	Country
subdivision name
established title	Established
established date	16 May 1975
parts type	Districts
parts style	para
p1	4
seat type	Capital
seat	Gangtok
seat1 type	Largest city
seat1	Gangtok
leader title	Governor
leader name	Balmiki Prasad Singh
leader title1	Chief Minister
leader name1	Pawan Chamling
leader title2	Legislature
leader name2	Unicameral (32 seats)
unit pref	Metric
area total km2	7096
area rank	27th
population total	607688
population as of	2011
population rank	28th
population density km2	auto
timezone1	IST
utc offset1	+05:30
iso code	IN-SK
blank name sec1	HDI
blank info sec1	0.684 (medium)
blank1 name sec1	HDI rank
blank1 info sec1	7th (2005)
blank name sec2	Literacy
blank info sec2	76.6% (7th)
blank1 name sec2	Official languages
blank1 info sec2	Nepali (lingua franca), Bhutia, Lepcha (since 1977), Limbu (since 1981), Newari, Rai, Gurung, Mangar, Sherpa, Tamang (since 1995) and Sunwar (since 1996)
website	sikkim.gov.in
footnotes	}}

Sikkim (Lepcha: ; Limbu: , ''one of the fortified place''; Standard Tibetan: , bras ljongs; ''Denzong''; ''Demojongs''; Nepali: , ''i.e.'' the ''Goodly Region'', or ''Shikim'', ''Shikimpati'' or ''Sikkim'') is a landlocked Indian state nestled in the Himalayas. The state borders Nepal to the west, Tibet to the north and east, and Bhutan to the southeast. The state of West Bengal borders Sikkim to its south.

With just slightly over 500,000 permanent residents, Sikkim is the least populous state in India and the second-smallest state after Goa in total area. Despite its small area of , Sikkim is geographically diverse due to its location in the Himalayas. The climate ranges from subtropical to high alpine. Kangchenjunga, the world's third-highest peak, is located on Sikkim's border with Nepal. Sikkim is a popular tourist destination, owing to its culture, scenery and biodiversity.

Legend has it that the Buddhist saint Guru Rinpoche visited Sikkim in the 9th century, introduced Buddhism and foretold the era of the monarchy. Indeed, the Namgyal dynasty was established in 1642. Over the next 150 years, the kingdom witnessed frequent raids and territorial losses to Nepalese invaders. It allied itself with the British rulers of India, but was soon annexed by them. Later, Sikkim became a British protectorate, before merging with India following a referendum in 1975.

Sikkim has 11 official languages: Nepali (which is its lingua franca), Bhutia, Lepcha (since 1977), Limbu (since 1981), Newari, Rai, Gurung, Mangar, Sherpa, Tamang (since 1995) and Sunwar (since 1996). English is taught in schools and used in government documents. Sikkim is the only state in India with an ethnic Nepalese majority. The predominant religions are Hinduism and Vajrayana Buddhism. Gangtok is the capital and the largest town. Sikkim has a booming economy dependent on agriculture and tourism, and has the only open border between India and China.

Toponymy

The most widely accepted origin of the name ''Sikkim,'' is that it is a combination of two words in the Limbu ''Su'', which means "new", and ''Khyim'', which means "palace" or "house", in reference to the palace built by the state's first ruler, Phuntsog Namgyal. The Tibetan name for Sikkim is ''Denjong'', which means the "valley of rice". The Lepchas, original inhabitants of Sikkim, called it ''Nye-mae-el'' or ''paradise'', and the Bhutias call it ''Beyul Demazong'', which means ''the hidden valley of rice''. In Hindu religious texts, Sikkim is known as ''Indrakil'', the garden of Indra.

History

The earliest historical mention of Sikkim is a record of the passage of the Buddhist saint Guru Rinpoche through the land in the 9th century. The Guru is reported to have blessed the land, introduced Buddhism, and foretold the era of monarchy in Sikkim that would arrive centuries later. In the 14th century, according to legend, Khye Bumsa, a prince from the Minyak House in Kham in Eastern Tibet, had a divine revelation one night instructing him to travel south to seek his fortunes. His descendants were later to form the royal family of Sikkim. In 1642, a fifth-generation descendant of Khye Bumsa, Phuntsog Namgyal, was consecrated as the first Chogyal (king) of Sikkim by the three venerated Lamas who came from the north, west and south to Yuksom, marking the beginning of the monarchy.

Phuntsog Namgyal was succeeded in 1670 by his son, Tensung Namgyal, who moved the capital from Yuksom to Rabdentse. In 1700, Sikkim was invaded by the Bhutanese with the help of the half-sister of the Chogyal, who had been denied the throne. The Bhutanese were driven away by the Tibetans, who restored the throne to the Chogyal ten years later. Between 1717 and 1733, the kingdom faced many raids by the Nepalese in the west and Bhutanese in the east, culminating with the destruction of the capital Rabdentse by the Nepalese. In 1791, China sent troops to support Sikkim and defend Tibet against the Gurkhas. Following Nepal's subsequent defeat, the Chinese Qing Dynasty established control over Sikkim.

Following the arrival of the British in neighboring India, Sikkim allied with them against their common enemy, Nepal. The Nepalese attacked Sikkim, overrunning most of the region including the Terai. This prompted the British East India Company to attack Nepal, resulting in the Gurkha War of 1814. Treaties signed between Sikkim and Nepal resulted in the return of the territory annexed by the Nepalese in 1817. However, ties between Sikkim and the British weakened when the latter began taxation of the Morang region. In 1849, two British physicians, Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker and Dr. Archibald Campbell, the latter being in charge of relations between the British and Sikkim governments, ventured into the mountains of Sikkim unannounced and unauthorised. The doctors were detained by the Sikkim government, leading to a punitive British expedition against the kingdom, after which the Darjeeling district and Morang were annexed to India in 1853. The invasion led to the Chogyal becoming a titular ruler under the directive of the British governor. In 1890, Sikkim became a British protectorate and was granted more sovereignty over the next three decades.

In 1947, a popular vote rejected Sikkim's joining the Indian Union, and Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru agreed to a special protectorate status for Sikkim. Sikkim came under the suzerainty of India, which controlled its external affairs, defence, diplomacy and communications, but Sikkim otherwise retained autonomy. A state council was established in 1955 to allow for constitutional government under the Chogyal. Meanwhile, the Sikkim National Congress demanded fresh elections and greater representation for the Nepalese. In 1973, riots in front of the palace led to a formal request for protection from India. The Chogyal was proving to be extremely unpopular with the people. In 1975, the Kazi (Prime Minister) appealed to the Indian Parliament for a change in Sikkim's status so that it could become a state of India. In April, the Indian Army took over the city of Gangtok and disarmed the Chogyal's Palace Guards. A referendum was held in which 97.5% of the electorate (in a nation where 59% of the population could vote) voted to join the Indian Union. A few weeks later, on 16 May 1975, Sikkim officially became the 22nd state of the Indian Union, and the monarchy was abolished. To enable incorporation of a new state, the Indian Parliament had to amend the Indian Constitution. First, the 35th Amendment laid down some conditions and made Sikkim an "Associate State," a special designation not used by any other state. Later, the 36th Amendment repealed the 35th Amendment, and made Sikkim a full state, adding its name to the First Schedule of the Constitution.

In 2000, the seventeenth Karmapa Urgyen Trinley Dorje, who had been confirmed by the Dalai Lama and accepted as a tulku by the Chinese government, escaped from Tibet, seeking to return to the Rumtek Monastery in Sikkim. Chinese officials were in a quandary on this issue, as any protests to India would mean an explicit endorsement of India's governance of Sikkim, which the Chinese still regarded as an independent state occupied by India. China eventually recognized Sikkim as an Indian state in 2003, on the condition that India accepted the Tibet Autonomous Region as a part of China. This mutual agreement led to a thaw in Sino-Indian relations. New Delhi had originally accepted Tibet as a part of China in 1953 during the government of then-Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. On 6 July 2006, the Himalayan pass of Nathula was opened to cross-border trade, constituting further evidence of improving relations in the region.

Geography

The thumb-shaped state is characterized by wholly mountainous terrain. Almost the entire state is hilly, with an elevation ranging from 280 metres (920 ft) to 8,585 metres (28,000 ft). The summit of the Kangchenjunga is the highest point which falls on the border between Sikkim and Nepal. For the most part, the land is unfit for agriculture because of the precipitous and rocky slopes. However, certain hill slopes have been converted into farm lands using terrace farming techniques. Numerous snow-fed streams in Sikkim have carved out river valleys in the west and south of the state. These streams combine into the Teesta and its tributary, the Rangeet. The Teesta, described as the "lifeline of Sikkim", flows through the state from north to south. About a third of the land is heavily forested.

The Himalayan ranges surround the northern, eastern and western borders of Sikkim in a crescent. The Lower Himalayas in the southern reaches of the state are the most densely populated. The state has 28 mountain peaks, more than 80 glaciers, 227 high-altitude lakes including the Tsongmo Lake, Gurudongmar and Khecheopalri Lake, 5 hot springs, and more than 100 rivers and streams. Eight mountain passes connect the state to Tibet, Bhutan and Nepal.

Sikkim's hot springs are known for medicinal and therapeutic values. The most important hot springs are at Phurchachu (Reshi), Yumthang, Borang, Ralang, Taram-chu and Yumey Samdong. They have high sulphur content and are located near river banks. Some also emit hydrogen. The average temperature of the water in these hot springs is 50 °C (122 °F).

===Geology=== The hills of Sikkim mainly consist of gneissose and half-schistose rocks, making their soil brown clay, and generally poor and shallow. The soil is coarse, with large amounts of iron oxide concentrations, ranging from neutral to acidic and has poor organic and mineral nutrients. This type of soil tends to support evergreen and deciduous forests.

Most of Sikkim is covered by Precambrian rock and is much younger in age than the hills. The rock consists of phyllites and schists and therefore the slopes are highly susceptible to weathering and prone to erosion. This, combined with the intense rain, causes extensive soil erosion and heavy loss of soil nutrients through leaching. As a result, landslides are frequent, isolating the towns and villages from the major urban centres.

Climate

The climate ranges from sub-tropical in the south to tundra in the northern parts. The tundra-type region in the north is clad by snow for four months a year though the temperature drops below 0 °C (32 °F) almost every night. The peaks of north-western Sikkim are perpetually frozen. Most of the inhabited regions of Sikkim, however, witness a temperate climate, with the temperatures seldom exceeding 28 °C (82 °F) in summer or dropping below 0 °C (32 °F) in winter. The mean monthly temperature in summer is 15 °C. The state has five seasons: winter, summer, spring, and autumn, and a monsoon season between June and September. The average annual temperature for most of Sikkim is around 18 °C (64 °F). Sikkim is one of the few states in India to receive regular snowfall. The snow line ranges from 20,000 feet in the north to 16,000 feet in the south. During the monsoon, heavy rains increase the possibility of landslides. The record for the longest period of continuous rain is 11 days. In the northern region, because of high altitude, temperatures drop below −40 °C (−40 °F) in winter. Fog also affects many parts of the state during winter and the monsoons, making transportation perilous.

Subdivisions

Sikkim has four districts, each overseen by a Central Government appointee, the district collector, who is in charge of the administration of the civilian areas of the districts. The Indian army has control of a large territory, as the state is a sensitive border area. Many areas are restricted and permits are needed to visit them. There are eight towns and nine subdivisions in Sikkim.

The four districts are East Sikkim, West Sikkim, North Sikkim and South Sikkim. The district capitals are Gangtok, Geyzing, Mangan and Namchi respectively. These four districts are further divided into subdivisions. Pakyong and Rongli are the subdivisions of the East district. Soreng is the subdivision of the West district. Chungthang is the subdivision of the North district. Ravongla is the subdivision of the South district.

Flora and fauna

Sikkim is situated in an ecological hotspot of the lower Himalayas, one of only three among the ecoregions of India. The forested regions of the state exhibit a diverse range of fauna and flora. Owing to its altitudinal gradation, the state has a wide variety of plants, from tropical species to temperate, alpine and tundra ones, and is perhaps one of the few regions to exhibit such a diversity within such a small area. Nearly 81% of the area of Sikkim comes under the administration of its forest department.

Sikkim has around 5,000 flowering plants, 515 rare orchids, 60 primula species, 36 rhododendron species, 11 oak varieties, 23 bamboo varieties, 16 conifer species, 362 types of ferns and ferns allies, 8 tree ferns, and over 424 medicinal plants. A variant of the Poinsettia, locally known as "Christmas Flower", can be found in abundance in the mountainous state. The orchid ''Dendrobium nobile'' is the official flower of Sikkim, while the rhododendron is the state tree.

Orchids, figs, laurel, bananas, sal trees and bamboo grow in the Himalayan subtropical broadleaf forests of the lower altitudes of Sikkim.

In the temperate elevations above there are Eastern Himalayan broadleaf forests, where oaks, chestnuts, maples, birches, alders, and magnolias grow in large numbers, as well as Himalayan subtropical pine forests, dominated by Chir pine.

The alpine-type vegetation is typically found between an altitude of . In lower elevations are found juniper, pine, firs, cypresses and rhododendrons from the Eastern Himalayan subalpine conifer forests. Higher up are Eastern Himalayan alpine shrub and meadows, home to a broad variety of rhododendrons and wildflowers.

The fauna include the snow leopard, the musk deer, the Himalayan Tahr, the red panda, the Himalayan marmot, the serow, the goral, the barking deer, the common langur, the Himalayan Black Bear, the clouded leopard, the Marbled Cat, the leopard cat, the wild dog, the Tibetan wolf, the hog badger, the binturong, the jungle cat and the civet cat. Among the animals more commonly found in the alpine zone are yaks, mainly reared for their milk, meat, and as a beast of burden.

The avifauna of Sikkim include of the Impeyan pheasant, the crimson horned pheasant, the snow partridge, the snow cock, the lammergeyer and griffon vultures, as well as golden eagles, quail, plovers, woodcock, sandpipers, pigeons, Old World flycatchers, babblers and robins. Sikkim has more than 550 species of birds, some of which have been declared endangered.

Sikkim also has a rich diversity of arthropods, many of which remain unstudied. As with the rest of India, the most studied group is that of the butterflies. Of approximately 1,438 butterfly species found in the Indian subcontinent, 695 have been recorded from Sikkim. These include the endangered Kaiser-i-hind, Yellow Gorgon and the Bhutan Glory.

Economy

This is a chart displaying the trend in the gross state domestic product of Sikkim at market prices, as estimated by the ''Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation''. Figures are in millions of Indian rupees.

! Year	! Gross State Domestic Product
1980	520
1985	1,220
1990	2,340
1995	5,200
2000	9,710
2003	23,786

Sikkim's gross state domestic product for 2004 is estimated at $478 million in current prices.

Sikkim's economy is largely agrarian. The British introduced terraced farming of rice, in addition to crops such as maize, millet, wheat, barley, oranges, tea and cardamom. Sikkim has the highest production and largest cultivated area of cardamom in India. Because of the hilly terrain, and lack of reliable transportation infrastructure, there are no large-scale industries. Breweries, distilleries, tanning and watchmaking are the main industries. These are located in the southern reaches of the state, primarily in the towns of Melli and Jorethang. The state has a high growth rate of 8.3%, which is the second highest in the country after Delhi. In recent years, the government of Sikkim has extensively promoted tourism. As a result, the state revenue has increased 14 times since the mid-1990s.

A fledgling industry the state has recently invested in is gambling, including online gambling. A casino was opened in March 2009, the Casino Sikkim, and seven further casino licences are being considered by the state government. The Playwin lottery has been a commercial success and operates all over the country. In October 2009 the government of Sikkim announced plans to offer three online sports betting licences. Among the minerals mined in Sikkim are copper, dolomite, talc, graphite, quartzite, coal, zinc and lead.

The opening of the Nathula Pass on 6 July 2006 connecting Lhasa, Tibet to India is expected to give a boost to the local economy, though the financial benefits will be slow to arrive. The pass, closed since the 1962 Sino-Indian War, was an offshoot of the ancient Silk Road, which was essential to the wool, fur and spice trade.

Transport

Air

Sikkim currently does not have any airports or railheads because of its rough terrain. However, the state's first airport is expected to be ready by 2011 in Pakyong, away from Gangtok. The airport will be capable of operating ATR aircraft. Currently, the closest operational airport to Sikkim is Bagdogra Airport, near the town of Siliguri in West Bengal. The airport is about 124 km away from Gangtok. A regular helicopter service run by the Sikkim Helicopter Service connects Gangtok to Bagdogra; the flight is thirty minutes long, operates only once a day, and can carry 4 people. The Gangtok helipad is the only civilian helipad in the state.

Rail

The closest railway stations are Siliguri and New Jalpaiguri.

The New Sikkim Railway Project has been launched to connect the town of Rangpo in Sikkim with Sevoke. The project is expected to be complete by 2015.

In addition, the Ministry of Railways has recently proposed plans for railway lines linking Mirik to Ranipool.

Road

National Highway 31A and National Highway 31 link Siliguri to Gangtok. Sikkim National Transport runs bus and truck services. Privately-run bus, tourist taxi and jeep services operate throughout Sikkim, and also connect it to Siliguri. A branch of the highway from Melli connects western Sikkim. Towns in southern and western Sikkim are connected to the hill stations of Kalimpong and Darjeeling in northern West Bengal. The state is furthermore connected to China by Nathu La.

Demographics

{{India census population | title = Population Growth | 1951 = 138000 | 1961 = 162000 | 1971 = 210000 | 1981 = 316000 | 1991 = 406000 | 2001 = 541000 | 2011 = 607688 | estimate = | estyear = | estref = | footnote = Source:Census of India }} The majority of Sikkim's residents are of Nepali ethnic-national origin who arrived in the 19th century. The native Sikkimese consist of the Bhutias, who migrated from the Kham district of Tibet in the 14th century, and the Lepchas who are believed to have migrated from the Far East. Tibetans reside mostly in the northern and eastern reaches of the state. Migrant resident communities include the Biharis, Bengalis and Marwaris who own most of the shops in South Sikkim and Gangtok.

Hinduism has been the major religion in the state since Nepalis moved into Sikkim, followed by Buddhism and native religion practised by Native Sikkimese people. Sikkim has 75 monasteries, the oldest dating back to the 1700s. The Christians are mostly Lepcha people who were converted by British missionaries since the late 19th century. Among other minorities are Muslims of Bihari ethnicity and Jains. Though tensions between the Lepchas and the Nepalese escalated during the merger of Sikkim with India, there has never been any communal violence, unlike most other states.

Nepali is the lingua franca of Sikkim. Bhutia and Lepcha are also common. English and Hindi are also spoken and understood in most of Sikkim. Other languages include Dzongkha, Groma, Gurung, Limbu, Magar, Majhi, Majhwar, Nepal Bhasa, Rai, Sikkimese, Sherpa, Sunuwar, Tamang, Thulung, Tibetan, and Yakha.

Sikkim is India's least populous state. In 2011 it had 607,688 inhabitants, with 321,661 males and 286,027 females. It is also one of the least densely populated states with only 86 persons per square kilometre. Its growth rate is 12.36% (2001–2011). The sex ratio is 889 females per 1000 males. With 50,000 inhabitants, Gangtok is the state's only significant town. The urban population in Sikkim is 11.06%. The per capita income stands at 11,356, which is one of the highest in the country.

Culture

The Sikkimese celebrate all major Hindu festivals such as Diwali and Dussera. Nepali festivals like Tihar and Bhimsen Puja are common. Losar, Loosong, Saga Dawa, Lhabab Duechen, Drupka Teshi and Bhumchu are Buddhist festivals. During the Losar (Tibetan New Year) most offices and educational institutions are closed for a week. Muslims celebrate Id-ul-fitr and Muharram. Christmas has also been promoted in Gangtok to attract tourists during the off-season.

Western rock music and Hindi songs have gained wide acceptance among the Sikkimese. Indigenous Nepali rock and Lepcha music are also popular. Common sports in Sikkim are Football and cricket. Hang gliding and river rafting have also been introduced in order to promote tourism.

Noodle-based dishes such as the thukpa, chowmein, thanthuk, fakthu, gyathuk and wonton are common in Sikkim. Momos, steamed dumplings filled with vegetable, buff (buffalo meat) or pork and served with a soup, are a popular snack. Beer, whiskey, rum and brandy are widely consumed. Sikkim has the third highest per capita alcoholism rate amongst all Indian states, behind Punjab and Haryana.

Government and politics

Like all states of India, the head of the state government is a governor appointed by the Central Indian Government. His/her appointment is largely ceremonial, and his/her main role is to oversee the swearing in of the Chief Minister. The Chief Minister, who holds the real executive powers, is the head of the party or coalition garnering the largest majority in the state elections. The governor also appoints the cabinet ministers on the advice of the Chief Minister. Sikkim has a unicameral legislature like most other Indian states. Sikkim is allocated one seat in each of both chambers of India's national bicameral legislature, the Lok Sabha, and the Rajya Sabha. There are a total of 32 state assembly seats including one reserved for the Sangha. The Sikkim High Court is the smallest high court in the country.

In 1975, after the abrogation of Sikkim's monarchy, the Congress Party got the largest majority in the 1977 elections. In 1979, after a period of instability, a popular ministry headed by Nar Bahadur Bhandari, leader of the Sikkim Sangram Parishad Party was sworn in. Bhandari held on to power in the 1984 and 1989 elections. In the 1994 elections Pawan Kumar Chamling from the Sikkim Democratic Front became the Chief Minister of the state. The party has since held on to power by winning the 1999 and 2004 elections. It won all the 32 seats of the state assembly in 2009.

Infrastructure

Although roads in Sikkim are often exposed to landslides and flooding by nearby streams, the roads are significantly better than the equivalent roads of other Indian states. The roads are maintained by the Border Roads Organisation (BRO), an offshoot of the Indian army. The roads in South Sikkim and NH-31A are in good condition, landslides being less frequent in these areas. The state government maintains 1857.35 km of roadways that do not fall in the BRO jurisdiction.

Sikkim receives most of its electricity from 19 hydroelectric power stations. It has achieved 100% rural electrification. Power also obtained from the National Thermal Power Corporation and Power Grid Corporation of India. However the voltage is unstable and voltage stabilisers are needed. Per capita consumption of electricity in Sikkim is 182 kWh. The state government has promoted biogas and solar power for cooking but these have received a poor response and are used mostly for lighting purposes. 73.2% of the total households have access to safe drinking water, and the large number of streams assures sufficient water supply.

Media

The southern urban areas have English, Nepali and Hindi dailies. Nepali language newspapers as well as some English newspapers are locally printed, whereas Hindi and English newspapers are printed in Siliguri. Important local dailies are Hamro Prajashakti (Nepali Daily), Himalayan Mirror (English Daily), the ''Samay Dainik'', ''Sikkim Express'' (English), ''Sikkim Now'' (English), , Kanchanjunga Times (Nepali Weekly), Pragya Khabar (Nepali Weekly) and ''Himalibela''. The regional editions of English newspapers include ''The Statesman'' and ''The Telegraph'', which are printed in Siliguri and available in the same day, as well as ''The Hindu'' and ''The Times of India'', printed in Kolkata, which are received with a day's delay in the towns of Gangtok, Jorethang, Melli and Geyzing. ''Himalaya Darpan'', a Nepali daily being published from Siliguri is one of the leading Nepali dailies in the region. The ''Sikkim Herald'' is an official weekly publication of the government. Online media covering Sikkim include the Nepali newspaper ''Himgiri'', the English news portal ''Haalkhabar'' and the literary magazine ''Tistarangit''. ''Avyakta'', ''Bilokan'', ''Journal of Hill Research'', ''Khaber Khagaj'', ''Panda'', and ''Sikkim Science Society Newsletter'' are the registered publications in Bengali, Nepali, and English published out of Sikkim in weekly, quarterly, half-yearly, and annual periodicities.

Internet cafés are well established in the district capitals, but broadband connectivity is not widely available. Satellite television channels through dish antennae are available in most homes in the state. Channels served are the same available throughout India along with Nepali language channels. The main service providers are Dish TV, Doordarshan and Nayuma. The area is well serviced by local cellular companies.

Education

Literacy in Sikkim is 69.68%, which breaks down into 76.73% for males and 61.46% for females. There are a total of 1157 schools, including 765 schools run by the State government, 7 central government schools and 385 private schools. Twelve colleges and other institutions in Sikkim offer higher education. The largest institution is the Sikkim Manipal University of Technological Sciences, which offers higher education in engineering, medicine and management. It also runs a host of distance education programs in diverse fields. There are two state-run polytechnical schools, Advanced Technical Training Centre (ATTC) and Centre for Computers and Communication Technology (CCCT) in Sikkim which offer diploma courses in various branches of engineering. ATTC is situated at Bardang, Singtam and CCCT at Chisopani, Namchi. Sikkim University a central university, began operating in 2008 at Yangang, which is situated about 28 km from Singtam. Many students, however, migrate to Siliguri, Kolkata, Bangalore and other Indian cities for their higher education.

See also

Railway stations in Sikkim

List of Indian Princely States

Notes

References

Hooker, Joseph Dalton ''Himalayan Journals: notes of a naturalist in Bengal, the Sikkim and Nepal Himalayas, the Khasia mountains etc.'' Ward, Lock, Bowden & Co. Assistant-director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.

''Holidaying in Sikkim and Bhutan'' – published by ''Nest and Wings'' – ISBN 81-87592-07-9.

''Sikkim — Land of Mystic and Splendour'' - published by ''Sikkim Tourism''.

''Manorama Yearbook 2003'' – ISBN 81-900461-8-7.

Further reading

Ray, Arundhati; Das, Sujoy (2001). ''Sikkim: A Traveller's Guide''. Orient Blackswan, New Delhi. ISBN 8178240084.

External links

Sinlung News

Buddhist Monasteries of Sikkim

China backs India's bid for U.N. Council seat; Amit Baruah; ''The Hindu'' 12 April 2005.

Sikkim Railway Link Project

Historic India-China link opens, BBC News.

Greater Nepal Category:Northeast India Category:States and territories of India Category:Former monarchies of Asia Category:Former countries in Asia Category:Indian Princely States Category:Tibetan Buddhist places Category:States and territories established in 1975 Category:Former British protectorates

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Bgcolour	silver
Name	Satyajit Ray
Birth date	May 02, 1921
Birth place	Kolkata, West Bengal, India
Death date	April 23, 1992
Death place	Kolkata, West Bengal, India
Occupation	Film director, producer, screenwriter, writer, music director, lyricist
Years active	1950–1991
Spouse	}}

Satyajit Ray ( ; 2 May 1921 – 23 April 1992) was an Indian Bengali filmmaker. He is regarded as one of the greatest auteurs of 20th century cinema. Ray was born in the city of Kolkata into a Bengali family prominent in the world of arts and literature. Starting his career as a commercial artist, Ray was drawn into independent filmmaking after meeting French filmmaker Jean Renoir and viewing the Italian neorealist film ''Bicycle Thieves'' of Vittorio De Sica during a visit to London.

Ray directed thirty-seven films, including feature films, documentaries and shorts. He was also a fiction writer, publisher, illustrator, graphic designer and film critic. Ray's first film, ''Pather Panchali'' (1955), won eleven international prizes, including ''Best Human Documentary'' at the Cannes film festival. Alongside ''Aparajito'' (1956) and ''Apur Sansar'' (1959), the three films form ''The Apu Trilogy''. Ray did the scripting, casting, scoring, cinematography, art direction, editing and designed his own credit titles and publicity material. Ray received many major awards in his career, including 32 Indian National Film Awards, a number of awards at international film festivals and award ceremonies, and an Academy Honorary Award in 1991.

Early life and background

Satyajit Ray's ancestry can be traced back for at least ten generations. Ray's grandfather, Upendrakishore Ray was a writer, illustrator, philosopher, publisher, amateur astronomer and a leader of the Brahmo Samaj, a religious and social movement in nineteenth century Bengal. Sukumar Ray, Upendrakishore's son and father to Satyajit, was a pioneering Bengali writer of nonsense rhyme and children's literature, an illustrator and a critic. Ray was born to Sukumar and Suprabha Ray in Kolkata.

Sukumar Ray died when Satyajit was barely three, and the family survived on Suprabha Ray's meager income. Ray studied at Ballygunge Government High School, Calcutta, and completed his B.A. (Hons.) in economics at Presidency College of the University of Calcutta, though his interest was always in fine arts. In 1940, his mother insisted that he study at the Visva-Bharati University at Santiniketan, founded by Rabindranath Tagore. Ray was reluctant due to his love of Kolkata, and the low opinion of the intellectual life at Santiniketan His mother's persuasion and his respect for Tagore finally convinced him to try. In Santiniketan, Ray came to appreciate Oriental art. He later admitted that he learned much from the famous painters Nandalal Bose and Benode Behari Mukherjee. Later he produced a documentary film, ''The Inner Eye,'' about Mukherjee. His visits to Ajanta, Ellora and Elephanta stimulated his admiration for Indian art.

Early career

In 1943, Ray started work at D.J. Keymer, a British-run advertising agency, as a "junior visualiser," earning eighty rupees a month. Although he liked visual design (graphic design) and he was mostly treated well, there was tension between the British and Indian employees of the firm. The British were better paid, and Ray felt that "the clients were generally stupid."

Ray also worked for Signet Press, a new publishing house started by D. K. Gupta. Gupta asked Ray to create cover designs for books to be published by Signet Press and gave him complete artistic freedom. Ray designed covers for many books, including Jim Corbett's ''Maneaters of Kumaon,'' and Jawaharlal Nehru's ''Discovery of India.'' He worked on a children's version of ''Pather Panchali,'' a classic Bengali novel by Bibhutibhushan Bandopadhyay, renamed as ''Am Antir Bhepu'' (''The mango-seed whistle''). Designing the cover and illustrating the book, Ray was deeply influenced by the work. He used it as the subject of his first film, and featured his illustrations as shots in his groundbreaking film.

Along with Chidananda Dasgupta and others, Ray founded the Calcutta Film Society in 1947. They screened many foreign films, many of which Ray watched and seriously studied. He befriended the American GIs stationed in Kolkata during World War II, who kept him informed about the latest American films showing in the city. He came to know a RAF employee, Norman Clare, who shared Ray's passion for films, chess and western classical music.

Renoir and London

In 1949, the French director Jean Renoir came to Kolkata to shoot his film ''The River''. Ray helped him to find locations in the countryside. Ray told Renoir about his idea of filming ''Pather Panchali'', which had long been on his mind, and Renoir encouraged him in the project. In 1950, D.J. Keymer sent Ray to London to work at its headquarters office. During his three months in London, Ray watched 99 films. Among these was the neorealist film ''Ladri di biciclette'' (''Bicycle Thief'') (1948) by Vittorio De Sica, which had a profound impact on him. Ray later said that he came out of the theater determined to become a filmmaker.

Marriage and family

Earlier in 1949, Ray married Bijoya Das, his first cousin and longtime sweetheart. The couple had a son, Sandip, who is now a film director.

The Apu Years (1950–1959)

Ray decided to use ''Pather Panchali'' (1928), the classic bildungsroman of Bengali literature, as the basis for his first film. The semi-autobiographical novel describes the maturation of Apu, a small boy in a Bengal village.

Ray gathered an inexperienced crew, although both his cameraman Subrata Mitra and art director Bansi Chandragupta went on to achieve great acclaim. The cast consisted of mostly amateur actors. He started shooting in late 1952 with his personal savings and hoped to raise more money once he had some passages shot, but did not succeed on his terms. As a result, Ray shot ''Pather Panchali'' over three years, an unusually long period, based on when he or his production manager Anil Chowdhury could raise additional funds. He refused funding from sources who wanted a change in script or supervision over production. He also ignored advice from the government to incorporate a happy ending, but he did receive funding that allowed him to complete the film.

Ray showed an early film passage to the notable Anglo-Irish director John Huston, who was in India scouting locations for ''The Man Who Would Be King''. The passage was of the vision which Apu and his sister have of the train running through the countryside, the only sequence which Ray had yet filmed due to his small budget. Huston notified Monroe Wheeler at the New York Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) that a major talent was on the horizon.

With a loan from the West Bengal government, Ray finally completed the film. It was released in 1955 to great critical and popular success. It earned numerous prizes and had long runs in both India and abroad.

In India, the reaction to the film was enthusiastic; ''The Times of India'' wrote that "It is absurd to compare it with any other Indian cinema [...] ''Pather Panchali'' is pure cinema." In the United Kingdom, Lindsay Anderson wrote a glowing review of the film. But, the reaction was not uniformly positive. After watching the movie, François Truffaut is reported to have said, "I don’t want to see a movie of peasants eating with their hands." Bosley Crowther, then the most influential critic of ''The New York Times'', wrote a scathing review of the film. Its American distributor Ed Harrison was worried Crowther's review would dissuade audiences, but the film had an exceptionally long run when released in the United States.

Ray's international career started in earnest after the success of his next film, ''Aparajito'' (''The Unvanquished''). This film shows the eternal struggle between the ambitions of a young man, Apu, and the mother who loves him. Critics such as Mrinal Sen and Ritwik Ghatak rank it higher than Ray's first film. ''Aparajito'' won the Golden Lion at the Venice film festival, bringing Ray considerable acclaim.

Before completing ''The Apu Trilogy'', Ray directed and released two other films: the comic ''Parash Pathar'' (''The Philosopher's Stone''), and ''Jalsaghar'' (''The Music Room''), a film about the decadence of the Zamindars, considered one of his most important works.

When making ''Aparajito'', Ray had not planned a trilogy, but after he was asked about the idea in Venice, it appealed to him. He finished the last of the trilogy, ''Apur Sansar'' (''The World of Apu'') in 1959. The critics Robin Wood and Aparna Sen found this to be the supreme achievement of the trilogy.

Ray introduced two of his favourite actors, Soumitra Chatterjee and Sharmila Tagore, in this film. It opens with Apu living in a Kolkata house in near-poverty. He becomes involved in an unusual marriage with Aparna. The scenes of their life together form "one of the cinema's classic affirmative depictions of married life." They suffer tragedy. After ''Apur Sansar'' was harshly criticised by a Bengali critic, Ray wrote an article defending it. He rarely responded to critics during his filmmaking career, but also later defended his film ''Charulata'', his personal favourite.

Ray's film successes had little influence on his personal life in the years to come. He continued to live with his wife and children in a rented house, with his mother, uncle and other members of his extended family.

From ''Devi'' to ''Charulata'' (1959–1964)

During this period, Ray composed films on the British Raj period (such as ''Devi''), a documentary on Tagore, a comic film (''Mahapurush'') and his first film from an original screenplay (''Kanchenjungha''). He also made a series of films that, taken together, are considered by critics among the most deeply felt portrayals of Indian women on screen.

Ray followed ''Apur Sansar'' with ''Devi'' (''The Goddess''), a film in which he examined the superstitions in the Hindu society. Sharmila Tagore starred as Doyamoyee, a young wife who is deified by her father-in-law. Ray was worried that the censor board might block his film, or at least make him re-cut it, but ''Devi'' was spared. In 1961, on the insistence of Prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru, Ray was commissioned to make a documentary on Rabindranath Tagore, on the occasion of the poet's birth centennial, a tribute to the person who likely most influenced Ray. Due to limited footage of Tagore, Ray faced the challenge of making a film out of mainly static material. He said that it took as much work as three feature films.

In the same year, together with Subhas Mukhopadhyay and others, Ray was able to revive ''Sandesh'', the children's magazine which his grandfather once published. Ray had been saving money for some years to make this possible. A duality in the name (''Sandesh'' means both "news" in Bengali and also a sweet popular dessert) set the tone of the magazine (both educational and entertaining). Ray began to make illustrations for it, as well as to write stories and essays for children. Writing became his major source of income in the years to come.

In 1962, Ray directed ''Kanchenjungha.'' Based on his first original screenplay, it was his first film in colour. The film tells of an upper-class family spending an afternoon in Darjeeling, a picturesque hill town in West Bengal. They try to arrange the engagement of their youngest daughter to a highly paid engineer educated in London. He had first conceived shooting the film in a large mansion, but later decided to film it in the famous hill town. He used the many shades of light and mist to reflect the tension in the drama. Ray noted that while his script allowed shooting to be possible under any lighting conditions, a commercial film contingent present at the same time in Darjeeling failed to shoot a single scene, as they only wanted to do so in sunshine.

In the sixties, Ray visited Japan and took particular pleasure in meeting the filmmaker Akira Kurosawa, for whom he had very high regard. While at home, he would take an occasional break from the hectic city life by going to places such as Darjeeling or Puri to complete a script in isolation.

In 1964 Ray made ''Charulata'' (''The Lonely Wife''); it was the culmination of this period of work, and regarded by many critics as his most accomplished film. Based on "Nastanirh", a short story of Tagore, the film tells of a lonely wife, Charu, in 19th-century Bengal, and her growing feelings for her brother-in-law Amal. Critics have referred to this as Ray's Mozartian masterpiece. He said the film contained the least flaws among his work, and it was his only work which, given a chance, he would make exactly the same way. Madhabi Mukherjee's performance as Charu, and the work of both Subrata Mitra and Bansi Chandragupta in the film, have been highly praised. Other films in this period include ''Mahanagar'' (''The Big City''), ''Teen Kanya'' (''Three Daughters''), ''Abhijan'' (''The Expedition'') and ''Kapurush o Mahapurush'' (''The Coward and the Holy Man'').

New directions (1965–1982)

In the post-''Charulata'' period, Ray took on projects of increasing variety, ranging from fantasy to science fiction to detective films to historical drama. Ray also made considerable formal experimentation during this period. He expressed contemporary issues of Indian life, responding to a perceived lack of these issues in his films. The first major film in this period is ''Nayak'' (''The Hero''), the story of a screen hero traveling in a train and meeting a young, sympathetic female journalist. Starring Uttam Kumar and Sharmila Tagore, in the twenty-four hours of the journey, the film explores the inner conflict of the apparently highly successful matinée idol. In spite of the film's receiving a "Critics prize" at the Berlin Festival, it had a generally muted reception.

In 1967, Ray wrote a script for a film to be called ''The Alien'', based on his short story "Bankubabur Bandhu" ("Banku Babu's Friend") which he wrote in 1962 for ''Sandesh'', the Ray family magazine. Columbia Pictures was the producer for what was a planned U.S.-India co-production, and Peter Sellers and Marlon Brando were cast as the leading actors. Ray found that his script had been copyrighted and the fee appropriated by Mike Wilson. Wilson had initially approached Ray through their mutual friend, Arthur C. Clarke, to represent him in Hollywood. Wilson copyrighted the script credited to ''Mike Wilson & Satyajit Ray'', although he contributed only one word. Ray later said that he never received a penny for the script. After Brando dropped out of the project, the project tried to replace him with James Coburn, but Ray became disillusioned and returned to Kolkata. Columbia expressed interest in reviving the project several times in the 1970s and 1980s, but nothing came of it. When ''E.T.'' was released in 1982, Clarke and Ray saw similarities in the film to his earlier ''Alien'' script. In a 1980 ''Sight & Sound'' feature, Ray had discussed the collapse of his American co-project. His biographer Andrew Robinson provided more details in ''The Inner Eye'' (1989). Ray believed that Spielberg's film would not have been possible without copies of his script of ''The Alien'' having been available in the United States. Spielberg has denied this charge. Besides ''The Alien'', two other unrealized projects which Ray had intended to direct were adaptations of the ancient Indian epic, the ''Mahābhārata'', and E. M. Forster's 1924 novel ''A Passage to India''.

In 1969, Ray released what would be commercially the most successful of his films. Based on a children's story written by his grandfather, ''Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne'' (''The Adventures of Goopy and Bagha''), it is a musical fantasy. Goopy the singer and Bagha the drummer, equipped by three gifts allowed by the King of Ghosts, set out on a fantastic journey. They try to stop an impending war between two neighbouring kingdoms. Among his most expensive enterprises, the film project was difficult to finance. Ray abandoned his desire to shoot it in colour, as he turned down an offer that would have forced him to cast a certain Bollywood actor as the lead.

Ray made a film from a novel by the young poet and writer, Sunil Gangopadhyay. Featuring a musical motif structure acclaimed as more complex than ''Charulata'', ''Aranyer Din Ratri'' (''Days and Nights in the Forest'') traces four urban young men going to the forests for a vacation. They try to leave their daily lives behind. All but one of them become involved in encounters with women, which express their characters. Critics thought the film to be a revealing study of the Indian middle class. Ray cast Bombay-based actress Simi Garewal as a tribal woman. She was pleased that he could envision someone as urban as she in that role.

After ''Aranyer'', Ray addressed contemporary Bengali life. He completed what became known as the ''Calcutta Trilogy'': ''Pratidwandi'' (1970), ''Seemabaddha'' (1971), and ''Jana Aranya'' (1975), three films that were conceived separately but had thematic connections. ''Pratidwandi'' (''The Adversary'') is about an idealist young graduate; if disillusioned at the end of film, he is still uncorrupted. ''Jana Aranya'' (''The Middleman'') showed a young man giving in to the culture of corruption to make a living. ''Seemabaddha'' (''Company Limited'') portrayed an already successful man giving up his morality for further gains. In the first film, ''Pratidwandi'', Ray introduces a new, elliptical narrative style, such as scenes in negative, dream sequences, and abrupt flashbacks. In the 1970s, Ray adapted two of his popular stories as detective films. Though mainly addressed to children and young adults, both ''Sonar Kella'' (''The Golden Fortress'') and ''Joy Baba Felunath'' (''The Elephant God'') found some critical following.

Ray considered making a film on the Bangladesh Liberation War but later abandoned the idea. He said that, as a filmmaker, he was more interested in the travails of the refugees and not the politics. In 1977, Ray completed ''Shatranj Ke Khiladi'' (''The Chess Players''), a Hindi film based on a story by Munshi Premchand. It was set in Lucknow in the state of Oudh, a year before the Indian rebellion of 1857. A commentary on issues related to the colonization of India by the British, this was Ray's first feature film in a language other than Bengali. It is his most expensive and star-studded film, featuring Sanjeev Kumar, Saeed Jaffrey, Amjad Khan, Shabana Azmi, Victor Bannerjee and Richard Attenborough.

In 1980, Ray made a sequel to ''Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne'', a somewhat political ''Hirak Rajar Deshe'' (''Kingdom of Diamonds''). The kingdom of the evil Diamond King, or ''Hirok Raj,'' is an allusion to India during Indira Gandhi's emergency period. Along with his acclaimed short film ''Pikoo'' (''Pikoo's Diary'') and hour-long Hindi film, ''Sadgati,'' this was the culmination of his work in this period.

The last phase (1983–1992)

In 1983, while working on ''Ghare Baire'' (''Home and the World''), Ray suffered a heart attack; it would severely limit his productivity in the remaining 9 years of his life. ''Ghare Baire'' was completed in 1984 with the help of Ray's son (who operated the camera from then on) because of his health condition. He had wanted to film this Tagore novel on the dangers of fervent nationalism for a long time, and wrote a first draft of a script for it in the 1940s. In spite of rough patches due to Ray's illness, the film did receive some critical acclaim. It had the first kiss fully portrayed in Ray's films. In 1987, he made a documentary on his father, Sukumar Ray.

Ray's last three films, made after his recovery and with medical strictures in place, were shot mostly indoors, and have a distinctive style. They have more dialogue than his earlier films and are often regarded as inferior to his earlier body of work. The first, ''Ganashatru'' (''An Enemy of the People'') is an adaptation of the famous Ibsen play, and considered the weakest of the three. Ray recovered some of his form in his 1990 film ''Shakha Proshakha'' (''Branches of the Tree''). In it, an old man, who has lived a life of honesty, comes to learn of the corruption of three of his sons. The final scene shows the father finding solace only in the companionship of his fourth son, who is uncorrupted but mentally ill. Ray's last film, ''Agantuk'' (''The Stranger''), is lighter in mood but not in theme. When a long-lost uncle arrives to visit his niece in Kolkata, he arouses suspicion as to his motive. This provokes far-ranging questions in the film about civilization.

In 1992, Ray's health deteriorated due to heart complications. He was admitted to a hospital, and would never recover. An honorary Oscar was awarded to him weeks before his death, which he received in a gravely ill condition. He died on 23 April 1992 at the age of seventy-one.

Film craft

Satyajit Ray considered script-writing to be an integral part of direction. Initially he refused to make a film in any language other than Bengali. In his two non-Bengali feature films, he wrote the script in English; translators interpreted it in Hindi or Urdu under Ray's supervision. Ray's eye for detail was matched by that of his art director Bansi Chandragupta. His influence on the early films was so important that Ray would always write scripts in English before creating a Bengali version, so that the non-Bengali Chandragupta would be able to read it. The craft of Subrata Mitra garnered praise for the cinematography of Ray's films. A number of critics thought that his departure from Ray's crew lowered the quality of cinematography in the following films. Though Ray openly praised Mitra, his single-mindedness in taking over operation of the camera after ''Charulata'' caused Mitra to stop working for him after 1966. Mitra developed "bounce lighting", a technique to reflect light from cloth to create a diffused, realistic light even on a set. Ray acknowledged his debts to Jean-Luc Godard and François Truffaut of the French New Wave for introducing new technical and cinematic innovations.

Ray's regular editor was Dulal Datta, but the director usually dictated the editing while Datta did the actual work. Because of financial reasons and Ray's meticulous planning, his films were mostly cut "on the camera" (apart from ''Pather Panchali''). At the beginning of his career, Ray worked with Indian classical musicians, including Ravi Shankar, Vilayat Khan and Ali Akbar Khan. He found that their first loyalty was to musical traditions, and not to his film. He had a greater understanding of western classical forms, which he wanted to use for his films set in an urban milieu. Starting with ''Teen Kanya'', Ray began to compose his own scores.

He used actors of diverse backgrounds, from famous film stars to people who had never seen a film (as in ''Aparajito''). Robin Wood and others have lauded him as the best director of children, pointing out memorable performances in the roles of Apu and Durga (''Pather Panchali''), Ratan (''Postmaster'') and Mukul (''Sonar Kella''). Depending on the talent or experience of the actor, Ray varied the intensity of his direction, from virtually nothing with actors such as Utpal Dutt, to using the actor as "a puppet" (Subir Banerjee as young Apu or Sharmila Tagore as Aparna). Actors who had worked for Ray praised his customary trust but said he could also treat incompetence with "total contempt".

Literary works

Ray created two very popular characters in Bengali children's literature—Feluda, a sleuth, and Professor Shonku, a scientist. He was a prominent writer of science fiction. Feluda often has to solve a puzzle to get to the bottom of a case. The Feluda stories are narrated by Topshe, his cousin, something of a Watson to Feluda's Holmes. The science fictions of Shonku are presented as a diary discovered after the scientist had mysteriously disappeared. Ray also wrote a collection of nonsense verse named ''Today Bandha Ghorar Dim,'' which includes a translation of Lewis Carroll's "Jabberwocky". He wrote a collection of humorous stories of Mullah Nasiruddin in Bengali.

His short stories for adults were published as collections of 12 stories, in which the overall title played with the word twelve (for example ''Aker pitthe dui'', or literally "Two on top of one"). Ray's interest in puzzles and puns is reflected in his stories. Ray's short stories give full rein to his interest in the macabre, in suspense and other aspects that he avoided in film, making for an interesting psychological study. Most of his writings have been translated into English, and are finding a new group of readers.

Most of his screenplays have been published in Bengali in the literary journal ''Eksan''. Ray wrote an autobiography about his childhood years, ''Jakhan Choto Chilam'' (1982).

He also wrote essays on film, published as the collections: ''Our Films, Their Films'' (1976), along with ''Bishoy Chalachchitra'' (1976), ''Ekei Bole Shooting'' (1979). During the mid-1990s, Ray's film essays and an anthology of short stories were also published in English in the West. ''Our Films, Their Films'' is an anthology of film criticism by Ray. The book contains articles and personal journal excerpts. The book is presented in two sections: Ray first discusses Indian film, before turning his attention toward Hollywood, specific filmmakers (Charlie Chaplin and Akira Kurosawa), and movements such as Italian neorealism. His book ''Bishoy Chalachchitra'' was published in translation in 2006 as ''Speaking of Films''. It contains a compact description of his philosophy of different aspects of the cinema. Satyajit Ray designed four typefaces for roman script named Ray Roman, Ray Bizarre, Daphnis, and Holiday Script, apart from numerous Bengali ones for the Sandesh magazine. Ray Roman and Ray Bizarre won an international competition in 1971. In certain circles of Kolkata, Ray continued to be known as an eminent graphic designer, well into his film career. Ray illustrated all his books and designed covers for them, as well as creating all publicity material for his films. He also designed covers of several books by other authors.

Critical and popular response

Ray's work has been described as full of humanism and universality, and of a deceptive simplicity with deep underlying complexity. The Japanese director Akira Kurosawa said, "Not to have seen the cinema of Ray means existing in the world without seeing the sun or the moon." But his detractors find his films glacially slow, moving like a "majestic snail." Some find his humanism simple-minded, and his work anti-modern; they criticize him for lacking the new modes of expression or experimentation found in works of Ray's contemporaries, such as Jean-Luc Godard. As Stanley Kauffman wrote, some critics believe that Ray "assumes [viewers] can be interested in a film that simply dwells in its characters, rather than one that imposes dramatic patterns on their lives." Ray said he could do nothing about the slow pace. Kurosawa defended him by saying that Ray's films were not slow, "His work can be described as flowing composedly, like a big river".

Critics have often compared Ray to artists in the cinema and other media, such as Anton Chekhov, Renoir, De Sica, Howard Hawks or Mozart. The writer V. S. Naipaul compared a scene in ''Shatranj Ki Khiladi'' (The Music Room) to a Shakespearean play; he wrote, "only three hundred words are spoken but goodness! – terrific things happen." Even critics who did not like the aesthetics of Ray's films generally acknowledged his ability to encompass a whole culture with all its nuances. Ray's obituary in ''The Independent'' included the question, "Who else can compete?"

Political ideologues took issue with Ray's work. In a public debate during the 1960s, Ray and the Marxist filmmaker Mrinal Sen engaged in an argument. Sen criticized him for casting a matinée idol such as Uttam Kumar, whom he considered a compromise. Ray said that Sen only attacked "easy targets", i.e. the Bengali middle-classes. Advocates of socialism said that Ray was not "committed" to the cause of the nation's downtrodden classes; some critics accused him of glorifying poverty in ''Pather Panchali'' and ''Ashani Sanket'' (Distant Thunder) through lyricism and aesthetics. They said he provided no solution to conflicts in the stories, and was unable to overcome his bourgeoisie background. During the naxalite movements in the 1970s, agitators once came close to causing physical harm to his son, Sandip. Early in 1980, Ray was criticized by an Indian M.P. and former actress Nargis Dutt, who accused Ray of "exporting poverty." She wanted him to make films to represent "Modern India."

Legacy

Satyajit Ray is a cultural icon in India and in Bengali communities worldwide. Following his death, the city of Kolkata came to a virtual standstill, as hundreds of thousands of people gathered around his house to pay their last respects. Satyajit Ray's influence has been widespread and deep in Bengali cinema; a number of Bengali directors, including Aparna Sen, Rituparno Ghosh and Gautam Ghose in India, Tareq Masud and Tanvir Mokammel in Bangladesh, and Aneel Ahmad in England, have been influenced by his film craft. Across the spectrum, filmmakers such as Budhdhadeb Dasgupta, Mrinal Sen and Adoor Gopalakrishnan have acknowledged his seminal contribution to Indian cinema. Beyond India, filmmakers such as Martin Scorsese, James Ivory, Abbas Kiarostami, Elia Kazan, François Truffaut, Carlos Saura, Isao Takahata and Danny Boyle have been influenced by his cinematic style, with many others such as Akira Kurosawa praising his work. Gregory Nava's 1995 film ''My Family'' had a final scene that repeated that of ''Apur Sansar''. Ira Sachs's 2005 work ''Forty Shades of Blue'' was a loose remake of ''Charulata.'' Other references to Ray films are found, for example, in recent works such as ''Sacred Evil'', the ''Elements trilogy'' of Deepa Mehta and even in films of Jean-Luc Godard. According to Michael Sragow of ''The Atlantic Monthly'', the "youthful coming-of-age dramas that have flooded art houses since the mid-fifties owe a tremendous debt to the Apu trilogy". The trilogy also introduced the bounce lighting technique. ''Kanchenjungha'' (1962) introduced a narrative structure that resembles later hyperlink cinema. ''Pratidwandi'' (1972) helped pioneer photo-negative flashback and X-ray digression techniques.

The character Apu Nahasapeemapetilon in the American animated television series '' The Simpsons'' was named in homage to Ray's popular character from ''The Apu Trilogy''. Together with Madhabi Mukherjee, Ray was the first Indian film figure to be featured on a foreign stamp (Dominica).

Many literary works include references to Ray or his work, including Saul Bellow's ''Herzog'' and J. M. Coetzee's ''Youth''. Salman Rushdie's ''Haroun and the Sea of Stories'' contains fish characters named ''Goopy'' and ''Bagha'', a tribute to Ray's fantasy film. In 1993, UC Santa Cruz established the Satyajit Ray Film and Study collection, and in 1995, the Government of India set up Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute for studies related to film. In 2007, British Broadcasting Corporation declared that two ''Feluda'' stories would be made into radio programs. During the London Film Festival, a regular "Satyajit Ray Award" is given to a first-time feature director whose film best captures "the artistry, compassion and humanity of Ray's vision". Wes Anderson has claimed Ray as an influence on his work; his 2007 film, ''The Darjeeling Limited'', set in India, is dedicated to Ray.

Awards, honours and recognitions

Numerous awards were bestowed on Ray throughout his lifetime, including 32 National Film Awards by the Government of India, in addition to awards at international film festivals. At the Berlin Film Festival, he was one of only three filmmakers to win the Silver Bear for Best Director more than once and holds the record for the most number of Golden Bear nominations, with seven. At the Venice Film Festival, where he had previously won a Golden Lion for ''Aparajito'' (1956), he was awarded the Golden Lion Honorary Award in 1982. That same year, he received an honorary "Hommage à Satyajit Ray" award at the 1982 Cannes Film Festival.

Ray is the second film personality after Chaplin to have been awarded honorary doctorates by Oxford University. He was awarded the Dadasaheb Phalke Award in 1985 and the Legion of Honor by the President of France in 1987. The Government of India awarded him the highest civilian honour, Bharat Ratna shortly before his death. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences awarded Ray an honorary Oscar in 1992 for Lifetime Achievement. It was one of his favourite actresses, Audrey Hepburn, who represented the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on that day in Calcutta. Ray, unable to attend the ceremony due to his illness, gave his acceptance speech to the Academy via live video feed in his home. In 1992 he was posthumously awarded the ''Akira Kurosawa Award for Lifetime Achievement in Directing'' at the San Francisco International Film Festival; it was accepted on his behalf by actress Sharmila Tagore.

In 1992, the ''Sight & Sound'' Critics' Top Ten Poll ranked Ray at #7 in its list of "Top 10 Directors" of all time, making him the highest-ranking Asian filmmaker in the poll. In 2002, the ''Sight & Sound'' critics' and directors' poll ranked Ray at #22 in its list of all-time greatest directors, thus making him the fourth highest-ranking Asian filmmaker in the poll. In 1996, ''Entertainment Weekly'' magazine ranked Ray at #25 in its "50 Greatest Directors" list. In 2007, ''Total Film'' magazine included Ray in its "100 Greatest Film Directors Ever" list.

See also

Bengali cinema

* Cinema of West Bengal

Cinema of India

* Parallel Cinema

Notes

References

. . . .

Ishaghpour, Y (2002). ''Satyajit Ray, l'Orient et l'Occident'', Editions de la Différence, collection : Les essais, France. ISBN 2729114017

. . . . . . . . . . . .

External links

Satyajit Ray, Ray's Films and Ray-Movie

Experiencing Ray's "The Apu Trilogy"

Satyajit Ray Foundation

SatyajitRay.org

Biography at Calcuttaweb.com

BBC-h2g2 Entry: Satyajit Ray's Goopy-Bagha Trilogy

"Remembering Ray, frame by frame"

Satyajit Ray Film and Study Collection

article by Andrew Robinson

Category:1921 births Category:1992 deaths Category:Academy Award winners Category:Akira Kurosawa Award winners Category:Alumni of Presidency University, Kolkata Category:Bengali film directors Category:Bengali writers Category:Bengali-language writers Category:Recipients of the Bharat Ratna Category:Brahmos Category:Filmfare Awards winners Category:Indian children's writers Category:Indian film directors Category:Kolkata culture Category:National Film Award winners Category:Dadasaheb Phalke Award recipients Category:Légion d'honneur recipients Category:People associated with Santiniketan Category:People from Kolkata Category:Recipients of the Ananda Purashkar Category:Recipients of the Padma Bhushan Category:Recipients of the Padma Shri Category:Recipients of the Padma Vibhushan Category:Recipients of the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award Category:Recipients of the Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship Category:Silver Bear for Best Director recipients Category:University of Calcutta alumni Category:Visva-Bharati University alumni Category:Writers who illustrated their own writing Category:Ramon Magsaysay Award winners Category:Indian science fiction writers Category:Indian screenwriters Category:Indian composers Category:Indian film producers Category:Academy Honorary Award recipients Category:Indian Hindus Category:Indian film score composers

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name	Tokio Hotel
background	group_or_band
origin	Magdeburg, Germany
years active	2001–present
genre	Alternative rock, electronic rock, pop rock, teen pop emo, pop punk (early)
label	Universal Music GermanyCherrytree, Interscope (US)
website	www.tokiohotel.com
current members	Bill KaulitzTom Kaulitz Georg ListingGustav Schäfer
past members	}}

Tokio Hotel is a pop rock band from Germany, founded in 2001 by singer Bill Kaulitz, guitarist Tom Kaulitz, drummer Gustav Schäfer and bassist Georg Listing. The quartet have scored four number one singles and have released three number one albums in their native country, selling nearly 5 million CDs and DVDs there. After recording an unreleased demo-CD under the name "Devilish" and having their contract with Sony BMG Germany terminated, the band released their first German-language album, ''Schrei'', as Tokio Hotel on Universal Music Germany in 2005. ''Schrei'' sold more than half a million copies worldwide and spawned four top five singles in both Germany and Austria. In 2007, the band released their second German album ''Zimmer 483'' and their first English album ''Scream'' which have combined album sales of over one million copies worldwide and helped win the band their first MTV Europe Music Award for Best InterAct. The former, ''Zimmer 483'', spawned three top five singles in Germany while the latter, ''Scream'', spawned two singles that reached the top twenty in new territories such as France, Portugal, Spain and Italy. In September 2008, they won in the US their first MTV Video Music Award (VMA) for Best New Artist. In October 2008, they won four awards including Best International Artist and Song of the year at Los Premios MTV Latinoamérica (MTV Video Music Awards Latin America) held in Mexico. Tokio Hotel became the first German band ever to win an award at the MTV VMAs and also at the MTV Latin America Awards. They also picked up the Headliner award at the MTV Europe Music Awards 2008 held in Liverpool on November 6, 2008 and the Award for Best Group on November 5, 2009 at the MTV Europe Music Award (EMA) held in Berlin. They won an Award for Best World Stage Performance on November 7, 2010 at the MTV Europe Music Awards in Madrid. In July 2011, they became the first German band to win an MTV Video Music Awards Japan (VMAJ).

History

Founding

Tokio Hotel by vocalist Bill Kaulitz and guitarist Tom Kaulitz, who are identical twin brothers, drummer Gustav Schäfer and bass-guitarist Georg Listing. The four met in 2001 after a live show in a Magdeburg-Club, where Listing and Schäfer, who knew each other from music school, watched from the audience while Bill and Tom Kaulitz played on the stage. Under the name Devilish, the band soon began playing in talent shows and small concerts. After Bill Kaulitz's participation in a children's Star Search in 2003 at age thirteen (which he lost in the quarter-final), he was discovered by music producer Peter Hoffmann. Devilish changed their name to Tokio Hotel: "Tokio", the German spelling of the Japanese city Tokyo, due to a love of the city, and "Hotel" due to their constant touring and living in hotels. In 2006, a third and fourth single, "Rette mich" ("Rescue Me") and "Der letzte Tag" ("The Final Day"), were released; both reached #1 as well. "Der letzte Tag" contained a B-side called "Wir schließen uns ein", which was also accompanied by a music video.

''Zimmer 483''

The first single off their second album ''Zimmer 483'' (''Room 483''), called "Übers Ende der Welt" (later re-released in English under the name "Ready, Set, Go!"), was released on January 26, 2007 and quickly reached #1 in Germany and Austria, and #2 in France. ''Zimmer 483'' was released in Germany on February 23, 2007, along with a deluxe edition of the album containing a DVD. The album's second single, "Spring nicht" ("Don't Jump") was released on April 7. The tour accompanying the release of the album, The Zimmer 483 Tour, was scheduled to start in March 2007, but was delayed by two weeks because the band members wished to have a different stage design. A third single, "An deiner Seite (Ich bin da)" ("By Your Side"), was released on November 16. The single contains the B-side "1000 Meere" ("1000 Oceans"), for which a music video was also produced. On April 28, 2008 Tokio Hotel released their single "Heilig" but no music video for the single was released, because of the tight schedule they had.

''Scream''

Tokio Hotel's first English language album, ''Scream'', was released on June 4, 2007 throughout Europe. In Germany, the album was released as ''Room 483'' in order to emphasize the continuity with their last German album ''Zimmer 483''. ''Scream'' contains English versions of a selection of songs from their German-language albums ''Scream'' and ''Zimmer 483''. "Monsoon", the English-language version of "Durch den Monsun", was the first single from the album. "Ready, Set, Go!" (the translation of "Übers Ende der Welt") was released as the album's second single and "Don't Jump" (the translation of "Spring nicht") as the third single. A video for "Scream", the English-language version of their 2005 hit "Schrei", was also recorded, and was released to the iTunes Store in early March 2008.

Tokio Hotel gave their first concert in the United Kingdom on June 19, 2007. "Ready, Set, Go!" was released in the UK as the band's first single on August 27, 2007. The song reached #77 in the UK Singles Chart.

Tokio Hotel won an MTV Europe Music Award for Best InterAct on November 1, 2007 and were also nominated for Best Band. They performed "Monsoon" at the event.

Tokio Hotel released their first US single, simply called "Tokio Hotel", in late 2007. The single contains the tracks "Scream" and "Ready, Set, Go!", and was available exclusively at Hot Topic stores. Their second US single, "Scream America", was released on December 11, 2007. The single contains the track "Scream" and a remix of "Ready, Set, Go!" by AFI's Jade Puget. In February 2008, the band toured North America for five dates starting in Canada and finishing up in New York. After appearing and performing live on MuchMusic, while touring in Canada, "Ready, Set, Go!" entered the MuchOnDemand Daily 10, a countdown of videos chosen by viewers. It remained there for over a week, then returned to the top of the MOD Daily 10 chart on April 8. "Scream" was released in Canada on March 25 and in the US on May. 6

1000 Hotels Tour

The "1000 Hotels" European Tour began on March 3, 2008 in Brussels and continued to locations including The Netherlands, Luxembourg, France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, and Scandinavia, and was scheduled to finish on April 9; during the concert in Marseille, France on March 14, Bill started to experience vocal problems. He let the audience sing more frequently than normal and instead of the original 21 songs that were on the set list, they only played 16 songs. Bill apologized, in German, for his bad singing and explained that he was sick. Two days later, the band canceled Lisbon, Portugal concert minutes before it was supposed to commence. The rest of the "1000 Hotels" Tour and a scheduled North American Tour were cancelled following an announcement in Bild by the band's manager that Bill Kaulitz had to undergo surgery to remove a cyst on his vocal cords.

Bill Kaulitz had been putting strain on his voice after playing 43 concerts in the 1000 Hotels tour without vacation. He had to undergo Larynx surgery on March 30 to remove a cyst that had formed on his vocal cords. The cyst was the result of a throat infection that went untreated. Following his surgery, Bill was unable to speak for twelve days, and had four weeks of vocal rehabilitation. If Bill had continued singing the rest of the tour, his voice would have eventually been permanently damaged. Tokio Hotel started performing again in May 2008 and after that they embarked on a 2nd part of their 1000 Hotels European Tour adding many Open Air concerts and wrapping up the tour on July 13 in Werchter, Belgium.

North American Tours and ''Humanoid''

Tokio Hotel embarked on a second tour of North America in August 2008, which included a performance at the Bamboozled festival in New Jersey. The band's music video for "Ready Set Go!" was nominated for Best Pop Video at the 2008 MTV Video Music Awards, where they also won the award for Best New Artist. They returned to North America again in October 2008 for a month long tour of concerts and record store signings. In December 2008, a behind-the scenes DVD called ''Tokio Hotel TV – Caught on Camera'' was released. It contains footage from Tokio Hotel TV and backstage feature stories of the previous year on disc one entitled "History – The very best of Tokio Hotel TV!". A deluxe edition contains a second disc entitled "Future – The road to the new Album!" which features footage of the band on promotion tours and preparing for their third studio album.

In between the North American tours, the band returned to their record studio in Hamburg to record their third studio album, ''Humanoid'', which, according to their producer David Jost, is currently set for release on October 2 in Germany & October 6, 2009 in the U.S. This is despite earlier statements predicting a March/April 2009 release or a May/June 2009 release. The album was recorded in both German and English with both versions were released simultaneously worldwide. Nevertheless, the video for the single was released on September 3.

On November 2, it was announced on Tom's Blog that the second English single would be "World Behind My Wall" and its German counterpart, "Lass uns laufen", would be the second German single. The music videos for both versions were released on December 14 and December 15.

On June 24, the live music video for their single, "Dark Side of the Sun" was released on the band website.

On July 20, 2010 they released their second live album Humanoid City Live from Milan, Italy On November 22, 2010, their new song "Hurricanes and Suns," premiered on the Greek radio station Mad Radio. It was included in the bonus track on all versions of "Tokio Hotel: Best Of," a compilation album of their most successful songs. As well as the single for the 'Best of' release. The album will also include "Mädchen aus dem All", the first song the band recorded in a studio.

On December 14, 2010 their 'Best of' was released. December 2 was the World Premiere of the video for "Hurricanes and Suns" on their Official Website. On April 28, 2011 they received the "Fan Army FTW" award at the MTV O Music Awards, the networks first online award show. A clip of Bill and Tom thanking their fans was played after the winner was announced.

Asian performances

Tokio Hotel performed their first concert in Asia (excluding their concert in Israel) at the Audi Showcase in Singapore, followed shortly by the TM Connects With Tokio Hotel event in Malaysia, promoting the sales of their album Humanoid. They concluded the series of mini-concerts with Taiwan. They returned to Malaysia a couple of months later to perform at MTV World Stage Live in Malaysia 2010. They performed in Tokyo on December 15, 2010, after their South American Tour concluded in Distrito Federal, Mexico on December 2, 2010. In February, 2011 Tokio Hotel travelled to Japan to complete a second promo tour. A number of TV appearances and media interviews took place between February 8 and February 11.

On June 24, 2011 Tokio Hotel performed in Japan at “The Next Premium Night Tokio Hotel in Tokyo". The event was presented by Audi A1 and 150 fans were chosen to win tickets to attend the show. The event was the bands first acoustic performance in Japan. On June 25, 2011 the band performed live at the MTV Video Music Aid Japan in Tokyo. The show, which was formerly called the Video Music Awards Japan, was used as a music benefit to raise money for the Japanese Red Cross in order to help those who were affected by the recent earthquake.

Modeling and commercials

On January 19, 2010, lead singer Bill Kaulitz teamed up with twins Dean and Dan Caten of DSquared to walk the runway at a fashion event in Milan. Kaulitz made two appearances, as he opened and closed DSquared's Menswear Autumn/Winter 2010 show to Tokio Hotel song "Screamin".

Car maker Audi hired the two frontmen to star in their new advertising campaign to attract the younger generation. They were featured in an episode of Tokio Hotel TV (on Tokio Hotel's website) and also in a commercial.

On August 4, 2010, Tom Kaulitz got his own Reebok shoe commercial. Reebok signed the 20-year-old Tokio Hotel guitarist and sneaker addict to model shoes for the company. "At home, I created a little room like a little storage room," he said of his sneakers. He also said that he gets 10 new pairs a week. That's 520 sneakers a year.

Band members

Bill Kaulitz

Bill Kaulitz was born on September 1, 1989, in Leipzig ten minutes after his identical twin brother, Tom.

Tom Kaulitz

Tom Kaulitz (born 1 September 1989 in Leipzig, German Democratic Republic) is a German guitarist singer, songwriter and model from Tokio Hotel. He is the twin brother of Bill Kaulitz, and Tom was born 10 minutes before Bill.

Early life

Tom Kaulitz was born 1 September 1989 in Leipzig. His parents, Simone and Jörg Kaulitz, separated when Kaulitz and his brother were seven years old.His mother began dating Gordon Trumper, and married him in August 2009. Tom's guitar playing and his brother's singing showed their natural aptitude for music, and gave an early indication of their possibility of fame. Trumper helped the twins to start their own band. He and Bill began writing music at the age of seven years old. Due to their great desire to create a band, his twin brother Bill entered and became renowned on the reality TV talent show "Star Search." They met Georg Listing (then 14) and Gustav Schäfer (then 13), in the audience of one of their shows. Listing and Schäfer were friends and after the show, having liked what they heard and saw, made an offer to join. The band was promptly re-named "Devilish" due to an article published at the time that referred to their "devilishly great"[citation needed] sound. This continued until 2005 when Jost arranged a meeting between the band and Universal Music Group's Interscope Records and Tokio Hotel was signed. They began working immediately, releasing their debut LP Schrei ("Scream") later that year. Their first single from the album Schrei was "Durch den Monsun" ("Through The Monsoon"), which reached #1 in Germany within a month of its release. He then continued his dream with 3 members of the group.

Stalking incident

More trouble came for Kaulitz when in late 2008/early 2009 several female stalkers pursued the band relentlessly, even following his twin brother Bill Kaulitz to his parents' home in Germany and attacked the twins' mother. The issue seemed to end after Tom allegedly hit one of the stalkers at a gas station in April 2009 and drove off. However, a recent article in Bild stated that the issue had resurfaced and that Tom Kaulitz may stand trial for assault. In late December 2009, the charges against Tom were lifted and he is pressing charges himself — against the girl he allegedly hit — on grounds of stalking.

Personal life

Tom Kaulitz and his identical twin brother, Bill, used to live in Hamburg but have recently moved to Los Angeles in response to an incident involving stalkers and a robbery. They have also stated that it is easier for them to work on their new album, as it is closer to their manager David Jost. They are currently living in Los Angeles but also have a second home in Hamburg. Tom and Bill, have modeled for a PETA.de photoshoot. He models for Reebok for sneakers and shoes. Tom is friends with Nicole Scherzinger. Tom prefers to listen to hip-hop music. His favorite rapper is Samy Deluxe. As of September 2007, Tom uses Gibson guitars and Mesa/Boogie Rectifier Heads with Mesa Boogie Rectifier 4x12 cabinets. Tom currently has his hair in cornrows, which he had done in early 2009. Tom had allegedly been dating Chantelle Paige after the stalker incident, but later it was said that they had been going out to better publicise Tom and his band, as well as Chantelle’s band, Flipsyde. In an interview with her, Chantelle had said : "I think Tom is quite nice, actually he is my dream boy. But my friends have warned me about him".

Georg Listing

Georg (Moritz Hagen) Listing was born on March 31, 1987. His hometown is Halle. He began playing bass when he was thirteen years old, He has said that his playing style was heavily influenced by Flea of Red Hot Chili Peppers, and other musical influences include Die Ärzte and Oasis.

Awards

Since the release of the "Durch den Monsun" single in 2005, Tokio Hotel have gone on to win 102 awards in various categories and countries.

;2005

! Category	!Award	! Date
Best Newcomer	Comet Awards (Germany)	October 6
Super Comet	Comet Awards (Germany)	October 6
Best Newcomer	Eins Live Krone	November 24
Best Pop National Act	Bambi Awards	December 1
Best Single	Golden Penguin (Austria)	...2005
Best Pop	Golden Penguin (Austria)	...2005
Rock Band 2005	Golden Penguin (Austria)	...2005

;2006

! Category	! Award	! Date
Album of the year	Golden Penguin (Austria)	February 8
Band of the year	Golden Penguin (Austria)	February 8
Song of the year – ‘Der Letzte Tag’	Golden Penguin (Austria)	February 8
Best Newcomer	Golden Penguin (Austria)	February 8
Ausverkaufte Tourhalle	Sold-out-Award of Königpilsener Arena	March 11
Best Newcomer		March 12
Best Newcomer	Steiger Awards	March 25
Pop National	Radio Regenbogen (Germany)	March 31
SuperBand Rock – Golden Otto	Bravo Otto	May 6
Music Award	Bild OSGAR	May 22
Best Newcomer International	Popcorn Awards (Hungary)	May 26
Best Newcomer	Bravo Otto (Hungary)	June 24
Best International Band	Bravo Otto (Hungary)	June 24
Best Newcomer Band	Popkomm Bavarian Music Lion	September 21
Best German Pop Band	Goldene Stimmgabel	September 24
Best Selling German Artist	World Music Awards	November 15
Best Pop National Act	Bambi Awards	November 30
Best Live Act	Eins Live Krone	December 7
Best Rock band	MTV France

;2007

! Category	! Award	! Date
Single of the Year – Durch Den Monsun	Golden Penguin
Best Selling German Act – Album Schrei	European Border Breakers Award	January 21
European Border Breakers Award	NRJ Awards	January 21
Rock Award	BZ-Kulturpreis	January 23
Best Video National	ECHO Awards (Germany)	March 25
SuperBand Rock – Golden otto	Bravo Otto	April 28
Best Video	Comet Awards (Germany)	May 3
Best Band	Comet Awards (Germany)	May 3
Supercomet	Comet Awards (Germany)	May 3
Best Band	Jabra Music	July 2007
Digital prize	Festivalbar (Italy)	September 7
Most Successful Group Rock International	Goldene Stimmgabel	September 22
Most Successful Popgroup International	Goldene Stimmgabel Awards	October 3
Best Album	TMF Awards (Belgium)	October 14
Best Video	TMF Awards (Belgium)	October 14
Best New Artist	TMF Awards (Belgium)	October 14
Best Pop	TMF Awards (Belgium)	October 14
Best International Act	MTV Europe Music Awards (Germany)	November 1
Best band of the Year	MTV Italy Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Award	December 1

;2008

! Category	! Award	! Date
Band of the Year 2007	Golden Penguin (Austria)	January
Best International Band	Rockbjörnen Award (Sweden)	January 24
Best Music National	Goldene Kamera (Germany)	February 6
Best Music Video	Echo Awards (Germany)	February 15
Best International Artist	Emma Gala Awards (Finland)	March 8
Best International Group	Disney Channel Kids Award (Italy)	March 28
Best Concert	Hitkrant (Netherlands)	May 2008
Best Mood Song – Monsoon	Hitkrant (Netherlands)	May 2008
Song that Satys in your Head – Monsoon	Hitkrant (Netherlands)	May 2008
Superband Rock – Silver Otto	Bravo Otto	May 3
Best Band	MTV TRL Awards (Italy)	May 17
Best Number 1 of the Year with Monsoon	MTV TRL Awards (Italy)	May 17
Best Band	Comet Awards (Germany)	May 23
Best Video – An Deiner Seite	Comet Awards (Germany)	May 23
Best Live Act	Comet Awards (Germany)	May 23
Super Comet	Comet Awards (Germany)	May 23
Best New Artist	MTV VMA Music Awards (USA)	September 7
Fan Choice Best Entrance	MTV VMA Music Awards (USA)	September 7
Best Male Artist International (Bill Kaulitz)	TMF Awards (Belgium)	October 11
Best Video International – Don't Jump	TMF Awards	MTV Europe Music Awards (Germany)	November 5
Best International Rock Band	Telehit Awards (Mexico)	November 12

;2010

! Category	!Award	! Date
Band of the Year	Golden Penguin (Austria)	January 29
Album of the Year	Golden Penguin (Austria)	January 29
Band of the Year	Bravoora Awards (Poland)	February 1
Best International Artist	Emma Gala Awards (Finland)	February 4
Walk of Fame	König-Pilsener Arena (Germany)	February 26
Best International Band	Radio Regenbogen Awards (Germany)	March 19
Favorite Music Star	Kids Choice Awards 2010 (Germany)	April 10
Best Live Act	Comet Awards (Germany)	May 21
Foreign Song of the Year - World Behind My Wall	Rockbjörnen Award (Sweden)	September 1
Concert of the Year	Rockbjörnen Award (Sweden)	September 1
Best World Stage Performance	MTV Europe Music Awards (Spain)	November 7
Best Band National	CMA Awards (Germany)	December 12
Best Single National - World Behind My Wall	CMA Awards (Germany)	December 12

;2011

! Category	!Award	! Date
Band of the Year	Bravoora Awards (Poland)	March
Star of the 20th Anniversary		March
Best Fan Army (Fan Army FTW)	MTV O Music Awards (USA)	April 28
Best Rock Video	MTV Video Music Awards Japan	July 2

References

External links

Official site

Official Youtube channel

Interscope records profile

Tokio Hotel on MTV

Category:German musical groups Category:German rock music groups Category:German pop music groups Category:German-language singers Category:English-language singers Category:People from Leipzig Category:Musical groups established in 2001 Category:Pop rock groups

af:Tokio Hotel als:Tokio Hotel ar:توكيو هوتيل az:Tokio Hotel bs:Tokio Hotel br:Tokio Hotel bg:Токио Хотел ca:Tokio Hotel cs:Tokio Hotel da:Tokio Hotel de:Tokio Hotel et:Tokio Hotel el:Tokio Hotel es:Tokio Hotel eo:Tokio Hotel eu:Tokio Hotel fa:توکیو هتل fr:Tokio Hotel fy:Tokio Hotel gl:Tokio Hotel ko:토쿄 호텔 hr:Tokio Hotel it:Tokio Hotel he:טוקיו הוטל ka:ტოკიო ჰოტელი lv:Tokio Hotel lt:Tokio Hotel li:Tokio Hotel hu:Tokio Hotel mk:Токио хотел ms:Tokio Hotel mn:Токио Хотел nl:Tokio Hotel nds-nl:Tokio Hotel ja:トキオ・ホテル no:Tokio Hotel nn:Tokio Hotel mhr:Tokio Hotel uz:Tokio Hotel pl:Tokio Hotel pt:Tokio Hotel ro:Tokio Hotel ru:Tokio Hotel simple:Tokio Hotel sk:Tokio Hotel sl:Tokio Hotel sr:Tokio Hotel sh:Tokio Hotel fi:Tokio Hotel sv:Tokio Hotel th:โทคิโอโฮเทล tr:Tokio Hotel uk:Tokio Hotel vi:Tokio Hotel vls:Tokio Hotel zh:東京飯店酷兒

''The Earthquake in Chile'' (published in 1807), () is a novella written by Heinrich von Kleist (1777–1811). The novella's central characters are two lovers, caught up in the chaos of the 1647 Santiago earthquake in Chile.

Synopsis

The story begins with the lead character, Jeronimo Rugera, preparing to hang himself in prison in Santiago in 1647. Rugera had been a tutor at the house of Don Asteron, but Don Asteron dismissed him upon Asteron's discovery of an illicit relationship between his daughter and Jeronimo. Jeronimo and Josephe continued their relationship and were soon discovered by Josephe's brother. Don Asteron sends Josephe to a convent, where she and Jeronimo continue their relationship, until one day Josephe gave birth on the steps of the cathedral.

The city folk are excited by this story and Josephe was scheduled to be executed. As the procession marched towards the execution site, Jeronimo prepares to hang himself. At this moment, a strong earthquake destroys much of the city, freeing Jeronimo from prison. Despite his fears that Josephe had already died, he begins to search for her, and is later reunited with her and their son, Philipp.

On her way to her execution as the earthquake strikes, Josephe rescues her son from the convent, where she had entrusted him to an abbess. The abbess and most of the nuns are dead. Josephe had spent much of the day searching for Jeronimo and fearing him dead. They plan to travel to Concepción, Chile, where Josephe has family, and from there to Spain.

The following morning, the couple is approached by Don Fernando who asks Josephe to breast feed his son, Juan, since his wife, Donna Elvira, has been injured in the earthquake. She complies, and Don Fernando invites the reunited family to join his own. They are greeted as friends, and exchange stories and rumours of the happenings in Santiago. Jeronimo and Josephe decide to go to Concepción and write to the Viceroy of Santiago to ask permission to stay in Chile.

That afternoon, a service is to be held at the lone surviving church in Santiago and the party, aside from Donna Elvira and her father Don Pedro, decides to attend. Donna Elvira appears to fear for Josephe's and Jeronimo's safety but Don Pedro feels that Donna Elvira's fears are misplaced. They attend the service.

The sermon compares the earthquake to God's destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah and speaks specifically of Josephe and Jeronimo's sin. Donna Constanza, Don Fernando's sister in law, recognizes the danger, but before the party can make their escape, someone calls out, identifying Josephe as the adulteress and accusing Don Fernando of being Jeronimo.

Josephe, who is holding Don Fernando's son Juan is grabbed by the crowd. The crowd assumes Juan is Josephe's baby. Don Fernando identifies himself and attempts to rescue Josephe. A naval officer, Don Alonzo, identifies Don Fernando but hesitates when a cobbler asks about Josephe. Josephe gives Juan and Phillip, who was being held by Jeronimo, to Don Fernando and tells him to leave and save the children, but he refuses and borrows Don Alonzo's sword. The crowd allows them to leave, and just as they think it's safe to enter the courtyard, a man claims that he is Jeronimo's father and clubs Jeronimo over the head. Donna Constanza, who had been walking with Jeronimo, runs to Don Alonzo, but is mistaken for Josephe and is also clubbed to death. Seeing this, Josephe gives herself up to the crowd and is clubbed by the cobbler, Master Pedrillo. Don Fernando defends the children with his sword but eventually his son, Juan, is torn from his grasp and bashed against a pillar.

The crowd disperses and Don Fernando is left with Philipp, whom he adopts as his own child with Donna Elvira. At the conclusion, Don Fernando compares Juan and Philipp and considers how he had acquired them, and remarks; "It almost seemed to him that he should be glad."

Characters

Jeronimo Rugera - A Spaniard, the lover of Josephe

Josephe Asteron - Daughter of the richest nobleman in the city, the lover of Jeronimo

Philipp - The son of Jeronimo and Josephe

Don Fernando Ormez - An acquaintance of Josephe, husband of Donna Elvira

Donna Elvira - Don Fernando's wife

Juan - Donna Elvira and Don Fernando's son

Don Pedro - Donna Elvira's Father

Donna Isabel - A relation of Don Fernando

Donna Constanza - Sister of Donna Elvira

Master Pedrillo - A cobbler

Don Alonzo - An acquaintance of Don Fernando and Josephe, a naval officer

References

External links

German Text

read in German librivox.org (No. 8)

Category:1807 short stories Category:Short stories by Heinrich von Kleist Category:17th century in Chile

de:Das Erdbeben in Chili