Baichung Bhutia

Baichung Bhutia (Hindi: बाईचुंग भूटिया; born 15 December 1976) or Bhaichung Bhutia is an Indian footballer of Sikkimese-Bhutia descent who plays as a striker. Bhutia is considered to be the torchbearer of Indian football in the international arena. He is often nicknamed the Sikkimese Sniper because of his shooting skills in football. Three-time Indian Player of the Year I. M. Vijayan described Bhutia as "God's gift to Indian football". Bhaichung Bhutia has an older brother named Chewang Bhutia. Chewang and Bhaichung both went to boarding school. Bhutia was married in 2004 to a hotel professional and divorced in 2015.

Bhutia has had four spells at I-League football team East Bengal Club, the club where he started his career. When he joined English club Bury in 1999, he became the first Indian footballer to sign a contract with a European club and only the second to play professionally in Europe, after Mohammed Salim. Afterwards he had a short loan spell at the Malaysian football club Perak FA. As well as this he has played for JCT Mills, which won the league once during his tenure; and Mohun Bagan, which failed to win the league once during his two spells, in his native India. His international footballing honours include winning the Nehru Cup, LG Cup, SAFF Championship three times and the AFC Challenge Cup. He is also India's most capped player, with 104 international caps to his name, and in 2009 Nehru Cup he received his 100th international cap.

Bhutia

The Bhutia བོད་རིགས (in Sikkim: Denzongpa; Tibetan: འབྲས་ལྗོངས་པ་, Wylie: 'Bras-ljongs-pa ; "inhabitants of Denzong;" in Bhutan: Dukpa) are a community of people of Tibetan ancestry, who speak Sikkimese, a Tibetan dialect fairly mutually intelligible to standard Tibetan. In 2001, the Bhutia numbered around 70,300. Bhutia here refers to Sikkimese and Nepalese of Tibetan ancestry; in contrast, the Bhotiya are a larger family of related Tibetan peoples in northeastern Nepal of which the Bhutia are one member group.

Language

The language spoken by the Bhutias in Sikkim is Sikkimese, which is 85% mutually intelligible with Tibetan and Dzongkha, the language of Bhutan. Most Bhutias practice the Nyingma school, followed by the Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism. The Bhutias are spread out over Nepal, Bhutan, and in northern West Bengal, especially in the towns of Kalimpong and Darjeeling.

History

The ancestors of the Bhutia migrated from Tibet to north eastern Nepal, Sikkim, Darjeeling, Kalimpong, and other parts of modern-day Nepal, India and Bhutan. They migrated through the different passes ("La" in Tibetan means "hill") in the Himalayas. Geographical indications in the name of Bhutias' last names are common. In Northern Sikkim, for example, where the Bhutias are the majority inhabitants, they are known as the Lachenpas or Lachungpas, meaning inhabitants of Lachen (Tibetan: ལ་ཆེན་ ; "big pass") or Lachung (Tibetan: ལ་ཆུང་ ; "small pass") respectively.

India

India, officially the Republic of India (Bhārat Gaṇarājya), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the south-west, and the Bay of Bengal on the south-east, it shares land borders with Pakistan to the west;China, Nepal, and Bhutan to the north-east; and Myanmar (Burma) and Bangladesh to the east. In the Indian Ocean, India is in the vicinity of Sri Lanka and the Maldives; in addition, India's Andaman and Nicobar Islands share a maritime border with Thailand and Indonesia.

Home to the ancient Indus Valley Civilisation and a region of historic trade routes and vast empires, the Indian subcontinent was identified with its commercial and cultural wealth for much of its long history. Four religions—Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism—originated here, whereas Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam arrived in the 1st millennium CE and also shaped the region's diverse culture. Gradually annexed by and brought under the administration of the British East India Company from the early 18th century and administered directly by the United Kingdom after the Indian Rebellion of 1857, India became an independent nation in 1947 after a struggle for independence that was marked by non-violent resistance led by Mahatma Gandhi.

SAFF Championship

The SAFF Championship, also called South Asian Football Federation Cup (previously South Asian Football Federation Gold Cup), is the main association football competition of the men's national football teams governed by the South Asian Football Federation. Previous names have included the South Asian Association of Regional Co-operation Gold Cup in 1993 and South Asian Gold Cup 95 in 1995. Eight teams compete in the South Asian Football Federation Tournament.

History

The countries that compete in the tournaments are Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. It is held every two years. Afghanistan joined SAFF in 2005.

The South Asian Football Federation (SAFF) Championship kicked off in Kathmandu in 1997, evolving out of its forerunner, the South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation (SAARC) Gold Cup. Since its inception, the biennial competition has developed into South Asia’s premier football tournament, promoting the regional development of the game. The SAFF Championship 2001 was first postponed from Oct/Nov 2001 to Jan/Feb 2002 due to the suspension of the Bangladeshi FA from FIFA; the tournament finally took place in 2003. The 2017 edition will be hosted by Bangladesh.

John Abraham

John Abraham is the name of:

See also