Sikkim’s Lepcha-language schools: teaching a mother tongue back to its children
AUTHORNamgyal Tamang
DATE
READ1 min
LOCATIONDzongu, Sikkim
The Lepcha language, spoken fluently by perhaps 30,000 people worldwide, is being taught back to its children in a network of community schools across Dzongu and beyond.
The curriculum pairs the written script — itself in revival — with the stories, songs and plant names the language carries.
Teachers measure success in small victories: a classroom of children who argue in Lepcha about football.