The Old Silk Route or Silk Road which passes through East Sikkim is a part of the ancient network of trade routes which connected China to India. This route passed through Lhasa and Nathu La and Jelep La Pass and finally reached the port of Tamralipta (present Tamluk in West Bengal) from where it took to the sea and reached far east. This Ancient Silk Route is expected to have been discovered by traders as early as First Century AD.Most of the Mountain Passes in this region of the Eastern Himalayas are around 14,000 feet above sea-level and stays snow covered from November to April, which makes this route one of the most inhospitable regions on earth. The distance between Lhasa and Tamralipta through this nearly obscure part of the Ancient Silk Route was around 900 kms, which is significantly less than other seaports from Lhasa and this route was comparatively a safer land route option for the traders’ caravans.

Most popularly termed as the South West Silk Route, this is one of the most ancient parts of the route which connected the Yunan Province of China to Tibet and finally to India and as far as Afghanistan. Interestingly, silk was not the most treasured item traded in this part of the route – it was horses and tea, so the Chinese often referred this route as Dianzang Chama Gudao (ancient road of tea and horses between Yunnan, Tibet and India). Other important items traded in this route were sugar, salt, copper and cotton and unlike its counterparts in Central Asia, the caravans in this part of the South West Silk Route comprised horse caravans and not the Bactrian camel caravans.

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