I broached the question: "I saw a showroom board just before I came to see you. It said 'Sikkim-Tibet Trade Company'. What is the complexion and volume of Sikkim-Tibet trade and is it a public-sector undertaking?"

Chief Minister Chamling smiled in his characteristic manner and said: "There is virtually no Sikkim-Tibet trade these days, but once it was flourishing. The showroom signboard you saw was of a company owned by an Indian Sikkimese. They have kept the showroom intact, hoping that some day that booming trade might be revived."

Later investigation showed that the company belonged to Motilal Lakhotia, an Indian businessman, who in the true Marwari tradition, had landed in the erstwhile kingdom of Sikkim, ruled by the Chogyals then, and stayed there to continue with his business. In the wake of the successful "Handshake Across the Himalayas" between India and China, at the initiative of Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, it seemed that Lakhotia’s Marwari instinct was vindicated.

During the interaction at Mintokgang, Chief Minister Chamling was drawn into the prospects of the opening of the Silk Route and Tibet-India trade with focus on the Nathu La route, the nearest drive to China from India and also the route of the Old Yatung and Tsomga region between Sikkim and Tibet.

When Pawan Chamling was asked for his reaction towards the possibilities of the Vajpayee visit to Beijing opening the window on Sikkim-Tibet trade, he said: "That has been our demand for many years. We shall be too happy if the Silk Route opens. It will benefit both Tibet and Sikkim".

The Chief Minister was asked whether the opening of this trade route, which might result in large traffic of goods and businesspersons across one of the highest trade routes in the world, would not create some security problems too, he said: "That is a matter that the Government of India will certainly take care of. We always keep them informed about the situation."

It might be recalled that two questions uppermost in the mind of observers of India-China relations before the Vajpayee visit were whether India will formally affirm the Chinese claim over the Tibetan autonomous region and whether China will reconcile itself to the final and irrevocable accession of Sikkim to India, voluntarily in 1975? The visit had proved that unlike Pakistan, China had shown better statesmanship and recognised the signs and situation of the times for building mutual relations with India.

In the wake of the Beijing declaration, setting a new trend in India-China relations, the Sikkim Chief Minister was among the first to welcome the accord. The estimated 500-million dollar trade across the Nathu La window of the Silk Route, would naturally change the lives of the half-a-million population of Sikkim and would give advantages not only to Tibetan and Sikkimese traders but also benefit Bengali traders right up to Kolkata.

Chamling had also raised the question, after the Indian Prime Minister had mooted the bus to Lahore in his continuing bid to improve relations with neighbours: "Why not a bus to Lhasa now?" The demand seems to be attracting a lot of attention in the wake of the ‘Himalayan handshake’. That might open up the Silk Route through Nathu La as the world’s highest and most fascinating tourism destination between India and China from Sikkim, the roof of India, to Tibet, the roof of China.

During several conversations, formal and informal, with Chief Minister Chamling, his views on Tibet-trade and the opening of the Silk-Route became quite clear to me. He had always looked for more than just trade with Tibet and China; in fact, he was keen on restoring cultural ties between Lhasa and Gangtok too, through the bus to Lhasa to begin with. That would in fact entail quite a few new concepts of border management, security infrastructures and roads. He felt that would lead to a lot of pilgrim tourism. Tourism would bring in a lot more money.

It must be recalled that Chamling had already outlined some very original ideas of developing rural and cultural tourism destinations in Sikkim during his State Day message to his people in May this year.