Portrait photo of Coronation 1965, the King & Queen

Photograph shows the newly-crowned King Palden Thondup Namgyal and Queen Hope Cooke walking in procession, Gangtok, Sikkim.

"A Tour of the Lost Kingdom: Sikkim" by Dr. Alice S. Kandell and Hope Cooke, Library of Congress, March 13, 2010.
Forms part of: Dr. Alice S. Kandell Collection of Sikkim Photographs (Library of Congress).
Also represented in LOT 14034-1, pg. no. 007 (color reference copy).
Gift; Dr. Alice S. Kandell; 2010; (DLC/PP-2010:106).

Palden Thondup Namgyal was the hereditary ruler of the independent Kingdom of Sikkim, located in the eastern Himalayas. He ruled the kingdom from 1963 to 1975, when it was annexed by India. Queen Hope Cooke was an American woman who became the queen consort of Sikkim through her marriage to Palden Thondup Namgyal in 1963. She was a controversial figure in Sikkimese politics.