King awards prizes, Sikkim, photo by Alice S. Kandell

Photograph shows a lama presenting Palden Thondup Namgyal, King of Sikkim with a scroll on his birthday, as Queen of Sikkim looks on, Gangtok, Sikkim.

"A Tour of the Lost Kingdom: Sikkim" by Dr. Alice S. Kandell and Hope Cooke, Library of Congress, March 13, 2010. Webcast available at: http://www.loc.gov/today/cyberlc/feature_wdesc.php?rec=4912
Forms part of: Dr. Alice S. Kandell Collection of Sikkim Photographs (Library of Congress).
Also represented in LOT 14034-1, pg. no. 004 (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.