Geopolitical notes on the border between Sikkim and Tibet

This paper aims to analyze the issue of the border between Sikkim and Tibet from the period of the British protectorate over Gangtok until the Twenty-first Century, and of the geopolitical track taken by the territory of the small Himalayan kingdom. First in British political and trade action that, in the Nineteenth Century and early Twentieth, tackled with Russia in defence of the Raj through the establishment of safe buffer states that could possibly prevent the advance of St. Petersburg in South Asia. In this perspective, Sikkim was clearly cast in the role of ‘road to Tibet’, and therefore became the basis for the development of political and trade relations that were supposed to curb the danger of a Tibetan-Russian link. The second part of the work is dedicated to Sikkim after Indian independence, the Sino-Indian clashes along the border between Tibet and the kingdom and the annexation of the country to India in 1975. The result of the meeting between the prime ministers of both countries in 2003 marked a blow to the aspirations of Tibetan independence.