{"id":1885,"date":"2015-10-11T01:55:32","date_gmt":"2015-10-10T23:55:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www2.scsc-ingenbohl.org\/?p=1885"},"modified":"2015-12-12T02:13:03","modified_gmt":"2015-12-12T01:13:03","slug":"sr-anna-affolter-sends-us-impressions-from-her-visitation-in-gangtok-and-tadong-state-sikkim","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scsc-ingenbohl.org\/en\/sr-anna-affolter-sends-us-impressions-from-her-visitation-in-gangtok-and-tadong-state-sikkim\/","title":{"rendered":"Sr. Anna Affolter sends us impressions from her visitation in Gangtok and Tadong \/ State Sikkim."},"content":{"rendered":"

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]In the year 1975, Sikkim, the smallest Indian State was integrated to India with its capital as Gangtok. In former times, this mountainous borderland between Nepal, Bhutan and China was a separate kingdom. The state promotes development in the areas of agriculture and tourism; literacy, with more than 80% today, is comparatively very high; The largest group of the inhabitants are Nepalese; side by side with them are various smaller ethnical groups.<\/p>\n

The religion of the majority is Hinduism; 27% are Buddhist \u2013 with 75 Buddhist monasteries in this area; 10% are Christians they were Christianized in the 19th century; a very small minority of 1.6% are Moslems.<\/p>\n

As a Federal State, Sikkim has eleven official languages. Nepali serves as a link language and English, as everywhere else in India, is present as erudite language. Because of a lack of the required infrastructure, especially with regard to streets, it was not possible for some industries to develop.<\/p>\n

The community in Gangtok \/ Diocese of Darjeeling<\/p>\n

The capital of Sikkim is situated at 1650 meters above sea-level, in the area of the Eastern Himalayas, just about 30 kilometers distant from the Chinese border. Tourism has considerably developed here.<\/p>\n

In 1979, when Bishop Eric Benjamin had requested some sisters for this place, everything was still very different. Sikkim was socially neglected, its people were poor and without regular schooling. The sisters answered to this need of the time and started turning to the poor, visiting them, listening to them and offering schooling for them.<\/p>\n

Today there are three sisters who take care of the kindergarten and are in charge of the diocesan school. A special concern for the sisters are the 75 children who attend the \u201cNon formal education\u201d children, who for various reasons do not attend regular classes. Pastoral involvement in the parish, catechesis for children on Sundays, collaboration in the liturgy is also taken for granted.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_gallery type=”image_grid” images=”1874,1873,1872,1871,1870,1869,1868,1867,1866,1865,1864,1863,1862,1861,1860,1859,1858,1857,1856,1855,1854,1853,1852,1851,1850,1849,1847″][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]The community in Tadong \/ Darjeeling Diocese<\/strong><\/p>\n

In 1985, a community was established in Tadong, a village just about 6 kilometers away from Gangtok. The sisters started a school for the less privileged children, trying also to help the population there through medical and pastoral Services.<\/p>\n

From this humble beginning resulted a big school complex for 1700 students, starting from pre-school up to class 12th class. Five sisters work in the school, along with other staff, including the principal. Visits to families and sick persons are part of the Sunday activities of the sisters.<\/p>\n

This place is, moreover, a center for ongoing formation for the sisters of the province. Many activities for ongoing formation of the sisters take place here.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]In the year 1975, Sikkim, the smallest Indian State was integrated to India with its capital as Gangtok. In former times, this mountainous borderland between Nepal, Bhutan and China was a separate kingdom. The state promotes development in the areas of agriculture and tourism; literacy, with more than 80% today, is comparatively very high; The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1885","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-en","category-visitations"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scsc-ingenbohl.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1885","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scsc-ingenbohl.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scsc-ingenbohl.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scsc-ingenbohl.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scsc-ingenbohl.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1885"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.scsc-ingenbohl.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1885\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scsc-ingenbohl.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1885"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scsc-ingenbohl.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1885"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scsc-ingenbohl.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1885"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}