Lepchan.adj.

1819 F. Hamilton Acct. Kingdom Nepal ii. i. 118 The most eastern principality, in the present dominions of Gorkha, is that of the Lapchas, called Sikim.

1840 Jrnl. Asiatic Soc. Bengal 1839 8 624 These neighbours of the hills are the Limboos, Kerantis, Lepchas, Murmis, and Bhotias.

1848 J. D. Hooker in L. Huxley Life & Lett. J. D. Hooker (1918) I. xiii. 256 The Lepchas or mountaineers of Sikkim I like extremely.

1862 H. de Schlagintweit et al. Results Sci. Mission India & High Asia II. 268 I had with me natives from a great variety of tribes, Górkhas, Kerántis, and Neváris from Nepál, and Límbus, Lépchas, and Bhútias from Síkkim.

1912 A. Gordon Life A. H. Charteris xiv. 339 The aboriginal Lepchas, a gentle race, are devil worshippers.

1940 F. S. Chapman Helvellyn to Himalaya iv. 70 We wandered downhill to Dikchu... Most of the people here were sallow-faced Lepchas.

1965 Evening Standard 17 Sept. 6/2 The Sikkimese are Buddhists, and ethnically consist of Bhutias from neighbouring Bhutan; of Tibetans and of the neighbouring Lepchas.

1973 Times 12 Apr. 8/6 The Bhutias asserted themselves over the Lepchas, the aboriginal inhabitants, with whom they are now more or less integrated.

1840 Jrnl. Asiatic Soc. Bengal 9 i. 393 Hill tribes,..whose language, exhibiting a mere dialectic difference from the Lepcha, may be expressed in symbols not dissimilar.

1877 E. L. Brandreth in Jrnl. Royal Asiatic Soc. 10 i. 15 In Lepcha, also, not only the adjective, but the demonstrative pronoun, as in Tibetan, follows the substantive.

1819 F. Hamilton Acct. Kingdom Nepal ii. i. 125 At this custom-house or mart is a Lapcha collector.

1877 E. L. Brandreth in Jrnl. Royal Asiatic Soc. 10 i. 10 These determinatives are generally affixed in the languages of Nepál and in the Dhimal language; prefixed in the Lepcha language, [etc.].

1948 D. Diringer Alphabet vi. 356 The Lepcha character seems to have been invented or revised by the Sikkim raja.