A Shankar Deo Dhakal novel | Translated from the Nepali by Dr Satyadeep S. Chhetri

“This novel has been able to provide a vivid description of the pain and angst during this backbreaking, precarious journey to Yatung. The pain and misery inflicted by the Kazis and Thikedaars on the porters deputed to carry the Kaalobhaari have been well depicted.”

— C.D. Rai, Politician, Bureaucrat, Journalist, Gangtok, Sikkim.

Black Burden: A Silk Route Saga is a fictional account set against the forgotten brutality of the early 20th-century Indo–Tibet trade routes through Sikkim. Along the legendary Silk Route, the Sikkimese masses were subjugated to back-breaking labour under a system led by the Kazis and Thikedaars. Wrapped in black, tar-laced tarpaulins to shield them from rain, these human-borne loads became infamous as ‘Kaalobhaari’ or black load.

Through the lives of Jetha Kaňdel and his son Bharat, the novel traces the physical and emotional toll of this inhuman practice, capturing the pain, endurance, and quiet resistance of a people pushed to their limits. Woven seamlessly into the narrative are historical truths, age-old customs, and the unforgiving yet breathtaking landscape of the region. What does such suffering feel like? How does one survive it and can its scars ever truly fade?

Black Burden: A Silk Route Saga is not just a story… it is a reckoning. It unearths the dark, untold chapter of Sikkim’s history in its rawest and most haunting form.

Author of the original Nepali text

Dr Shanker Deo Dhakal is a Nepali language writer/poet and a senior bureaucrat in the Government of Sikkim. He is the recipient of the prestigious Sahitya Akademi Award (Nepali), Pradhanmantri Rashtriya Bal Shakti Puraskar Award, Bhanu Puraskar (Sikkim), and many other accolades both in India and elsewhere. He completed his post-graduation from Meerut University and is an alumnus of the University of West London. Besides Kaalobhaari, Dhakal has written books on Nepali proverbs - Ukhan-Lokparichit Kathanko Vyakhyan, Jharlangi-(khandakavya), Sikkim ke Paaramparik Lok Nritya (Hindi), Majeri (poetry), Bal Sudha Saagar, Alaoukik Milan (novel), and Kirayako Kokh (novel). He is among the pioneers of Nepali folk literature and has also written lyrics for several Nepali songs. At present, he is engaged as the Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister of Sikkim and holds the Chair of the chief Convenor of Sahitya Parishad (Nepali).

– Dr Satyadeep S. Chhetri

Translator

Dr Satyadeep S. Chhetri is the author of three books - Gorkhaland Diaries (2022, fiction), Sikkim: From Autocracy to Half-Democracy (2023, non-fiction) and Kissagram: A Novella & Other Stories (2026, translated from Hindi). Black Burden on the Silk Route is his first ever translation work from Nepali.

He teaches at a government college in Gangtok. His essays have featured in the books of various national and international publishing houses and digital platforms. He shuttles between his workplace Gangtok and Siliguri, his hometown.