Occupation of the people of sikkim
The northern portion of the country remains pastoral, whereas cultivation is the mainstay of the people of the southern half.
The majority of the people of Sikkim seem to have continued shifting cultivation until the late 19th century.
At present, wet terraced rice cultivation is practiced. The change from shifting cultivation to wet cultivation occurred mainly during the latter part of the 19th century, when Sikkim began to experience land shortage owing to the increasing Nepali colonies.
This change was also perhaps encouraged by British policy at that time.
The Nepali settlers have since introduced rice on alluvial flats and terraced lower slopes, but the Lepchas, however, confined themselves more and more to the cleared patches in secondary jungle, grow mainly maize.