Rachna Books

22/01/2026

We are proud to partner with Storyteller Bookstore to bring all our publications to Kolkata Book Fair 2026.
Please visit Stall E-95 for a wide range of books including copies of our books.

19/01/2026

We are thrilled to hear that Anurag Basnet’s translation of Sanjay Bista’s novel “This Place of Mud and Bone” has been shortlisted for the Rabindra Nath Tagore Award for Translation.
We loved this book immensely and hope this news reaches the story of “ माटाको घर” to many more readers everywhere.
Anurag’s works of translations are all available at our website www.rachnabooks.com

06/01/2026

Rachna Books cordially invites you to their first event of 2026
We are thrilled to welcome Ajay Rana - wildlife and adventure photographer, mountain bike champion and trainer, wilderness first responder and a string voice advocating nature conservation.

He will be here to share his story and present a collection from his works.

This Rachna Books event is supported by
The Photography Club of Sikkim
Studio Sensorium
Bookman’s BnB
Café Fiction

31/12/2025

Thankful for all that 2025 brought.
Excited for all that 2026 will bring.

04/12/2025

Rachna Books cordially invites you to celebrate Beneath Magnolia Skies : Writing from Sikkim and Darjeeling Hills. With contributions from the writers from the region, the volume has been co-edited by Mona Chettri and Prava Rai. They will be in conversation with Rinan Shah.

At Rachna Books on 6 Dec 2025 at 4:30pm

About the speakers:

About the editors:
MONA CHETTRI is co-founder of Reading Himalaya, a research and policy consultancy focusing on the eastern Himalayas. She has worked as a post-doctoral research fellow in India, Denmark, and Australia. Co-editor of Development Zones in Asian Borderlands (2021), author of Ethnicity and Democracy in the Eastern Himalayan Borderland: Constructing Democracy (2017), and editor of the Eastern Himalaya Series, she has published widely on borderlands, gender, environment, and development in international peer-reviewed journals, books, and magazines.

PRAVA RAI is founding director of Dumigaon Reading Room Resource and Education Foundation in Sikkim. She edited The Book Review (1981- 1984), worked at the Institute of Mass Communication in New Delhi (1984– 1986), and was part of the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad team researching the ‘Nationalisation of Minor Forest Produce and Tribal Movements’. She joined PRADAN, an NGO working for rural development, edited Parmal (the Goa Heritage Action Group’s journal on culture and heritage), curated and edited a special issue on Sikkim for MARG Publications, and has edited books on the social sciences for leading publishing houses.

Rinan is a Postdoctoral fellow with the Centre of Excellence for Himalayan Studies, Shiv Nadar Institution of Eminence and an Associate at the Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute, Harvard University. She is an interdisciplinary researcher with ten years of experience in environment, development and sustainability studies. She studies water, mountains, governance, policy, institutions and urban issues with a rights-based approach.

04/12/2025

All set with our pop-up bookshop at ‘s Shared Futures Conclave at Gangtok.
Drop by for two days of engaging conversations, discussions, presentations, workshops on these mountains that is our home.

25/11/2025

This day in Rachna Books history, with Late Andre Alexander talking about his book 'The Temples of Lhasa'.
Always thankful to people who have shared so much of their life's works, writings, experiences and wisdom here, and for the keen audience who have given us so much love.
Glad to have been able to do this here at our bookshop that many consider home.

On 6th Nov 2010

Friends at Rachna

presented

a Word of Mouth event

Mind the concrete: Ancient Lhasa among skyscrapers

an interactive session on heritage architecture of the Himalayan monastries

with

Andre Alexander

at

The First Floor at Rachna

This event was jointly supported by
Architects of Sikkim
and
NOW! Daily


André Alexander is one of the founders and directors of Tibet Heritage Fund, an international NGO engaged in preservation of architectural heritage in the Tibetan Cultural Realm, including also Mongolia and Ladakh. Alexander is also a guest lecturer and researcher at the School of Architecture, Berlin University of Technology, and the author of (among others) "Temples of Lhasa".

Lhasa was founded in the 7th century, and until the 1950s consisted of ancient monasteries where monks came to study Buddhism from across Asia, narrow alleyways with beautiful stone houses and traditional bazaars. Today, one has to search for any of these among tall skyscrapers. The speaker has worked for almost two decades studying Lhasa and together with a team of Tibetan artisans trying to preserve what little is left of the city's rich cultural and artistic heritage.

02/11/2025

Thrilled to find ourselves listed as Gangtok’s No.1 Cultural Destination in the latest edition of 🌏 Lonely Planet India. 🇮🇳
Thank you, for featuring us so extensively year after year.
In a world full of copycats, here’s to you - the original 🥂

It’s a joy to meet the discerning travellers 🧳 who come to our door because you turned their spyglasses in our direction. 🔭

29/10/2025

Reading Himalaya announces the registration for our Shared Futures Conclave now OPEN!! You can register by scanning the QR code on the poster or by visiting our website www.readinghimalaya.com.
All the details about the panels, schedules and exhibition are available on their website. They also have a limited number of bursaries for regional travel for
participants from Kalimpong, Darjeeling, Kurseong and Siliguri!

17/10/2025

While we await the arrival of the book from the printers, traversing over the length of the country and negotiating the highway leading up to the Himalaya, we are elated to see Jenny Bentley’s book ‘Guardians of Land and Water’ launched at the Frankfurt Book Fair.

Rachna Books is proud to jointly publish this book, for the Indian subcontinent, with Seismo Press, Switzerland.

We will celebrate this book here at our bookshop soon. Meanwhile, if you are at , do visit stall at hall 3.1, booth C99

17/10/2025

Watch the full video on the book The Mandala Kingdom with Alex McKay in conversation with Pema Wangchuk during the book discussion event here at Rachna Books.

Nearly 4 years after we published The Mandala Kingdom - A Political History of Sikkim, we had the pleasure to finally host an author event with the author an...