Origin of the word Ilam

The word Ilam is divided into two judgments, ‘I’ and ‘Lam’ based on the Limbu language. Accordingly, ‘I’ means ‘twisted turnings’ and ‘lam’ means ‘road’. The Mechi Highway in Ilam has many twisted turnings on the way like snake that proves the word ‘Ilam’. Similarly in Lepcha language, ‘ila’ means ‘small bee’ and ‘ma’ means ‘place’ combine ‘a place for bee’. ‘Putka’ is a species of bee is found in Ilam. Therefore, the word is appropriate to Ilam. In the ancient time, there was big forest, noman lived there. Later, Lepchas and Limbu started to dwell first and named their dwelling place as this.