History of Darjeeling

The Raj

The Raj, or the era of British rule in India, has been endlessly remembered in books and film, through the years. Unlike other defunct imperial regimes which have been consigned to the dustbins of history, the Raj continues to stir the romantic imagination, its excesses largely forgotten and forgiven. The "bright spot", as early British visitors called Dorje-ling, used to be a possession of Sikkim. It was developed as a  hill station by  the  Raj and, on the way, the Sikkimese name of Dorje-ling was anglicised to Darjeeling. Establishing the hill station proved to be a task much more difficult than anyone supposed. This was because there was no market, and no organized place from where food and the other necessities of life could be procured. The creation of the Darjeeling marketplace was therefore central to the development of Darjeeling.

European visitors to the Darjeeling Sunday market during the days of the Raj, would be fascinated by the variety of people to be found there – Lepchas, Nepalese, Tibetans, Sherpas, Bhutanese, and Sikkimese, with a sprinkling of plainsmen – all, people of the Far Horizons of yore! The Market Square, which once served on weekdays as an occasional parade ground for proud British regiments like the Black Watch, is now maintained year round as a bazaar. Still, we may conjure up the ghosts of the past, and espy a detachment  of the North Bengal Mounted Rifles, trotting out at noon with glinting swords, to escort the Earl of Lytton and his entourage into the Market Square. There, the grandees of the town wait to accord his lordship, the Governor of Bengal and Acting Viceroy of India, a civic reception. Thus, through the years, in pomp and circumstance, Bengal governors, viceroys of India, and Royalty were put on display at the Market Square, as the enduring symbols of imperial authority.

As the health and holiday resort of the Raj in the days when Calcutta was the "second city of the British Empire", Darjeeling had a permanent European population. There were missionaries of every description including high Anglicans, Methodists, Unitarians, Roman Catholics, and Baptists. Surprisingly, there was also a Finnish Mission, presumably to provide spiritual solace to those who had failed to find it elsewhere. Most astonishing, Darjeeling had a rabbi in the 1930s and 40s. His father had  been  a  rabbi, so he came by his vocation naturally. A decent man of sporting instincts, a pale skin and sympathetic brown eyes, with wavy black hair crowning a sharp handsome visage, he was not exactly overstrained by religious observance, and rented himself out as a jockey during the racing season in Darjeeling. He cut a small and dashing figure at Lebong, the site of the world's "highest and crookedest" race course, as unkind punters were wont to call the Darjeeling races. Ah! Memories.

The Darjeeling races expired with a whimper as the Raj died with a bang! It went down memory lane with tea dances and roller skating at the Gymkhana Club; garden parties at Government House; luncheons at the Pavilion during Edinburgh Shield cricket matches; and Love's Old Sweet Song in Daisie's Music Room.

British, Irish, American and Belgian educators ran excellent English language schools which still exist today. Schools like Mt. Hermon, North Point, St. Paul's, Victoria, Goethals, Dow Hill, St. Helens, and the Loreto Convent, built either in the 19th century or at the beginning of the 20th century, were among the elite institutions of the British Empire.

Darjeeling was at the centre of Indo-Tibetan commercial relations, between Calcutta and Lhasa, when trade flourished between the two countries. Europeans were steeped in commerce of all kinds in Darjeeling: there were British   tea  planters; haberdashers and tailors; department store managers; business agents, dealers and distributors; beauticians and book retailers. To these we may add Czech shoe makers, Austrian and Italian confectioners, French auto engineers and American dentists. Their health and welfare were not neglected: There were British physicians and surgeons with important letters like FRCS and FRCOG behind their names; there were British undertakers, and British nurses from the Royal colleges of nursing; and there

were venerable firms of solicitors and accountants, managed by people with names like George Wrangham Hardy, and Peregrine Turnbull. Lending weight to this European presence was the District Commissioner, a member of the august Indian Civil Service, military and police officers, judges and magistrates.

Darjeeling was also the springboard for high altitude Himalayan ascents when Tibet and Sikkim were the gateways to the great Himalayan peaks of Mt. Everest and Mt. Kanchenjunga. The European expeditions would gather in Darjeeling to provision, and to recruit sherpa guides and porters, before commencing their long journeys to base camp. It was from Darjeeling that the ill fated British Everest expedition of 1924 departed , and to which G. L. Mallory and A.C. Irvine never returned. They sleep well on the north face of Mt. Everest.

Author: Fogg

Origin of the Name

"Darjeeling, the name of the famous hill-station.... is commonly said to be a corruption of Dorjé-ling, "the place of the thunderbolt", the name of a monastery which once stood on a well-known eminence in the modern town, now known as Observatory Hill.

In the interests of historical accuracy I should, perhaps, add that I believe the commonly accepted explanation to be incorrect. A derivation seldom heard, but which I have the  best of grounds for believing to be correct, is that which attributes the word Dorjé in the first half of Darjeeling to the name of a lama, Dorjé-rinzing, who founded the monastery which once stood on Observatory Hill.

The Shrine was subsequently removed to the Bhutia Basti, where it remains to this day; but the former site retained the name of "the place of Dorjé lama."

Author: EARL OF RONALDSHAY
P.C., G.C.S.I., G.C.I.E.
President of the Royal Geographical Society

Observatory Hill

From times immemorial, some mountains have been the objects of awe and veneration. The majestic Himalayan peaks, in particular, have been symbols of power, purity and unattainable bliss. When thunderbolts strike the mountain tops, and thunder drums and rolls into the distant horizon, we come to understand why the ancients believed that the Himalayas are the store house of cosmic energy, and where the gods reside.

A retreating storm leaves behind a limpid Himalayan sky, and an ion charged atmosphere. People are amazingly energized, their spirits soar, and they sense their untapped potential.

Pilgrims have been making their way up the slopes of the Himalayas for over two thousand years, to be closer to the Divine. These were quiet journeys, far removed from the noise and concerns of everyday life, to permit introspection and contemplation. Out of such pilgrimages came self-knowledge, inner peace and joy. On a summer’s day, around 1750, Lama Dorji Rinzing, together with a handful of acolytes, left west Sikkim on a spiritual quest. They passed through the sweltering Teesta valley, stopped to camp the night by the cool shallows of the blue Rangeet River, and began their ascent next morning through beautiful virgin forests of rhododendron, magnolia and oak. They rested the second night on a mist shrouded slope, continuing their journey early next day. After some hours, they began walking along a ridge that presented a magnificent panorama of Mt. Kanchenjunga, the sacred mountain of Sikkim, and a dozen other snow covered peaks stretching across the entire northern horizon.

Rising up from the ridge was a hill that, a century later, came to be called “Observatory Hill”. As the lama and his party climbed, they felt strangely uplifted and invigorated. A powerful energy appeared to radiate from the hill. This place, they then knew with absolute conviction, was blessed, and their pilgrims’ journey had come to an end. Upon this hill, they built a monastery. Today, Observatory Hill is a place for both Buddhist and Hindu worship.

Author: Fogg