Darjeeling Hotel
The Chowrasta, Darjeeling (Circa 1897)
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.
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Civic Reception for Governor of Bengal,
Darjeeling 1937
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.
Lebong Races, Darjeeling 1913
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.
Sir John Anderson (Viscount Waverley),
Governor of Bengal, Darjeeling 1937
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.
It was taken around 1925 at the Market Square in Darjeeling.
Officials of the Indian Railways had been viewing with mounting alarm the increasing
popularity of the motor-car since the War (1914-1918) and decided to promote vigorously
travel by rail. Darjeeling - although in a remote part of the Indian Empire - was
selected as a holiday destination as it was well-connected by rail. A European photographer
was despatched to Darjeeling under instructions to capture adventure scenes. Using
a rotating camera, he photographed leading members of the Tibetan and Bhutia communities,
with their well-wishers and attendants, on their way to extend Losar (Tibetan
New Year) greetings to British officials.
Sardar Bahadur Laden La, Mrs Tenduf La's Father, is at the Centre of the picture,
astride his famous horse Gya-Tso (“Hundred Oceans”), winner of thirteen Governors'
Cups. This much loved and respected horse was given to Mr. Laden La by the 13th
Dalai Lama as a personal expression of high regard. At Mr. Laden La's right hand
mounted on Kongbu, is his elder son Wangchuk Dorje; at his left side, on Lhazang,
is the Head Lama of the Ghoom Monastery.
Copies of this photograph hung in all the principal railway stations of India for
many years.

Sardar Bahadur Laden La's
delegation of tribal people (1917)
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
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Observatory Hill, Darjeeling (Circa 1875)
Observatory Hill, Darjeeling
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.
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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
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Darjeeling, "The place of the Thunderbolt"
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
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that the reproduction or copy, in whole or in part, of any of our property. Without
our express written permission is considered copyright infringement (stealing).